Tragedy and Paradox

   One topic we touched in class was paradox. Paradoxes are by definition direct contradictions, be they to the laws of nature or man, the senses, or popular opinion. We discussed how Jesus could be seen as a paradox; fully man, fully human.

   This image illustrates my favorite kind of paradox. Drawing Hands, an Escher lithograph, shows the brilliance of inevitability. It has to be, but you can't see how. One cannot come into being without the other. And yet... and yet somehow they are happening at precisely the same time. It's obligate symbiosis. Is that awesome, or what?

   Tragedy requires paradox. We determine what is tragic based on our personal views of how things are “supposed to work”. If we know anybody wearing green is committing a capital offense, we do not consider it tragedy when such a man is arrested. If we witness a story in our present state of mind, a man killed for such innocent behavior would be tragic. Had he worn it for an honorable reason, heritage or to remember a loved one, how much more so? Here is our tragic paradox. Had he contradicted his character, he would be living, but no longer honorable. As it rests, he is criminal and gentleman. (I realize this is a childlike example, but it is what I have at this time.)