Monoaesthetics

Aesthetic phenomena can be organized into lists that reflect their structure as mixtures of psychological opposites, demonstrate aesthetic indifference and show that large numbers of individual aesthetic events can be explained by a relatively small set of biases in their favor.

Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas,
Ease after war, death after life does greatly please.

— Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (Bartlett 2022)

Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.

— William of Occam, Quodlibeta Septem (Bartlett 2022)

Monoaesthetics

The lists in the following sections contain thousands of specific examples of aesthetic phenomena that match the structure of perceptual and conceptual mixtures of the more and less exciting opposites given in list 4 (reproduced below), including, among other things, popular expressions, lines of poetry, famous quotes, the names of characters, poems, books, paintings, songs, albums, bands and movies, the contents of myths, fictional stories, works of art, dreams, hallucinations and sexually selected traits in animals.

Direct and indirect aesthetic mixtures (list 4): hot~cold*, hot~solid, hot~order, hot~dark, hot~static, hot~down, hot~in, fluid~cold, fluid~solid*, fluid~order, fluid~dark, fluid~static, fluid~down, fluid~in, dynamic~cold, dynamic~solid, dynamic~static*, dynamic~order, dynamic~dark, dynamic~down, dynamic~in, disorder~cold, disorder~solid, disorder~order*, disorder~dark, disorder~static, disorder~down, disorder~in, bright~cold, bright~solid, bright~order, bright~dark*, bright~static, bright~down, bright~in, up~cold, up~solid, up~order, up~dark, up~static, up~down*, up~in, out~cold, out~solid, out~order, out~dark, out~static, out~down, out~in.*

The aesthetic structures addressed in the specific mixture lists are summarized below. The numbers in parentheses are the total of the linguistic and cultural examples of each aesthetic structure (as of this writing). For instance, there are 69 examples of mixtures with the structure hot~cold, 12 linguistic and 57 cultural (12+57=69). There are also 48 examples from Wikipedia Disambiguation pages, and six famous quotes, which aren’t included in the counts.

Hot: hot~cold* (12+57=69), hot~solid (19+24=43), hot~static/slow (7+23=30), hot~order (3+2=5), hot~dark/cool colors (4+21=25), hot~silence/quiet/low pitch (0+2=2), hot~down (7+31=38), hot~in (21+13=34), hot~right (1+0=1), hot~round/short (12+50=62), hot~small (4+3=7), hot~few (2+1=3), hot~familiar (1+0=1), hot~back (2+0=2), hot~end (2+0=2).

Fluid: fluid~cold (11+11=22), fluid~solid* (55+28=83), fluid~static/slow (14+14=28), fluid~order (6+2=8), fluid~dark/cool colors (9+14=23), fluid~silence/quiet/low pitch (2+2=4), fluid~down (19+9=27), fluid~in (57+13=70), fluid~right (1+0=1), fluid~round/short (20+5=25), fluid~few (2+5=7), fluid~familiar (1+1=2), fluid~good (3+0=3), fluid~back (4+0=4).

Dynamic: dynamic~cold (5+3=8), dynamic~solid (41+50=91), dynamic~static/slow* (40+30=70), dynamic~order (17+3=20), dynamic~dark/cool colors (8+7=15), dynamic~down (23+18=41), dynamic~in (62+12=74), dynamic~right (1+0=1), dynamic~round/short (25+12=37), dynamic~small (2+0=2), dynamic~few (8+3=11), dynamic~good (10+0=10), dynamic~back (7+0=7), dynamic~end (3+0=3).

Disorder: disorder~cold (7+2=9), disorder~solid (27+13=40), disorder~static (13+2=15), disorder~order* (23+10=33), disorder~dark/cool colors (4+11=15), disorder~silence/quiet/low pitch (3+0=3), disorder~down (18+29=47), disorder~in (36+11=47), disorder~round/short (27+10=37), disorder~small (1+2=3), disorder~few (8+1=9), disorder~good (2+0=2), disorder~back (4+0=4), disorder~end (2+0=2).

Bright/warm colors: bright/warm colors~cold (2+4=6), bright/warm colors~solid (5+28=33), bright/warm colors~static/slow (5+12=15), bright/warm colors~order (1+5=6), bright/warm colors~dark/cool colors* (8+48=56), bright/warm colors~silence/quiet/low pitch (1+1=2), bright/warm colors~down (3+7=10), bright/warm colors~in (24+18=42), bright/warm colors~right (0+2=2), bright/warm colors~round/short (18+24=42), bright/warm colors~small (1+6=7), bright/warm colors~few (6+3=9), bright/warm colors~familiar (3+1=4), bright/warm colors~good (4+0=4), bright/warm colors~back (1+0=1), bright/warm colors~after (3+0=3).

Sound/loud/high pitch: sound/loud/high pitch~cold (1+1=2), sound/loud/high pitch~solid (2+8=10), sound/loud/high pitch~static/slow (12+8=20), sound/loud/high pitch~order (6+2=8), sound/loud/high pitch~dark/cold colors (4+3=7), sound/loud/high pitch~silence/quiet/low pitch* (12+3=15), sound/loud/high pitch~down (2+0=2), sound/loud/high pitch~in (11+3=14), sound/loud/high pitch~round (5+3=8), sound/loud/high pitch~few (3+1=4), sound/loud/high pitch~small (1+0=1).

Up: up~cold (2+0=2), up~solid (22+16=38), up~static/slow (17+3=20), up~order (17+5=22), up~dark/cool colors (9+2=11), up~silence/quiet/low pitch (3+0=3), up~round/short (17+18=35), up~down* (24+49=73), up~in (48+17=65), up~right (2+0=2), up~small (1+1=2), up~few (2+3=5), up~good (2+0=2), up~back (4+0=4).

Out: out~cold (5+1=6), out~solid (24+3=27), out~static/slow (14+1=15), out~order (26+3=29), out~dark/cool colors (9+2=11), out~silent/quiet/low pitch (0+2=2), out~round/short (16+6=24), out~down (15+4=19), out~in* (54+10=64), out~right (2+0=2), out~small (1+0=1), out~few (8+1=9), out~good (6+0=6), out~back (4+0=4).

Long: long~cold (1+0=1), long~solid (4+7=11), long~static/slow (4+5=9), long~order (3+0=3), long~dark/cool colors (6+12=15), long~down (4+4=8), long~in (10+3=13), long~right (1+0=1), long~short* (7+0=7), long~round* (9+0=9), long~few (3+0=3).

Spiky: spiky~solid (6+10=16), spiky~static (5+1=6), spiky~dark/cool colors (2+4=6), spiky~round* (12+8=20), spiky~down (2+0=2), spiky~in (6+2=8), spiky~back (2+0=2).

Big: big~cold (1+0=1), big~solid (5+5=10), big~static/slow (2+3=5), big~order (4+1=5), big~dark/cool colors (0+1=1), big~silent/quiet/low pitch (1+0=1), big~down (1+1=2), big~in (8+1=9), big~round (7+1=8), big~small* (10+8=18), big~few (3+1=4).

Many: many~cold (3+2=5), many~solid (13+5=18), many~static/slow (11+6=17), many~order (17+5=22), many~dark/cool colors (6+2=8), many~silent/quiet/low pitch (2+1=3), many~in (39+53=92), many~down (4+3=7), many~round/short (23+19=42), many~small (2+1=3), many~few* (39+44=83), many~familiar (1+0=1), many~good (11+0=11), many~back (7+0=7).

Novel: novel~solid (4+0=4), novel~static (4+0=4), novel~dark/cool colors (4+0=4), novel~silent/quit/low pitch (2+0=2), novel~down (1+0=1), novel~in (9+1=10), novel~round/short (4+0=4), novel~few (4+0=4), novel~familiar* (7+0=7), novel~good (2+0=2).

Relative Mixture Frequency

Although they appear to exist for every perceptual dimension, instances of mixtures are much more common for some dimensions than others. The most numerous might those referencing the directions in, out, up and down, while dynamism, fluidity, disorder and multiplicity are also very common, and linguistic mixtures of brightness, color and sound are relatively rare, but still surprisingly prevalent in aesthetic material overall.

Across all 1,573 specific mixture examples, six targets account for 74.5% of responses:

In: 385 associations, 24.5%
Solid: 227, 14.4%
Round/Short: 167, 10.6%
Static/Slow: 148, 9.4%
Down: 123, 7.8%
Order: 122, 7.8%

Monoaesthetics

All the phenomena given as examples of a particular aesthetic structure are assumed to be monoaesthetic, meaning they came into existence as the result of a single, universal bias in the animal mind, with the bias having the same structure as the phenomena listed. The mixture of hot and cold in the expression “a cold day in hell” satisfies a human bias favoring such juxtapositions, and so does the title “Fire and Ice.” Although the phrase and the title originated independently, they have a single cause. It’s desirable to offset coldness with heat or heat with coldness in aesthetic affairs, just as it’s always been desirable for living things to do so physically for comfort and survival. The bias has probably been in place since the capacity to tell hot from cold evolved, and centered on moderate temperature.

A single bias for the mixture bright~dark can be considered responsible for every instance of mate choice-based contrasting bright and dark coloration (e.g., black and white), rather than each case having its own, independent cause, and the same bias in humans can be applied to explain ornamental juxtapositions (mixtures) of bright and dark colors in culture. This extends to mixtures of warmer and cooler colors: red with blue, yellow with green, orange with purple and so on, all of which are like bright~dark in terms of differential excitement, cultural popularity and their evident usefulness in winning mates.

All the occurrences of mixed higher and lower pitch as a musical element can be considered the consequence of a single bias for the mixture, and the same goes for sound versus silence. Monoaesthetics explains why we recognize the songs of birds as songs even though they didn’t evolve for our sake. Songs in general, biologically or culturally, evolve to satisfy biases for mixtures of primitive auditory opposites that exist in all animals. The same sort of argument applies to dance, with motion, stillness, speed, slowness, roundness, length, spikiness, order, disorder, regularity, randomness, outwardness, inwardness, upwardness, downwardness, left, right, familiarity and novelty among the qualities being juxtaposed.

Ultimately, aesthetic things as a whole tend to be monoaesthetic with each other by way of an extremely general structure: more exciting~less exciting. The single concept of a bias in the animal brain for the perceptual effect of differential excitement can explain previously mysterious or misunderstood phenomenal in the areas of linguistics, behavior, art, philosophy, mythology and religion in culture, as well as traits that evolve through sexual selection in biology.

Parsimony

Because all the otherwise independent instances of a particular mixture can be put in a group and thought of as effects of a single, causal bias, monoaesthetics represents a significant reduction in the number of independent events that would be necessary to explain the existence of aesthetic things. Aesthetic indifference, meanwhile, works in the opposite direction by allowing for a great deal of diversity. Since mixtures are derived from any possible pair of oppositely exciting qualities, there are at least as many aesthetic biases in the mind as there are ways to pair more and less exciting psychological opposites.

Description of Lists

In the lists that follow the more exciting quality in a duality or mixture is usually given to the left of a tilde, and the less exciting quality to the right, as in “hot~cold,” “fast~slow” or “evil~good,” with the number of expressions matching each structure indicated in parentheses. Nonlinguistic cultural and biological examples are given in separate lists below the linguistic examples.

Each mixture list is preceded by a general aesthetic structure that matches the relatively specific structure of the examples. “The quick and the dead,” for instance, with the specific structure quick~dead, is one of a large number of popular idiomatic expressions with the more general structure dynamic~static. “Going steady” is generally monoaesthetic with “quick and dead,” although it has a different specific structure (quick~dead). Both expressions are monoaesthetic with “fast asleep,” although its specific structure (fast~sleep) is different. All three are monoaesthetic with 36 other popular expressions that have either the general structure dynamic~static or dynamic~slow (dynamic~static/slow):

Dynamic~Static/Slow (39): kill switch, the quick and the dead, ride or die, going steady, fast asleep, go to sleep, suspended animation, jet lag, hurry up and wait, it's a waiting game, the calm before the storm, unmoved mover, death march, dead man walking, wake the dead, spinning in the grave, playing dead, dancing on someone's grave, go in for the kill, death spiral, slow your roll, still life, still alive, a matter of life and death, live free or die, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting something, the king is dead long live the king, ready steady go, slow and steady wins the race, steady as she goes, going nowhere fast, asleep at the wheel, change is the only constant, steadfast, bedswerver, live by the sword die by the sword, live dog is better than a dead lion, wake up and die right, festina lente (make haste slowly).

These expressions have the same general structure as the Emily Dickinson poem titles “A Death blow is a Life blow to Some,” “The Stimulus, beyond the Grave,” “She died at play,” “We do not play on Graves” and “Because I could not stop for Death.” In the latter poem, in the fifth line, haste is juxtaposed to slowness, and the seventh line mixes labor with leisure (mixture structures are shown in brackets):

Because I could not stop for Death – [dynamic~death]
He kindly stopped for me – [male~static]
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste [fast~slow]
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too, [dynamic~static]
For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring – [dynamic~round]
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun – [bright~down]

Or rather – He passed Us –
The Dews drew quivering and Chill – [fluid/dynamic~cold]
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground – [big~solid]
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground – [up~down]

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day [bright~short]
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –

Every line of “A Death blow is a Life blow to Some” mixes death with life, one of the most common specific forms of the mixture dynamic~static:

A Death blow is a Life blow to Some [static~dynamic]
Who till they died, did not alive become —[static~dynamic]
Who had they lived, had died but when [dynamic~static]
They died, Vitality begun. [static~dynamic]

In “She died at play,” the girl becomes a softly strolling ghost, a mixture of both death with dynamism and motion with slowness:

She died at play, [static~dynamic]
Gambolled away
Her lease of spotted hours,
Then sank as gaily as a Turn [dynamic~down]
Upon a Couch of flowers.

Her ghost strolled softly o'er the hill [dynamic~slow/dead]
Yesterday, and Today,
Her vestments as the silver fleece—
Her countenance as spray.

The mixture dynamic~static recurs at high rates throughout poetry going back to its origins, and seemingly in every other type of aesthetic material that can incorporate it. In all cases, we can assume they exist due to aesthetic selection based a the single bias with the same structure.

Due to the unconscious association of dynamism with disorder, replacing the former with the later in the direct mixture dynamic~static leads to another popular mixture: disorder~static, which describes idioms such as the following:

Disorder~static (10): death spiral, a disaster waiting to happen, no rest for the wicked, get up on the wrong side of the bed, strange bedfellows, couldn't lie straight in bed (humorous), sleeping rough, dead broke, die of a broken heart, the calm before the storm.

Because stasis is related to order in the mind, replacing static in dynamic~static with order generates the popular mixture dynamic~order, which also corresponds to the structure of numerous English idioms:

Dynamic~order (17): play it straight, play it square, play fair, go in peace, go back to square one, steer clear, smooth move, keep calm and carry on, marching orders, level playing field, right quick, game plan, go figure, transfigure, go pear shaped, a fair shake, a balancing act.

One can go on this way, replacing qualities with others in the same mental category, to derive dozens of mixtures with the structure of aesthetic phenomena, to an extent that the pattern demands an explanation involving some sort of universal psychological model.

Figurativeness

Importantly, the expressions listed are mostly figurative, often almost entirely nonsensical, and therefore they can’t be understood based on utility or experience. No one actually means it’s going to be a cold day in hell when they use the phrase. They mean the situation is unusual, like coldness in hell. There are plenty of rare situations one could cite metaphorically to indicate something being unlikely, especially if they can draw the metaphor from either reality or realms of human imagination. The reason we choose to repeat the idea of a cold day in hell is not that it’s a uniquely suitable way to get at the idea of scarcity. It’s because we’re amused by the mixture hot~cold.

Frequency of Cultural Versus Linguistic Mixtures

Cultural examples of mixtures seem to outnumber those of popular expressions, probably because an expression can be used over and over and will still be thought of as singular, while each name or title is counted as unique. The lists show at least eight popular expressions that mix the opposites hot and cold, and at least 53 cultural examples of the mixture that can be collected with little effort. There are 24 or more expressions mixing up with down, some of which are single words (overlay, layover, eavesdropping), and about 50 aesthetic cultural instances of the mixture. Many~few describes 39 or more expressions, with ~44 cultural examples, and so on. One could consider each time a phrase is used in conversation or writing to be independent, in which case mixtures in expressions probably outnumber the cultural ones.

The fact that mixtures appear repeatedly in purely aesthetic cultural contexts points to an aesthetic origin for those occurring in linguistic contexts. That “One in a Million” has been used at least 25 times by different artists as the name of a song, explicitly for amusement rather than information, is reason to believe our normal use of the phrase in conversation is also for our amusement.

Wikipedia Disambiguation Pages

Some of the lists refer to the number of fictional books, films, songs, albums or other aesthetic phenomena with names that fit the mixtures given on Wikipedia disambiguation or “topics referred to by the same term” pages, which serve as a convenient way to get a sense of popularity. Mixtures with large numbers of entries on disambiguation pages have been chosen, at least semi-independently, by equally large numbers of artists or creators as titles, and subsequently enjoyed by audiences, most obviously because people repeatedly find them amusing.

Quote Sections

Some mixture lists are followed by paintings, photos, song lyrics, lines of poetry, popular quotes or dream descriptions containing instances of the same mixture, which could be counted as additional instances of cultural examples. Links in the headings of the lists lead to visual examples of the mixture, mostly of animals that express it as a sexually selected trait.