sEX wITH aRTHUR*

"If the will-to-live exhibited itself merely as an impulse to self-preservation, that would be only an affirmation of the individual phenomenon for the span of time of its natural duration. The cares and troubles of such a life would not be great, and consequently existence would prove easy and cheerful. Since, on the contrary, the will wills life absolutely and for all time, it exhibits itself at the same time as sexual impulse which has an endless series of generations in view. This impulse does away with that unconcern, cheerfulness, and innocence that would accompany a merely individual existence, since it brings into consciousness unrest, uneasiness, and melancholy, and into the course of life misfortunes, cares and misery". (Ibid. p.568)

If, as Schopenhauer suggests, aesthetic apprehension is disinterested, then sex, or the sexual impulse, can never be the source of creative endeavor, as it is an act of will, and as such, directed or interested.