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SPECTACULAR_ARISTOTLE

                                         July 30 - October 9, 2018
From Section VI:
                                                     ARISTOTLE_POETICS
  "The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional
  attraction of its own, but, of all the
  parts, it is the least artistic, and
  connected least with the art of poetry."
   
That's one of many points where I agree with                 
Aristotle...  and yet it would seem that the          
spectacular is awfully popular, and Hollywood goes for
it every time (and increasingly, skips the trouble of 
getting someone to write new dialog-- why bother when        
people don't object to hearing the old lines again?)  
                                
But for Aristotle to say something like this it makes
it clear that popularity is not his standard for what
works.  Is he setting himself and his own reactions up
as the standard for an idealized humanity?  Perhaps
he's using the reactions of his fellow elitests up in
his box seat?

      (The dodge that I like is to claim that the
      public doesn't know their own minds-- they're
      only barely aware of what makes one story work
      for them and another not, and they need an
      insightful person like myself to point out that
      box office isn't everything.)


From Section XIV:

  "Fear and pity may be aroused by spectacular means; but
  they may also result from the inner structure of the
  piece, which is the better way ..."

  "Those who employ spectacular means to create a sense
  not of the terrible but only of the monstrous, are
  strangers to the purpose of Tragedy"




From Section XV:

  "... the unravelling of the plot, no less than the
  complication, must arise out of the plot itself,
  it must not be brought about by the 'Deus ex
  Machina'--as in the Medea, or in the Return of the
  Greeks in the Iliad."


  "The 'Deus ex Machina' should be employed only for
  events external to the drama,--for antecedent or          ARISTOTLE_BEGINS
  subsequent events ..."








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