Re: Rejection of Imitation in Music -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 17:06:42 04/27/08 Sun
Author: JD
Subject: Re: Rejection of Imitation in Music
In reply to: Caitlin 's message, "Re: Rejection of Imitation in Music" on 20:33:27 04/22/08 Tue

Although we hate to say we are imitating anything, we have come from a long line of tradition that sees its own place in an imitative role. The idea of classical education is that we are not inherently going to possess the virtues and so we must first learn how to act virtuous (i.e. imitate the virtues) so as to love the virtues and eventually assimilate them into our behavior. This idea reaches back to Aristotle's ethics and we even see something similar in Plato's Republic. Plato desired to censor anything that did not promote the desired morals because he did not want the young to appropriate anything other than the desired morals. Even changing from a Greek to a Christian stand-point we are made in the image of God. We are not fully "original" in that we possess qualities of something that has already existed. Although I even admit that I do not want to say that I cannot be entirely original, I think that we who want this absolute originality are in a new time of thinking that could perhaps come from the desire to break away from tradition and deny imitation. However, we know that once someone does something "original" it seems that those who want the same originality just imitate this seemingly newfound thing.

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Nothing New Under the Sun -- Shannon, 13:00:00 04/28/08 Mon