GoKawiil11 Jul, 2026
In this post I hope to prove to you (get it 😉) in rather uncertain terms, that:
Tolstoyan art has the structure of a zero knowledge proof.
Currently, this statement is a big nothing-burger, so first we will discuss the high level ideas of Tolstoyan art and zero knowledge proofs.
Tolstoyan art
In Tolstoy’s 1897 book, what is art? , he discusses what it means for some piece of work to be art. In chapter V, he states that the activity of art is
To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself then, by means of movements, lines, colours, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling.
Furthermore,
Art is a human activity, consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings, and also experience them.
By producing a Tolstoyan piece of art (which we will refer to just as a piece of art for now on), an artist must both have experienced feelings, and then by means of movements, lines, colours, sounds, or forms expressed in words, infect others with these feelings. This definition will be enough for this post.
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