A review of the phrase "Innermost Kernel" in this journal
suggests the following meditation …
"Who am I?" — Existential cry
in "Zoolander" and "Zoolander 2."
A similar question occurs in "Peer Gynt" —
Ben Brantley in yesterday morning's print New York Times *
expressed a nihilistic view of Peer as an onion-peeler —
"Toward the end of Ibsen’s 'Peer Gynt,' a saga of self
under siege, the title character is discovered peeling
an onion, finding in the layers of that humble vegetable
a symbol for the chapters of an eventful life . . . .
… [the director’s] approach is the same one that Peer
applies to the onion: Keep stripping until you find the core.
Of course in Peer’s case what is finally found is
plenty of nothing, an apt conclusion for a man
for whom a solid self remains elusive."
I prefer a view from what Fitzgerald called
"the dark fields of the republic" — the Dordt College view —
* The Times — "A version of this review appears in print on May 26, 2016,
on page C3 of the New York edition with the headline:
'A Saga of Self-Identity, Stripped to Its Core, Still Provokes.' "