I am always delighted to get thoughtful comments
from readers; especially following posts that are more than a decade old. Their
comments not only take me to reading what I had written (and often forgotten)
but help me realise if and how my life experiences, hence thoughts, have
changed over time.
So, my readers often provide the opportunity of
introspection and discovery.
Last week I got an email from a reader in Asia about
an essay I had written in 2016 about beauty in the arts focusing on symmetry
and harmony (1). It is still
a popular read perhaps because beauty transcends cultures and geography. This
time though, there was a challenging line in that email that read:
“Is ugly the counter-thesis of beautiful? Is evil necessary
to the definition of good? You did not address how those themes have and
continue to make artistic expressions universal.”
Hmm. I re-read what I had written and, yes, perhaps
I was more optimistic, or wishful, a decade ago. So, today I will scratch the
surface of not only how beauty and harmony co-exist in the arts, but also how
good, evil and chaos are inextricable from the pursuit of beauty in all forms
of artistic expression.
The
Taijitu
Among the most parsimoniously abundant symbols of
art, philosophy and medicine is the Taijitu, commonly known as the Ying and
Yang. In one circle, the fluidity of being inseparable, unavoidable, contradictory
and complementary is encapsulated. The
dark and the bright move together in harmony and an imbalance between their
co-existence are not only a philosophical statement, but are the basis of
Chinese traditional Chinese medicine, as it was thousands of years ago. The
flux between the dark and the bright is also their reflux; the lack of energy
in the harmony between the forces moving and pushing each other, results in
excess energy in one of the forces and alters the well-being of a person, of
cultures and of civilizations.
As a health care professional I, worked in Asia for
more than a decade and often heard colleagues use the Taijitu to guide their
thinking, and hope that it guide mine too. I asked questions, but their answers
were never about “good” or “evil, “beautiful” or “ugly”, nor “powerful” or “weak”.
Rather, all explanations were to be found in restoring the dynamic equilibrium
of the body, provide meaning to a person’s search for harmony within himself,
with others and, the acceptance that both the Yin and the Yang contain the
seeds of the opposite (these are the small dots in the swirls- a black dot in
the bright swirl; a white dot in the dark swirl).
As such, the Taijitu maps the context and content of
harmony, symmetry and co-existence. It is a philosophy of how to live, create
in a universe where there are no absolutes. But in the flux and reflux of the
Yin and the Yang, there is hope for well being.
(I have explored the paradigm of absolutes in
relationship to the concept of time as defined by St. Augustine here(2).)
Dante’s
Inferno
In contrast to the Taijitu, Dante proposes that the
gate of Hell has this written above it:
“Abandon every hope, you who enter”
Hell is punishment, Hell is without hope. Hell
offers no redemption. Hell offers no future because of your past acts and
imbalances.
Demons
and Angels through poetry
I chose a few lines from the Spanish poet Antonio
Machado “Y era el demonio de mi sueño,
el ángel” (And it was the demon of my dream, and the
angel) as the question of good and evil is directly addressed.
The poem is among my favorites by Machado because,
like the Ying and Yang, it addresses the dark and bright side of our existence but
this time as evil and good. Indeed the demon is also an angel, and the duality
is beautiful to the poet. It is a contradiction that does not address wellbeing
or harmony, instead it the duality he saw in his dream invite Machado to an introspection
journey to “the crypt of the soul”, showing that good and evil lead to temptation
even when we do not want to be tempted. That hidden urge to both accept and
avoid temptation leads to pain, suffering (the caged beasts) and eventually
submission.
Here is a segment of the original version in
Spanish, followed by the translation:
Y era el demonio de mi sueño, el ángel
más hermoso. Brillaban
como aceros los ojos victoriosos,
y las sangrientas llamas
de su antorcha alumbraron
la honda cripta del alma.
—¿Vendrás conmigo?
—No, jamás; las tumbas
y los muertos me espantan.
Pero la férrea mano
mi diestra atenazaba.
—Vendrás conmigo...
Y avancé en mi sueño,
And was the demon of my dream, the angel
most beautiful. Their victorious eyes
shone like steel,
and the bloody flames
of their torch lit up
the deep crypt of the soul.
—Will you come with me?
—No, never; the tombs
and the dead frighten me.
But the iron hand
clenched my right hand.
—You will come with me...
And I moved forward in my dream,
The Greek Concept of Kalokagathia
Talking about inseparable duality, ancient Greeks proposed
and adopted a view about beauty in a more virtuous context. It is known as
Kalokagathia where beauty (kalos) and moral goodness (agathos) co-exist,
or should co-exist if art pursued harmony and symmetry. And those attributes
were believed to transcend earthly values and reflect cosmic truths. Chaos does
not keep the universe in peace; hence the arts should promote harmonia in the various modes of human
artistic expressions.
Khalil
Gibran’s view of Good and Evil
Perhaps the above discussion can best find its
boundaries in a passage from Gibran’s “The
Prophet”.
And one of the elders of the city said, Speak to us
of Good and Evil.
…
You
are good when you are one with your-self.
Yet
when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.
For
a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.
And
a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to
the bottom.
You
are good when you strive to give of your-self.
Yet
you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
For
when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks
at her breast.
Surely
the fruit cannot say to the root, “Be like me, ripe and ever giving of your
abundance.”
For
to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.
…
So, how to we approach good and evil in the arts?
Inherently, the morality question has to be
addressed – it can take central stage or a secondary role. The artistic expression can be appreciated
without knowing if the artist was a “fruit” or a “root” but by keeping in mind
that fruits do not exist without relying on the roots. Any opposition in the
life or character of the artist can take that secondary role when we are appreciating
her/his artistic expression.
Like an archaeologist who unearths a thousand year
old statue, it is the beauty of that statue that we celebrate often without knowing
who the artist was.
And coming back to my reader’s quest “is evil
necessary to the definition of good?” we each have to decide if evil is what we
may call a misguided good. And then we proceed based on the answer we find
comfort in.
After all, Black & White photography is just the
harmony of the shades of gray. And so are Gibran's world famous charcoal drawings.
July 27, 2026
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2026
(1) https://liveingray.blogspot.com/2016/09/beauty-in-arts-symmetry-harmony-and.html
(2) https://vahezen.blogspot.com/2015/06/yin-yang-and-st-augustine.html
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