Expression and survival : an aesthetic approach to the problem of suicide

118 Pages·2008·0.666 MB·English

by  Greenman, Craig

Expression and Survival

Expression and Survival:
An Aesthetic Approach to the Problem of Suicide

By

Craig Greenman

Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Expression and Survival: An Aesthetic Approach to the Problem of Suicide, by Craig Greenman

This book first published 2008 by

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

15 Angerton Gardens, Newcastle, NE5 2JA, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2008 by Craig Greenman

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-84718-596-7, ISBN (13): 9781847185969
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface.......................................................................................................vii
Acknowledgements....................................................................................ix

Part One: The Problem of Suicide...........................................................1

Introduction
“Moderated and very bored”
Debunking The Myth of Sisyphus
American Suicide
Incidentally . . .

Part Two: Suicide and Ethics.................................................................19

Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Second Movement
You Know You’re Right
December 14, 2003
Which Brings Us to Kant . . .
What Would Jesus Do?

Part Three: An Aesthetic Approach......................................................41

Fountains of Survival
Why I Sing the Blues
Tropic of Cancer
We All Die
Kofman’s Holocaust

Marginalia................................................................................................59

Appendix A: Writing and Ambivalence (1998)........................................69
Appendix B: What Is Philosophy? (1995).................................................81
Notes..........................................................................................................91
Index........................................................................................................103

PREFACE

I’m not sure that this book is true.
Its basic argument runs like this: (1) Life can be horrible; and (2) art,
broadly construed, can help us survive it.
But the mere fact of being alive can give us great pleasure; and art,
with its hyperbole and drama, can make life seem worse than it is.
So my thesis may be false.
Nevertheless, there are times when life does not seem very good; and
when art, despite its hyperbole and drama, can feel like the only thing
standing between it and death.
So maybe I am at least partly right.
Another caution: I’m not a scientist, and this is not a scientific text. I
didn’t interview hundreds of people or conduct controlled experiments.
Rather, I worked mostly with anecdotal evidence from texts and my own
experiences.
Also, I don’t mean to imply, in what follows, that life is basically or
even mostly bad. (I don’t want to curse life; I love it and want to go on
living it.) Nor do I mean to say that art is helpful in all, or even in most,
cases. I don’t know.
More than anything, I don’t want to harm suicidal people.
I hope that the reader will find something true in it.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book wouldn’t be the same without Andrew Cutrofello, who gave
constant support and encouragement.
Or without Joshua Rayman, who taught an earlier version of it.
Or without Patricia Huntington and David Ingram, who read it as a
dissertation.
Or without Hugh Miller and David Schweickart, who read it as a
dissertation proposal.
Or without Erik Gardner and Heather McGee, who attended its
defense.
Or without Helen Doyle, Maureen Doyle, Lynn Garrioch, Laura
Hengehold, Tom Herrnstein, Thomas Kealy, Amy Knisley, David
Leichter, Kara McCollum, Melissa Meade, and Tia Simoni, who read full
or partial drafts.
Or without Margaret Pabst Battin and Bill Martin, who read the
penultimate version.
Or without Anna Maltsev, whose conversation inspired the new
introduction.
Or without Rebekah Tolley and Edward Germar, who photographed
the cover painting.
Or without Harriette Yazzie-Whitcomb, who scanned the appendices.
Or without Eric Chelstrom, who introduced me to Cambridge Scholars
Publishing.
Or without the folks at Cambridge Scholars Publishing, especially
Andy Nercessian, Carol Koulikourdi, Amanda Millar, Vlatka Kolic, Scott
Burrell, and Nuala Coyle.
Or without my family, friends, colleagues, teachers, assistants, and
students who gave their support and advice so generously.
Thank you.