The Art of Communication

I must say that Tolstoy brings up interesting points when it comes to what he deems as art. He makes many points as to what art is and as to what art is not, one idea that he brings up is, "....think that art..is so highly dangerous in its capacity for infecting people against their will, that mankind would lose far less if all art were banished, than if every kind of art were tolerated." This is basically an argument against Plato who believes that all art should be banished because it stirs up emotion. I like his notion here because it is true. Many people underestimate the power of art and the "powers" that it has. Art has the power to make people smile, make people forget about things, and just escape the real world for a little while. Do you know how many nights I spent listening to music (which I consider art), or reading an inspirational poem because it makes me feel better and encourages me? Without this I feel like society wouldn't be able to function and just crumble. Art is also an escape into logic an reason. There are some kinds of art (especially poems) that gets the gears in my head turning and make think about things in prospective. I feel like art is a special way for people not only to show their talent, but to communicate their feelings. We can communicate our thoughts to words, so why are feelings so different. Yea I can say o boy I am sad today or O YEAH!! I AM SO HAPPY, but words only go so far. Living on the verbal level we aren't able to fully get across how we really feel, So in order to truly share our happiness with others, to truly share our experience with others, we should be able to have a medium ( a non-verbal medium) in which we can fully create how we feel and "infect" others with that feeling. IT is like playing telephone, but instead of talking we place our "words" and "feelings" into a project and then get it across to others. So as I said before I do believe what Tolstoy was getting at, when he said what he said is highly commendable. With that said, What do you think the formula for Tolstoy's view of art would be and why?