Movies | Philosophy
‘Alien’ and the Nature of Perfection
‘Alien: Covenant’ begins with David’s eye. It is the first time that David has ever been awake. We might even say that we are witnessing David’s birth. He sees and interacts with the world for the first time. David is alive, and we start with his eye. It’s a body part which is typically associated with perfection, so much so that it has been used by many fundamentalist Christians as proof of the divine. In this moment we are meant to associate the divine perfection of the human eye with the divine perfection of David, the android.
“Il meglio è l’inimico del bene”, better known by its modern usage: “la perfezione è nemica del bene”, is a proverb which has been said among Italians for eons now. In English: “The best is the enemy of the good”, or “Perfection is the enemy of good”. A version of it exists across the wider philosophical world.
As a quote it is usually said in reference to creation. Examples can range from the most banal and ironic, to the most serious and sincere. From baking a cake and hyper-focusing on the exact minute measurements, to writing an epic fantasy novel with hundreds of characters and plot points. The range and difference in topics doesn’t matter. They would all be met with the same phrase said by a friend, family, or acquaintance: “Il meglio è l’inimico del bene”, or…
