When I was a boy, there was a certain TV series that piqued my curiosity, because at some point, when the credits were displayed at the end of the show, there was an image of two porcelain masks with wide ribbon ties also displayed on the screen. One mask was the smiling mask of comedy and the other was the frown of tragedy. The TV show was one of a series of short plays, perhaps even performed live - some episodes were light, comedic, and others were dark, tragic. Some years passed between my watching those shows on TV and eventually learning the association of the ancient Greek theatrical traditions of comedy and tragedy with those masks I had seen depicted on TV when I was very young. And the only reason I bring this up now is because I now realize that there was never an in-between mask - there was comedy or there was tragedy. Ancient Greek drama had no middling mask. Godot was never awaited there. And so it is with me now. The only time I could ever be content with being devoid of emotion is if I forgot how to feel emotions altogether. If that happened, I wouldnt miss emotions, because Id have forgotten what it is to feel them. Quelle tragédie! If I cant laugh, then let me cry.
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 03:04:01 +0000