Am I alone in my long-standing animosity towards parallelograms and parallelepipeds? If I stare at a doorway for long enough, I sense a demonic presence staring right back at me. As if there is something plainly evil and inherently bad about it. Ever since I can remember, I see the shapes as spiritual indicators of something in the universe gone awry. It is especially obvious in the sterile architecture and corrupted technological advancements of modern society.
Every new building is a bleak rectangular prism, as is seemingly every new device. Every screen is a rectangle, and every button has become square. Sliced ultra processed bread sends us early to our coffin shaped graves. All (to me, at least) cryptic warnings that the system is using tools of progress to oppress our bodies and suppress our minds. Even now, I look at these paragraphs, and am filled with dread. But this is a place to store my stream of consciousness, the cycle of my thoughts, and if I don’t free them here…I will be caged in with them.
Circles, on the other hand, I’ve always found to be the source of goodness. A natural light shining upon our gridlocked existence. Instinctually, I’ve Ignored the fear of Ouroboros, and embraced the spherical warmth of the sun. It, too, transcended form and became a symbol to reflect all things invisible, yet unmistakably present.
The myth of Pandora’s box has gifted me the realization of flaws in my fear of certain shapes. I initially found it fitting that it was a box, of all things, which unleashed Hell onto mankind. Perhaps the translators shared my bigotry towards cuboids, since they mistakenly declared it was a box, when it was actually a jar. I find this an interesting sign. Humanity has collectively forced the square peg into the jar shaped hole.
Most interpretations of the myth contain the general consensus that the only good thing released from the box was hope. This is paired with the conclusion that what existed before Pandora’s action was a subconscious world.
Opening the box was akin to giving birth to cognition. If her curiosity rode upon the hope that there would be a good outcome, then I agree with the scholars. This is a story about hope’s place in the world, and the world’s place in cognition. A metaphor for the birth of consciousness through the “first” woman’s cursed curiosity. Where have we heard that before?
There's countless parallels between Pandora and Eve—who made the same mistake through a different shape. They are both mothers to mankind through one regrettable decision.
All of this to say, I don't think that box is bad anymore, and I don't necessarily think that hope is spherical. Rather, consciousness is a point. It is a fulfilled circle, and the parallelepiped is here to protect it. A vessel which the system uses against humanity time and time again, in a truly pointless and vain attempt to rid our consciousness of its beautiful child...
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