haikujaguar: Beauty is Not a Function of Youth

M. C. A. Hogarth (

haikujaguar) wrote,
@ 2007-05-21 13:04:00

Current music:	De/Vision - All I Ever Do
Entry tags:	ai-naidar, meta-conversations, philosophy

Beauty is Not a Function of Youth
The Calligrapher looks aghast when I ask my question, which I hastily withdraw. Shame doesn't even bother; he gives me that look and I am the one beating a retreat.

I am not surprised then that the only one willing to even entertain my question is the emperor.

"I've been asked--thrice--what happens to old decorations," I say to him.

He is arranging flowers again. "You have told them how fathriked are kept for life."

I nod. "In Nojzel."

"And you have explained the nuances of diqed," he says.

"Yes," I say.

"Then why do they ask?" he asks, adding another sprig of flowers.

"I think... well, we all do... that old people are not sufficiently beautiful to be kept as decorations, and so it is assumed that old fathriked are discarded."

"So is beauty then a thing of the body?" he asks.

"No," I say firmly.

"You know this," he says.

I nod. "Most of the time, anyway. Sometimes... I forget."

"Go and tell your fellow aunera that there are no "discarded" people," Thirukedi says. "Explain to them the contemplation of the wholeness of a thing's arc: the beauty of it from seed to withering, and what we learn from the gift of observing that process. Our fathriked do not cease to serve us because they become frail. They only bring us to a different understanding."

I watch him for a moment. "Are you... angry?"

He sighs and shakes his head. "No. No, but this thing you mention... it is heinous, to confuse the beautiful with the superficial."

"I know," I say, for it has been much on my mind of late, and take my leave of him. To think, to feel sorrow and to write.

Stardancer Home.

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	blither 2007-05-21 05:59 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you. (Reply to this)

archangelbeth
2007-05-21 06:22 pm UTC (link)

*grin* The concept of "beauty" is not the fullness of youth, then, but the entirety? (Still, what is the status of, say, a decoration who has been maimed in an accident? Burned in a fire? Are they still invited to... do whatever it is that they do? Or are they veiled bedwarmers, or "honorably retired" to teach and not be seen? Would they voluntarily retreat from public view, shifting to their other skills, or would they compensate somehow with veils and clothing, or would they continue to be easily seen even if their surface beauty had been reft from them, secure in their place and dignity? Would they want to hide and require a heart-healer's guidance to draw them out of their wounded shell? For that matter, even if kept for life in comfort, when (if ever?) is it considered meet and proper that an older decoration retire to teach others rather than... be seen? Is it wholly within the fathrikedi's discretion for when he or she wants to retire? Or does his or her lord (or lady) say, "You should begin to teach others now"?)

We see the ideal, and we see it when it's firmly entrenched in practice -- when everything is harmonious. The Exception-parts wonder where practice and ideal may differ, and what social conventions punish (or reward) treating a disfigured fathrikedi differently from one who is whole. Edge-cases. Humans (and Exceptions?) obsess on edge-cases...

It is probably not an Aphorism, or an incense story -- you've already touched on both transitioning from do-er to teach-er, and on the prized nature of the fathriked. But an edge-case might find its way into a background, someday, and that would be... interesting. (Of course, if an edge-case decides to latch onto you and eat your brain -- very politely, beautifully, and probably for your own good -- I, for one, would not complain... O:> )

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	smokierings 2007-05-21 09:02 pm UTC (link)
	I think that the point here is that their beauty is not, cannot, be "maimed" per se. It is their lives and existence, who and what they are, that contains them. I don't imagine them having shame - after all, any damage is another mark of their path through that life. Each scar would tell a story that, as part of the whole, is as important as any word in a book. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	haikujaguar 2007-05-21 10:57 pm UTC (link)
	You have grokked it. :) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	smokierings 2007-05-22 01:17 am UTC (link)
	That, my lady, was the best compliment you could have given me. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	haikujaguar 2007-05-21 10:59 pm UTC (link)
	For you, I see I must finish the story of the Demure. :) In basic, though, the beauty of the Decorations is not in their shells but in their spirits and their training. A maimed or scarred Decoration is still useful and valued. The Ai-Naidar are far less tolerant of spiritual maimings than they are physical (full disclosure--they are not perfect). (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	archangelbeth 2007-05-22 12:16 am UTC (link)
	Mmm, I would like to see that, yes. I'm not sure I could grok it without seeing it, I fear. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	fatfred 2007-05-21 06:23 pm UTC (link)
	This makes me think of a Ming vase. We would value it for it's fragility and for it's age. Too bad we don't do that for our own kind. (Reply to this)

razzek
2007-05-21 06:46 pm UTC (link)

An elderly decoration...! Oh, I want to see one so badly! She would be so beautiful... Must...go through art reel...for reference... :D *adds this to the always massive pile of things Razz wants to draw/see*

It's such a shame that we don't see beauty in our elders (or the overweight, disfigured, disabled...pretty much in anyone who isn't a stick figure with boobs and/or muscles).

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	siadea 2007-05-21 08:48 pm UTC (link)
	Yes! Yes yes yes. I want to see an elderly decoration, too! (Though their grace and bearing is also prized - is the erosion of such with age also viewed in sort of - a sabi kind of way, as someone says below? I do wonder...) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	haikujaguar 2007-05-21 10:57 pm UTC (link)
	They don't age the way we do, mind; their world is lighter than ours, and kinder to their bodies. On the other hand, they die younger than we do. It's been interesting, trying to look at an old person. They become frail, almost ethereal. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	razzek 2007-05-22 05:07 pm UTC (link)
	Oooo...! That makes them even more lovely, but also kind of tragic. How long do they live? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	haikujaguar 2007-05-23 02:24 pm UTC (link)
	I'm thinking maybe 50-60 of our years, equivalent. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	razzek 2007-05-23 07:21 pm UTC (link)
	This is a bit out there, but now I wonder: how might they react to meeting one of us who is, say, a hundred? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	haikujaguar 2007-05-28 01:40 pm UTC (link)
	With astonishment, I am certain. If they know, of course. Otherwise, an old person is an old person, no matter how many years it took to get there... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ysabetwordsmith 2007-05-21 07:41 pm UTC (link)
	This seems a difficult concept for America's youth-and-beauty obsessed culture to understand. In college I took a class on Japanese culture. I was fascinated by the introduction of the wabi-sabi aesthetic, which cherishes the old, the imperfect, the ephemeral. A summary is here: http://nobleharbor.com/tea/chado/WhatIsWabi-Sabi.htm (Reply to this)(Thread)

haikujaguar
2007-05-21 10:56 pm UTC (link)

That is a fabulous explication of an aesthetic I've always found fascinating. The word the emperor used that I translated as the arc of a thing's existence from birth to death is very sabi-like. A noble introduced me to it when I was having lunch alone outside at a restaurant, drinking tea. They served it in iron pots, and I observed that the first pour was almost too delicate to be tasted, and the last so strong it had become bitterly astringent. The noble pointed out that one should appreciate a thing in its lifespan, and the bitter astringency is promised in the pale delicacy, and all the in-betweens. That you should not like the perfect tea in the middle alone, but the tea itself, in all its many ages. That it was strange and shallow to be so focused on the single best point of the tasting.

I tried it. What a weird mindset you drift into while doing so.

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	artfulruin 2007-05-22 12:06 am UTC (link)
	Yes! This is how I feel about tea, also. (Reply to this)(Parent)

The Beauty of the Death of Flowers

ysabetwordsmith
2007-05-23 05:14 am UTC (link)

Recently a friend brought a bouquet of garishly-dyed flowers to a ritual. They were lurid orange, green, and blue. I put the leftover flowers in a vase on the counter and left them there.

The next morning, the water in the vase was pale orange, and the flowers were less lurid. Over the next couple of weeks, I watched the flowers very gradually fade. They turned from road-cone orange to soft sunset shades of pink and peach. The green ones faded from neon green to apple to mint. The blue faded from electric koolaid to turquoise to morning sky. It was eerie and beautiful to watch, utterly unexpected. I was fascinated by the beauty of the death of flowers. Sort of like Japan's Cherry Blossom Festival, but it lasted rather longer.

I wonder if the people of House Qenain would be similarly intrigued.

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	miintikwa 2007-05-21 09:06 pm UTC (link)
	chuckles softly As we age, we find our own ways to wisdom. (Reply to this)

dragontdc
2007-05-21 09:16 pm UTC (link)

Indeed it is just this intimation of wabi that comes to mind from this discussion. However, it is not entirely appropriate to value a person for their history and perseverence alone. People are always happening in the present.

If a person is to be regarded as art, then they must be art for all the senses. An old familiar song, the mellow sounds of an antique instrument, the taste of well-aged wine...

These are the more pleasant forms of age, but art need not be comfortable or pleasant at all times, in fact if it is then at some point it fails to be expression of humanity. Memento Mori

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	haikujaguar 2007-05-21 10:49 pm UTC (link)
	This is an interesting comment. I must contemplate it. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	smokierings 2007-05-22 01:16 am UTC (link)
	This is a more artistic way of making the point I did. Well done, and pleasurably read. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	stokerbramwell 2007-05-21 11:57 pm UTC (link)
	I wish that our culture could realize this. It's why I wish Dove well in their Pro-Age campaign. (Reply to this)

	artfulruin 2007-05-22 12:07 am UTC (link)
	I rather suspected that this would be the answer. :) The emperor is superb with alien relations. (Reply to this)

	poliphilo 2007-05-22 12:16 pm UTC (link)
	Now that's wonderful. These little glimpses of an alien civilisation are quite fascinating (Reply to this)

	wolfbrotherjoe 2007-05-22 02:09 pm UTC (link)
	Are you sure your process of creating the incense stories shouldn't be packaged along with the incense stories? (Reply to this)

	rowyn 2007-05-23 12:40 pm UTC (link)
	"Then why do they ask?" he asks, adding another sprig of flowers. I asked about it 'cause all the ones you'd drawn looked young. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	haikujaguar 2007-05-23 02:24 pm UTC (link)
	They don't age the way we do, and they die younger. I'd have to color them, I think, for their age to become apparent. They get dull/faded. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	anamacha 2007-05-25 10:52 pm UTC (link)
	I can hardly imagine such a society, in which each being has a use and a purpouse -- and, presumably, where beings are aided in finding such things. My being yearns for that sense. (Reply to this)

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