Elaine Scarry, in On Beauty and Being Just, on the modern fear of acknowledging and discussing the beautiful:

Even if we could be persuaded that loooking at beautiful human faces and forms were harmful to ther persons we seem to be admiring, it is not clear why the entire world of natural and artifactual, physical and metaphysical should be turned away from. It seems that at most we should be obligated to give up the pleasure of looking at one another. [p. 62-63]

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