Matt Molko
Aug 25, 2017 · 2 min read

I appreciate the Nietzche quote you ended with — I often think of that quote and counter-balance it with one of another film critic, Jeffrey Overstreet, when he says “You see, I learned a lot about light by thinking about shadows.” (source)
With these two quotes close at hand, I feel balanced enough to approach and consider most things, especially art. It is not hard for me to think that my own intellect, darkened as it is by the reality of sin, can find beauty in the grotesque just as easily as some may see evil as good.

Both quotes remind me that I am not experiencing life in a void — that there are powers that wish to act upon me for both the vile and virtuous. They remind me that, yes, I do have free will, but that my consumption of anything places foreign ideas and desires near enough to that will to bend its path, like a magnet near iron shavings.

Where that can become troublesome for me, is when I fail to recognize this and lack the wisdom to expose myself to the beauty that points directly to the light. I need that to redirect and correct the perception of my telos in order that I maintain my footing on the path to the end for which I was created, and avoid wrestling unnecessarily with the existential dread (and other accompanying symptoms) that come from pulling up anchor and drifting from what I know as true.

(Good article — can’t say I’ve been attracted to the Alien franchise myself, but have dabbled with looking at its mythology; and it’s always good to look beyond the blockbuster explosions and ask “what is this moving pointing to?”)

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