Why We Hate Rupi Kaur's "Poetry" | Lessons from Aristotle
A literary critique ft. Taylor Swift on how NOT to write poetry
As social beings, we largely gravitate toward what is beautiful, it heals our soul. Poetry is one such art, touching our innermost being to set us on fire and then set us free. But the modern world has forgotten the definition of true art, it has made a mockery of beauty, because beauty shames the ugly. A society without true art does not know where to look for inspiration and guidance. Devoid of a standard of beauty, trends overtake the mind. While there may be a shining ray of light somewhere within these waves, it does not indicate goodness, at all times. We have to bring back art’s Prometheus’ fire. The kind that inspires truth, and allows it to thrive. Because “a drop of ink may make a million think” — Lord Byron.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things but their inward significance.
- Aristotle
Before Aristotle's Poetics, there was a scant serious analysis of the qualitative distinctions in literature and drama. Plato, in The Republic, surfaced the topic, yet his discourse was largely polemical. He criticized fiction asserting that poets and writers are nothing but liars perpetuating falsehoods. To Plato, this act of lying was detrimental to society's moral fabric, leading him to propose the expulsion of poets from his ideal state (Plato, The Republic, Book X). You could say Plato held something of a contempt filled view of the artist — 'And when someone honors beauty more than virtue, this constitutes nothing other than a real and thorough dishonoring of the soul' (Plato, Laws, Book B, 727d).
Aristotle, who studied at Plato’s Academy in Athens, approached this subject from a different lens. He boldly acknowledged that literature and fiction are inherent elements of human culture which we use to seek an understanding of the intrinsic qualities that differentiate good literary and dramatic works from poor ones. And so came about, Poetics, one of the earliest and most significant contributions to literary criticism, offering a systematic exploration of the principles underlying effective storytelling.
According to Aristotle, reading literature—especially tragedy—has a significant ethical and affective influence on readers. He presented ideas like mimesis (imitation), which holds that art mimics life and can disclose universal truths about the human situation, in Poetics. Aristotle saw imitation as a natural and instructive process, in contrast to Plato who thought it was dishonest. Accordingly, one of our innate tendencies is imitation. The desire for harmony and rhythm comes next, with metres being blatantly distinct rhythmic portions (Aristotle, Poetics, Chapter 4).
While his work was mostly focused on Greek Tragedy and Homer, Aristotle writes: “The poet should speak as little as possible in his own person, for it is not this that makes him an imitator. ” This is the complete opposite of Rupi Kaur’s work, which can barely be classified as art or poetry. Her poetry is nothing but word vomiting, minimalistic ranting, and a form of personal catharsis for the poet herself and her readers, supposedly focusing on themes of healing, empowerment, and self-love. All ethical and instructional dimensions are lacking, as per Aristotle's view. One reads her books and comes out of her world, feeling the same, the way you do after a decadent conversation with a modern friend about the tragic ending of their miserable, hedonistic situationship — with an extreme emphasis on the self, and lust.
Aristotle believed that the purpose of tragedy is to achieve catharsis, purging the audience's emotions of pity and fear, thereby having a moral and psychological impact. Literature, for Aristotle, has a deep ethical and educational role, but for Rupi, it has a self-gratifying role. What makes the latter less worthy than the former? Because pleasure is not a virtue, it is fleeting, impermanent, and does nothing for the greater good. It makes people weak and selfish, arrogance overtakes them as the next stimulus needs to be increasingly stronger in order to make them feel good about themselves. It is a vicious, self-destructive cycle that leads to the death of all that is good and virtuous. Aristotle writes, “For Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality.” At surface level, this is something Rupi and Taylor Swift both aim to do, but fail at. Their works are like a right-handed individual trying to draw with his left hand. The intellectually handicapped will see no difference, but an educated mind is quick to point out the hedonistic lack of depth in the works of these decadent so-called ‘artists.’