Naturalism and Dark Matter blog 5

The first thing that comes to my head is Chekhov’s The Boor.  In this 1 act comedy, Chekolv never shows Popova’s late husband that she has been mourning since his death seven months ago, yet his “presence” is what drives the plot because it is what causes Smirnov to request his money from Popova that her husband owed him.  Some productions have decided to include a large picture of him in Popova’s parlor to represent his presence, but others have avoided this to keep the husband’s mystery alive.  Sofer’s dark matter helps with the effectiveness of this choice because given that this is a comedy it adds a nice comedic effect when the audience is kept in the dark about who this man that Popova is claiming pure devotion to is. Through her actions we learn that she is just being overly dramatic and has little to no attachment to him.  It lets the audience create an image of her late husband in their heads.  When a character is consistently talked about but never seen it gives the audience the opportunity to create their image in their own minds.  For me, when I think of Popova’s late husband I first picture him as the most attractive and loveliest man I have ever seen, but as the show goes that dwindles into me picturing him as a lack luster dud and it’s exciting and funny how that happens through my imagination with no visual representation dictating to me what pre-conceived notions I would have about him through just seeing the set. 

  First off, I don’t think that if a piece of artwork about the holocaust is beautiful and entertaining that it anyway redeems the horror of Auschwitz.  I think it’s a tad extremist to even say that something can’t be beautiful and horrific at the same time.  Beauty and entertainment are in themselves already subjective and in the eye of the beholder.  Even if something is horrific, I can personally recognize beauty in it because I don’t think beauty is about prettiness, it’s about what I view as truth or justice.  Stepping on toes is something that will happen regardless of the situation so just because a group may take something offensively, that isn’t meant to be taken offensively but just as an expression, should not stop the creation of art and the new perspective that art could give to it’s viewers.  It’s impossible to accurately recreate the past, so even if a realistic creation was intended it would automatically be abstracted.  The Holocaust, being a series of events can’t holistically be represented, but I don’t think attempting to re-create a slice of those events through art is uncalled for.  Art reveals or should reveal the not so pretty sometimes; it should be a mirror of life or past life to ensure that past mistakes are not forgotten in attempt to not repeat them and create a sense of as much understanding as we can without actually knowing what it was like.