Existential themes of Lexx
I originally wasn’t sure what you meant by ‘existential’ themes at first Warsaw . This philosophical term has a variety of permutations across quite distinct schools of thought, and it could even be argued that Lexx offers an essentialist view of the universe (existentialism’s alleged opposite).
Nonetheless, I think you’ve hit the ontological nail on the head by drawing attention to the apparent contradiction between essence and existence within Lexx, and a suggestive approach might consider the relation/tension between them. Thanks for suggesting it by way of your own considerations.
My understanding of existentialism’s basic meaning is its purported challenge to essentialism (an essense is that by which a thing is what it essentially is, as opposed to the contingincies or randomness of everyday existence). There are as many ‘existentialists’ (nietzche, kierkeggaard, heidegger, bultmann, satre, camus) as there are many ‘themes’ (eternal recurrence – cycle of time !- , anguish in the face of death, authenticity by way of facing up to death, demythologising life and death, radical freedom, absurdity of choices, etc). The trouble with existenialism is that offers another form of essentialism. If you recall, one of its essential mantras is ‘existence before essence’ – but that just renders the question of existence a Divine Predecessor (as an essence passed from one non/existent to another). It essentailises the question of existence my making it a part of the universe’s mode of being or essence.
It therefore seems to me that Lexx might encourage a comprehensive reading of many of these themes, especially how they may or may not relate to one another within the scheme of things (across the two universes, with respect to individual lives and particular choices, the meaning and consequences of various actions, etc).
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[ 14-05-2002: Message edited by: bonnee ]