Watching the movie reminded me of such intense piece of literature, stuck somewhere in the back of my mind after so many years. And, although it is not by far as brilliant as the original piece (actually, if it weren't for some really stupid special effects, it could've been quite brilliant in its own kind), it got me thinking.
Why do we fear time?
A friend in need was in mind. As many other that I have been meeting through the way, equally upset. As myself? I wonder...
I came accross an interesting article on the brain's perception of time, which also influenced my thought. What is time but perception itself? A picture (or an array of pictures) we keep to help us survive. Like air to breathe. Remembering is too a basic need. Something to hold you still and help you understand who you or those around you are and why. Another way of escapism. As it is to oppose it.
Dorian Gray sold his soul to the devil through a picture that worked as an unpleasant memories' keeper. Many people keep such pictures locked in their dusty attics. I'd say everyone. Dealing with our fears is hard and sometimes impossible (for example, if one dies!). Dealing with The Picture of Dorian Gray is not easy. It's scary. So it's best if one locks it in the dusty shadowy attic. Or in an unimportant drawer. Yet, it is there. Waiting. Calling... Dorian Gray didn't even imagine what he was looking for. He was just a boy, used to keep bad memories in the attic. Vulnerable to others who, once as innocent as him, feeded their envy and regret with the young man's gloomy immaculate beauty.
Dorian Gray is everyone.
To persue beauty and youth and pleasure and freedom is what we all do. To fear time and age and ugliness and loss is what we all do. The ways in which one does it might be different but, as Harry says to Dorian, "it is all a matter of perspective". To get to know our own aims and fears is essential. Yet, being obsessed by one's own picture of time is mediocre and reducer. Selfish hedonism and carelessness can only lead to shortsighted vacuity. Death.
"I would like to propose a large (think Stonehenge) mechanical clock, powered by seasonal temperature changes. It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium.", says computer scientist Daniel Hillis, co-Chairman at The Long Now Foundation. Having a wider perception of time (and space and people and context and circumstances...) helps us understand our natural condition better. We are part of a huge network to which we all can add something. And everything you add is valid. As Harry would say to Dorian, all is experience. There is no good or bad, just interaction. This wider perception, though, implies commitment, implies responsibility, implies humanity. On the other hand, looking at our picture of time is also fundamental to understand our limits and, thus, be realistic to our furthest and widest goals.
Perceiving time is perceiving life.
Dorian Gray was right. Dorian Gray is dead.
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