What is New Romanticism? From Novalis to Rorty
- Apr 22
- 5 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
New Romanticism: Dream, But Do the Work
It's easy to romanticize creativity. You get this great idea in your head, but then when push comes to shove you get nowhere with it. In fact, it’s easier than ever to get a great ideas, but it’s also never been easier to stop right there.
And that's where I’d like to start this, because it kind of is a nice segue into what philosophy has done for a long time. It's kind of either one of the other—imagination or reality. Either you look to ground everything in reason, or you tend to float around in the clouds and try to escape the big questions through imagination.
Jazzy
But this is where Rorty comes in. He doesn't want you to do either. He wants to keep it “jazzy.” Because Rorty, in a way, was like a jazz musician. He loosened things up. (Cornel West liked this analogy.)
For Rorty, philosophy was not about finding foundations or searching for some kind of solid ground, it was “contingent.” It was about finding better ways to describe things—like the jazz musician—improvising new phrases. Building new vocabularies. For a lot of people, myself included, this was a big relief. It felt like a door opening. But the question then is:
What kind of room did it open into?
If you step inside and look around, you see that it's a place that looks kind of familiar. You know the names—Wordsworth, Blake, Shelley, etc—they’re all in there. And then in the center of it all, there’s my favorite—Novalis. He’s busy trying to improvise a bridge between imagination and reason.
Because the Romantics of the early 1800s were dealing with something similar to what we are dealing with today.
The Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment pushed reason and explanation, and this made the Romantics nervous. Although they could see the benefits of reason and science, they pushed back because they saw their world being flattened. To them, the Enlightenment’s rationality had limits. Imagination was a lot more than decoration, it was central.
This is sounding familiar.
Rorty’s basically saying the same thing, minus all that 19th century transcendence talk and metaphysical romance.
In his most famous book “Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature,” Rorty talks about how language isn’t a mirror of anything, but rather it's something that you work with. In other words, the whole Enlightenment premise that some kind of truth is “out there” to be discovered is misguided. It’s all contingent (that word again), and imagination is right there in the center of it. Because for Rorty language is not a mirror. It's more like a paintbrush, or a story, or just being empathetic. It's imagination. Metaphor. Redescription of the world. Sounds like a Romantic to me.
But it's not sentimental. Because Rorty is a pragmatist. And this is the “New” part in “New Romanticism.” In other words, dream big, but do the work. Change metaphors, write your novel, but also do the dishes. Live in this world.
Novalis: Blueprint for the New Romantic
What would Novalis have to say about all this? I think he saw it coming. He didn't want to choose between science and poetry either. For him, like Rorty, they're two sides of the same coin.
Novalis has this great quote which I think sums up everything. He said:
"Philosophy is really homesickness – the urge to be at home everywhere."
That could have come from Rorty. Language for Novalis was also a tool, not some kind of conclusion. Look at his fragments, it's all a project. He's after truth, but it’s like a conversation. There’s no real destination. (Just like there’s no real Blue Flower.)
He sounds a lot like Rorty's ironist. In fact, you could say that if Rorty built the pragmatic poetic self (the ironist/the New Romantic), then Novalis was its ghost architect. Of course he did it with the tools of the day: stars, dreams, metaphysical smoke, but the bones are definitely there.
What now?
And now the world is changing again. The Enlightenment had reason but we've got technology. Reason on PEDs. We have AI.
Data. Everything is data. Our identity, our creativity, what we pay attention to, even love is data. It's a constant drip, and it destroys nuance. We talked about this before, how when there's no mystery, the world gets flat. If the Enlightenment was about pushing us all toward reason, then technology is pushing us all toward prediction, pattern recognition.
The New Romantic
But the New Romanticism, inspired by Novalis and Rorty says no. It doesn't reject tech, but like the OG Romantics, it just refuses to become it. You can use the tools. But use it creatively—invent an app, write the book, be an artist—but make sure that the tech is serving you, the metaphor, and not the other way around. Otherwise it all collapses into functionality or efficiency.
Because New Romanticism is not about going back. It's not nostalgia or a style, it's more like a stance that takes imagination seriously. Something to use, to build with. And what you build with it matters, because imagination responds. That's the way it works in Sparkle Valley.
That’s the pragmatic part, the part that the original Romantics weren't really talking about, but Rorty forces you to deal with.
In Rorty’s words: “A pragmatist with a romantic soul”
Because if imagination shapes the world, then you’re part of that process. It gives back what you bring to it. And that's the twist. So dream, but do the work.
Continue Exploring
If you want to see these ideas inside Sparkle Valley
→ What is Sparkle Valley Philosophy? — the worldview in story form
→ The Blue Flower — the symbolic heart of the philosophy
→ Emily — what happens when imagination starts to fade
If you want the practical side
→ Blue Flower Power: Imagination — possibility in action
→ Blue Flower Power: Courage — participation over passivity
→ 5 Ways to Tap into Blue Flower Power — practical ways to reconnect
If you want the deeper philosophical roots
→ Searching for the Blue Flower — the quest
→ Thin Places— where meaning breaks through ordinary life
→ Sparkle Valley as Redescription — Rorty and imaginative reinterpretation
Field Guide Notes (Quick Reference)
Concept: New Romanticism — imagination grounded in practice
Core move: reject the split between imagination and reality
Historical roots: Romanticism (imagination as essential) + Richard Rorty (pragmatism, contingency)
Key shift: imagination is not escape — it is something you build with
Rorty’s role: truth is not discovered but redescribed; language as tool
Novalis’ role: synthesis of science and poetry; truth as becoming
Philosophical stance: no foundations, no transcendence — meaning is constructed
Modern pressure: AI and technology flatten experience into data, prediction, and efficiency
Response: use the tools, but refuse to become them
Core principle: imagination in action
New element: reciprocity — imagination gives back what you bring to it
Core tension: dream vs execution; expression vs discipline
What it rejects: pure rational grounding, escapist Romanticism, technological reduction
What it affirms: creative agency, language as construction, meaning as ongoing project
In Sparkle Valley: imagination shapes reality and responds to belief and neglect
The Blue Flower: the inner spark — not just something you feel, but something you sustain and build around
Guiding line: Dream—but do the work
