Friends of Aesthetic Realism
       Countering the Lies
“It’s a lie, and not a well told one at that.
  It grins out like a copper dollar.”

                  —Abraham Lincoln

Statement by John Stern, Geologist

In my 77 years I’ve never read such an onslaught of misrepresentations as the two websites attacking Aesthetic Realism and its founder Eli Siegel, the noted American poet and critic. The persons responsible for those misrepresentations belong to a long and dismal tradition of fury that people have had at new ways of understanding the world—fury which met, among many others, Charles Darwin, John Keats, Joseph Lister, Baruch Spinoza, Dr. I. Semmelweis, and Galileo.

For example, one of these attackers claims that people studying Aesthetic Realism give up their individuality and devote themselves exclusively to the worship and adoration of Eli Siegel (which, they say, he himself demanded). Balderdash! I am a careful person, a graduate of Columbia University, interested in the sciences, and respected in the responsible jobs I have held—for example Senior Planner and Researcher for the Tri-State Regional Planning Commission. In the first place, I became more an individual as I studied Aesthetic Realism, not less. The more I saw my relation to people and things, the more an individual I became; it was completely logical.

Secondly, the picture of Eli Siegel presented by these persons is an ugly caricature of the man I studied with for ten years and observed firsthand. I have used my critical mind evaluating Mr. Siegel and Aesthetic Realism, resulting in enormous fact-based respect, without an ounce of adoration and worship! I saw that what he taught in Aesthetic Realism has the unshakable logic of a mathematical equation, the width and breadth of the universe, down-to-earth practicality, and immense pleasure.

READ WHAT'S TRUE—
  • Read statements by many individual men and women
  • Reviews from the NY Times Book Review, Saturday Review, Library Journal, Harlem Times, Popular Photography, and more
  • The poetry by Eli Siegel, so greatly respected by William Carlos Williams and many others
  • Read lectures by Eli Siegel on subjects as diverse as literature, love, & economics
  • What is learned in classes taught by Ellen Reiss

  • A Little Anthology of Comments (Some Funny We Hope) on Further Misrepresentations.

    >> Continue

    "On the Pleasures and Advantages of Anonymity: An Ode"—
    >> Continue

    A Dramatic and Cautionary Tale about an Unknown and Very Unimportant Person

    There once was a young man of ancient Greece named Milos. And Milos knew Socrates. He did not like Socrates because the great man asked far too many questions.... >> Continue
    Statements by Friends of Aesthetic Realism

    Barbara Allen
    Frances Amello
    Jerry Amello
    Christopher Balchin
    Mara Bennici
    David Berger
    Alice Bernstein
    Rachel J. Bernstein
    Barbara Buehler
    Gina Buffone
    Beverly Sue Burk
    Maureen Butler
    Jeffrey Carduner
    Margot Carpenter
    Lori & Robert Colavito
    Albert Corvino
    Nicholas Corvino
    Henry D'Amico
    Matthew D’Amico
    Ernest DeFilippis
    Vincent DiPietro
    Carol Driscoll
    Donita Ellison
    Anne Fielding
    Lorraine Galkowski, RN
    Pamela Goren
    Edward Green
    Avi Gvili
    Ames Huntting
    Mark Lale
    Dale Laurin
    Rose Levy
    Timothy Lynch
    Lorraine Mahoney, RN
    Derek Mali
    Glenn Mariano
    Haroldo Mauro Jr.
    Joseph Meglino
    Pauline Meglino
    Allan Michael
    Marvin Mondlin
    Robert Murphy
    Michael J. Nadeau
    Meryl Nietsch-Cooperman
    Ruth Oron
    Arnold Perey, PhD
    Lauren Phillips
    Jack Plumstead
    Maria Plumstead
    Rosemary Plumstead
    Rev. Wayne Plumstead
    Marcia Rackow
    Zvia Ratz
    Ann Richards
    Anthony C. Romeo
    Leila Rosen
    Rhonda Rosenthal
    Sally Ross
    Claudia Senatore
    Sheldon Silverman
    Jeffrey Sosinsky, MD
    Barbara Spetly McClung
    Joseph Spetly
    Faith K. Stern
    John Stern
    Arlene Sulkis
    Devorah Tarrow
    Jaime R. Torres, DPM
    Dennis L. Tucker
    Francine Weber
    Steve Weiner
    Miriam Weiss
    Carrie Wilson

    Also see the Aesthetic Realism Online Library  the Aesthetic Realism Foundation  Terrain Gallery  What scholars, writers, artists & teachers are saying  the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company  & Links

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