"Great art is as irrational as great music. It is mad with its own loveliness"

George Jean Nathan's quote, "Great art is as irrational as fantastic music. It seethes with its own loveliness", offers a thought-provoking perspective on the nature of creative production and appreciation. At the core of this idea is the comparison between art and music, two kinds of expression that stimulate powerful emotions and transcend rational understanding.

Nathan recommends that both excellent art and fantastic music share a quality of impracticality. This impracticality doesn't indicate a lack of value or coherence; rather, it indicates the method these kinds of expression bypass logical thinking and appeal directly to our emotions and senses. Simply as music can stir feelings that we can't readily describe, fantastic art captivates us in a way that defies analysis or useful explanation. The charm and impact of both art and music often lie in this enigmatic quality, where their power is obtained not from literal interpretation however from their capability to resonate with something much deeper within us.

The expression "mad with its own loveliness" even more stresses this point. Here, madness is not illustrated as mayhem or condition however as a pure, extreme focus on charm. Excellent art is depicted as being so consumed by its own charm and essence that it ends up being intoxicating or frustrating. This 'insanity' is a celebration of how art and music can drive us to see the world in a different way, altering our understanding and developing a profound connection to our innate human emotions.

In essence, Nathan's quote acknowledges the transcendent power of art and music, commemorating their capability to stimulate psychological actions that are beyond the world of reason. This impracticality and madness, rather than detracting from their worth, signify the distinct power of art and music to speak to the human experience in a way that logical constructs can not. They invite us to embrace and value beauty in its purest, most unexplainable kind, appreciating the fascinating insanity of artistic expression.