What attracts us to Idealism?

(Chapter 3 of the book Idealism: The Forgotten Principles of American Cinema)

Watching my two-year-old niece fascinated by a cartoon on TV, I thought about what attracts us to Idealist art on a primitive, unconscious level. At first glance, it couldn't be a very sophisticated need regarding values, life goals, otherwise such a small child wouldn't be as naturally attracted to a cartoon as an adult is to a movie. Nor could it be a desire to admire the virtues of the artist, to appreciate aesthetic qualities. That comes later, when we are older and understand that there is someone behind a work of art - the child doesn't even know that the cartoon has an author.

On a basic level, Idealist art attracts us because it offers us an escape to a more understandable, benevolent universe - a universe better suited to our minds and our happiness. I don't mean "escape" in the sense of cowardice, self-deception. But in the same sense that a house is an "escape" from harsh weather, discomfort, predators and other external threats - something that gives us a structure conducive to life, which is not automatically or perfectly provided by nature.

Reality itself is infinitely complex (much more complex than the human mind is capable of grasping in a single moment), which results in an eternal quest for order, understanding and simplicity. The universe is also indifferent to life (not necessarily hostile, but not favorable either in an active way). Life has no intrinsic meaning other than the one which we give it ourselves. In life, we are active, and the external universe seems only passive, indifferent. Art has the ability to invert this, and make the external universe appear to become active and meet our needs. Art gives us a sense that life has an intrinsic meaning, making us feel for a moment that we are participants/players in a larger plot. For example: if we crash our car in real life, the event seems arbitrary, unnecessary, there is a cold, uncomfortable silence following the impact. Only in the future, through reflection, will we perhaps be able to make sense of the event and understand what caused it (an analogy made by Robert McKee in his book Story). But in a movie, if a character crashes his car, the event is automatically accompanied by an emotion, a meaning. Emotions and meanings are already present there, at the moment the events happen, giving everything a sense of structure and importance that in reality wouldn't exist or would take us a long time to see.

Young children are generally not interested in live-action movies that attract adults. Why? Because they can't yet absorb the values behind the story or understand the complexities of the adult world. They don't understand abstract principles, they don't know how a romantic relationship works, what's the purpose of a career. They are still at a primary, concrete level of awareness. They only understand simple things and objects - home, food, the sun, a car, mommy, dog, etc. And in a cartoon, these things are represented in a simplified and benevolent way. Not as they actually appear in reality: objects with complex tones and textures, interacting with various lights, reflections, mixed with other objects that children don't know what they're for, animals that behave irrationally, etc. - but as simple, minimalist shapes, with bright, pure colors that are pleasing to the eyes: a simplified (understandable) and benevolent universe, according to the child's cognitive ability.

Adults can handle a much higher level of complexity than a child. Nevertheless, art still offers them a simplified and benevolent picture of reality. Art does this on a concrete/visual/sensory level: in a movie, images are photographed in such a way as to create a certain spatial order, production design and color grading reduce the color palette to something more beautiful and harmonious, soundtrack and sound design transform random noises into ordered, pleasurable vibrations. But art also does this on a more conceptual level: human beings in movies have clear and understandable motivations, represent consistent archetypes, they possess solid characteristics that define their personalities, the story has a planned structure, beginning, middle and end, a message to be extracted - something very different from the complexity and apparent chaos of our everyday experience, in which people often behave in contradictory ways, meanings are not always clear, various narratives intertwine and are not always concluded. Not that life doesn't make sense. People do act based on motivations, they do have certain personalities, the events we see do have causes and consequences - the point is that it's not always easy to see this in daily life. Art has this power to make the invisible visible, the abstract into something concrete and tangible.

Naturalism and Experimentalism (which I'll discuss later) are forms of art that rebel against this basic need of the human mind. They intend to show the universe in its raw form - as a complex, chaotic, meaningless, negative place, ignoring and sometimes even mocking man's attempt to understand reality, to seek beauty and order in things. Contemplating the universe in this chaotic, unfiltered way is not a primary human need. In a way, Idealism can be seen as the most essential form of art, the purest and most necessary to human consciousness, while these other forms of art are derivative - distortions that could not exist independently, and exist only as a contrary reaction to Idealist art, an attack often based on cynicism and personal frustrations (which, in a way, is also an attempt to give order to things, but not the kind of order that will give the audience confidence to pursue happiness and achive their goals, but rather an "order" that will serve as a rationalization for their problems and limitations, an way to remain stagnant without feeling guilt).

As Ayn Rand observed, although Romanticism (like Idealism) is often accused of being an "escape", it is actually the category of art that best equips us to live, inspiring the kind of virtues we need to face our problems and achieve our goals. If happiness is possible, then it is Naturalism (and other forms of Non-Idealism) that represents an "escape" - a permission to abandon all values and flee from the challenges associated with the pursuit of a good life.