hellish perspectives

Hell is full of musical amateurs
-George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

The Nobel winner Shaw was a critic and dramatist (not necessarily in that order) among other things. He was not a musician of note, but he did criticize, or favour, certain musicians in his column. His view of hell would be a good indication of what he treated as good music.

Yesterday I watched an episode of the original star trek where Kirk and co. go to a planet which is like paradise except that the humanoids are under complete control of a machine living peacefully. Spock even remarks how serene their lives are without the human envy, anger etc. But when threatened, they end up destroying the machine and causing the humanoids to start living like humans. Back on the ship, Spock semi-accuses the captain of giving them the knowledge of the apple and thus destroying Eden. The captain is quick to remark that before calling him Satan Spock should take a look at himself.

People do create hell and heaven in their image of bad and good. That is part of the drive of seeing things in black and white. Once you label things, life becomes easier to cope with. Squash complex dimensions by making projections on to familiar ones and keep treading there. Life is simpler and stays in a rut. Helps make one a kupmanduk.

On the other hand, if you attach new connotations to the old, you can get to higher dimensions. See the world in a whole new light, different part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Get a wing, so to speak.


Rather than defining hell and heaven, how about converting the Earth in to the best it can be?