The Paradox Of Titanic

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In 1997, millions of people gathered into movie theaters to watch one of the most tragic movies of all time: Titanic. Undoubtedly knowing what they will get, the people were willing to go and watch over three hours of a painful story that would end up with thousands of people dying. Hardly no-one, however, would have been willing to spectate the sinking ship in the North Atlantic Ocean – not even safely on the rescue boats. This inconsistency between the experiences looked for in real life and on the screen is commonly referred to as the paradox of tragedy (Smuts, 39). What drives us to seek negative feelings on the screen? Titanic won 11 Academic Awards and therefore it is safe to say that it has a vast artistic value and could be called a beautiful piece of art. If beautiful things make us pleased and happy, as it is standardly defined, then Titanic should have made the viewers pleased. However, this is not the case. On the other hand, the opposite of beauty, ugliness, should make us displeased and sad by definition. Nevertheless, there is an extensive group of people enjoying the ugliest movies of all time, such as Plan 9 from Outer Space. The first mentioned collected numerous Academic Awards by making people cry whereas the latter made people amused in spite of the clumsy props that fell down when shooting the film. And no, they did not refilm these parts. It seems like the standard definition of beauty is insufficient. The Stoic philosophy can be boiled down to the

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