Realism – A 19th century literary movement with 20th century consequences.

The one defining characteristic of Realism is its attempt to portray life “as it is.” In other words, to present an objective view of the realities of life, people, existence, things, etc. Such a notion is actually a myth for there is no possible way any human being can capture reality “as it is.” What would be required to have such knowledge?

Reality is based on fact. It isn’t imagination. It isn’t opinion. It is cold, hard fact. And no human has a monopoly on it. In fact, no human has ever held the key to the vault that contains all fact of living – even if we consider that such a feat of human knowledge were possible for any period of time, let alone for all periods of time. Scientific discovery itself precludes any possibility of any human being having such a capability.

It could be said that the possibility of realism is an act of God. That’s not a statement proclaiming the existence of God. It’s a rhetorical fact. For if such a being as God exists then by definition he must know all things about all things. No human can know all that. If any human could then that human would have the mind of God, which is a stark impossibility of the nature and character of man.

These abstractions are proven by universal experience. Show me any human being who has ever been wrong on any fact and I’ll show you a failure with regard to Realism. Case closed.

All aesthetics, by definition, are presented from a particular point of view. It may be the creator’s point of view or the point of view of a fictive voice, but it is a point of view nonetheless. Even if the point of view succeeds at portraying reality in some sense, it can never capture all reality in every sense. And that is why Realism, as an aesthetic movement, was a failure. It wasn’t based on any logical possibilities.