Lukács thus argues that modern art is caught up in the dilemma of having to achieve a harmony of life and form, either at the expense of life’s intensity and potentiality, or at a purely symbolic and imaginary level—by effectively withdrawing from life (an idea he discusses in reference to Novalis, see 1908: 50; see Butler 2010: 9). In both cases, art turns against life. In contrast, a genuine attempt to give “real” or “absolute life” (that is, genuinely meaningful life as opposed to the chaos of “empirical life”, see Márkus 1983: 11; Löwy 1979: 104) a distinct form necessarily involves a rejection of the meaningless necessities of empirical life. Instead, such an attempt must endorse a form of life that cannot be incorporated into ordinary life. In one of the essays published in Soul and Form, titled “The Metaphysics of Tragedy” (1910b), Lukács ascribes this task to the form of modern tragedy. When nature and fate have become “terrifyingly soulless” (1910b: 154) and any hope for a “friendly order” (ibid.) has disappeared, the tragic becomes a task—to reject ordinary life in favor of the opportunity to “live within the periphery of tragedy” (1910b: 173).