Romanticism: Revisted

Romanticism has always been one of those movements that I was dimly aware of in the back of my mind, but really had never paid much attention to because some of the other changes in the world that had occurred at the same time frame, I found a wee bit more interesting, for example the founding, disunion, and subsequent union of a nation, among other things. However, exploring the movement through some of its more famous authors and works, and then connecting it to current movements of the internet has brought an interest to this subject.

Romanticism focused on an "appreciation of nature, creativity, individualism, imagination, and beauty" (Romanticism). While many romantic artists focused on all things bright and good in the world, such as William Wordworth and his poetry, others, like Mary Shelly, choose to explore the darker side of human potential. Similarly, the internet does many things bright and beautiful, but it too explores a darker side to life.

Interestingly enough, in both cases I actually mean the same subject, creation of life. The internet is good at many things, one of which is anonymity. In real life, a person can hide behind facades, masks, and doors, but slowly and surely if they interact with people their true nature will be known. On the internet however one can  so completely assume another identity most people will never detect a falsehood.  This is done through the creation of profiles, seen on nearly every social website, to avatars, and other figures used to represent you in a community, such as an online game.



 Mary Shelly explores the physical creation of life in her nightmarish Frankenstein. But what really is the difference? In creating an avatar on Meez or Yahoo! for example, we still start with something, generally the human body shape, and then contort it into what ever shape is most pleasing to us. Granted Frankenstein wasn't visually appealing to most, but he was the scraps of humanity, created from the "left-overs" if you will.

But what dos this interest in creation say about human nature? Curiosity for one. But what in? Where is it really focused? Do we really want to bring new creatures into this life? For my part I think that it really displays the self-interest of human nature. We want to know more about us, and as we cannot dissect ourselves while we live, we make do with others, and other creatures similar to oursleves. Everything that we, as humans have done in life displays our human curiosity and self-interest, what we think of ourelves.

During the Enlightenment this curiosity was focused through a lens of reason, science, and intellect. This, Romanticism, is the more artistic side of that natural curiosity. One of our many decisions in life is to find the happy medium for ourselves, how do we best understand the world? And what does it say about us?