Admiration for Loki the Operatic Figure
I like Loki. As a character. He's a fabulous, salaciously sly figure, fun in a dramatic sense. Similarly, I love Heid. As a character. She is dastardly, and one you just love to hate. Both of these are wonderfully rich, tragic figures, brim with potential and even haughtiness, whose brilliance, unguided by wisdom and compassion, brings about their downfall (a downfall in which they wish to pull the whole world!). One has to admire characters as rich as these.
That's because these are exquisite characters crafted by masters of Divine Opera, which is what the Northern myths are, brilliantly entertaining, theatrically engaging, and dramatically profound operas portraying the nature of the Gods and their interpenetration into the lives of human beings, as it happened in the beginning of time, and set the stage for the world as we know it, with all its agonies and ecstasies.
But appreciation of an operatic figure as a character is a very different thing than imputing any worth to the spiritual force behind the operatic figure. Discernment is needed here. I'd be one of the first to audition for the part of Loki in a play, because it'd be a terribly fun part to play, and Lopt, though he is now bound and suffering, certainly has lessons to teach to those wise enough to not get taken in by his contemptuous love of gullibility, and he is genuinely appreciative of portrayals of the old days when he was once young and still full of potential and spark. He's particularly proud of his pranks, and even his diabolically precise plans of sabotage. Someone has to admire them. And in a dramatic sense, it's fine to speak up in appreciation.
But this is a completely different thing than honoring the spiritual force that is one of the most widely worshipped of divinities --- in the actual deeds of human beings. And if you look around, that worship of folly, treachery, cheating, adultery, and lying has made the world a much less fun, exciting, and engaging place to live in.
So admire the character, but reserve your judgement for spiritual forces worthy of worship.
That's because these are exquisite characters crafted by masters of Divine Opera, which is what the Northern myths are, brilliantly entertaining, theatrically engaging, and dramatically profound operas portraying the nature of the Gods and their interpenetration into the lives of human beings, as it happened in the beginning of time, and set the stage for the world as we know it, with all its agonies and ecstasies.
But appreciation of an operatic figure as a character is a very different thing than imputing any worth to the spiritual force behind the operatic figure. Discernment is needed here. I'd be one of the first to audition for the part of Loki in a play, because it'd be a terribly fun part to play, and Lopt, though he is now bound and suffering, certainly has lessons to teach to those wise enough to not get taken in by his contemptuous love of gullibility, and he is genuinely appreciative of portrayals of the old days when he was once young and still full of potential and spark. He's particularly proud of his pranks, and even his diabolically precise plans of sabotage. Someone has to admire them. And in a dramatic sense, it's fine to speak up in appreciation.
But this is a completely different thing than honoring the spiritual force that is one of the most widely worshipped of divinities --- in the actual deeds of human beings. And if you look around, that worship of folly, treachery, cheating, adultery, and lying has made the world a much less fun, exciting, and engaging place to live in.
So admire the character, but reserve your judgement for spiritual forces worthy of worship.
posted by SiegfriedGoodfellow at 2:58 AM
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