A Matter of Perspective— At the Principle Gallery
“As for the dead”, she went on after a moment, “I have always thought that the dead think of us as dead. They have rejoined the living after this trifling excursion into quasi-life.”
— Lawrence Durrell, Justine, The Alexandria Quartet
I was listening to some music yesterday while painting and the lyrics at the end of one song made me think of a blog post I had begun to put together some time ago but had never finished. The song was Spanish Mary, which is an unpublished Bob Dylan song that was part of a project several years ago, The New Basement Tapes, that had a topflight band of musicians covering this group of unrecorded Dylan songs. The super talented Rhiannon Giddens provided banjo and vocals for this song.
The lines that caught me were:
Is it a mystery to live?Or is it a mystery to die?
As I said, this question on the nature of life and death reminded me of a post I had started to assemble months ago but never finished. It included the line at the top from Justine, the first book in the Alexandria Quartet from Lawrence Durrell. which raise the question of whether being dead is our natural state of being and that our lifetime here in this world is merely a dream or a rite of passage to the plane of existence that is death.
The Durrell line instantly reminded me of a favorite film, A Matter of Life and Death. It was released in 1946 and is from director Michael Powell, who along with producer Emeric Pressburger, were creators of some of the most creative and interesting films made in the 1940’s and 50’s. Most notable are The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus.
A Matter of Life and Death, released in the UK as Stairway to Heaven, is the story of an RAF bomber pilot in WW II who unexpectedly survives the crash of his plane as it is returning from a mission. I say unexpectedly because he is supposed to have died and the agent of death has already been sent to retrieve him. When the pilot, who has somewhat recovered and has fallen in love with an American Army nurse caring for him, is confronted by the agent of death he refuses to comply. It leads to a wonderful legal battle that takes place in the realm of death. I guess it is called heaven but it doesn’t have the religious connotations we attach to that word.
I am not going to go any further with this synopsis. It was the imagery of heaven in that film such as the one below with the resident dead peering down at the living and this concept that death is true state of being and that our time here is basically a short sojourn or dream that made me associate it with Durrell’s line as well as attach the painting at the top, A Matter of Perspective, which is about our perception of our existence and place in the universe.
It’s all very Philosophy 101 stuff. At least, I would imagine it is since I never took that class in my limited schooling. That’s probably why I never posted this. It seems too rudimentary, even naive. But even so, it is interesting to roll it around in your head once in a while and wonder if this is merely a dream before we begin actually living.
Well, living in death. It is a matter of perspective, after all.
You figure it our for yourself. Here’s that Dylan song, Spanish Mary, from Rhiannon Giddens.
A Matter of Life and Death- 1946
Redtree Times 