Kent on Slide by Arthur Tress, 1979.Falling asleep: the concept is almost violent. A fall is an unco

Kent on Slide by Arthur Tress, 1979.Falling asleep: the concept is almost violent. A fall is an uncontrolled descent. Soldiers fall on the battlefield. It falls on the messenger to break bad news. Trauma makes us fall apart. To lose is to fall short. Adam and Eve fell from grace, fell into sin.Scientists say falling in love is a chemical imbalance that causes us to lose perspective, like an hallucinatory drug.Yet fall is also one of the most beautifully simple words in the English language. The vowel sound emerges like a musical note. It feels like it could last forever, peaceful and languid. Hemingway begins In Another Country using the word poetically: “In the fall the war was always there…” Those nine syllables are a dream written on paper.Despite the connotations, sometimes falling, as when we give up, is an oddly comforting sensation. Fading, relinquishing responsibility: the prospect is hard to resist, like the summoning song of the Sirens. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, celebrates the decision of the mythical soldier to keep up the good fight, “to seek, to strive, to find and not to yield.” Siegfried Sassoon (a real soldier who captured a German trench on his own initiative during the First World War, scattering 60 of the enemy) welcomes the end, with relief instead of bitterness:Falling asleep … the herons, and the hounds…. September in the darkness; and the world I’ve known; all fading past me into peace.Tress gives us an image of a young man falling into sleep–but he doesn’t plunge to his fate: he glides. Supported by the structure of the slide, he’s safe and comforted. Lit like an angel, he remains in a state of grace, falling into Eden instead of falling out of it.Children sometimes fight against falling asleep, not trusting the adult assurance that gratification can be delayed until another day. Yet, as adults, we sometimes have to fight to fall asleep, as stress and worry keep us awake.Sleep is a battle of letting go, of giving in to the fall, even though nightmares may be waiting for us on the other side. (Previously, Tress created a series of photographs depicting children’s most vivid dreams, some of which verged on horror.)Is dying like going to sleep, letting go and retiring from the war?Dylan Thomas told his father, “Don’t go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”I think I’d prefer to fall like Kent on the slide, naked, eyes closed, body open, welcoming the descent into unconsciousness. -- source link

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