*
For more than a century now the bulk of talented artists, writers and creatives in general have been providing us with first rate soul-poison.
The reflection was forced upon me for the ten-thousandth time by browsing through a book of Mervyn Peake's illustrations. On the one hand they were superb drawings, on the other hand each and every one of them drained my vitality and filled me with despair.
*
In this respect, Peake is simply representative of most of the best workers in the arts for a long time.
And, like the others, the despair induced by Peake's work is not a means to some greater end, it leads us down into an abyss and leaves us there...
Peake's universe portrayed in the Gormenghast novel (depicted in words and visually, with tremendous skill and flair) is that good characters are weak and self-deceiving fools, while strong characters are selfish, sadistic nihilists - live is purposeless, meaningless and each of us is alone in it.
And this is the same for most of the most admired works in literature, drama, movies and representative art generally.
*
Look around you!
Never in history has so much human ability, hard work and creativity been devoted to convincing people that ability, hard work and creativity are futile.
Never has so much moralizing zeal been devoted to the destruction of morality.
Never has so much bold, uncompromizing realism been devoted to depicting the meaninglessness of truth.
Never has so much aesthetic judgment been devoted to the annihiliation of beauty.
*
