(no subject)
You've probably all been asked the question, what superpower would you have? And probably all found it difficult to answer.
After all, there are so many. Flight, invisibility, strength, speed, all these things that make us extra, outside of, more than human. I'm sure there are reasons for what ever we pick, and i'm certain it indicates quite a bit about ourselves, what we crave, what we feel we lack.
The longing and craving for these powers, well, I think part of it is the appeal of revenge, the chance ot get back, to show them you *are* something special. Look at Peter Parker, the nerd. Look and Bruce Banner, quiet scientist. Look at Neo even, hacker, looser, outcast. Look at the fans of the comic book genre.
Part of the appeal is ego boost, to please others, to please ourselves, and that's always been the basis of my choice of power.
Flight- I am better than you. I have something amazing to show you.
Invisibility- The appeal of the voyeur, the forbidden, the power you have over others.
Animal transformations- I have knowledge you will never have.
Even hogwarts, to because a Wizard is to be part of an elite.
But it occurred to me the other day, the power i would pick would be the ability to know absolute truth.
It is the most terrifying and most gratifying thing i can think of. I used to compile this list in my head, when i was younger, of things i would ask God when i got to heaven. Because God knows all, sees all, remembers all. He is truth.
Things like, what was Richard III really like? Who wrote Shakespeare's sonnets? Who was the first person to speak of Lilith? My brother really did steal my packet of starburst when i was 6, didn't he? How were the crop circles made? Where is Atlantis?
This endless list. The thought of knowing these things was powerful, and intriguing. I wanted to. I had to.
Atheism changed that, i guess, though i've neglected to think about it. But somewhere is my mind it says these things are still knowable. They have to be. I don't think i could live if the past was uncertain, unknowable, and would always be so.
Which brings me to Nineteen Eighty-Four.
One of the most horrifying and powerful ideas in that was the alteration of the past, and the idea of solipsism.
I remember O'Brien saying that the laws of nature didn't matter, that he could lift of the floor if he wanted to. And Smith realizing later that if O'Brien thought he did, and Smith thought it too, then it may as well of happened. Then it did happen.
What i lost in God was the idea of absolute truth.
I actually craved, while reading 1984, the freedom to drop to your knees and pray. When they tortured him, when they changed him, if i were in his position, i know i would have wanted nothing more than to close my eyes and say, "Hail Mary, thou art full of grace."
Perhaps it's about the freedom to be able to do that.
Perhaps it was about the idea that someone is watching, someone is caring, someone knows that 2+2 equals 4. It is too dangerous to put human existence into human hands, and perhaps it was about the craving to reject that idea. Because look what happens when it is? They say it equals five. They make you love him.
-sighs- Ah, but it would kill you, to know absolute truth. It would tear you apart.
...I want it anyway.
So, people...what superpower would you have?