Joyce on Esthetic Arrest - 0 views
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the feeling which arrests the mind in the presence of whatsoever is grave and constant in human sufferings and unites it with the human sufferer
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You see I use the word ARREST. I mean that the tragic emotion is static. Or rather the dramatic emotion is. The feelings excited by improper art are kinetic, desire or loathing. Desire urges us to possess, to go to something; loathing urges us to abandon, to go from something. The arts which excite them, pornographical or didactic, are therefore improper arts. The esthetic emotion (I used the general term) is therefore static. The mind is arrested and raised above desire and loathing.
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It means certainly a stasis and not a kinesis
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