archaim

Yeah, all this time, Bart thinks the reason people aren’t trying to stop her is because the universe is protecting her from consequences, but actually, the people who don’t stop her are just being people. The universe has nothing to do with their choices not to intervene. They see a crazed woman with blood matting up her hair, and either they think she’s part of a TV show being filmed, or they’re just relieved she’s not paying attention to them and so just keep walking, because they don’t want to get involved. They talk about her later, sure, but talking about something and doing something about it are two very different energies.

A lot of what is attributed to ‘‘the will of the universe,” as it turns out, is just people choosing not to help. The universe itself, as it seems apparent in Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, is motivated to help people. This is seen again and again in who it chooses to place on its “holistic” path: Amanda can’t stand to see people die and will do anything it takes to protect them; Bart unnervingly finds the worst of humanity and destroys it before it can hurt anyone else; The Rowdy 3 protect and adopt every outsider they can find because they care; Dirk himself is an exercise in wanting so badly to help people that he would abandon all chances at his own life being in any way good to him, if he can only keep saving the lives of others. Then we have Francis, who builds “a perfect world,” which is tellingly one in which there is no discrimination or true conflicts, not until an outside force intervenes with it, and Mona, who could be anything in the world, but chooses to be a person who leaps in front of vulnerable people to take bullets for them if it will only help save them, and who thinks it’s more important to be good than to be right. The universe picks people who want to help, and who are able to help, because the universe thinks helping is the right choice.

Bart thinks the universe is swinging her around carelessly. She doesn’t realize part of this might just be the callous people she has encountered, their own free will dictating the degree of their apathy, and her own direction forcing her to encounter such people so frequently that it is hard for her to see the repeating pattern as being a human choice, not a predestined one.

And Dirk? He thinks he brings nothing but chaos to his surroundings, without realizing that the same chaos would be there, whether or not he was involved, but the universe puts him there because it knows he will try to do something about it. He will not sit idly by and simply watch as the unfolding chaos hurts people. He will try to stop it. He will not be apathetic. He will help those who are being affected by it, and the universe loves and favors those who help.

I go back and forth with the idea of the universe in Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency being either wholly uncaring, or unbelievably sympathetic, in a way not easily understood. I think an argument can be made for either.

To quote Wakti Wapnasi, “And alongside those, there exists free will.”

but icarus for dirk can be interpreted in different ways.

why is dirk is called icarus? could he have actual physical abilities, like wings or flying that we just haven’t seen yet? because he’s closely connected to the workings of the universe, thanks to his power & it tends to be too close & things blow up in his face?

why did they choose icarus of all mythological “creatures”?

dirk is more mysterious & complex than most of the others, even though he’s the main character & I love it.

And imagine him meeting young Svlad. A boy with a ‘dangerous gift’ he’s not ready to control. A boy whose impulsive actions make him incredibly frustrating to be around, and may even seem to others like he’s deliberately attempting to increase risk. Like the mythological Icarus, he’s confusing and aggravating when you don’t know his backstory and can’t understand why he would behave so irrationally as to fly into the sun. 

But Icarus himself is a sympathetic character. He’s a child who spent his adolescence unjustly imprisoned in a dark, isolated maze, where scary monsters lurk in the shadows. He’s trapped by water on all sides - much like the way character’s describe the universe as a stream they drift in, water they sink into, or even a sea that can sweep them under to drown.

On top of that, Icarus is of an age where he follows his impulses, rushes into the unknown, chases temptation and ignores warnings of danger, much how Dirk and Bart seem to follow their hunches. Giving such a boy the ability to fly makes it his own ‘dangerous gift’ that spins out of his control, but Icarus is a child who’s never felt the sun on his face. Icarus is punished for seeking knowledge of the sun that man wasn’t meant to know, but you can forgive him for getting drunk on that fizzy, ecstatic feeling of freedom and flying too high.

Naming Svlad after ‘Icarus’ is in some way an acknowledgement that there is an explanation to his actions, one that if people understood, they’d feel much more kindly about him.

But more importantly, Icarus also has a father, Daedalus. Who is a kind and generous genius. He created the prison they are trapped in, but he uses all of his intelligence to help Icarus. He creates the wings that will help Icarus fly over that sea that keeps him trapped, but he also imposes the limits that should clearly guide him to safety and freedom, if only Icarus can reign in his own impulses. The consequences for disobeying his paternal wisdom is to drown. ‘Icarus’ becomes a promise and a warning to the boy, all in one.

Because the story of Icarus can primarily be read as a moral on self-control. Healthy-mindedness comes from moderation, from being guided by knowledge and balance. It’s allowing your rational self to limit your flights of fancy. Which is rather ironic, considering Black Wing’s end goal of imposing their arcane categories on the overwhelmingly practical tools of the universe - trying to cast a normal detective in the role of a mysterious god, or describing a simple actress as a variable physical non-constant. 

Here it is; my latest “Best Work™”