Lynette Abel / Aesthetic Realism & Life

Welcome!

Here I write about what I have learned from Aesthetic Realism, the education founded by American philosopher and poet Eli Siegel.

In newpaper articles and in publicly-presented papers, I have written about personal and national concerns and their relation. And here too, are some of the editorials and letters my husband, Michael Palmer, and I have written together.

I live in New York City and love it here. When I was 23, I began to study the education I write of on this web site. For instance, how a person is related to everything else--and the place of art in understanding this--is outlined in the principle "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites." (See the Aesthetic Realism Foundation online and biographical information about Eli Siegel.)

It was great pleasure and a rich life experience to have attended Aesthetic Realism classes given by Eli Siegel in the years from 1973 to 1978. Reports of some of those classes I have selected to include here--of extemporaneous talks he gave on a wide diversity of subjects--on literature, music, the social sciences, humor, national ethics, economics, the human self, and so much more.

Today, my education continues in professional classes taught each week by Aesthetic Realism Chairman of Education, Ellen Reiss, whom I respect for her honesty, scholarship, and great kindness.

From Rock 'n' Roll, the Opposites, & Our Greatest Hopes—A Celebration!

"Breathless" is a song by the Coors & R.J. Lange, sung by Marion Fennell. I'm proud to be one of the backup singers along with Carrie Wilson & Sally Ross. To see it as it appears on YouTube, click here.

Also, to hear another song from this presentation, "Runaround Sue," sung by Kevin Fennell, Bennett Cooperman, Timothy Lynch, & Christopher Balchin, and on YouTube click here.
Here is "Carol of the Drum" or "Little Drummer Boy" by Harry Simeone, Katherine K. Davis, and Henry Onorati, performed December 2011 by the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company as part of the Special Event "The Beauty and Urgency of Justice." Click here.

New York, Poetry, & Our Lives

This is the title of issue 1815 of The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.   Reading it will give you new, big feeling about one of the great cities of the world, and encourage deeper respect for all of humanity. Editor Ellen Reiss writes:
"Here is the second section of the 1970 lecture New York Begins Poetically, by Eli Siegel. In it Mr. Siegel comments, chronologically, on particular aspects of New York City—sometimes historical events, sometimes instances of literature, not necessarily the most noted. Through these he presents New York as no one did before: we feel New York as a oneness of opposites. And, Aesthetic Realism explains, opposites as one is what poetry has, what all art and beauty have.
      In the first section he spoke about the purchase of Manhattan by Peter Minuit; about Peter Stuyvesant; about an early rebellion, led by Jacob Leisler. Now he speaks about the meaning New York had for Jonathan Edwards, the passionate and logical New England theologian. What he says is new in the understanding of Edwards, and of New York.
      These opposites are an emergency for everyone. That’s because people have, with horrible everyday wrongness, felt the way to be an individual is not to see oneself as continuous with other people, connected with them, related to them. They’ve felt the way to be an individual is to see oneself as apart and superior. That feeling is contempt. And, Aesthetic Realism explains, from contempt come the loneliness, emptiness, shame, also cruelty, of people.
      Seeing New York as at once richly continuous and grandly particular is a means of feeling what we need urgently to feel: that we are individual through our relation to the world and millions of other people—not through our ability to beat them out, look down on them, put them aside."
To continue reading click here.

Special Presentations of Aesthetic Realism

Hear Aesthetic Realism Podcast
—A talk by Aesthetic Realism Consultant Bennett Cooperman
titled "Toughness and a Feeling Heart--Can a Man Have Both?"

"Power & Grace in Music, with a Note on Sincerity" from a Music: Aesthetic Realism

presentation of October 26, 1975 given by Paul Abel Page 1 | Page 2

In 1946, Paul Abel began his career as an airline pilot. Several years later in 1949, Mr. Abel received his Master's degree in Music at Syracuse University, where he was on the faculty and taught voice. Then in 1969, he began to study Aesthetic Realism in New York City in classes with its founder, Eli Siegel. In 1975 he taught voice, using the Aesthetic Realism point of view. This is the point of view of the essay presented here. What Mr. Abel sees about Verdi's Rigoletto, I believe, adds importantly to its beauty and value.--Editor

Reports of Aesthetic Realism Classes

"Freedom Is with Imagination," Nevertheless Poetry class given by Eli Siegel
           September 29, 1971. It includes a discussion of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, including his
           great poem "Christabel," and Homer's Iliad, the translations of Richmond Lattimore,
           and Alexander Pope. This is a report written by Paul Abel, musician, retired airline pilot,
           and my father. He studied Aesthetic Realism in classes with Eli Siegel in the1970s. I am
           grateful to him for introducing me to this important education. He told me recently, how
           glad he is that his report could be published here on this web site.

"Instinct and Mme de Sevigne,"a report by Lynette Abel on a class given by Eli Siegel
December 11, 1964, one in a series he gave on instinct.

"People Leave Each Other in Poetry," two classes given by Eli Siegel February 14 and 21,
1968 about difficulty in love, the leaving of one person by another. Includes discussion of
John Keat's "La Belle Dame Sans Merci."

"Freedom and Order in Poetry" given February 4, 1970. In it, Eli Siegel discusses,
among many other poems, Vachel Lindsay's "The Congo."

"It Is, As It's Elsewhere," given June 17, 1970 by Eli Siegel about the meaning of poetry;
includes discussion of Carl Sandburg's poem "To a Contemporary Bunkshooter."

The Miracle at Verdun, a play by Hans Chlumberg, discussed by Eli Siegel April 3, 1977

"Words Are Everywhere: Comedy and Tragedy Are Two of These," was given
March 24, 1971. Eli Siegel discusses the1924 play Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey

"Presence and Absence: A Consideration of the Arts and Sciences,"given February 21,
1969. Eli Siegel discusses the writing of French author Constantin Francois Comte de
Volney

"Shakespeare's Interesting," In this talk, given December 9, 1970, Eli Siegel uses an
18th century edition of the play Hamlet, with critics of the time, and E.M.W. Tillyard's
Shakespeare's Problem Plays.

Aesthetic Realism Seminars:
Essays by Lynette Abel

The Fight between Boredom and Awareness in a Woman's Mind
Discusses the life and work of Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor in FDR's administration
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

What's the Big Thing Women Need to Know about Power?
Discusses the 19th century novel, Emma by Jane Austen
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

What's More Important: to Appreciate Rightly or Be Praised?
Discusses the film The Sound of Music
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

Beauty and the Beast; or, the Ethics of a Fairy Tale
Excerpt from an Aesthetic Realism Seminar, with a discussion of the Madame Leprince
De Beaumont story of this beloved fairy tale, translated by Ronald Duncan.

How Can Men and Women Be Sure of Themselves?
Discusses the short story "The Second Choice," by Theodore Dreiser
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

Despite Achievement & Praise--Why Can a Woman Feel Empty?
Discusses portions of Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

Kindness is Criticism
Includes commentary on the life and work of Jane Addams

The Inability to Appreciate--What Does it Come From?
Discusses the short story "The Garden Party," by Katherine Mansfield
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

A Woman's Dissatisfaction: Can It Be Beautiful?
Commentary on the character Beatrice from William Makepeace Thackerary's Henry
Esmond Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

   In Trying to Be Important, What Mistakes Do People Make?
        Discusses aspects of the novel Framley Parsonage, by Anthony Trollope
        Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

Woman's Determination: What Makes It Right or Wrong?
       Includes discussion of aspects of the life and work of Susan Travers, who showed courage
      and determination to defeat Fascism, in her work as a military driver in the North African
      Campaign during World War II Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

Why Are Women Disappointed--& Do They Ever Want to Be?
With some comment on the 1913 novel Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

The Ordinary Doom
By Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism

I am glad to reprint this important essay, The Ordinary Doom, in which Eli Siegel explains two large matters: why people feel unexpressed and not understood.

Books about Aesthetic Realism, and Other Things of Note:

Read an excerpt from a commentary by Ellen Reiss, who is the Class Chairman of
Aesthetic Realism, titled: Jobs, Discontent, and Beauty about Robert Burns

One of the great things I had the privilege to hear was Eli Siegel's discussion of
Joseph Conrad's famous story Heart of Darkness. You can read a fine report of it on
Michael Palmer's blog, Music, History, & Life.

If you care for New York City, its people, buildings, bridges, museums, stadiums--its
culture and beauty, you'll love this new website titled Aesthetic Realism Looks at NYC!
Have fun perusing it!

A website new on the scene, which has some beautiful and deeply moving photo-
graphs, is that of my colleague and friend Harvey Spears. I love the great paper he
and his wife, Carol Driscoll, wrote on Rembrandt's The Jewish Bride.

The Aesthetic Realism Online Library, containing chapters from Self and World;
poetry, essays, and lectures by Eli Siegel

Gwe: Young Man of New Guinea, by Arnold Perey, anthropologist, and Aesthetic Realism
      Consultant. This book is important for many reasons. One, is that it is a beautifully felt
     and written novel against racism. Also, I recommend Arnold Perey's important article
     titled Teaching Indian Culture in the US.   He says about it: "In this article I say how
     Aesthetic Realism fights prejudice and makes for respect and kindness, even where
     there has been great contempt."

A website I recommend--particularly to persons interested in the history of World
     War I is Rob Ruggenberg's Heritage of the Great War. He has, perhaps, the finest
     collection of photographs from that period. I care very much for how he writes
     about the poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae. And I'm proud to have on this
     site my report of a talk Eli Siegel gave on the play The Miracle at Verdun.

A book, needed throughout our country, which meets the hopes of people on a
raging issue is : Aesthetic Realism and the Answer to Racism by Alice Bernstein &
Others.

See "Aesthetic Realism, Ethics, and Literature" and the blog of artists, and
      Aesthetic Realism consultants, Chaim & Dorothy Koppelman Art & the Opposites.
      And one of the most moving things I know, is Mrs. Koppelman's paper on Joseph
      Mallord William Turner. Have a wonderful time reading it.
      See too, Christopher Balchin's blog titled Aesthetic Realism Is True, Fathers & Sons,
      Economics, and More!, by Bruce Blaustein, Aesthetic Realism, Women's Issues, & the
     World by Maureen Butler, All the Arts by Aesthetic Realism consultant, Carrie Wilson,
     and Aesthetic Realism and Education, by Rosemary Plumstead.

To see what Aesthetic Realism explains about the relation of art and life, see
Sargent's "Madame X"; or, Assertion and Retreat in Woman" by Lynette Abel

The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company, presents talks by Eli Siegel, founder of the
      philosophy Aesthetic Realism, on plays such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Othello and
      A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sheridan’s School for Scandal, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House
      and George Kelly’s The Flattering Word."

Reviews by Eli Siegel and more in Friends of Aesthetic Realism This includes
     lectures by Mr. Siegel in issues of The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.