3/1/24
This is a frustrating chapter, because Stendhal lays out an extremely vague examination of beauty and uses “the conclusive example of Del Rosso and Lisio” throughout, without any explanation of who they are or what‘s their story involves.
My best guess is that architect Giuseppe del Rosso is one figure in the story, at least he fits the timeline. I have no idea who Lisio is or what happened on January 1, 1820.
I think what Stendhal is saying is something along these lines: when you fall in love, the story you play out in your mind about your new beloved includes wishes that come to the fore — those previously unknown desires are what he considers beauty. These are qualities you discover that you want from a partner and that would bring you pleasure to have enacted. In a footnote, Stendhal defines beauty this way:
Beauty, as I intend it here, means the promise of a quality useful to my soul, and transcends physical attraction; the latter is only one particular kind.
To put it another way, you really don’t know the qualities you find most beautiful in a potential partner until you experience this “crystallization” process. Until then, you just see attractiveness. Crystallization makes the deep, meaningful beauty apparent.
It’s an interesting theory, if this is what he really means, his writing here is extremely vague. I do have to wonder if Stendhal is placing a lot of words around something that is driven mostly by chemical reaction. Experiencing a sensation of love can flood your body with pleasurable chemicals — serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins.
Consciousness has an amazing capacity for creating a story around the inexplicable. So we feel euphoric and then come up with a story to explain the sensations. I think what Stendhal calls crystallization is an experience of temporary insanity, in a good way. We get caught up in daydreams and reveries, listen to lots of Lana Del Rey, and imagine the world to be more beautiful than we see it most days.
It doesn’t last and can quickly turn bittersweet, but it is part of what makes life worth living.