Several posts back, I started talking about flaws. I had to stop there so I could post about the roles I was wanting to adopt for the project (that I'm subsequently getting marked on, so they had to be done), as well as about a screening. I was nearly going to post about The Darjeeling Limited before this post, but I thought I'd just do it after so we can recap a bit first.
Anyway, after having received the theme of 'dislocation', as I mentioned before, it made me think of chaos, you know, not being in control of the situation around you, for example. I used the video game The Path to talk about one of the master plots I found in Ronald B. Tobias' book 20 Master Plots, which was the maturation plot. Growing up, essentially; a form of the transformation plot. I had ended that post talking about flaws, and what they are exactly, to lead onto this one.
So what are flaws? They are human follies that are certainly not to be admired, but are quite often the topic of discussion. Whether we are talking about our own weaknesses that must be improved upon or abolished altogether, or gossiping about the faults of others as a means to distract ourselves from our own which, ipso facto, is a fault stemming from pride.
One of our big projects this year is to adapt a Michael Frayn monologue into a cinematic piece. If you recognise the name at all, you'll straight away realise that he is a farce writer. So why am I talking about farce? One of the codes and conventions of farcical comedy is that, according to James Simmons in his article About The Playwright: Georges Feydeau, it "concentrates on the apetites and follies of the average human being caught in a net devised by his or her own foolishness". In other words, farce exploits the uncontrolled human desires and faults in the name of comedy. When we were looking at this in class, I was instantly reminded of the seven deadly sins, a Christian ethic to educate its followers in steering clear of sin. At its core, the seven deadly sins had merely stemmed from the most basic of human traits, feelings, appetites and follies. Essentially, it is presented clearly in people who allow their desires to become their faults, taking a hold of them.
I wanted to further research into the seven deadly sins. Although it comes from mediecal Christian theology, they are, no doubt, generally pretty good rules to at the very least take into consideration. Who actually wants their wrath to control their lives, ruining every relationship they have, ultimately being alone? Who actually wants to be that one arrogant bastard who takes pride in belittling others around them so they, in their minds, look the best? Those people aren't going to stick around for very long to keep that pride going for the sinner, so to speak.
I looked into the Christian detox book by Graham Tomlin, The Seven Deadly Sins: How To Overcome Life's Most Toxic Habits. At first, I was unsure whether or not to bother as I wanted a neutral book that looked into the topic, but I caved and got it. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised! Of course, there is God-talk because, at the end of the day, it is a book to aid Christians in their lifestyles. But it's also very down to earth - kinda literally - in that it tries to level with the reader, and understands these sins may appear to be "naughty but nice" to a lot of people.
Tomlin goes on to explain that "each sin always has at its heart something good" and that therefore "sin is always a subtle corruption of something essentially good". The point that Tomlin is making is that sin, being evil, takes something that is good and innocent, and twists and distorts it into something bad; something evil and sinful. He explains that it "simply twists, caricatures and destroys", being unable to actually create anything original.
Whether you are Christian or not, have a religion, identify as either Atheist or Agnostic like myself, there is no point in denying that they are quite a good set of rules to live by. Sure, sex is great but allowing lust to take over is not. Sure, it's great to relax and all that jazz, but it most certainly isn't very beneficial to you at all to lie in bed every minute of the day, every day, is it? Not at all. We must be in control of our desires lest they become faults that control us, leading to our own demise.
The Seven Deadly Sins has been around since medieval times and has been driven into our psyche as law. Because of how culture gradually builds, it can be extremely difficult, near enough impossible, to shake. Even today they hold strong. But eventually everything becomes twisted over time. Laws eventually lead to rebellion because the world soon becomes black and white. As I said, when cultural and societal conformities are created, they become difficult to shake as it is what we are used to. How many times have privileges been removed due to ill-treatment of the gift? That's why rebellion happens; just because a small few abuse a good thing, it soon gets taken away from everyone to better control the masses.
Rebellion, although the cause may be of good intention, can be just as unhealthy a movement. Instead of rationally thinking as to why and how to fix something, we go in the complete opposite direction to get as far away from the conformity as possible. A gradual change must happen for this to take effect, otherwise it's a bit taboo. Nobody can deal with it then; not very many people would really want to, often out of fear.
That's the impression I get. The black and white world where it's either right or wrong, no question asked, leads even the slightest impression of sin to become taboo, even if it's totally under control and has been well thought out beforehand; completely innocently and rationally. In which case, it isn't even a sin; it's the original good trait that has become a victim of taboo. Our views have been tainted of those who partake in such desires at all, because we have been trained to believe that they are bad, no matter what form of control has been, or quantity it has been taken in.
It isn't good to allow our natural human traits and behaviours to get out of control, but it most certainly isn't healthy to completely deny ourselves of them/ This is the approach that a lot of people will take. They take one extreme to the other; atheists, for example (although not all), take it the extreme in order to rebel against the Christian virtues to steer as far away from those conformities as humanly possible, whereas the Christians (again, not all) will completely deny these feelings altogether, seeing them as impure; being over-controlling, which can lead to an unhealthy degree of bottling up.
Anyway, the point I'm making is that sin, no matter what one, is a human folly; an uncontrolled desire that leads us to mishaps and misfortune. These are our faults that lead to our eventual demise. It's something that I want to explore in my end of year film, particularly that of pride and lust, because they are so prominent in today's society, causing a lot of problems for us when we can't keep them under wraps (or duvet covers). And with that, I want to intertwine it with farcical comedy to an extent, because that's exactly what comedy does; it exploits the faults of an average to below average person for our own amusement.
Perhaps taking it into satire to show what we're doing to ourselves as we so desperately try to conform, while simultaneously trying not to. We understand there's no big deal so long as we can be the ones in control, but what happens to us when we all social conformities take a hold of us? We end up running back and forth, back and forth. Sinning can be such a farce, can't it?
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