Art and Culture # 103: Accept Your Darkness
-For the Uncensored!
The very subtitle of “Accept your Darkness” sounds like something psychologist Jordan Peterson would say. It’s the concise morality of the fabled hero who must realize that in order to become a hero he must have a villain. To turn into a flower, Narcissus must accept his narcissim and after dying, turns into a flower. Darkness is the pattern of light when the void shades all life and love out of the equation. But darkness, to some, can’t be accepted. A false mirror has to put together the world in order to make the hero accept his fate. To eradicate evil, they must then become evil, accept a sword or destiny that nobody else would. But for artists themselves, the duality exists. The mild mannered employee who cares about his co-workers, never taking a day off, never adding anger when he should be giving compliments, and doing all that he can for people, even if they don’t get or want to reciprocate that emotion. But to accept darkness is the balanced breakfast for all artist. The unlikely subject of an artists darkness is that while he might show up to work everyday, the pain is on his face. That can make emotionally unstable people uncomfortable. Even if those said co-workers can’t look at him. Some can hide it better, but the very persona between artist and mild mannered citizen are a dangerous combination to society.
For an artist, that is his everyday persona. But to consider that I have to look at my own darkness. I can relate to a video where Mel Gibson, who plays asdf in Lethal Weapon screams, “What do you want to hear man? That some days I think about eating a bullet. Well I have one for the special occasion with a hollow tip so that it blows the back of my goddamn head off. Every single day I wake up and I think of a reason not to.” The indecisive moments of feeling this way often turn people cold, and I get it. But to understand that passage is a person who can and will become the artist that they should.
The flip side is accepting that role of villainhood. Being a villain means to accept the will power of your own pleasure. To hold back when the enemy inside wants to grow fangs and then bite someone when they are down. To prevent takes acceptance. Walking through life is a struggle and the ability to keep those fangs sharp become one more step to accepting your darkness. To accept it means breaking down walls, because with that wall down, all the emotions that your characters need will have ready.
And sometimes, being in the world can break down so many walls, and the sadness and rage doesn’t feel so bad. It turns mediocre art into the art you would want people to see, fear, touch, and be proud to collect, because you didn’t waste their time on happy thoughts in an unessary moment. To be dark is to accept your inner peace, but also, come to the light and see what you can say, in order to not lose yourself to chaos and rage. Because darkness, accepting it, like an acid rain, becomes like second nature, and nothing will ever make you afraid to confront the dark truth in your fiction.
How to do that requires a few steps in the chain of becoming smarter or at least a little more cunning. Sometimes people use drugs in order to break through preexisting walls in order to find the reality they seek, but turn out usually addicted to drugs. So maybe one major trip, but whichever drug or way to break through the walls, is up to each individual writer. Developing a sensor, as some people can’t fully hear some truths, but accepting darkness allows you to smile at dumb actions people make. And noting it is why you must find what makes you truly tick, if you accept the darkness.
Because in that darkness, through the unlikely fact of trudging through the darkness does take a psychological toll. It’s being a good person, in art and life, makes you remember what the psychological persona of your art must bring. To understand darkness is to understand the value of darkness within the work, and can make life a little more bearable.
Another point to make is admitting that darkness, if you aren’t too keen on accepting it, can also feel like a willed ignorance. Being busy all the time won’t stop depression. And sometimes, for the rest of every artist or critical thinker, it is also a chemical issue. For many, medication can also help people see clearly. So, instead of using drugs to break through walls, medication itself can maybe focus broken people’s souls, and then push the art toward a higher medium.
But is drugs/medication necessary to become an artist, because it doesn’t always mean that someone will be a great artist if you fix your wounds and accept your darkness. But then the commitment to accepting darkness must also find a way to express that darkness. It’s the direct expression of darkness that come from symbols that psychologist would ask the artist to find and become the next fascinating artist that you can become.
(JP really does have some great insights, and this really does present some other advice that I didn’t get to talk about.)
-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 20 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline Part 2: Chaos, The Data Chase, The Disintegrating Bloodline part 3: Solvè, The Disintegrating Bloodline (and the original text re-released in 2019), Apocalypse Soldier, The Data Chase, Selection: The First Book of the Life and Death Saga, and Blinking Eyes: The Second Book of the Life and Death Saga, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep, The City of Sand, The God of Curiosity, To the Moon and Back, The Villain Lives and The Villain Lives: The Divided Pinpoint, Come Home, Young One, City of Sand: Book 1: The Holy Terror, and The Voices Are Alive. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Phoenix. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouisBr88881650. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. His newest book, The City of Sand: Book 2: Jerusalem Ignited, is out now: https://www.amazon.com/City-Sand-Book-Jerusalem-Ignited/dp/1365979660/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1G8HAWZP73ZFO&keywords=Louis+Bruno+City+of+Sand+book+2&qid=1675772880&sprefix=louis+bruno+city+of+sand+book+2%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-1.
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