Monday, October 31, 2005

"The only one who could ever reach me, was the son of a preacher man"

So despite my pagan sensibilities, I have to admit that I'm fascinated by the play between light and dark. This fascination comes out in some of the movies that I enjoy watching....The Seventh Sign...Dogma...and, tonight, Constantine. I don't know what it is...

I don't really believe in perfect good or perfect evil. I think that we are a complex mix of both. But there is something compelling about this idea of a drama pulling between the truly good and the truly evil.

I actually read the first book of the Left Behind series. My biggest complaint about the book was that it wasn't clear enough. Those left behind were just ordinary folk. There is no drama in the ordinary folk being left behind. That happens every day. Give me the struggle between the truly good and the truly evil...then show me where the line blurs (that's actually the very best part).

Long ago, before I truly enjoyed the subtleties of poetry, I came across the poetry of Stephen Crane. I hadn't known, at the time, that he was a poet as well as a fiction writer. But his poetry was so filled with this battle between good and evil. His imagery and his somewhat heavy-handed approach to it all, still bring a little thrill to my soul. Here's a fine example:

God lay dead in heaven;
Angels sang the hymn of the end;
Purple winds went moaning,
Their wings drip-dripping
With blood
That fell upon the earth.
It, groaning thing,
Turned black and sank.
Then from the far caverns
Of dead sins
Came monsters, livid with desire.
They fought,
Wrangled over the world,
A morsel.
But of all sadness this was sad --
A woman's arms tried to shield
The head of a sleeping man
From the jaws of the final beast.

Is it that we can only truly see the subtelties, the grey areas, in the face of such blatant and outright contrasts? Or am I just a bizarre and twisted little pagan that I enjoy these things?

I promise, promise, promise that I will do my best to keep up this blog during this next 30 days of writing hell.

7 comments:

Aravis said...

I agree with you spins about the interest lying in where the line blurs. What will tip the scales, one way or the other? That sort of thing.

Best wishes with your NaNoWriMo efforts!

Charby said...

Good luck with the nanowrimo! I still havent decided on a clear idea for mine! - oops!

Dogma is a great movie!

Anonymous said...

bonne chance mon amie :)

Alecya G said...

I loved constantine. I eventually quit going to the theater and consoled myself withthe htought Iwould buy it on DVD.

Can't wait to see how NaNo goes! Good luck!

AG

Hyde said...

There's something intensely Romantic about the dichotomy between good and evil. I don't think it's twisted. I just think it's so deeply embedded into our cultural framework that it's hard to resist, no matter your spiritual or "rational" beliefs. And like everyone else said-- good luck with the writing!

-h

red one said...

I'm glad you're planning to blog on through the month - good luck with the novel, though!

red

Anonymous said...

I absolutely believe that there is a constant struggle between good and evil. I just don't believe that either entity is aware of itself. It just is. But I also see it as negative and positive.