On the Disappearance of Swans
notes on the shift in aesthetic landscape
Aesthetics have always reigned supreme in my experience and personal understanding of life. Memories appear as half-formed treasures until one actively looks back at them and isolates each sense to understand how it contributed to the overall rendition of the moment. That’s why I call it “composing” memories. The process calls for searching for the synaesthetic harmonies between individual senses, understanding how the visuals of a moment could have altered how something felt upon touch, or how a feeling was moulded by a voice or perfume. While many do not acknowledge their perceptiveness to aesthetics, its impact on our individual and collective experience of life proves indisputable.
Like perfume, each zeitgeist of an era holds its unique mood and signature, including the influence of the aesthetic experience. And how much of this experience is formed by the delights of the female figure? To many, the zeitgeist of the 1920s could contain jazz music vibrating violently against speakeasy walls, animating the dancing of Fitzgerald-esque beauties. Perhaps very much romanticised, but the evolution of the female figure pulsates through much of our time-traveling imagination, the echoes of its curves enchanting and softening evocations of the period’s political happenings. Perhaps one of the most famous glorifications of the female figure was introduced by the crown chronicler of New York high society in the 1960s, Truman Capote. His anointing the female glitterati of the time as “swans” echoed their grace and the most pronounced aspect of their appearance— the celebrated long neck. When re-watching the films of what many still claim remains the “golden age” of Hollywood, one cannot help but be enthralled with the female disposition, held elegantly by delicate frames and controlled movements. The finesse of control of the body was also exhibited in the control of voice and polished speech. While the modern eye may feel repulsed by the artifice of their attitude, which simply reflects the restrained {and calculated} nature in the real world of that time, we cannot deny how this very restraint serves as the primary sculptor of elegance and charm in people’s dispositions. This characteristic is amplified through the control of body language, specifically the locked posture that most individuals exhibit, even at moments of rest. The adherence to these postures with a “sit straight, head up, shoulders back” approach would have undeniably shaped these “swan” necks. This elongated feature was the crowning glory of many a society hostess {Marella Agnelli probably boasting the most “swan-like” of all necks}, enhancing the effect of any adornments to absolute perfection even into older age {refer to the exquisiteness of Jacqueline de Ribes if you must}.
I seldom refer to the past as I try to unveil the present and future’s untapped potential for the extraordinary and ethereal, but as someone so fascinated with the aesthetic language of the day, I often ask myself, "Where have all the swans disappeared to?” We have progressed towards stunning poetics of space through architectural advancements, exquisite sensual stimulations through new musical genres, and cinematic experiences engaging multiple faculties of mind and body. Nevertheless, one cannot deny that the human figure has not evolved towards this same elevated merit. While the Greeks and Romans worshiped the male nude as supreme, the female nude throughout centuries displayed more voluptuousness in comparison, yet still translated a sense of honour and reverence for itself.
Our present age seems to have neglected the body and its aesthetic significance to how we take in the experience of life around us. Compromised by technological advancement, low-quality food and an economy thriving on the sedentary lifestyle, many bodies of our day do not carry the same striking effect as in decades past.
We have enslaved ourselves to our own inventions, dictating modern existence through screens, which I believe are the biggest reason for the shortening of the swan neck. Technology, it seems, has killed the swan. The ease afforded to us by these advancements has changed not only our verbal tongue but also the language in which we let our bodies speak. People are not as light and mobile as they used to be and the desire for beauty and excellence seem to have perished with the turn of the century. It seems that today we touch our screens and keyboards more than we come into physical contact with a child, a lover, or a friend. This signature of “self-abandonment” also seeps into our perception of self and the world around us. Instead of delving into ourselves to access the riches held in our physical, mental, and spiritual realms, we seek for treasures and meaning elsewhere.
Ballet dancers, who often resonate with the swan archetype or spirit animal, lead one of the most physically and mentally demanding careers in existence. The precision of the dance calls for a degree of movement annunciation only achievable through control of all threads of their internal world and external body language. Their elegance can be attributed to this specific balance between the two, an aura exhibited in many actresses and dancers of eras past {think of Gene Tierney, both Hepburns, and Marlene Dietrich among others}. While many may dismiss the implications of this observation as pure stylistic artifice, we must confront the aesthetic realities of the day and acknowledge how modern lifestyle has deformed the human form to an undignified rank.
The swans have disappeared. But we do not mourn solely the loss of their aesthetic value, but also the mental and physical seed from which it bloomed. While to some perhaps merely decorative, the command of voice and words implied such high concentration in the present moment that it would rival many yogic “power of now” teachings of today. Imagine if we can reignite this state into the DNA of modern existence, so that "living in the present moment” was not something we had to learn, but it was our default state that came naturally. If we reform our relationship to our bodies and minds, calling for an inward focus, we could elevate our human experience. If we retained some focus on our bodies, thoughts, voice and words while interacting with our environments and other people, we could command more respect for ourselves and each other. We would be drawn to nourishing ourselves with beautiful food, speaking kinder and deeper words, while producing high-quality work with our elevated concentration and reverence the life around us. Energetically, everything is interconnected and how we do one thing, is how we perform all other acts. So, what if we started with ourselves and our postures? Then we could pay more attention to the voice we speak in and the words that give shape to our breath. We would be more attuned to the mood we want to create and the feelings we want to inspire. This sentiment feels akin to prayer and akin to making art and love. If we can channel the archetype of the swan to inform our relationship to ourselves and the outer world, we can start to re-enchant the world and ennoble our energetic signature. In this way, the swan actually channels the phoenix, laying dormant in the ashes of our current poisonous lifestyles, ready to be channeled into, transcended, and reborn.