Thursday, August 16, 2007
Thinking on catharsis
Catharsis, the word dates back to ancient Greece, but the experience is probably a part of the human experience originating at the dawn of self-awareness. According to Wikipedia (a conspicuous source, I know), catharsis as a means of emotional cleansing is rooted in Aristotle's rebuttal to Plato's assertion that poetry is a danger, as it could lead men to hysterics and mania. Aristotle argued that poetry had the opposite effect. Through metaphorical catharsis (the word literally meant purging, i.e. purging the bowels or stomach), he argued a man could empty himself of the emotions which lead to violence or despair and thereby experience a cleansing of the spirit, without having hurt, or been hurt, by anyone. Given how important catharsis became in Shakespearean drama, I have to agree that he was on to something.
Looking at our media saturated, modern existence, the evidence that catharsis is an intrinsic human endeavor are all around us. We play violent videogames and their otherworldly levels of suffering and destruction. We are fascinated by reality TV and its vacuous, false dramatics. Pornography of ever flavor and fashion is readily available via the web or brick and mortar outlets. We are collectively fascinated by our own depravity. Even I have been known to partake in all of the above at times. None of us are above it.
For instance, I enjoy the HBO series Rome, which is set in the time surrounding Julius Caesar's death and its aftermath. The show is brutal, profane, and vulgar. People are killed indiscriminately and they die in bloody messes, throats slit, bodies punctured repeatedly by swords. Sex is everywhere and is treated as a disposable act. In one scene, Mark Antony is lying in bed on the morning of Caesar's funeral, complaining loudly that he hasn't yet f*#ked anyone, as if it is a prerequisite to getting out of bed in the morning. His mistress Atia refuses his crude advances, and then dismissively sends for one of Antony’s slaves to service her lover. The next time we see Antony, a young slave girl, looking exhausted, is panting in his bed while he dresses for the funerary ritual.
Sex and violence are tools in HBO’s Rome, which seems a relatively accurate depiction, given what we now know about ancient Rome. They were highly organized and very advanced, but they were still very much savages. Are we so different today? We still hunger for all of the visceral stimulations. For instance, I enjoy combat sports, which is to say I see some entertainment value in violence. The fact that prize fighting is violence contained within a framework of rules is my justification, but the regulations in no way raise the action to a higher, moral plateau. It is still violence and watching it, rather than partaking in it, is my cathartic outlet. Similarly, I’ve been aware of pornography since the age of 7 or 8, if not earlier(an unfortunate side-effect of hanging out with older kids as a youngster), so I’ve been aware of that particular cathartic enterprise for nearly my entire life. I’m not going to lie to you, porn has probably served me well in keeping me sane at certain points in my life! lol
We all have primal, base drives that push and pull at us. These drives fuel things like sex and violence. The difference between savagery and civility is controlling those urges. We can surrender and be slaves to our basal nature, or we can transcend and find a new understanding of what it means to be alive. The former requires only that we be breathing, but the latter takes discipline, intelligence, and awareness, which are the true makings of Life. Catharsis can be a part of diffusing the drives that would control or derail us. Like anything, our cathartic exercises can eventually become our masters as well, and they often do. Think of all the hours most Americans spend disengaging their minds or reveling in distractions, rather than engaging fully in their own lives. What was once catharsis, watching TV, playing videogames, becomes a substitute for proactive living. We go from catharsis to escapist and lose the plot entirely…which is why we are more Rome than Utopia and probably always will be.
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i don't know that i agree with your characterization of some of those activities as catharses... pornography is more an indulgance, i think... but hey, to each his own, haha.
Maybe, but in this place, like in Rome or any other time in human history, indulgence is a matter of finding a willing partner and sleeping with them. I am not talking about porn all day, every day, that's addiction. But occasionally, it helps take the edge off. I've spent a vast majority of my 30 years not indulging, in hopes of finding someone I might indulge with in happiness one day. That isn't how things have worked out, so I've starved while others feasted in the name of what I still believe to be the right thing. Unfortunately, I'm no priest (many priests aren't worthy of being called priests, after all), so I slip once in a while. lol