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In
the midst of the madness and destruction of World War II, Eastlake's Captain
Beckman takes a moment to lecture his men on the aesthetics of European
architecture. Claiming that "the function of art is to disturb and to
awake," the Captain's speech recalls the aesthetic theories of Viktor
Shklovsky.
Just
before the end of the world Captain Beckman gave us soldiers a lecture
on the history of art. I mean, not too long before the Germans broke through
in the Ardennes, here was a captain in the American Army telling us about
the power, the force, of the Romanesque arch.
"What's
that mean?"
"He's
coming to it."
"On
my time?"
"When
there is no war," I whispered to de Vaca, "the higher-ups make sure the
troops don't get an hour off. We might think, and if that happens we might
win the war, spoil their game."
"Private
Benjamin," Captain Beckman called from his lectern on top of a weapons
carrier. "Private Benjamin, if you believe you are more qualified to give
this lecture, if you want to do the talking, why don't you--"
"Thank
you, sir. No, I'm sorry. Go ahead."
"Thank
you, Private Benjamin," Captain Beckman said coldly. "Now, gentlemen,
at this point I want to make clear that the Romanesque column should never
be confused with the neoclassic patterns of the Renaissance, and there
is another common esthetic pitfall that I want you to be aware of -- art
as early as the fifteenth century has raised the same question -- always
patterned upon the whimsical fantasy of the biological analogies. Gentlemen,
there was no evolution from El Greco to Delacroix any more than there
was any degeneration from Giorgione to Tiepolo. Empiric fallacies can
be laid in part to the esthetic determinism that culminated in the industrial
revolution."
"That
thought could come in handy," Elk said.
Captain
Beckman raised his arm. "Aren't we, gentlemen, faced with the same problem
here as were the Pre-Raphaelites trying to struggle into the light without
the guiding and figurative pulse of William Morris?"
"We
know him well," Clearboy said.
"I
am intrigued," Beckman said, "that we Americans can occupy this castle
and imagine that we are living in an example of the neoclassic Renaissance.
This is not true."
"Ain't
so," de Vaca said. "We can see it's not a valid premise if one notes the
elliptical configurations capping the north tower. Do we see any esthetic
or indeed any architectural anomalies in the north door?"
"Plenty."
"I
want to suggest that there are no artistic anomalies, gentlemen, only
preconceived progression in our own minds. What Rubens learned in Italy
was not only reflected in his later painting but was, surprisingly enough,
a revolutionary overlay that re-created rather than mimicked the Renaissance."
"It's
difficult to believe, sir, isn't it?"
"Now,
gentlemen, we are gathered here to fight a war, not to debate esthetic
truths, but I suspect ten years from now, or twenty, at some American
Legion convention, one of the nightmares you will have will be of that
day in the Ardennes when you were not blown up by a bomb, a shell, but
bored to death by Captain Beckman. But my purpose in this talk is to shock
you, to make you realize by dull extension that there is a world completely
unknown to you, without any reference to your imagined self, but I assure
you it has tremendous implications to your true self. The function of
art is to disturb and to awake. It's something that takes you apart and
puts you back together again, a new person. All of you in the castle have
the unique privilege of occupying a monumental tribute to man's concept
of beauty."
"The
hell you say, Captain."
Copyright©
by William Eastlake/Dalkey Archive Press.
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