“God is not mocked. As a man sows, so shall he reap.” Galatians
6:7. Sceptics, and even believers,
might well contest the accuracy of Paul’s contention. God, it would seem, is often successfully
mocked. The makers of The Life of Brian did not suffer the
consequences of divine displeasure. Some
Nazis were executed, true; but others escaped justice in South America.
Paul does not, of course, say that mockers will necessarily face the
consequences in this life. Sceptics will see that as a cop out; for it
is thereby unprovable that those who mock will be punished. And yet, in some instances at least, the
consequences are not confined to the hereafter…
In Gorky Park, an atheist
enters a church and invites God to strike him down. Nothing happens. Proof positive: God doesn’t exist. Shortly afterwards, however, this modern
Prometheus dies when hit by a car.
Coincidence?
Gorky Park, granted, is only a
novel. The author is teasing us. But there have been some strange real-life
equivalents…
In 1968, Ramon Polanski made Rosemary’s
Baby. In 1969 came the visit to the
Polanski home by the Manson clan, and the murder of Sharon Tate. Willy Rey, the beautiful Playboy centrefold, died of a drug overdose after becoming
embroiled in black magic. Coincidences,
both. Or two instances of who sups with
the Devil should use a long spoon.
Given their gifts of physical beauty, a surprising number of playmates
have taken the suicide route by overdose: enough to raise a query about the
unqualified benefits of the hedonistic lifestyle. And then, of course, there was Dorothy
Stratten: murdered by her jealous estranged husband for the centrefold
appearance that he himself had suggested.
Pasolini’s final fling in 1975 was 120
Days of Sodom. He died hideously in
the same year: run over seven times with
his own car in an attack that crushed his bones and his testicles. De Sade would have approved. Responsible for such gems as Behind the Green Door and Debbie Does Dallas, the Mitchell brothers
fell out with one another about Artie’s drug addiction, and Artie was shot
fatally by Jim. Mary Ann Leneghan, playing
off rival drug dealers against one another, was raped, tortured and hideously
murdered in a Reading car park.
But maybe one does not need to bring God into all this at all. Maybe certain lifestyles simply generate
their own sad outcomes.
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