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It may be more accurate to say that it is beauty that judges us. That's the view, among others, that Rilke takes. It is that the beautiful object, indeed even the beautiful person, is not just beautiful but is telling us something. And it's telling us something through the medium of beauty. Rilke addresses this most famously in his sonnet On the Archaic Torso of Apollo. Standing before that statue, Rilke has the feeling of bereftness, which can often come from seeing something utterly beautiful and not knowing what to do about it. A feeling that comes like a bereavement. I know this thing is in front of me, I know that it is in some way challenging me, and I feel I need to do something or say something to react to it, even just to accept it. The genius of Rilke is that he gives the words that need saying not to the observer, but to the observed. Not to the viewer, but to the archaic torso itself. And it's not just a suggestion. It is a demand. A command. In fact, it's a repri
