2/1/2011
'Perfection Syndrome'
By:Teymur Roshdi
Smashwords Edition
Copyright2011-Teymur Roshdi
In this philosophical article I try to explore the potentials within the human mind or the human nature by referring to two characters in two recent movies:Aronofsky's Black Swan and Olivier Parker's Dorian Gray.Lot of common points between Nina and Dorian make them similar:a repressive childhood,guilt feeling,Dorian because of his abusive grand-father and Nina because of her 'protective' mother, and once the opportunity offered,both aspire for being the center of the world, the center of attention of everyone,for being a 'whole', a 'god' or a 'goddess' and for being worshipped.
To achieve this goal,their 'soul' progressively reveals to them the 'dark zones' until now hidden in some 'corner' of their 'ego'.While Dorian becomes obsessed with his appearance, his 'beauty', Nina is struggling with her performance at ballet stage,to extract the best of herself.This appears to be not an easy task, when we humans are supposed to be 'ordinary' and 'imperfect', to follow a usual path and not to transgress the limits which keep us 'safe' in our temporal life,all the ones who have transgressed these 'limits', become another sort of 'creature'.
Lot of artists have done it and lot of people under the effect of some drugs did it too.After the transgression, the process becomes irreversible and the recovering of the previous 'innocence' quite difficult if not impossible.Henceforth these persons join another category of creatures, something denatured,disfigured, something or someone else labelled 'mentally ill' if not barely
'demoniac' .Once the line which separates 'sanity' and 'insanity' is torn,one commits things which are not conform with the ethics code and are considered criminal.
In the late nineteen century in Europe,a group of poets,Oscar Wilde included,called themselves
'the doomed poets',they were searching for a 'portal' over another world,a perfect one,which could change their usual perception of things.In the detriment of their own mental health, they were eager to find something new,unexpected,something original to offer to the world,they considered this task 'the mission of a poet'.Some of these went even farther and found an
'aesthetic' in the 'crime'.Maybe when you go beyond the conventional limits,a 'crime' is not anymore seen as a crime, but an 'aesthetic' act.
What was the object of research or the real aspiration of all of these thinkers,artists or eccentric people?Wasn't it the 'Perfection'?To reach this perfection or to become the incarnation of the
'Perfection',everything and everyone might be sacrificed,even their own life,this is a journey toward a realm which is forbidden by nature,a journey toward a realm where all 'secrets' are displayed openly and reveal themselves in a way that nothing remains a 'mystery'.
This very aspiration pushed Nina and Dorian forward.They were so deeply involved in their search,and they went so far that they experienced both a sort of transmutation.The transmutation of Nina exhibited itself on her own body, while the transmutation of Dorian displayed itself on the
'Picture',both transmutation were the revelation of the 'evil' and dark side within them.
The enthusiasm for the search of 'perfection', or rather the curiosity of exploring everything in the human mind and discovering something new and extraordinary could be found among the scientists,the researchers and the medical doctors.The example of Dr. Jekyll is relevant.In the
2008 TV version of 'The Strange case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde' by Dougray Scott starring , Dr. Jekyll uses a psychotrope known in Amazonia as the 'otherworldly' substance,which makes him experience strange changes in his body and soul, a sort of 'metamorphose'.This psychotrope progressively prevails and invade the whole person of Dr.Jekyll,regularly and with increased
frequences.Dr.Jekyll's daily 'metamorphose' affects even his genetic code,in a way that Mr.Hyde with the same appearance than Dr.Jekyll,has a totally different genetic code,so two differents
'person' or 'ego',one 'good' and the other 'bad' share a single body.
Although the transmutation of Dr.Jekyll is spectacular, but we can find a connotation with the changing moods in human psychology.Now I try to understand and find an answer to this simple question:Is it possible that we humans remain during all of our lifetime in this world a perfectly
'good' person or an absolutely 'evil' one?Maybe if this was possible then we might not call ourselves 'humans' anymore, but 'angels' and 'demons', and we know that this is not the case . We all know that there is within us, a 'duality' a mixture of 'bright' and 'dark' sides,while in some people the 'goodness' is nurtured and cultivated, the general attitude of the person is considered
'good' but we can't claim that the 'dark side' in this person is absent,but simply repressed or controlled,in some other people as an opposite,the 'dark' side is nurtured and cultivated, then the general attitude of that person displays itself as 'bad','criminal' or 'evil'.Even in such a 'bad' person we can't deny the presence and the existence of some 'conscience', some 'goodness'.
Dorian Gray proved it.The one who was considered as an horrible abomination,an absolute 'evil',
at the end of the movie,his conscience has been 'awakened' and he realized and assumed all the things he did,he even tried to reverse everything,to find an issue for becoming a 'better' man, he showed compassion to Jim and finally touched by a 'real love', he sacrificed himself for Emily.
Nina and Dorian,even Dr.Jekyll experienced something which doesn't pertain to 'human condition', but maybe to another category of 'creatures' we know very few about,and depending on our 'beliefs', enters into another field of study, the 'demonology' or so, which is not the subject of my article anyway.
To conclude this topic, I may say that all the artistic creations throughout the human history, all the stories we hear or read,all the music we play or listen to,all the movies we watch and everything we experience in our personal and private life, are to awaken us and to give us insight related to the human nature.The insight may result to knowledge and with knowledge we gain consciousness and with consciousness we reach the lucidity about what we really are as human beings and about all our potentials
A lucid understanding of the human nature may lead us to a better understanding of ourselves and our fellow.humans,and this would let us to achieve the 'best of ourself', our individuality, which is quite limited but full of promises, and not to achieve the 'absolute thing', the 'perfection' which is not human.
2/2/2011