Dissonance and Aesthetic Evaluation

Dissonance, as constituted by a certain combination of Repulsion and Attraction, obtains not only amongst the elements of an artistic performance, but between performance and audience, as well.  For example, the dissonant character of Tony Soprano, which viewers both are appalled by and sympathize with, is epitomized by the face of Gandolfini, with its juxtaposition of the eyes of a killer and the grin of a sheepish boy.  The phenomenon of artistic Dissonance is thus the occasion for a paradigmatic Aesthetic Experience, in which evaluation is from a vantage point that is simultaneously engaged in and detached from its object.  That perspective is located between the 'Apollinian' participant and the 'Socratic' critic in Nietzsche's analysis of Tragedy.