Edwin Forrest — What Makes a Man's Life Large or Small?
With a discussion of the life and work of the great 19th century actor Edwin Forrest. First presented in a public seminar at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, New York City.

Though men may not know it, each of us has a hope to be large, to have big, accurate feeling and comprehensive thought about people and the world. Eli Siegel, founder of the education Aesthetic Realism, wrote:

There is...a great tendency of the self to be as large as it can be, to be as expansive as one of our own far western states. For a self to be large is that self's being able to become another self, to have other feeling; to identify itself with whatever is real.

Meanwhile, men have also tried to be "large," make themselves important, by being superior, using people for one's own advantage, making other things small. Men have undermined their own lives through having contempt, and in explaining this Aesthetic Realism is extremely kind.

I'm going to tell what I have learned and am proud now to teach men in Aesthetic Realism consultations. And I'll discuss the fight between large and small in the great 19th century American actor, Edwin Forrest.

Article Sections
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5