What is Beauty?

“Without the negativity of being refracted, beauty atrophies into the smooth…Without the negativity of death, life solidifies into something dead. It is smoothed out into the undead. Negativity is the invigorating force of life”

-Byung-Chul Han, Saving Beauty

I must say that it does feel rather... presumptive to even begin on a journey into what the meaning of beauty truly is; or even if there even is such an objective category such as that of beauty. Having grown up in a world chock-full of maxims such as “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and “physical beauty fades away, inner beauty is what shall last,” this journey-of-sorts is one that I consider to be healing, yet difficult. This is precisely why I wanted to begin with the aforementioned quote by Han! How can a tree become majestic without weathering the storm? How can wine warm the stomach without fermentation? How might Bilbo Baggins of the Shire become a hero we seek to embody if he doesn’t ward off cave trolls, stone giants, Gollum, and the serpent? Negativity and death are essential to beauty in this life. So I have ofttimes posited that beauty is the harmony which hath overcome adversity. Yet in developing a Socratic dialogue with myself as of late, it dawned on me that this cannot be the case. For it is not beautiful when that which is contrary to nature develops harmony in overcoming adversity. So although Han is correct in juxtaposing beauty against smoothness. I fear he failed in specifically explaining what beauty is in its core essence when perceptual negativity has been overcome. So that core essence is what I would like to explore today. We will first consider reality, then beauty, and finally their relationship with one another.