Sunday, September 6, 2009

Valerie Fliss - DESIRE, Longing, and Art

Everything that I could have wanted to say about how desire can bring about joy was explained beautifully by Ms. DeSalme's post previous to this one, in her summary of C.S. Lewis' section in "Surprised by Joy" that discusses just that.

I think it is interesting, though, that when I hear the word 'desire', what comes to mind nowadays is the character in Neil Gaiman's graphic novel series "The Sandman". Mr. Gaiman personifies the idea of 'Desire' in the book, making it a a beautiful hermaphrodite (appears as either a man or a woman, depending on who's looking at it) who runs around and basically makes people desire things.

desirehughes6ms.jpg
^^Here be Desire as it appears in the "Sandman"!^^


Desire, in the 'Sandman', is not a necessarily good character, because once someone gets their desires granted through Desire, there is nothing left for them - their fire and energies burn out and they become this sort empty, shuffling person. In fact, Desire's twin sister is the horrendously ugly Despair - the two go hand and hand!

Mr. Gaiman's interpretation of 'desire' clashes with Mr. Lewis' explanation of 'desire', and I think that this is because they are two absolutely different things that must share the same word because the English language is a bit limited. Mr. Lewis's desire, the desire we talk about when discussing art, doesn't extinguish a fire when felt, but instead increases its intensities! Perhaps the difference in the desires comes in when you look at the orientation of desire: Mr. Gaiman's Desire is focused on the self and the senses, living out lusts and longings out of a desire just to be pleased, while Mr. Lewis' 'desire' comes out of a search for something else, looking for the even better, more beautiful thing or sense than what you are feeling at that moment - for Lewis, you are looking for the ULTIMATE sensation, the ULTIMATE thing.

By the by - I did not just decide to look at the 'Sandman' as a contrast to Mr. Lewis' idea of desire; I think that the storywriting and artwork of the whole "Sandman" series is awe-inspiringly beautiful - I always finish reading it with just a little bit of a heartache because I wish there was more.

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