I've actually had this book for a bit - it's a huge influence in that he "perfects" the natural forms - that is, besides the obvious composition and layout issues with the symmetry, no natural forms, even though the genetic instructions that dictate their form dictate some kind of perfect symmetry, as the form grows in the real world it becomes subtly assymmetrical. Perhaps there is some mineral deficiency at some point in its life, perhaps it is growing in an environment with some kind of flow, direction of the sunlight, damage by parasites, or a close call with a predator. So Haeckel's forms strike me as the pursuit of rationality to its absurdist extreme. Thoughts, especially mental images, only gain accuracy when challenged by the randomizer that is the real world. When we stop looking, our brain falls back on the simple forms it pictures with its simple form generators. Then when the real world fails to match this "idealized" vision, we are disappointed/ Perhaps this is what symmetry has to do with fascism; the idea that some extreme extention of logic within one mind will somehow improve the world if it is allowed to completely impose its ideas via willpower over people and objects. What I am saying here is that this idea is false - the logical mind must be tripped up by the senses before it becomes isolated, insane, and possessed by an ugly fantasy of the world.
So these images are indeed gorgeous. I love the detail, the symmetry, the way they fit on the page. But I think they are dangerous in the way some fantasies are unhealthy.
Then again, I use these concepts - of perfecting a shape, of symmetry, of Plato's "eternal form", etc. in my work. But then again, the world is full of dark abuses of power. Evolution's engine is death and competition, and there wasn't such a thing as mercy until maybe a couple tens of thousands of years ago.
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I've actually had this book for a bit - it's a huge influence in that he "perfects" the natural forms - that is, besides the obvious composition and layout issues with the symmetry, no natural forms, even though the genetic instructions that dictate their form dictate some kind of perfect symmetry, as the form grows in the real world it becomes subtly assymmetrical. Perhaps there is some mineral deficiency at some point in its life, perhaps it is growing in an environment with some kind of flow, direction of the sunlight, damage by parasites, or a close call with a predator. So Haeckel's forms strike me as the pursuit of rationality to its absurdist extreme. Thoughts, especially mental images, only gain accuracy when challenged by the randomizer that is the real world. When we stop looking, our brain falls back on the simple forms it pictures with its simple form generators. Then when the real world fails to match this "idealized" vision, we are disappointed/ Perhaps this is what symmetry has to do with fascism; the idea that some extreme extention of logic within one mind will somehow improve the world if it is allowed to completely impose its ideas via willpower over people and objects. What I am saying here is that this idea is false - the logical mind must be tripped up by the senses before it becomes isolated, insane, and possessed by an ugly fantasy of the world.
So these images are indeed gorgeous. I love the detail, the symmetry, the way they fit on the page. But I think they are dangerous in the way some fantasies are unhealthy.
Then again, I use these concepts - of perfecting a shape, of symmetry, of Plato's "eternal form", etc. in my work. But then again, the world is full of dark abuses of power. Evolution's engine is death and competition, and there wasn't such a thing as mercy until maybe a couple tens of thousands of years ago.
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