Accentuated plainness and accentuated vice ought to bring about harmony. Beauty lies in harmony, in style, whether it be the harmony of ugliness or beauty, vice or virtue.
Interpretation
Beauty is found in the balance of contrasting elements, such as good and bad.
This quote by Yevgeny Zamyatin suggests that true beauty comes from harmony, which can exist between opposites. The interplay of plainness and vice, as well as virtue and beauty, creates a harmonious whole, emphasizing that artistic expression involves embracing both sides of the spectrum to reveal a deeper aesthetic appeal.
In practice
In a gallery opening, this quote can be showcased to emphasize the dual nature of art in representing both beauty and flaws.
The knife is the most durable, immortal, the most genius thing that man created. The knife was the guillotine; the knife is the universal means of solving all knots; and along the blade of a knife lies the path of paradox - the single most worthy path of the fearless mind.
The world is kept alive only by heretics: the heretic Christ, the heretic Copernicus, the heretic Tolstoy. Our symbol of faith is heresy...
The lilac branches are bowed under the weight of the flowers: blooming is hard, and the most important thing is - to bloom. (βA Story About The Most Important Thingβ)
A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth reading.
Knowledge, absolutely sure of its infallibility, is faith.
You're in a bad way! Apparently, you have developed a soul.
What should I do?" "Throw up in your typewriter every morning." "Yeah." "Clean up every noon.
This is not a book in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty... what you will.
When I don't have a story to tell, I'm a terror to live with.
What I wanted in life always was to write something as good as 'Pinocchio.' I wanted to write. I wanted to evolve. I wanted to grow.
Literature is invention. Fiction is fiction. To call a story a true story is an insult to both art and truth.
Cinema is an art form that is designed to go across borders. And as a filmmaker, the only way I can direct a movie is when I feel close to my culture.
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