Are We Sublime-Proof?

"There have been two prominent understandings of 'the sublime' in Western aesthetic theory, classical and late neoclassical, namely the rhetorical sublime of Longinus and the natural sublime of the eighteenth-century poets and landscape painters...the awe once associated specifically with primary religious encounters."

 -from "Sacred Proposals and the Spiritual Sublime" by David Lyle Jeffrey

found in "Through A Glass Darkly" by Holly Faith Nelson, Lynn R. Szabo 

and Jens Zimmermann

To discuss "the sublime" in a modern context, readers must look to the past for clues on how it was experienced. As Jeffrey notes, two understandings existed, one that was rhetorical and philosophical, and one that was more founded in arts and literature. In either instance, "the sublime" was defined as something provoking emotion beyond the normal bounds of experience. In Edward Burke's revolutionary text on "the sublime", entitled "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful", the chapters are categorized based on different emotions associated with "the sublime": terror, obscurity, power, infinity, vastness and magnificence to name a few. This categorization gives us a good idea on how we should define sublime at its most basic level - something that is infinitely magnificent and strikes fear into our hearts.

Every day, reports, articles, and books are being written that state that we as a culture have become desensitized to violence due to media, video games, and a general passiveness inherent in our culture's value system. When was the last time you saw a picture or read a book that really left you in a state of awe or wonder, something that was so magnificent it scared you? It is evident that because of said proliferation of violent images and over-saturation in both television and film, we have become desensitized to the beauty of the world around us. This makes it difficult for us to experience the same "sublime" as Burke and associates have described it. In a sense, we are "sublime-proof"; we cannot access the same natural amalgam of atmospheric sensitivity as those in the 17th/18th-centuries did because our eyes simply do not see that same things. This "sublime-proofing" is a consequence of our culturally biased viewpoints.

How we fix this issue is as of yet unknown - while technology prevents us from experiencing "the sublime", it also opens up an entirely new realm of experiences and opportunities. I think it is important to remember, however, that nothing can compete with the raw reality of nature that lies beyond our brightly lit screens.

Observe with your own eyes the natural world, and allow yourself to get swept up in what lies before you.

References:

• Szabo, Lynn, Jens Zimmermann, and Holly Faith Nelson. Through a Glass Darkly: Suffering, the Sacred, and the Sublime in Literature and Theory. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2010. Print.
• Burke, Edmund, and Adam Phillips. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.