Page 6 - Boca ViewPointe - June '23

Page 6, Viewpointe June 2023
Book Review

Dying for Beauty As a child growing up in She presents her case with a young woman’s matter-
New Mexico with science- of-factness and a woman’s intuition for beauty. Her own
Katy Kelleher. The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Essays oriented parents, her father hands-on experience with beading and glass making. The
on Desire and Consumption. New York: Simon and Schuster. was a nuclear physicist who sparkle of gems like rubies and emeralds and diamonds
2023. apparently worked on the has an appeal that goes back to prehistoric times and
“I died for beauty, but was scarce atomic bomb, Ms. Kelleher notes the relevant belief that stones could offer healing
Adjusted in the tomb, surveyed the natural powers as well as magical talismans of protection. All
When one who died for truth was lain beauty of her southwest our five senses are involved in pursuit of beauty. Her
In an adjoining room. environment. She was palette consists of the items in the handbag a typical
He questioned softly ‘why I failed?’ enchanted by stones, mines, woman carries in her purse containing a witch’s brew of
‘For beauty,’ I replied. gardens, planetariums, and mascara, eyelashes, and sweet-smelling plants and lip
‘And I for truth - the two are one; arboretums. She was taken gloss along with ephemeral nick-nacks and gewgaws. As
We brethren are,’ he said. in by the beauty of flowers, well as seashells by the New England seashore. She notes
And so, as kinsmen met a-night, and she wanted to smell that shells were not only expropriated for their beauty as
We talked between the rooms, them, absorb them and even jewelry, but also served as one of the earliest forms of
Until the moss had reached our lips, to eat them—and notes the propensity for such behavior in currency. Whereby an African slave could be bought for
And covered up our names.” Emily Dickinson the ancient world, even as Homer had depicted the subliminal 10,000 seashells.
powers of the lotus eaters. Her interest continued when her Again, she emphasizes the dark side of the institution
By Dr. Ronald J. Meyers family moved to New England where she continued our of beauty, rapacious greed that led colonial powers to
exploration and obsession with nature and beauty, subjugate native peoples in order to find and refine
In a book that reads As a teenager, she was obsessed with makeup and adornments. How the perfumes that adorn us derive
like a memoir rather than perfumes. The practice of piercing and tattooing was from the extremities and excretions like civet, musk,
a non-fiction study, Katy practiced more than 5,000 years ago and enhancement has ambergris and other startling evolutionary practices of
Kelleher describes how always been part of diverse cultures. She notes the perfumes coprophagia. While Ms. Kelleher acknowledges the
when confronted with her created by the cosmetician Tapputi-Belatekallim in 1200 ultimate sublimity of procreative sex, she notes that this
deep depression and verging B.C.E. recorded in cuneiform in ancient Babylon, or the even beauty is mitigated by the calculus of the subjugation of
on suicide, she informed earlier recipes in the Egyptian Book of Dead for enhancing our bodies to infectious diseases and even death.
her psychiatrist that her sole appearance of the dead no less than the living. After this piece, I shall take the summer off to explore
motive to survive was her You will be left not only with her thirst for the other interests after ten gratifying years (with more than
passion for beauty. Only animating soul of beauty, but with an informed history of a hundred articles) in preparing this column. And I look
when she encountered motherhood did she find another textiles and glass, stone and marble. How glass working forward to reengaging on a timely basis at some future time.
impulse that gives greater impetus to her desire to live. and diamonds were refined in processes developed in the
But her book is a fine disquisition on the aesthetics of Middle Ages and led to the capitalistic expansion and Dr. Ronald J. Meyers, a resident of La Paz, is Emeritus
beauty that has occupied philosophers from Plato to Kant widespread utilization. The extraction of marble and the Professor of English. rmeyers@esu.edu. 
to Elaine Scarry. Can beauty be characterized as useful Chinese invention of Porcelain offered many uses from
or supercilious, as objective or subjective? Does it, must architecture to domestic products.
it contain a moral purpose for the betterment of society.
Is it contaminated by ugliness? The eighteenth century
established the distinction between simple beauty and the Buying or Selling Call PJ for Referrals and Consultation
awe inspiring; the sublime was the accentuation of the MARKET IS HOT!!! LOW INVENTORY!!
awesomeness that might be encountered in a Church or
a forest that additionally excited terror and tension. Her PROMENADE 302C SOLD!
book evolved from an earlier essay, “The Ugly History Prudence J. (PJ) Carswell
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