Luke Thompson

“The more you understand this world, the more you destroy yourself. That's why fools are happy, and intelligent people live in loneliness.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Tree of Life (2011) is one of the great works of 21st century art. Its symbolic depth is nearly inexhaustible, but I want to zero in on one of its more overlooked themes—which is of particular important for our cultural moment: The Disordered Feminine Let me explain:

This disturbing vid captures something I’ve sensed for years.

I think what you are talking about is a good and valuable thing. I also think that the book of Job is counter to that. Not trying to prove an opposite, but to put us in tension (at least for a while) If you say that Job had a self-oriented will at the beginning, isn't that just agreeing with the Accuser? "Does Job serve God for no reason?" The way I read the book of Job, it starts with a man who is doing everything correctly. He is already doing everything right, and, not only that, he's also doing it with a good heart. That's how the book starts: Job, a blameless and righteous man. Then he is accused of selfishness and corruption. It's not his actions that are questioned; it's his motivations. "Job is self-oriented and corrupt, that's why he does good." From how I read it, Job, from the beginning, is already practicing what you are talking about. He is not self-oriented. This is where the story starts. Now, we can feel the tension of the story as Job is accused and then God allows the Accuser to carry out all the disasters. In the end there is a metanoia in Job, but I would not characterize it as a turning from self. It is something else.

“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” - Albert Einstein