Meditations on First Philosophy By René

 Aristotle probably would have liked Titanic. He might have even compared it to Sophocles' Theban Plays, celebrating Jack and Rose as one might appreciate Antigone and Oedipus. We can't be sure, of course, but in all likelihood Plato's student would have praised the late 90's sob story as an exemplary specimen of tragedy. Maybe that's the reason Aristotle's treatise on Poetics runs into a few icebergs of its own.

 

His first Titanic-sized mistake was equating poetry to science. Aristotle tried to dissect plays and the art of tragedy as if they were a pickled frog in high school biology class. He applied his consistently rational mind to a sphere of ideas which are usually assigned to the emotional and, at times, even irrational.

 

Jack and Rose in Titanic

 

In Poetics, Aristotle outlines what he sees as the essential ARISTOTLE, "THE POETICS", P.2 components of tragedy, along with a few interesting literary devices that can be thrown in to spice things up. These legislations on literature went on to have a significant influence throughout the ages and, in fact, remained prevalent and often unquestioned until the 19th century.

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