Oct 07 2009
Love
I enjoyed the after-film discussion with you and want to thank you for your industrious ability to forge for food. I’ve written to ask Michael about the pizza, so I hope that next time the plan will go smoother.
In the meantime, I continued to ponder our discussion on Angels and also things not yet discussed–especially the theme of love, as manifest between Prior and Louis initially as lovers and later as friends, for example, or Roy’s declarations of fatherly love for Joe, or how Harper’s love for Joe was debilitating since unreturned in the way she wanted and needed, or Belize’s love for Prior, which Louis had misread. These are reflected in themes of God’s love, or lack of it, for human beings, and Joe’s father’s lack of love for him. Also, the play develops the theme in terms of how love makes us vulnerable to manipulation by another. This connects as well with the importance of death rituals that Angela wrote about, since they are a communal act of public love for the one who has died.
So, any thoughts on these themes?
daniel, going back to your first comment, why do you think Prior’s instruction to sue God is incongruous with his actions towards Louis?
I think the underlying principle was one and the same – Prior’s desire to doll out consequences to those who abandon him. In act 5, scene 5 of Perestroika, Prior says, “He walked out on us. He ought to pay.” And by telling Louis he still loves him, but he isn’t willing to let him move in again, isn’t he still making Louis pay for moving out in the first place?
That makes me wonder whether in general, our desire for fairness, justice, consequences, an eye for an eye, whatever – is what prevents us from being satisfied with mere unconditional love (either mortal or divine). Maybe God is absent in Angels not for lack of infinite love, but because the angels and people like Prior are demanding recompense for the wrongs they’ve suffered. And that’s not in the job description (or at least, not until Judgment Day).
Jahnielle, I don’t think Angels is completely devoid of examples of unconditional love. As professor Quinby mentioned, Belize’s actions show love for Prior without asking for anything in return, and Harper and Prior continue to love Joe and Louis respectively, despite all of the heartache it causes them.
All YOU need is love was lennon’s mantra – and I think he too probably believed that love could replace Gd.
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The paradox of being a ‘secular thinker’ but still measuring Gd’s love is curious.
Does Gd exist as more than a theatrical component in Kushner’s view?
Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe (an orthodox rabbi) made something very clear to me: there are no apikorsis (heretical) questions, only apikorsis answers.
Doubt (and skepticism!) need not be secular.
Also, “life-enhancing” reminds me of philosopher Don Cupitt and his take on the Gd to Life talk evolution – http://www.amazon.com/New-Religion-Life-Everyday-Speech/dp/0334027632
If anything Angels seemed to remind the audience and the reader that love is finite and never enough. In theory “all we need is love” (I think that’s from Rent please correct me if I am wrong) but it comes with conditions. Louis’s love for Prior came freely provided that he did not ask him for too much-such as burden him with his debilitating disease- and Roy’s love for Joe was based upon what he could extract from their relationship. Once again this makes me uncomfortable because I still cling to the romantic notion that love for others could be unconditional regardless of what realists like Kushner have to say.
San Francisco was the US city most affected by the AIDS outbreak in the 1980s and also one that was most active in education and medical campaigns, so I think the earth shattering parallel is significant.
For more secular thinkers like Kushner, God’s love doesn’t come across as infinite and the play’s shift to acts of love by secular figures like Belize, a Mormon in transition like Hannah, and Prior’s call to life-enhancing acts of friendship and citizenship are the play’s important challenges to traditional images of God.
Why the San Francisco Earthquake? What was historically significant in the context of human progress in 1906 – or was it just a good visual parallel?
According to Kabbalah, our world does affect the heavens and Kushner draws on that theme heavily. But, at least according to Judaism, Gd has infinite patience and love.
Infinite love, though, is hard to create drama around, so Kushner had to make his play’s God flee the scene.
Also, why does Prior insist on suing Gd but tells Louis that he still loves him (even though he won’t take him back)? It seemed that Louis directly hurt him much more.