“Lightning,
thunder, cloud-bursts, and hurricanes tore down the rude shelter of primitive
man and bowed his progeny in awe. This, according to the genetic psychologists,
is the reason so many of us, even today, still retain a wild terror of the more
violent manifestations of nature. But then, why are we not all victims of
astrophobia? Stranger still, why do some
of us feel, in place of fear, an actual fondness for these visible signs of
heavenly powers? Here again, it seems to me, the explanation offered is too
facile, too plausible, to be wholly true. Lightning is no longer the
mysterious, incomprehensible agency it once was; nevertheless, the astrophobiac
finds no sedative for his terror in the commonplaceness of electrical
appliances. Let the lightnings begin to play, and however securely he may be
housed, he seeks refuge in the deepest cellar, in the darkest closet, the
remotest hiding-place.
“There
would seem to be nothing wholly pagan in the composition of every phobia. The
man whose soul guards no secret chamber filled with thoughts and desires that
do violence to the commands of his god, has no abject terror of the storm. We
are not dealing here with any simple fear – the disinclination to be struck by
lightning which is the normal fear of normal persons. It is very possible that
in the warped mind of the astrophobiac, as he hides in his closets and under
beds, the lightnings of the storm are the bolts of an avenging God, striking surely
for the one who has transgressed His decrees.”
John Vassos
New York City
May 25th, 1931
No comments:
Post a Comment