“Beauty. It is the pillow, or the pin-cushion, of our species, which has never been able to desist from hating in the name of love, lying in the name of truth, earning money in the name of serving, exploiting in the name of solicitude, killing in the name of life, spoiling in the name of saving, supressing in the name of freedom, and acting foolishly in the name of responsibility. The path to the ‘happy’ experience of the Beautiful leads through a conflict-ridden experience of it, whether repressed or accepted. In other words, it asks of Man whether and to what extent he is prepared to live eye to eye with this contradiction, and – conscious of this contradiction – remain vigilant about what he is up to.”
–Helmut Lachenmann, 1980
“Afterall, what would be “beautiful” if the contradiction had not first become conscious of itself, if the ugly had not first said to itself, “I am ugly”?”
–Nietzsche, 1887
“to look into the pits of/ and the blank of the word that does not come then/ is its pits, to stare into that whole season of absence in its staring/ seed of the seed that is not time/ given in time into that/ but what escapes from that black hole/ is the recent angel of awareness/ shriven staring, to write awareness”
–Ken Irby, 2006
