CYCLE FIFTY-NINE
1. Being is the form of
space, whether the content of the latter be spatial or spaced.
2. Doing is the form of
time, whether the content of the latter be sequential or repetitive.
3. Taking is the form
of volume, whether the content of the latter be volumetric or voluminous.
4. Giving is the form of
mass, whether the content of the latter be massed or massive.
5. Form preponderates over content in the
subjective contexts of being/space and giving/mass, whereas content
preponderates over form in the objective contexts of doing/time and
taking/volume.
6. One can no more have form without content ...
than content without form, though the ratio to which form conditions content or
content form will vary from context to context.
7. Form is never more preponderant over content
than in the absolutist context of noumenal
subjectivity, in which form precedes content.
Conversely, content is never more preponderant over form than in the
absolutist context of noumenal objectivity, in which
content precedes form.
8. The supercross and the star are both contexts in which, due to
their subjectivity, content is subordinate to form.
9. The cross and the
superstar are both contexts in which, due to their objectivity, form is
subordinate to content.
10. When content is subordinate to form ... because
form precedes content, we have a Classical context.
11. When form is subordinate to content ...
because content precedes form, we have a Romantic context.
12. The absolute Classicism of God vis-à-vis the
absolute Romanticism of the Devil ... where the being of space and the time of
doing are concerned.
13. The relative Classicism of woman vis-à-vis the
relative Romanticism of man ... where the giving of mass and the volume of
taking are concerned.
14. The notion that there can be form without content
or content without form is premised upon the erroneous assumption that form and
content are independent entities with truly absolutist properties.
15. The Platonic notion
of Pure Form is a delusion of the mind with no basis whatsoever in divine or,
indeed, any reality, since all realities, whatever their context, are
combinations of form and content to greater or lesser degree.
16. Paint is the content of many so-called
Formalist abstract paintings, just as shapes are the form of many so-called Conceptual
abstract paintings.
17. God has content no less than the Devil form,
but content is considerably subordinate to form in the divine context and,
conversely, form considerably subordinate to content in the diabolic one,
making for the semblance of absolutism in each case.
18. That art which achieves the most form with the
least content ... is of God, and contrasts with the Devil's art of achieving
most content with least form.
19. In the noumenal
contexts of God and the Devil, both form and content are abstract, whereas in
the phenomenal contexts of woman and man ... form and content are concrete,
which is to say, Representational rather than Non-representational.
20. The Devil's intense dislike of form is matched
only by God's rejection of excessive content.
Communism, which is a thing of the Devil, can no more abide 'Formalism',
or the semblance of absolute form, in art ... than Fascism can abide the
negation of form in 'Conceptualism'. Neo-Plasticism would be as abhorrent to
the Devil as, say, Abstract Expressionism to God.
21. In Nonconformism, content generally prevails over form,
whereas in Humanism ... form prevails over content, as befitting its subjective
basis in the World. Hence
the distinction between ethics (Protestant) and aesthetics (Catholic).
22. The problem is not to advance form at the
expense of content, but to advance the highest form in conjunction with the
highest content, so that, through divine wisdom, the joyful calm of Being ...
on the lightness of air ... comes universally to pass. Thus will the World give way to Heaven ... as
God transcends woman, and truth replaces beauty as the most perfect
manifestation of form.
