Tolstoy

Via braden: But I had to wonder if art could be so easy? It seems there is a certain amount of human empathy which would have us feel the feelings of the boy no matter how he conveyed the story. And are newspapers then art?

I suppose my real question here is, how does artistic and creative quality figure in to Tolstoy's definition of art as a means to unite people and their emotions? 


In my opinion, accurately conveying an emotion to someone is immensely difficult. When you hear in the newspaper that someone's house burned down or there was an armed assault, you certainly pay attention. You may feel some pity for that person, or relief that it wasn't you, or even say, "Oh, I would have been terrified if that happened to me." However, it is altogether much rarer for someone to be reading the newspaper and suddenly break down into hysterical, panicked tears because they read about a mugging. When you read a really great book, it's not considered strange to feel so strongly for the characters that you get frightened when they're in danger or angry because something has happened to them. At one point when I was recently reading George R R Martin's A Storm of Swords, I got so angry that I threw the book clear across the room. I felt as if personal wrong had been done to me by the author and the characters, like a serious injustice had been committed. In the context of the book, it absolutely had. I felt that way because I had connected with the world and the characters and I am really invested in the outcome of the series. Now, if I had read a Wikipedia article relating to me how the entire book happened, I seriously doubt I would have tossed my laptop into a wall. It just wouldn't have effected me in the same way, because art forms a connection with the viewer.