Soundscape #34: "Darkness, And Nothing More"

Lucian Freud. Reflection (Self-Portrait), 1985.

We all love a horror story once in a while to scare us out of our wits; stories about ghosts, aliens and ominous signs of evil to come. But have we asked ourselves what exactly is evil? It's not just the opposite of all that's good; that would be too passive a definition. It's something more and yet if you think about it, you can't really quantify it either: like a void or a black hole. On the flip side: what is good? Goodness is not just not doing bad things. The notion of good, like that of evil, cannot be defined by its opposition.

People say that reading horror stories or watching horror movies has a cathartic effect. We scream our frustrations out in the process and this shakes us out from the inside. But the downside to this is that people get desensitised by all the portrayal of evil we read or see on screen (be it the big or the small one). We all think evil is so far away but you only have to look into a mirror to see pure unadulterated evil waiting to surface. What is truly evil is the fact that noone seems to acknowledge the fact that evil has to be in this world for good to exist. The line between good and evil is a tenuous one; one cannot exist without the other.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) The Libertines - Can't Stand Me Now (S/T)
2. (3:25) The Thermals - A Stare Like Yours (Fuckin A)
3. (6:11) Smashing Pumpkins - Bodies (Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness)
4. (10:23) Interpol - Evil (Antics)
5. (13:59) Arcade Fire - Black Mirror (Neon Bible)
6. (18:14) Bloc Party - Song For Clay (Disappear Here) (A Weekend In The City)
7. (23:05) Manic Street Preachers - Faster (Holy Bible)
8. (26:59) Nine Inch Nails - You Know What You Are? (With Teeth)
9. (30:43) Okkervil River - For Real (Black Sheep Boy)
10. (35:25) Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See A Darkness (I See A Darkness)