15th October 2020
The Maker is not a new YouTube video, it has been around for a couple of years already. However, as it's absolutely phenomenal in its use of symbolism to convey a univerasaly true message, I'd like to take a closer look at it and write a few observations.
The video shows an antropomorphic, bunny-like creature, which undertakes the task of creating and animating a new creature with the symbolically masculine ancestral knowledge and the symbolically feminine artistic flow. All of this is is done despite the fact, that the bunny doesn't know where it came from and what is the world about.
The video begins with the bunny opening his eyes and gaining consciousness. He is stunned, confused, bewildered. He just grew up, his childhood has ended. He's just tasted the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. When were kids we think that adults actually know what the world is about. We think that they've already figured everything out and that the older generations know what they're doing. This comes to an end at some point in life. Sooner for some, later for others. We learn that many of adults have no idea what they're doing and that the greatest philosophies of the world (although they came up with a few good ideas), haven't reached a consensus regarding who we are and what it's all about.
What is clearly accentuated is the duality of the bunny. It's a carnal creature, made of clay, fabric and cotton, but it also has a violin symbol on its forehead – that's his soul, his capability to produce art and his connection with the spiritual realm.
Having opened his eyes, the bunny sees a laboratory and a large book. That's the ancestral knowledge, which we inherit from our forefathers, that's the morals as well.
Bunny's adulthood officialy begins with the flip of the hourglass – after all life is eternal for children, but adults have a constant sense that time is running out and that death is coming. And here comes the heroic decision of the bunny. Although he doesn't know where he came from and what it's all about, he doesn't plunge into nihilism or despair. He couragely confronts the condtions of his existence and starts exploring the moral and scientific knowledge of his ancestors.
He sees the blueprint for another bunny and instantly concludes that that's what he has to do. He fashions the creature in accordance with the guide. He fashions it after himself. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them – as someone wrote.
The books, laboratory and other tools of science is not enough to complete the work. The pink bunny is asleep, it's inanimate, unconscious. He tries tools, books, mechanisms, the library, but it becomes apparent that the logos itself is not enough to prolong the process of creation.
After some time, bunny discoveres music – that's what's been lacking. That is the missing Yin element. Although the beings are made of flesh – the Yang, they need a Yin souls in order to become complete. Bunny loses himself in the artistic flow of a violin concerto and the pink bunny is awoken. The parent meets their adult child for the first time. The creature meets God. They share a brief, but beautiful moment of unity.
The book of ancestral knowledge is passed on. Then the time runs out – the snake bites its own tail. The maker dies and the cycle resets. We find the pink bunny in the exact same spot as the blue bunny was at the beginning. It's up to him to decide whether to create new existence or not.
The Maker seems to be saying that the meaning of life is not to be found in the explicit search of meaning, but in the process of creating and prolonging existence itself. It might be the process of parenting a child, being a politician and nurturing a next generation of citizen or even creating a new universe, a new simulation within our own.
After all, what else is there to do?
dd
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