Beautifully written Gav. Tonight is the dark moon, so I would offer a song I listen to quite often that represents it differently. It is 'Desire', by Deepak Chopra and Demi Moore.
Marsha At 08:12 PM 7/14/2007, you wrote: >Pan's Labyrinth is a film that provokes strong >reactions. >This is because the film taps into the mythos: it >mines a rich vein of symbolic meaning. > >The reactions that the film provokes most viscerally >are grief and horror, and yet these are more than >counterbalanced by something else....some subtle >feeling of meaning, of hope, that enables us to >reconcile the murder of the innocent with a belief in >a fair universe, a moral order. In other words we find >that we don't have to deny our religion or, more >accurately, our religious feeling, even though the >world is a cruel and stupid place. > >How does it manage this? How does it swim upstream >against the prevailing current of modern history, >which is the current of nihilism, of meaninglessness? >How?- by consciously plunging back into the mythos >that we have become unconscious of as a society. The >film's potent symbolic imagery triggers a response, a >resonance within the deepest levels of the psyche. Del >Toro ensures that this resonance has the best possible >chance of being heard by switching off the viewer's >extraneous mental noise. This is achieved through >shock: we are literally shocked into attention, >undivided attention: the phenomenal 'now'. > >This awareness is pre-intellectual awareness; it is >the awareness of the cave-man, the hunter; it is the >awareness that created the first stories, the first >myths; it is the awareness with which myth and all >meaning is apprehended. > >Now the ancient language of the soul can be heard >clearly; the language that is as old as time; older. >The language of the land, of the sea and sky and >stars. The first principles from which all variety >evolves in divine concordance. It is the very fabric >of reality itself! It is the unmanifest! - the >progenitor, the architect, the dream, the idea. It is >the red and gold faery-tale world of pan's labyrinth >that bursts creatively, intelligently into the grey, >blue world of mundane reality, through the red and >gold womb of woman. The woman is in both worlds, she >holds the faery-world inside her and gives it birth >into the universe, which is to say she gives birth >literally to the universe, for the universe only >exists as a relationship between a soul and itself. >The soul forgets itself as it is borne 'through the >light' into the world and its journey from thence is >simply a journey home. The roadmap back is a magical >one, revealed bit by bit, step by step. It is a story >that is conceived, written and revealed >simultaneously. > >In this story there is a hero and this hero is >everybody. > >Each of us lives a unique life, but the theme is >always the same. Each individual life is a variation >on a theme - one theme: ie the universe. > >What is the theme? The theme is choice. To choose to >act from the creative centre, rather than to react >from habit or fear. > >Choice presupposes value differentials: preferences. >Preference is felt in the heart. To live actively, >rather than reactively, is to be guided by one's >heart. To choose such is to choose wisely, and >bravely. > >For as Ofelia discovers, to act in accord with one's >self can mean one pays the ultimate price in the >mundane world: physical death. BUT physical death is >guaranteed anyway! We can only, if we are fortunate, >choose to die honourably or dishonourably. This is why >the film is not simply tragic; this is why the film >triumphs over tragedy absolutely: life only makes >sense with death. Death is not the ultimate evil, >terror or a proof of life's pointlessness, on the >contrary: Death gives life its meaning! Death reminds >us to act, to choose, because we haven't got long! >Death relativises all morals and rules and laws - the >knowledge of our certain death allows us to overcome >the chains that bind us. If we don't fear death how >can we be afraid of anything!........ > > > > There are two (seemingly) parallel stories in the >film: >1.the realistic conflict drama between fascists and >anarchists at the close of the spanish civil war >2.the fairy tale adventure of the (tragically named) >Ofelia. > >For the bulk of the film these stories run side by >side and it is only as we near the end of the film >that these currents merge and add meaning to each >other. It is at this point that our mythos becomes >updated, which is to say revivified. > >The conjoining factor is the child of the captain and >Ofelia's mother. The birth of Ofelia's brother, the >only other person that the captain cares about, unites >the stories into one dual-layered tale: ie a myth. >The child represents, to the captain, his own >immortality, his own power; to Ofelia the child is of >value in-itself. Ofelia sacrifices herself rather than >shed the blood of her innocent brother. She disobeys >Pan and in doing so passes the final test, which is >the same test that the captain and the fascists fail. >The test is the choice between obedience to others (ie >society) or obedience to oneself, one's own heart. >There is no moral ambiguity here, disobedience is, as >wilde said, 'man's original virtue'. Man to be human >- has his origin in this very act of disobedience: >the moral force is with the anarchists and is with >Ofelia. Though both will ultimately lose their >battles, these losses are relative. What is absolute >is the moral force itself, the meaning of their freely >chosen actions. > > >Up til this point - the birth of the brother - the >film is, perhaps, metaphysically ambiguous. That is >the nature of the fairy tale reality seems open to >interpretation. It seems that one could take it to be >Ofelia's own private fantasy - a means of escape from >the horrible reality she has been thrust into. > >However, two key scenes at the close of the film >establish the true nature of the fantasy world and its >relation to the mundne world. >1. Ofelia rescues her brother (in the mundane world) >using magic chalk from the faery-world. >2. the captain cannot see the faun when Ofelia brings >her brother to him. > >to summarise: the faery world is real; not all can see >it; only the pure of heart. > > >del toro uses symbology and number and colour to >further reinforce the relationship between these >worlds. I have already mentioned the red and gold of >the faery world and womb, and the grey blue of the >mundane. the red and gold fire at the end symbolising >the irruption of the faery (the moral force) into the >mundane world, through the anarchists' attack. > >the faery world parallels the mundane, but in a >creative context. that is the faery world continually >creates the mundane world - and is in turn updated by >the souls' experiences in the mundane. In the mundane >world there is the captain at his long table, >presiding over his dinner guests; in the faery world >there is the pale man at a similar table, in a similar >spot at the table, in a similar room. > >this is just one example, taken from del toro's own >discussion of the film on the extra disc in the dvd >set. the establishment of the ontological relationship >between the two worlds - the eternal and the temporal >- is what myth does; myth being the key to >apprehending the eternal order. > > > > > >____________________________________________________________________________________ > >Yahoo!7 Mail has just got even bigger and better >with unlimited storage on all webmail accounts. >http://au.docs.yahoo.com/mail/unlimitedstorage.html > > > >moq_discuss mailing list >Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. >http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org >Archives: >http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ >http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
