tennessee williams A streetcar named desireBlanche Dubois refuses to face reality, clings to illusions, and collapses. Her descent into madness is both tragic and strangely beautiful, revealing the fragility and poetry of human existence as she surrenders to her desires and delusions. Rather than condemning Blanche’s loss of control, Williams allows the audience to appreciate it with a kind of respect for the emotional intensity it brings to life, showing an awkward grace in letting go of control.
Characters like Blanche Dubois, like antiheroes in modern literature and television, can be cathartic when they lose control. From Holden Caulfield catcher in the lie To Camus’ Meursault strangerand more recently Walter White. breaking bad and free bag’s unnamed protagonists, these complex characters embody the tension between control and chaos. Their appeal lies in the freedom they seem to gain from losing control.
iconic tyler durden fight club took this even further, declaring, “It is only after you have lost everything that you are free to do anything.” Losing control and being at least a little crazy can be fashionable irony, even if it’s conceit to stay in control. “What you own ends up owning you.” In other words, what you control is the ability to conform to nonconformity, blend in by standing out, or embrace cynicism and flags of rebellion. Even in coming together, they end up controlling you. Fragmented and self-conscious, always critically aware of both the absurdity and the materiality of the everyday, many people today seek to construct authentic identities in highly selective online environments. Perhaps the greatest irony of the moment is that he is serious despite his recent arrogance.
The more we try to deal with the challenges at hand, the more they control us. Many of us are still chasing “inbox zero” and obsessively organizing our emails to control our workload. Even just saving a message to reply later is one more thing to remember. After all, it’s our to-do lists that control us, not the other way around.
Whether it’s managing our schedules, optimizing our work performance, or maintaining order in our personal lives, we act as if everything will be fine if we have enough control. This pattern is similar at the political level. Consider the example of mandating “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” When our differences become statistical goals, we confuse means with ends and lose sight of the all-important fairness. It’s as if the purpose of the meeting is to make sure everyone has a seat at the table, not for anyone to speak.
Michael Sandel, a prominent political philosopher, criticizes the “proceduralism” of liberalism, which prioritizes process over substance. Although there is support for the fairness of the way things are done, questions arise about democratic governance. Controlling the process is easier than focusing on its outcome. How something is done becomes a measure of success, as if meaning guarantees that it will work, and good intentions guarantee a good outcome.
In the reception area of the rehab facility, there was a sign that read, “Do you want to be right? Or do you want to be better?” In rehabilitation, the need to relinquish control over drugs and certain life situations is essential to progress. This symptom reflects the common tension between the desire to maintain control and the need to surrender to the process of improvement, a dilemma similar to that identified by Sandel. Attempting to control the process undermines the deeper purpose.
Latin American writer Mariana Enriquez, a new voice in world literature, speaks of the struggle against certainty and control. Known for her macabre explorations of trauma and violence, she said in a recent interview, “In life, I find myself becoming too certain, but in literature I find myself experiencing ambivalence that I don’t get in life.” I want to make it more present,” he said.
The curse of modernity is its tendency to favor certainty over clarity, decisiveness over deliberation, and control over cooperation. This often puts innovation and tradition at odds, as if a tree can be expected to grow with roots in the sky. What we call “talent” or “achievement” may be mostly luck. Letting go may reveal that what you thought you were in control of was never really yours.
Uncertainty can be a more reliable bond than certainty. What we don’t know may unite us more than what we do. Poet Rainer Maria Rilke said: letter to young poetsfamously encouraged us to defer answers by suggesting that we live with the question itself.
“Be patient with everything that remains unresolved in your heart and learn to love the questions themselves, like behind closed doors or in foreign language books. Don’t ask for answers now because they won’t give you answers. Please. You’re not ready yet.” And the important thing is to live all your doubts now. Then you’ll probably live without realizing it until someday you find the answer. ”
notes and reading
fight club (1999) is a cult classic directed by David Fincher and based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. The film, starring Brad Pitt, explores themes of consumerism, identity, and masculinity. Tyler Durden is an anarchic figure who represents freedom from social control. – breaking bad and free bag are two critically acclaimed television shows. meanwhile breaking bad It explores the moral decline of a man driven by despair. free bag (British series) is a witty exploration of a young woman’s struggles with love, loss, and self-worth.
Michael Sandel – Justice: What is the right thing to do? (2009). Sandel criticized the procedural liberalism typified by John Rawls, and his work reshaped contemporary debates about justice, fairness, and the “neutral state.”
Mariana Enriquez Writer and journalist based in Buenos Aires. she is the author of share our night Just recently. “A bewitching beer of mystery, mythology, wealthy occultists, and mediums who can summon the ‘darkness’.” – Daniel Trussoni, New York Times (February 9, 2023).
“The curse of modernity…” – look anxiety about influence Harold Bloom (1997): How creativity wrestles with its heritage – reflecting the modern age’s pursuit of newness and mastery beyond its history.
Rainer Maria Rilke – Excerpt from Letter 4, written July 16, 1903. Letter to young Poet (1934, 2024). “Why would you want to shut out any anxiety, any misery, any depression from your life? After all, you do not know what these conditions are doing in you. ”Letter 8.
[The Sense of an Ending – Julian Barnes (2012). The protagonist, Tony Webster, reflects on how much he spent his life trying to maintain control over his feelings and relationships. “What did I know of life, I who had lived so carefully? I endured a special kind of remorse: a hurt inflicted at long last on one who always thought he knew how to avoid being hurt—and inflicted for precisely that reason.”]
[Irony – For a rigorous discussion see Lauren Oyler’s novel, Fake Accounts, and her collection of essays, No Judgement – and criticism of Oyler in Art Review, “Things that Annoy Me” (March 8, 2024).]
About 2 + 2 = 5: https://williamgreen.substack.com/about – revision
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
