Life or Art?

I was watching Parfum, a German psychological murder TV series on Netflix when the husband walked in from his call. He has seen me watching the weirdest stuff on TV from serial killer documentaries to thrillers to dark fantasies, filled with orgies. One day, he saw me watching a stand up comedy and was actually shocked to see me laughing. I do laugh, secretly, a lot.

So, Parfum the TV series is based on the book Perfume - The Story of a Murderer, but doesn't have the same story at all. The book, which I've just ordered to read was hugely popular and was made into a film, which I have watched before.

In the series, there are killings and tissue from the scent glands (hair, underarms and genitals) is extracted from the victims to make a powerful love perfume. Even I had to toughen my stomach to watch it. When my husband walked into the room, he saw the scene where two teenagers are killing another to extract his glands.

"Why do you watch this gory stuff? What happens if someone young and easily influenced watches this and tries to recreate it?"

Interesting question. After I told him he doesn't have to watch if he doesn't want to, and a lecture on how fascinating human psychology is, followed by, should people stop writing or making movies about murder completely, I then started thinking.

Does Life really imitate Art or is it the other way around? If there was a book that questioned your morality and made you sympathise with the killer, it has been 'Crime and Punishment'. But millions of people still read it and not commit murders. 

Life does imitate Art, no doubt about it. We are the books we read, the music we listen to, the ads we watch. They don't become us, but leave their traces in our system. Some we absorb and discard, others become a part of our mindset so powerfully that it is difficult to distinguish them from us. 

I have read thousands of books, loved a few of them, but there is only one character that hit me so hard that I tried imitating her, mainly because her logic made sense to me at that young age. Sarah Woodruff and her 'Taint yourself so people can't judge you any more' was dangerously oversimplified and prevented her from taking brave decisions to better herself or get into meaningful relationships. But only as I grew older, did I see the follies of getting enraptured by fictional characters. 

Maybe my husband is right, maybe young people are easily influenced. I remember reading about the teenager who killed himself influenced by Kurt Cobain's death with his music playing on loop. Does Art have to be responsible or does it just need to be?

Art imitates Life too. Again and again. Where else will Art get its inspiration from? If there was no murders, there would be no books about murders. If there was no love triangles or infidelity there would be no tv series made on it, which Netflix these days seems to be a champion of. 

Every second show on Netflix seems to be centred around the themes of polyamory or bisexuality. Is it because it's really happening in the world around us or because the content we are subjected to subconsciously brainwashes us to believe it is real? 

One of my American friends who was a right winger used to crib about how channels like Netflix which are part of the new world order are out to degrade us. I laughed at him then, but lately I have been questioning everything.

I am a sceptic in many ways, so I always view television, movies and the media with an eye to propaganda. Don't be fooled into thinking you have a right to choose because there are no happy families to watch. The world of Netflix is a dark one. Enter at your own risk.

So Life does imitate Art but far less than Art imitates Life. My poor husband has nothing to be scared of so far. I do have a filter to know what is right or wrong. And hopefully other humans do too. We watch or read/write about what we can never do. That explains the popularity of Masterchef.

Except murder. Of course, we can do that.

Just kidding.