More matter with less art

Last night, I finally got to sit down with George Steiner, and I gotta admit, my attention span is terrible. I understand most of it -- at least I think I do -- but it's just too... too... wordy. Streamlined, efficient, words I greatly appreciate, but seeing myself surrounded by English Majors, I may be in the minority. Take Shakespeare, the Bible, any old ancient story like Gilgamesh or The Iliad, hell George Steiner, all overly wordy. Didn't Gertrude tell Polonius, "More matter with less art" (Act I, Scene II, Line 95)? That being said, George does have some substance. The five conflict thing is pretty intriguing, not only for lit/mythology (is there a definite difference between the two anyway?) but for real life. George says, "Men and women, old and young, the individual and the community or state, the quick and the dead, mortal and immortals, define themselves in the conflictual process of defining each other" (Steiner 231). Who is this George Steiner? Is he a yin-yang enthusiast hiding his buddhist mysticism behind a veil of analysis!?

I cannot deny that I'm greatly fascinated with all this "all is one" stuff. A wave wouldn't be a wave without the descent. A coin wouldn't be a coin without the tails-side. There would be no dark without light. No woman without man. No individual without community. No life without death. No immortals without mortals. No Batman without the Joker ("you complete me!"). I can't help but think of Alan Watts. This guy is something special, and I highly encourage anybody who is exploring the universe to download his FREE podcast at iTunes. Seriously, Trey Parker and Matt Stone love him too. Anyway, Alan said crazy stuff like, "You are an aperature through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself." But also dug deeper into our existence, and explains it a way that makes sense. He said this about duality: "Most of us assume as a matter of common sense that space is nothing, that it's not important and has no energy. But as a matter of fact, space is the basis of existence. How could you have stars without space? Stars shine out of space and something comes out of nothing just in the same way as when you listen, in an unprejudiced way, you hear all sounds coming out of silence. It is amazing. Silence is the origin of sound just as space is the origin of stars, and woman is the origin of man. If you listen and pay close attention to what is, you will discover that there is no past, no future, and no one listening. You cannot hear yourself listening. You live in the eternal now and you are that. It is really extremely simple, and that is the way it is."

A horrifically new age article titled Dionysus Risen adds, "David Cronenberg’s early experimental film Crimes of the Future, in which he depicts a world where women have died out due to a cosmetics disaster. 'Men have to absorb the femaleness that is gone from the planet. It can’t just cease to exist because women aren’t around. It starts to bring out their own femaleness more, because that duality and balance is necessary.' Even if we lived forever, we would still have to die." Good stuff, if you are into that sort of thing.

So it would be obvious that all conflict derives from forces that are opposites but complete eachother. Just like all those epic movies where good battles evil, except this is at a smaller scale. This is you verse the opposite of you. In my case: women, the state, death, immortals, and old age. This is me looking at that cute girl in the cafeteria with the blond hair and face kinda like Amy Smart's. This is me frightened of going bald. This is me terrified of the afterlife and what's next. This is me battling the state with my libertarian ideals. And most intriguing of all, this is me waging my war on God. This is me grabbing my head and grinding my teeth in a dramatic way, overloaded with angst! And speaking of David Cronenberg, this is my head exploding!