February 20, 2023
AUTHENTICALLY, WE ARE FALLEN...:
Destructive Authenticity in Full Focus : a review of The Whale (Gage Klipper, 2/20/23, Law & Liberty)
While we empathize with Charlie, it is not clear that we should to the extent that Aronofsky wants us to. A more "honest" assessment of Charlie's atonement would not reveal a strict mutual exclusivity between his identity and actions. One need not be a fundamentalist Christian to contend that raising Ellie in a stable family ought to have trumped his own desires--no matter how inherent they are to his being. Would the middle ground--postponing his own happiness for ten years until Ellie was grown--really have been such a terrible thing? Aronofsky would like us to think so, but to accept Charlie's atonement requires prioritizing subjective authenticity over moral obligation to others.
...morality is the attempt to rise above our authentic natures to the degree we are capable of.
Posted by Orrin Judd at February 20, 2023 12:00 AM