<< The mirror of reality

Dario Villanueva, on the introductory texts for El Quijote* mentions how Jose Ortega y Gasset proposes that every great poet copy us.

It’s undeniable that great works take after reality. And yet what is it in great texts and novels that resonate within us? Are we even aware of what liking anything means?

Upon staring at the work of others, be it a musical composition, a text, or even a piece of clothing; we’re resonating with the elements embedded in its composition. 

That is to say (as Alain de Botton puts it**) we identify with those unconscious values imprinted on it by its creator. And by this virtue, we go into a dialogue, one that most of the time we’re not even aware of.

Taste is, in the end, a never-ending conversation of our internal values and struggles with the elements of the outside. Our hierarchies of value and that which we cherish is constantly being tested in the continuous process of development, so natural to the human mind. 

We feel attracted to characters of fantasy, gods and warriors; not because they’re different from us, but the opposite. We identify with their humanity and conflicts underlying their tasks of miracle; and hope, a little of these defining characteristics will rub into ourselves so that we too can perform acts of wonder.

There’s a tacit recognition of divinity even in even the most atheist of men, a quality that we’re forced to recognize in others . 

It’s a never ending search,  we look for virtue in the spirit of others, to validate our own.

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Notes:

* Don Quijote de la Mancha, second edition of the 4th centennial.

** The architecture of happiness