Dark Matter

"Dark matter comprises whatever is materially unrepresented onstage but un-ignorable. It is not a finger point- ing at the moon but the tidal force of gravity that pulls at us unseen." -Sofer

I was thinking about the concept of Dark Matter, that Sofer had written about, and the best examples kept coming to me in the form of a scary movie. I personally hate scary movies, but one that I remember and enjoyed was The Village.For those who have not seen this, the movie is about a small colonial town that has strict rules about the boarders of the village. The citizens of the colony are told that the woods are forbidden and that if they venture into the forest, they will become crazed and possibly exiled from the town. There are monsters that are also in the woods that the entire village is aware of, they are sensitive to the color red and could do harm to anyone in their path. Ok Amanda, where's the dark matter? The entire film they are told by the elders, "do not go in the woods, it is forbidden", the outskirts of the village are the dark matter, always being referred to yet we never see what is in the woods or beyond the woods. Are there other villages? Why can't the characters leave the village? Whats beyond this place? However, it seems the elders know whats out there, not until the end of the movie do we finally see what's there. As the Sofer quote states above, some of the younger villagers are stuck in that gravity of dark matter that pulls them to the unseen. For a double dose of dark matter, I won't tell you the end of the film, watch it, it's quite good.

Ok, so the Holocaust, this is a tricky situation, I do see what Adorno is saying, in that we really aren't honoring the Holocaust but simply honoring ourselves for not being 'bad people'. However, I would be lying if I said I didn't like art about the Holocaust. I personally think art is a way of remembering and honoring the lives that were lost in such a horrific event. I think that Adorno has a very closed minded point of view of what people take away from the art they ingest. Some probably do look at these films, plays etc. and think we are such a superior generation, but I think it's more of a reminder of how we can loose our human empathy when faced with fear and constrictions of our society. That we can turn on each other and act as animals destroying each others lives. We should never forget these events because as the old saying goes, 'History repeats itself', and we should always carry that awareness to try and be that better generation that we claim to be. The best way to keep that awareness, is to make art about it and not let such a tragic event be erased over time.