The Filth continued...

The Filth is beginning to really intrigue me. It gets more disturbing as I continue reading, however what is also happening is that pieces are breaking out that explain there is more to this comic than meets the eye. The third book got me hooked when Slade was able to look back at life as Greg and grows more aware of what is happening. The fourth and fifth books continue with the strange storyline, but at this point with the books, I am able to laugh at it and enjoy the stories more. That thought scares me, but excites me at the same time. On one hand my mind is opening and on the other I’m technically laughing at pornography and violence.
Book 3, Structures and Ultrastructures, made me feel pity for Slade. He was able to see his life as Greg. Greg is tied up in a closet and Tony the cat is sick. Another thing that was interesting was when he saw the stoners standing outside his window. The life that these kids were leading is similar to the one that Greg was leading. Both are dead end roads. One teenager made the comment, “Ah, I wish something great would happen.” But really, when they are standing in an alley high, what great thing is likely to happen? Similar to Greg’s life, nothing great was happening on his path of a porn addiction and owning a cat. There was even a point when a mom looks through the window at Slade, but I assume she thought it was Greg, and said to her daughter “Don’t look at that man, Laurie, Love. He’s not nice.” This too proves that Greg’s life was borderline meaningless. As the cat is dying I wonder if Greg will soon die also, yet this chapter does give hope to the reader, with the fact that he is still alive period.
Book 3 also gives you a look into what Slade is meant to accomplish. With the characters Adam and Eve, we see that the goal is to restore free will to the universe. This is a hard concept to grasp. One can see how it would seem that we do not have free will. Humans are easily manipulated and although we make our own choices, how are we to prove that those choices weren’t already made for us and we were tricked into them. For example, if I made the choice to buy a new phone. I may think I am doing this for myself, but the advertisement I saw on TV last week really made the decision for me. This can happen in so many larger aspects of life. However on the other hand, that choice was still ours. Adam and Eve also represent original sin. Greg has made his own choices to sin many times. Can one make the excuse that they were manipulated when in the end they participated in that sin? It’s a fine line.
In book 4, Slade was told that every man and woman has a unique personal cloud that follows you everywhere you go. My original thought was that this cloud was your conscience, which would tie this into the concept of good vs. evil. In this story, Slade would be the evil, the bad conscience, yet how can we consider Greg to be the good? Another idea that was brought up was that we are all only angels weighed down by filth. When I think of it that way, it is easier to see where Greg is good, but he is weighed down by filth. This is a unique way to view people, but I agree with it. I have spent a lot of time lately evaluating what is weighing me down in my life. As I read The Filth, I can’t help but think more and more about what the filth in my life is. The hardest part is eliminating that filth. Book 4 then brought forward the idea that internal voices can tell us to love and hate. This is true, but is it also true that we only hear the voice of the eternal germ? It’s an easy trap to fall into and a terrible habit to break.
Although book 5 is too difficult to even put into words, I was interested in the idea of “fuck of be fucked.” This reminded me of what was brought up in class, the idea that the point of this book is that life is messy but someone has to clean it up. In the end, the enemy is from within and we can blame other people and manipulation all we want, but really the only person to blame is ourselves. It is becoming more and clearer that this book is a metaphor for the way that we live.