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Artistic Mortality

Artists are “headed direct for the pit,” destined to drown in the very excesses that kept them alive to the very point of death, which they care not for the sake of those excesses, so sayeth Socrates (and what he says goes.) Aschenbach was a greedy man, drinking in life with a passion. In his early years, he craved for words, acceptance and fame (382,) and hitting middle age he craved for beauty, perfection and nothingness (401,) and near his death he sought after the young man Tadzio. Aschenbach, therefore, is a prime example of an artist, who died reaching for more. It is therefore inevitable that Aschenbach should fall into a deep spiritual wanting for Tadzio, whose beauty he can never truly have. More sadly, as an artist, it is also inevitable that he would die wanting more.
He was an artist; what made him an artist was not his desire for excess (in equation, that’s just a glutton,) but his recognition of the “excess” being beauty, a work of art, a masterpiece. T...

Posted by: Gina Allred

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