On the beauty of "On Beauty"

Class discussion notes from Friday 4/17 and Monday 4/20

A lot of what we discussed of this novel this round was the poem written by the character Claire Malcomb and about its meaning and beauty. The poem, entitled the same as the novel uses a repetition of lines, pronouns, and subjects to blur the line between the beautiful and the non-beautiful, portraying the idea that true beauty is impossible to know.

This connects to what we discussed about Smith's characterization of both sides of the culture war: the Belseys on the liberal no-great-art left and the Kippses on the conservative only-great-great art right. Throughout the novel, both the left and the right contradict themselves and feed off of each other. For example, Howard a man who preaches there is no real genius, no real great art, and no real great beauty falls into an affair with the stereotypical beauty, a woman like himself, white, petite, and intellectual. By the same token, Monty Kipps, a man who preaches against all things liberal, progressive and in some sense anti discriminatory finds himself best friends with a homosexual male. However not only do these sides contradict themselves, they also blur their own lines of distinction, as shown especially through the relationship of Kiki and Carlene. Kiki who was initially greatly offended at Carlene's idea of living for whom instead of for what, later finds herself screaming and Howard that she "gave her life" to him in their marriage. This whole novel, plot and theme asks us as readers to reanalyze the boundaries that we think are so concrete around us.

This is also shown in Claire's conversation with Zora about Carl and the upcoming faculty meeting. Claire asking Zora to speak on behalf of Carl and the other poets in the class who are not students at Wellington implies that Carl does not have a voice, that he could not persuade them on his own. What is strikingly ironic about this is that Carl is the only person in that class who does have a voice. He attracts tons of attention and recognition at the Bus Stop, and is the only true poet of the class, as well as the only self-made intellectual. He learns, not for the university, resume or grades, but for the betterment of himself. This is something which contradicts the emphasis places on the intellectualism valued highly by both the Belseys and the Kippses.

A thought for the future is are the sides really that different? How do the families defy certain social expectations? How do things end up?