It is true that study often uncovers the complexity of subjects that the average man does not even suspect are complex. This discovery, however, although it may rightly call for caution, should never have a paralyzing effect on the mind, which will ultimately have to decide. The same skepticism used by some as an inductive tool for the best choice is used by others as a shield—a very effective one—for an innate inability to choose.
There Is Always Something Very Positive…
There is always something very positive about these extreme and unavoidable situations that force a decision to be made. First of all, they reveal courage and cowardice in the face of the need to decide; then, and above all, the priorities, which if they were masked before for whatever reason, can now no longer be camouflaged, and the previous cunning or indecision suddenly disappear, taking the place of an unequivocal and unavoidable choice that is imposed, foreshadowing the consequences it will entail.
More Curious Than Examples Like Baudelaire’s…
More curious than examples like Baudelaire’s, who found his aesthetic theory essay already described and practiced elsewhere, is to come across authors, coeval or not, who are similar in content and form, although they are unknown to each other. There are many examples of this, and they attest to the fact that authentic literary manifestation is more of an instinctive impulse, more associated with the particularities of experience than with proper literary study.
Poetry Is Not Enough on Its Own
Poetry, as Guyau suggests, is not enough on its own and, if it is great, it is the form that creates an even greater motivation. This is why, in short, the value of art is tied to the value of artistic motivation. The choice of poetic form is the desire to record in the most difficult and superior of literary forms what is sincerely and violently manifested in the innermost being: it is, in short, the appreciation of this singular manifestation.