Friday, January 19, 2007

Aristotle?? Nah.. me!

Tragedy causes a catharsis, purging the soul of base concepts, said Aristotle. How is that possible? Tragedy, trauma, even just unhappiness.. Doesn’t that invoke the very base concepts that remind us of our very mortality and humble existence that is governed by feelings like pain and grief? Instead of purging the soul, it fills it to the brim. Like what they say.. pain reminds you that you’re human. That’s what I’ve heard, anyway.

Tragedies are always beautiful when they’re not true. Stories of unconditional love.. always better when I know they’re not real. Take Romeo and his Juliet. I would cry and feel bitterly for their mercilessly interrupted love story, as long as I know it’s fictional. Somehow I would be highly sceptical if someone told me that they actually existed and died for each other. As if. Besides, that would just be dumb.
The cause for all this ranting is a movie I have just seen. It was an implicit portrayal of a director’s real love story with a movie star. And how he gives up everything for the schizophrenic actress who is desperately in need of help and love. Written by, of course, the director himself. It was such a blatant lie that I had to repeatedly get the thought out of my mind to enjoy the movie. It was, again, a beautiful tragedy as long as he doesn’t pretend that it is real. The whole thing leaves me with a queasy feeling in the tummy. God knows why.

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