Spider-man. Venom. One is mild mannered, has a nerdy alter ego, is seen as the struggling, insecure teenager in all of us. He has family ties, though most of them are broken, but before they break they instill something deep within him, grounding who he is and who he will become: with great power comes great responsibility. Thanks, Uncle Ben. Why did you have to die?
The other is more powerful, dangerous, violently angry, out of control. Carrying Venom on his back is like carrying an addiction, you never know who’s got whom or when it’s going to take over. Sometimes he doesn’t want to fight to try to regain control. The rush, the power, the freedom from restraint and the ability to destroy is too great of a high. But the fear, the loss of control, the potential to hurt the very ones he cares most about (Aunt Mae, Mary Jane, himself), keeps bringing him back.
Last night I dreamed I was both.
Spider-man and Venom. Venom and Spider-man. Two sides, one person, probably the sides of all of us. But wait, this goes beyond the double personality, the alter ego, but splits even further into multiple personalities. There’s the ego (Peter), the superego (Spidey, living for the people, larger than life, the responsible if sarcastic moral superhero), and the id (Venom, the growing, uncontrollable demon). Take Venom a step further and you have Carnage, total destructive force, total chaos, a killing machine without a conscience. It’s Venom taken to the extreme, Venom without the balancing impulses of Peter and Spidey, so dangerous that Spider-man and Venom put their differences aside long enough to take on a greater evil. Venom is bad, Carnage is horrific.
5 comments:
Good interpretation. We definitley all have both sides to us, it's just about working to show the good side more often and making that the person we really are.
Okay, is Venom a character in the comic, because I don't remember him from the movie, but I heard (I haven't seen any of those trailers-not my scene)that the next villian is called Venom and may be played by Heath Ledger (oh, goody!) So I need to think on this. What EP says makes me think of Jungian balance within ourselves--since you speak of addiction, did you know that Carl Jung actually wrote to Bill W. and told him that he thought alcoholism (and thus addiction) is man's way of reaching out to God and wholeness? So if you are Venom who is like (simile) or is(metaphor) an addiction, what wholeness do you require in your Spiderman self? Again, this doesn't have to be answered because it's none of my business.
And by the way--you are both. And so am I.
I feared that Carnage had whisked you away for some destruction just prior to our dinner the other night. Glad to see I was wrong.
Hey Everyone,
Thanks for the comments. Getting ready for school has been kicking my butt, but thanks for reading. I'll be commenting to your individual posts soon and am looking forward to catching up with your blogs too. Until then, poor excuse on my part :(
EP,
Good thoughts. I've been thinking lately about the kinds of people "we" want to become and how we then feed that person. We like to portray our best selves, and yet feed our darker selves under the table, sometimes more than the selves we want to project. Seems like somewhere in there we have to become more honest. I was struck by the Freudian psychology connections that could be made to Spider-man, never saw it before. Thanks for commenting. Got me thinking.
EOR,
Always great to hear from you. I didn't see this as a projection of myself, though yes, I acknowledge there are the "good", "bad" and other sides of ourselves. I'm not sure who Bill W. is (could you tell me more?) and am interested in how alcoholism/addiction might be a way of reaching out to God. Is it a cry for help? A reason for something to fill us yet knowing it won't? Or do we think it will?
Brooke,
Superman posting is on its way, and hopefully--someday--a book on superheroes and culture. lol, no Multiple Personality here, though I think Sarah, Matthew, Corbin and Marcus would disagree with that one (they're partying hard inside, so they asked that you not disturb them and come back later).
Fatty,
Good points. I think my main face is often laid back and easy going, while sometimes the anger comes out (Alastor would say mostly behind the wheel), and yes, I think those different aspects can be healthy, where in different circumstances and with different people, we need to respond, well, differently, showing our different sides.
I think part of intimacy in relationship is feeling the freedom to show the different faces, not just the "nice" one that seems to be the primary mask, and know that you're still loved/accepted. Disciplined, maybe, confronted, okay, but still loved.
Rob,
Sorry again about the mixup. Just remember, cabbage.
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