"Bleeding White Butterflies"

The Image of the Soul

"In the maximum pointlessness lies maximum splendor. And the real never shines so brightly as when its reality is duplicated (340)"
We suffer so that it may be written about and sung about. Since life is suffering then music, art, and literature are the reason we exist. Of course life is not always suffering and we celebrate that in the arts as well. One of my favorite artists once wrote: "making an album is like anything else. it's like living and dying, like bleeding white butterflies."  I mentioned in an earlier blog that I do not remember when i stopped believing in Santa Claus. The day I finished The Magus, I realized that I never really stopped believing in Santa Claus because I believe in the importance of the myth. When I realized that Santa wasn't real I started perpetuating the myth to the next generation.  Even though I knew he wasn't 'really real', for whatever reason I felt the need to continue the myth that had brought me so much joy and excitement as a child. Our continuing to perpetuate myths like Santa Claus only speaks to their importance as part of our identity.  When I look at my youngest nephew or my friend's children I believe in Santa Claus, even though I sometimes am Santa Claus. It's the myth and the importance of that myth that both unites and defines.  This realization came only after my initial disappointment with the end of The Magus. 
At first I was a little irritated with the way the book ends, on its surface, with little to no resolution. Then, while watching a preview for a Christmas movie and thinking about Santa, I realized that the only way The Magus could have a definite ending is if Nicholas would have died.  I can't remember if it was Conchis or one of the twins who informed Nicholas that the 'rat' had control over the parameters of the maze. Even though Nicholas' labyrinth was constructed for him, it was to give him an appreciation of life. Not only his own life but how he interacted with other people and how those actions effected the lives of those around him. Nicholas was so arrogant and jaded that even though he was living he was not alive. His belief that he was above the maze that led him right into the heart of it.  Life is a labyrinth.