The Girl Who Kissed the Dragon Slayer

Lisbeth Salander is a tortured soul. Her childhood is the stuff of nightmares (literally), with abuse, rape and neglect figuring prominently. And she is clever: endowed with a photographic memory, a kickboxing champ and master computer hacker, she has a skill set which would make your girl friend envious, and which makes a man think twice before buying her a drink. But when life quiets down, night falls and the demons come out. Want it or not, Salanders past reels its ugly head…and pushes her to do things. We shall stop here, both so we do not spoil the plot and because this is not intended to be a film review. Lisbeth is a bit like a female Bourne (more so than “Salt”, in my opinion), and like him, she has “issues”. What makes the books and films about her (and Bourne) so popular? Is it simply the violence and suspense? I suggest not. What resonates so profoundly with many of us is the struggle of an individual to overcome the odds and wrestle with one’s demons, with the past that threatens to undo our lives. And we all have demons, small or large, things from our upbringing, things we have done or failed to do, which haunt us. Yet we refuse to believe that we are simply the fruit of our upbringing; there must be freedom, and so we cheer for the one who seems to beat the odds and affirms his or her free will. In the process many of them of course also seek out the help of a therapist, since being faster than one’s shadow is only given to Lucky Luke, not real human beings.

In the 1500s another tortured soul contemplated night, darkness and demons and made an astounding discovery. While he sat in prison where supposed friends had thrown him into, he experienced a presence which seemed to transcend and transform the night of his experience; he no longer felt alone, but understood and loved. And so his weakness was not something to run from, since it had turned out to be the gateway through which divine grace could enter his life. John of the Cross (that is his name) spends chapters and books speaking of the “blessed night” which heals neuroses, bestows peace and makes men whole. At the heart of it is the realization that there is God out there who loves humanity in all its brokenness and who indeed has shared that brokenness by becoming one of them. Therefore every experience of suffering, loneliness and dejection does no longer have to feed mental disorder and angst, but can serve as the gateway to mystical experience. I wonder what will happen if Lisbeth ever reads John’s “Dark Night of the Soul”? Might there be a sequel…?