En-dark-enment

The Sunset Limited, a dramatic novel by Cormack McCarthy takes place some time after the character Black saves the other character White from throwing himself in front of a subway train in an attempt to kill himself.  The two men, back at Black's house, then discuss philosophical ideas like death, Heaven, religion, (T)truth, and forgiveness.

What stuck out the me was the constant juxtaposition between light and dark, black and white, maybe even good and evil (although neither of the characters are purely evil or purely good- so that may be a bit of a stretch), death and life.  These conflicts are personified by White and Black's existence in the story.

What I was really drawn to was White's mention of Enlightenment, and how when he felt like he had reached enlightenment he realized there was only darkness.  Enlightenment lead to darkness.  McCarthy took these typical allusions and flipped them upside down.  Only when we have realize the truth do we realize that there is nothing: darkness.

In the cinematic adaptation of the novel, White, played by Tommy Lee Jones says that he is the "professor of darkness." Let me break that down for ya...

Professor: keeper of knowledge, provides knowledge to others, expert in their field perhaps, leader

Darkness: (in traditional literature) ignorance, evil, wrong, etc.

Knowledge is supposed to lead to enlightenment and better understanding- but when the readers see that White is using this paradox of the professor of darkness we begin to question what we know as fact and truth.

This thought then lead me to Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"

So this brief explanation basically sums up the idea that darkness is only our biggest hope or best guess that what we know as truth is right.  Only once we pursue lightness do we find the truth.  But what if, like the professor said, the truth is simply darkness.