Thrice-Removed

In Book X of The Republic, Plato describes Socrates’ rejection of mimesis. Socrates employs the example of a bed. There is, in his view, the original ideal bed created by God. Then there is any particular actual bed created by any particular carpenter. Finally there is the artist’s representation of that bed. The original bed represents a site of truth. The carpenter’s version is modelled on this ideal prototype, so has secondary status. Its construction depends upon an intimate knowledge of relevant materials and bed-making processes, but can never literally attain the singular ideality of the one true bed. Socrates argues that the artist’s representation is yet another level removed from the truth. This thrice-removed version (based on a inclusive count) renders only the appearance of the true thing. Unlike the carpenter’s bed, it does not demonstrate any understanding of wood, nails, or physical principles of construction. It engages only with the surface. It appears then as a parasite of a parasite. As much as this argument no longer holds convincing force, it nonetheless indicates art’s tendency to latch on to other things, to attach itself to them, to prey upon them for its own interests. Mimesis is a basic form of multiplexing – and multiplexing is a form of parasitism.

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One Response to Thrice-Removed

  1. How about the mimesis of ’emotion’ as it occurs in music? (it’s discussed within 19th century music)

    I’m thinking that emotion doesn’t really have an external appearance that can be superficially imitated (well, it might, but I dont think that is what is being imitated). What is being imitated, I believe, is the internal experience of an emotion…. and that, in some way, gives rise to the real emotion. Unlike a painting of a bed, which one could not really lie down on.

    kind-of highlights the chasm between music and the visual arts

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