The Beauty of Elvira Madigan

2019 Trip to Southwest United States, Movies, New Attitude to Nature

 

In Moriarty’s talk that someone recorded on YouTube so many years ago, the good professor Moriarty talked about Canada and the time he had spent there as a young university lecturer.  This was very interesting to me because it was the only time I ever heard him speak since he left Canada until I came across his lecture on YouTube.

First, unsurprisingly, he was astonished by the cold that came over the land after autumn. It was like nothing he had ever experienced in Ireland.  He said “you had to respect that cold.”  He loved Canada, but he longed for the clouds of Ireland.  He was burned by the pristine white snow on the ground and the deep blue skies. He wanted to have the protective clouds. His eyes were hungry for colour by spring. He was struck by the colours that a young female student in his class was wearing. He longed for such colours.  This is very much unlike my visit to Ireland when I yearned for the clouds to disappear and give me the sun and blue skies sprinkled with happy little clouds.

When he was in Canada, a student then said there was a film downtown in Winnipeg that he should see and Moriarty said, I am going to see that film because I don’t care what it is I just want to see the colours in the film. He said the film was called Elvira Madigan and it was a wonderful film. Amazingly I had also seen that little known-film that same winter! I remember it well. I was struck too by the beauty in the film embodied by the beauty of the young woman protagonist in the film. She was beautiful. Of course, I was a young lad much impressed by what I saw. The film was beautiful and I have never seen it again. I must see it again. I too long for the beauty.

Moriarty said he was entranced by the green fields in the film. I was entranced by the beauty of the woman. He did not remember much of the story other than that it was a love story. So too with me. That is all I remember, but I don’t remember the green fields I only remember the beautiful young woman.

Moriarty remembered more though than I did. He said a respectable bourgeois man, a middle-aged man, a married man, fell in love with Elvira and they went out into those green fields and tried to catch butterflies with their hands, but each time they tried to catch one it flew away. But the man had fallen in love profoundly without economic considerations. As Moriarty so eloquently put it:

“They are walking in the paradise that nature is, but also in the paradise of their love for each other. But they had their wing at existence anyways. Their love has given them the wings of existence that as Plato and Plotinus said we lost on the way down.”

 

That is what Moriarty wants to recapture. That is what he thinks we have lost in this world in which we can see only use and benefit. We can get that back through nature and we can get that back through love and if we don’t get it back, we will become so desperate that we will destroy nature or ourselves or both. Is that in fact what we are now doing? Moriarty clearly thought so. I tend to agree.

 Some of us watching that film might wonder what Elvira saw in the older man, the respectable man. He asks her what she, this gorgeous woman,  saw in him, and she said that before she met him she had the courage to walk on a tightrope above the ground as that was her occupation but, he gave her the courage to walk on the ground.

I think he meant that he gave her the courage to walk beautifully in nature. That is what Moriarty thought. So many of us lack that courage and that is a dreadful pity.

 

Open to Transcendence

New Attitude to Nature, reason

 

Professor Moriarty wished that Aristotle, that great philosopher of the western tradition who said that humans are the rational beings, should instead have said, “the human being is a being who can be consciously open to the transcendent.” As a result of this error, Moriarty believes our society has slid into serious decline. We made a fundamental serious mistake more than 2,000 years ago and are still paying a big price for it.  

 

Moriarty finds an image of this decline in the image of seals in the far north who always need to keep a hole open in the ice, because they can only stay under water for a short period of time or they will suffocate under the ice. Humans are like that. Humans need to keep a hole open for the transcendent to enter Humans who need to breathe the transcendent. And the problem we have, says Moriarty is that

 

“We don’t breathe transcendentally any more. We need these holes through which we breath sanctifying grace. As walruses and seals need to breathe oxygen, we need to breathe transcendentally. The transcendent is not just outside. It is also located inside us. But those holes have closed over and that is why we can continue to do desperate damage to the earth.”

 

We must be open to transcendence but not chained to it. If we fail to do that we have the wrong attitude to nature.  Karen Armstrong, a former nun who has written a glorious book called Sacred Nature might say that by failing to respect the sacrality of nature we have instead come to destroy nature.  I will comment on her book in the future. All in good time, as we meander towards it.

Let me just say that in my view understanding the sacrality of nature is what a new attitude to nature is all about. That and being open to transcendence. However, I don’t want to discount the importance of being a rational creature. In my view, both are essential. Reason is not the enemy of transcendence nor the sacrality of nature.

 

We need rebellion: a Tiananmen Square Moment

New Attitude to Nature, Rebel

 

Professor Moriarty said that we need a moment now like the moment in Beijing in Tiananmen Square where a man who had been shopping, stepped off the pavement and stood up to the line of tanks that were gathered to support the Communist regime and lifted his shopping bag and forced them to halt. We need to resist this reduction of life to utility. As John Moriarty said,

 “It is time for us to do what that little Chinaman did. Stand in front of the modern world, wave a red flag, step off the pavement, it is a safe place, it is made for pedestrians, and say, ‘if human beings want to destroy themselves fine, but in the course of destroying themselves we have no right to destroy whales, we have no right to destroy dolphins, gazelles, elephants, behemoths…’ We need to stand in front of the world and speak the great perennial truths into it. The perennial truths are divine ground that the whole universe had its origin in divine ground, and it is a blossoming out of divine ground, and it is blossoming still in divine ground. That is there is soul, and by soul, I mean that there is something in me that is older and prior to the elements. There is something in me and you that is older and prior to the sun, the galaxy, and the universe itself. There is something that isn’t even involved in the universe. It is transcendent. “

 

I interpret that to mean that there is something sacred in nature and in us that must be respected. It cannot be reduced to what is useful. It is divine and we need an entirely new attitude to nature to properly appreciate it. We must standup to the prevailing world view that says nature is only something we can use as we choose. Just like that man in Tiananmen we can stand up to authority. We can rebel. It takes courage but we can do it.

 

Losing Ones Soul: 4 horses of the Scientific Apocalypse

New Attitude to Nature

 

Professor John Moriarty, who guided me on this attempt to walk beautifully in the world, reminded that beliefs are important. They are actions. The beliefs like the belief in a Big Bang have been inherited by us. Scientists have led us into a “nothing but universe” that is without things.  “These are like the 4 horses of the scientific apocalypse,” says Moriarty. The world has been reduced to ‘nothing but, by the Newtonian universe.’ This is the nothing but universe and he says,  “in it our souls have drained away.” That does not make scientists wrong. In the hands of lesser persons than Newton such ideas are deadly. Destructive. “Add that to Genesis 1:26 and 28 and you have the formula for the modern world.” Those are the passages of the Bible that purport to give humans the right to dominate the world as they see fit.

 

In other words, Moriarty warns against the combination of Genesis and the ‘nothing but Newtonian universe. Moriarty believes that Europeans have come so far in the last 3 centuries that “we have lost our souls.”

 

According to Moriarty, the first peoples of the world, who he refuses to call primitive people because that assumes that we of the west are superior to them, have realized that to lose your souls is a great calamity. Only the greatest medicine or shaman or spirit guide can bring you back to your soul once you have lost it. “Because we have lost our soul we are not able to see soul in anything else,” according to Moriarty.

 

We have reached a stage where the universal European attitude is the utilitarian attitude. It is only if something is useful to us that it has value. This, he says, was the attitude of John Stuart Mill and the utilitarians. In other words, things that have use and benefit have value, and nothing but those things have value. It is an idea that Moriarty is convinced is a fundamental mistake. What I have called “the original sin.” We think we are superior to everything in nature. This is a powerful illusion.

 

As a result, he says, “our eyes are now like brain tumours.” All we see is economics. Farmers see a cow and all they see is kilos of milk. They don’t see a living being with soul. Just kilos of milk. Pig farmers see pork. Nothing else.

 

Moriarty recalled being near a salmon river in Ireland where “the river seems to be liquid soul—all soul.” The river “gives you your soul.”

 

When we reach the stage where we see a cow and see kilos of meat, or see a magnificent tree and all we see is how many board feet of timber we could get from it, or the stars at night and see the big bang or big crunch we have arrived at terrible universe. We have lost touch with the soul in us and therefore we can’t see soul. We can’t see aliveness; all we see is biology. If you ask these utilitarians, ‘well then what am I?” the answer of course would be “you are transformed groceries.” Moriarty says if the woman I love is merely transformed groceries how can I write a sonnet to her? We have destroyed her. We have destroyed the art of the sonnet. We have reduced Shakespeare to mush.

 

The Appetite for Life

Books, civilization, Classic Books, Nature, Religious Quest in the Modern Age

 

Ivan Karamazov in the novel Tthe Brothers Karamazov is the epitome of the man of reason, but this does not prevent him from knowing the joy of passion and love. He is also, presumably, the nihilist that does not believe in God, and hence can do anything he desires without moral consequences, but nonetheless he knows the importance of nature, life, love, and morality. He is the one who says if God does not exist, everything is permitted. But, As Ivan told his much more saintly brother, Alyosha,

 

“… even if I believed that life was pointless, lost faith in the woman I loved, lost faith in the order of things, or even became convinced that I was surrounded by a disorderly, evil, perhaps devil-made chaos, even if I were completely overcome by the horrors of human despair—I would still want to live on. Once I start drinking from this cup, I won’t put it down until I have emptied it to the last drop…many times I’ve asked myself  if there is anything in this world that would crush my frantic indecent appetite for life and have decided that nothing of the sort exists. This appetite for life is often branded as despicable by various  spluttering moralists and even more so by poets. It is of course the outstanding features of us Karamazovs.”

 

His appetite for life has overwhelmed his nihilism. Even though he is passionate about ideas, as Dostoevsky himself was, Ivan says,

“…so I want to live and go on living, even if its contrary to the rules of logic. Even if I do not believe in the divine order of things, the sticky young leaves emerging from their buds in the spring are dear to my heart; so is the blue sky and so are some human beings even though I often don’t know why I like them; I may still even admire an act of heroism with my whole heart, perhaps out of habit, although I may have long since stopped believing in heroism.”

 

Besides loving the world, including that world of nature he so glowingly described, the green world that emerges from its buds, he also loves the world of civilization—western civilization exemplified by Europe. It is where he finds meaning in a world that often seems meaningless. As Ivan said,

“I’ve been wanting to go to Western Europe and that’s where I’ll go from here. Oh  I know that going there is like going to a graveyard, I tell you!  The dead who lie under the stones there are dear to me, and every gravestone speaks of their ardent lives, of human achievements, of their passionate faith in the purpose of life, the truth they believed in, the learning they defended—and I know in advance that I’ll prostrate myself and kiss those stones and shed tears on them, although the whole time I’ll be fully aware that it’s only a graveyard and nothing more. And I’ll not be weeping out of despair, but simply because I’ll be happy shedding those tears. I’ll get drunk on my own emotion. I love those sticky little leaves in the spring and the blue sky, that’s what! You don’t love those things with reason, with logic, you love them with your innards, with your belly, and that’s how you love your own first youthful strength.”

 

After this magnificent speech in which he makes clear that he too is filled with passion, passion that includes the mind, includes intelligence, he asks Alyosha, his younger holy brother who has been preparing to become a priest, if this makes sense. And Alyosha says, “I understand only too well,” proving that he is also a Karamazov. All of them are filled with passion. All of them have this astonishing “appetite for life.” Even Alyosha, the near holy man, a near ascetic, says, “I’ve always thought that before anything else people should learn to love life in this world.”

He is no ascetic monk. He is a Karamazov.

 

 

Joy to the World

Books, Classic Books, reason, Religious Quest in the Modern Age

 

Dmitri Karamazov, like his father, is a man of deep sensuality and near infinite passion. He drinks the joy of the earth. The joy of sacred nature in all its manifestations. And the joy of God. For Dmitri, sensuality is near divine. It is where his religious quest leads him. Many see the divine and the sensual in conflict but not Dmitri. His religious quest is for the love of Grushenka or is it the love of Katrina? Sometimes it is very hard to tell. He seems to be in love with both women at the same time.

 

Dmitri is sad for his holy brother, Alyosha, because “it’s such a pity you really don’t know what exaltation is.” I am not sure at all that Dmitri is right about that. I will come back to this after we consider how Alyosha and the young boys held hands at the funeral of their young friend Ilyusha. He came every bit as close to exaltation as Dmitri did, but in a different way. And an important way as well. And he exalted in it too.

 

Dmitri finds joy in the sensual. Like his father he was deeply sensual.  So, he starts his confession with Schiller’s Hymn or Ode to Joy.  The joy is sacred. This poem was the basis for Dmitri’s strange confession. Many think a sensualist like Dmitri should confess, so in a weird sense he does confess, but he does not regret.

Ivan Karamazov, sees the world through his intellect. He is driven by reason, but in a way that shows reason can be passionate too. In that sense, Dostoevsky is like Saul Bellow.  His brother Dmitri sees the world through the body.  And we will get to Alyosha. He is different than both brothers. He is studying to be a priest.  Alyosha understands and does not disparage or even criticize his brother’s approach to the divine. He is not judgmental.

Reminding me of the spirituality of indigenous North Americans, Schiller in his poem puts it this way:

“Man must enter an alliance

With eternal Mother Earth”

 

Dmitri starts his “confession” by eliciting Schiller, but as a sensualist he has trouble with this idea of divine. To him the relationship should be more sexual and this confuses him. Dmitri says, “I don’t know how I could possibly enter that eternal alliance with Mother Earth. I don’t kiss Mother Earth.  And in a directly sexual, allusion, he says, “I don’t plow her soil.”  As a result of his confusion, “everything in this world is a puzzle.”

Dmitri then deals with his dilemma in this remarkable way:

“…because I’m a Karamazov, because if I must plunge into the abyss, I’ll go head first, feet in the air. I’ll even find a certain pleasure in falling in such a humiliating way. I’ll even think that it’s a beautiful exit for a man like me. And, so in the very midst of my degradation, I suddenly intone a hymn. Even if I must be damned, even if I’m low and despicable, I must be allowed to kiss the hem of the veil in which my God is shrouded; and even if  I may be following in the devil’s footsteps. I am still Your son, O Lord, and I love You and feel the joy without which the world cannot be”.

 

Then he adds a verse from Schiller:

“Joy eternal pours its fires

In the soul of God’s creation,

And its sparkle then inspires

Life’s mysterious fermentation…

All things drink with great elation

Mother Nature’s milk of joy.

Plant and beast and man and nation

Sweetness of her breast enjoy,

To man prostrated in the dust,

Joy brings friends and cheering wine;

Gives the insects sensual lust,

Angels—happiness divine.”

 

As he read this tears were flowing, and even the eyes of his holy brother, Alyosha’s were “glistening.”

Dmitri also realizes that to live like this is difficult and even dangerous. He says he is an insect. One of those filled with what Schiller called “sensual lust.” And he said that lust lives in Alyosha too.  For he is a Karamazov even though he is holy. Even though he is his “angel brother.” Alyosha is more traditionally religious than either of his two brothers or their father, but he is still a Karamazov. That sensual lust is in all of them. That is his confession.

Dmitri warns his brother Alyosha that this will “stir up storms.”  “Because “sensuality is a storm, even more than a storm. Beauty is a terrifying thing.”  Dmitri warns his brother that “a man with a noble heart and a superior intelligence may start out with Madonna as his ideal and end up with Sodom as his ideal.” That is the risk for sensualists like the Karamazovs. All of them.  “What the head brands as shameful may appear as sheer beauty to the heart,” Dmitri tells his brother. He adds, “the terrible thing is that beauty is not only frightening, but mystery as well. That’s where God and the devil join battle, and their battlefield is the heart of man.”

 

A twisted Business: The Absurdity of Love

Artificial Intelligence, Books, Classic Books, Religious Quest in the Modern Age

 

 

One of the recurring themes of the novel The Brothers Karamazov  is the absurdity of love. Katerina loves Dmitri, and maybe Ivan, his brother,  who also loves her. Mrs. Khokhlakovs, not the most reliable of guides since she seems to lack all sense, even though she is rich, says “they’re both throwing away their lives for no good reason; they are perfectly aware of it and actually enjoying it.” Sometimes in the novel it is very difficult to discern who loves whom. Or whether the emotion is love or hate.

But immediately Dmitri abandons Katerina for Grushenka instead. Even though he still loves Katerina. Both Dmitri and his father love the same woman—Grushenka. And perhaps Dmitri and his brother Ivan also love the same woman—Katerina. It is confusing to say the least.  That causes problems and sets the novel in motion.

Grushenka said she would be “the god to whom Dmitri will pray.” That brings the religious quest to an entirely new level. And Ivan, the man of reason, even tells Katerina that he approves of this twisted business, even though it seems so absurd.

Lise loves Alyosha and Alyosha loves her. But she can’t believe this is possible. And nothing seems to happen as a result of this professed love. It is still-born.

The loves in the novel are as crazy as religions. It was all a “twisted business” and “a twisted ecstasy.” Just like religion.

On it surface  the novel is an absurd  love farce and a murder mystery. And. yet it is a great novel. One of the greatest involving a profound religious quest.

Katerina loves (and hates) Grushenka and yet tries to keep her away from Dmitri. Dmitri and Ivan at one point nearly fight over Katerina. For a while Grushenka and Katerina love each other, even though they were competing for the same man,  but quickly those loves break into a thousand tiny shards. In all of this heartbreak where does the truth lie? Obviously, in this twisted business it is impossible to find the truth. It is the result of the “violent and conflicting passions of the Karamazovs.” Particularly “when it is possible to fall in love and to hate at the same time.”A twisted Business  And particularly when those passions involve God. Another twisted business.

 

Love and Hate

Books, Classic Books, Religious Quest in the Modern Age

 

 

The novel The Brothers Karamazov is a novel of ideas and passions.  To Dostoevsky  they are interrelated.  Ideas are believed (or not) with passion. One of those ideas that is explored in the novel is love.

A curious aspect of the novel is how closely connected love and hate are.  Dostoevsky does not see them as opposites. They are really two sides of the same coin.  As Dmitri said about Katerina “I stared at her with a terrifying hatred that is only a hair’s breadth from the maddest most desperate love.” It is just like “ice burning my forehead like a flame.”  Dmitri asks his brother “Can you understand Alyosha that there are moments of ecstasy in which we could kill ourselves.”

Dmitri also tells Alyosha “Falling in love with someone doesn’t mean loving that person. It’s possible to fall in love and hate at the same time.”

Dmitri can passionately love 2 women at the same time. Katerina and Grushenko. Of course that makes things very difficult.

Often the loves resemble hate. Even the lovers sometimes fail to see the love. The love between Dmitri and Katerina are like that. “It was a hysterical twisted love made up of offended pride, a love that resembled revenge more than love.” Dostoevsky says, “They were like two enemies desperately in love.” Dmitri tells Katerina “I swear to you, I loved you while I hated you.”

Grushenka  tells  Dmitri to forgive her because she loved him but deliberately made him suffer. How is that possible?   She tells him, “I made you all suffer just out of sheer viciousness” and I “drove your old man insane.” It reminds me of what Shakespeare’s King Lear said, “We are to the gods as flies to wanton boys. They kill us for their sport.” These twisted loves are so crazy that Grushenka says If I were God I’d forgive everyone.”

And  in he world of Dostoevsky all of these contradictions can be true, in some sense, in the furnace of the Karamazov’s passion. Somehow, in some very strange way, it makes a kind of sense.

Dmitri begs Grushenka to forgive him for “ruining you with his love.” And that is exactly what he did. He even did the same for Katerina. He ruined two women with his love.

These are all strange loves.

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