(no subject)

[adrienmundi]

I've always kind of liked The Prophecy. Aside from the obvious reasons (Christopher Walken, a war between angels, etc.), what really made this memorable for me was Viggo Mortensen's portrayal of Lucifer, which is arguably the best I can recall ever seeing on screen. The defining moment for me was when he was explaining to Elias Koteas what damnation was really about:

"Do you know what hell is? It's being removed from god's sight."(1)

That's always stuck with me, despite being about as agnostic as you can find; (2) I think it was the sentiment with which I identified, not the specifics.

Today, pondering my relationship with aesthetics, that kept bubbling up from my subconscious. The applicability finally hit me, specifically in regards to that slight-to-sometimes-huge feeling of sadness/unfulfill-ed/-able longing that accompanies an appreciation of the beautiful. So, with appropriate substitutions:

"Do you know what hell is? It's being removed from the beautiful."

That pretty much sums it up, alright.





(1) paraphrasing from memory; forgive potential inaccuracies.
(2) a gnostic (wannabe) with no experience of gnosis

Comments

Yes.

[scottopic.livejournal.com]

It's more of a Buddhist spin on it.
It's too long for a reply, so I made a page.
Zelanzy wasn't as sublime of a fantasy-scifi-dry-humor writer as say Moore or Gaiman, in my opinion, but I think you'll get the gist of it.

Re: Yes.

[adrienmundi]

Interesting, and I agree with your assessment of Zelazny; he aspired to be like Sturgeon, but couldn't pull it off, and so injected a dry/sly humor that didn't quite connect, in my opinion.

I guess I was alluding to what feels like a necessary precondition for aesthetic appreciation, namely a seperation from the beautiful, and a desire, possibly hopeless, to connect with it.