Reading Due: Korsmeyer, Part Five – Preface through Chapter 25 (pp 225 - 243)

In this reading, it discusses the theories of aesthetics: pleasure. They describe this aesthetic pleasure as the beauty of the experience. Nietzsche first references the Greek tragedy and how it brings about emotions. He goes on to talk about two different aesthetic experiences that evoke two different emotions. The first, Apollinian, creates and looks at the beauty of form. Examples he gives are those of sculptures and paintings because they display something the viewer can understand and reach on an emotional level. The other is Dionysian, which creates a atmosphere which the viewer then needs to participate within it. The viewer loses their identity and adopts another that more closely relates to the piece. I thought of movies and books while reading this description, when you read a book or see a novel often times you find yourself trying to more closely relate yourself with the piece or character. In turn this is why people cry at sad parts and laugh at funny ones. Nietzsche describes Greek tragedy shows the unfair and tragic emotions most closely related to real life.

Are movies and books good examples of the Dionysian category?
What are some examples of the Apollinian category in todays world, are they still simply paintings and sculptures?
What if other emotions are evoked from a painting, does that exclude it from the category?