Can contempt be
animated? Yes it can! Film animation
artists since 1909, when Gertie the
Dinosaur defiantly turned her back to
the audiences, have been inter- ested
in animating the contempt people have
for the world. And when animation is
successful, it gives form to contempt
as a means of opposing it.
I began to learn this in my study of
the philosophy Aesthetic
Realism, founded by the American
poet and critic Eli Siegel. He showed
me that I wanted to give artistic form
to something I disliked myself for
very much—how I could mock and make
fun. That form is in this great
Aesthetic Realism principle: “All
beauty is a making one of opposites,
and the making one of opposites is
what we are going after in
ourselves.” Click here
to read more.
