SERGEI M EISENSTEIN

Whether it is a sexual ecstasy, an aesthetic experience or a mystical experience,
thereisacompletesurrenderinwhich thesubjectloseshimself.
The spectator is without any pragmatic requirement, any of the interests
(desire for gain, etc.), by which ordinary life is characterized. He is immersed
in the aesthetic experience to the exclusion of everything else; the task of
generalization carried out by the poetic expression breaks the barrier of the
limited “I” and eliminates in this way the interests, demands and aims
associated with it. 44
Though this might seem a far cry from the point of departure of Eisenstein’s
thinking about the “work of art as a machine to produce specific emotion in the
mind of the spectator,” it is exactly the direction in which Eisenstein has developed
his key concepts of nonindifferent nature, method, and montage, toward a
universalizationoftheaestheticexperience.
On account of his earliest writing associated with agitprop, Eisenstein has often
been accused of looking at art as an instrument of manipulation. Nothing
could be further from the truth. The relationship between the artist and the connoisseur,
who savors its flavor, is seen as an equal relationship by Eisenstein as
well as by Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta. They see the ideal reader of poetryasasahridayin:
Abhinava defines sahridayata as the faculty of entering into identity with the
heart of the poet […] and sahridaya denotes persons capable of identifying
with the subject, as the mirror of their hearts has been polished by constant
study and practice of poetry. 45
AndhereisEisenstein:
Acertainimagehoversinfrontoftheauthor’sinwardeye,animagewhichfor
him is an emotional embodiment of the theme of this work. He is then faced
withthetaskofturningthatimageintotwoorthreepartialdepictions,whichin
combination and juxtaposition will evoke in the mind and emotions of their
perceiver precisely that initial generalised image which the author saw with
hismind’seye.[…]Thestrengthofmontageliesinthefactthatitinvolvesthe
spectator’s emotions and reason. The spectator is forced to follow the same
creative path that the author followed when creating the image. 46
When the point of departure of an artwork and its point of arrival meet, and we
havecomeafullcircle.Itistimetorest mycase.
distant echoes 383