On Imperfection

"At the beginning of electronic music, some German studios claimed that they could make every sound that a natrual instrument could make - only better. They then discovered that all their sounds were marked by a certain uniform sterility. So they analysed the sounds made by clarinets, flutes, violins, and found that each not contained a remarkably high proportion of plain noise: actual scraping, or the mixture of heavy breathing with wind on wood: from a purist point of view, but the composers soon found themselves compelled to make synthetic dirt - to 'humanize' their compositions."
--Peter Brook

It seems to me that one of the essential human traits is imperfection. Most people would reply to this with a resounding duh, especially Christians. However, I don't just mean sinfulness, or even a proclivity for wrongdoing, though that may be a derivative. I believe that even a sinless person would be imperfect. Only God is perfect. That is why it meant lowering himself when Christ became a human being: He was still sinless, but no longer perfect.

I think of Tolkien's description of the elves of Middle Earth. They are almost ephemeral beings: ageless, wise, and profound in all, especially beauty. Whenever the mortal races interact with the elves, there is a distance kept, an incomprehension that stands in the way of comfort. Next to the elves, men and dwarves and hobbits all seem low and dirty, but they have their own richness, not necessarily better or more, simply different.

In writing dialogue, especially for plays and screenplays, one piece of advice I have heard often and to which I try to cling is that dialogue ought to have imperfections. No one uses perfect grammar when they speak. Maybe a few characters try here and there, but sooner or later, they will respond with a fragment. That is just the way we talk. Even in Shakespeare's verse, heightened language, some of the most interesting moments are when he breaks the rhythm of his iambic pentameter. One of my favourite lines in all of Shakespeare's plays is King Lear's line upon finding his daughter Cordelia dead: "Thoult come no more/Never, never, never, never, never." The regular iambic rhythm of "ba Bum ba Bum ba Bum" is replaced by halting trochaic feet: "Bum ba Bum ba Bum ba" It is almost as if, through the speech, you can hear his heart faltering. Imperfection finer than any that gives a diamond its true beauty. In the same way, though symmetry is what makes a face attractive, it is asymmetry that makes it stand out. Think of Marilyn Monroe and her famous "beauty mark." It was a mole--a mutation, a defect--but it is what made her beauty special.

I think this is why we find imperfection so beautiful. We are ourselves imperfect. We may find perfection admirable, but we do not connect to it as personally. It is distant, foreign. This is one of the reasons why God had to become human. We could not really know him otherwise. He had to share in our imperfection for us to truly be able to approach him, and in approaching him really approach the perfect Deity we so fear to know.