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Owlwise's Replies
If you're older than a child and still can't comprehend why greed is ultimately a destructive trait, then there's no helping you to gain the emotional growth that it requires. I can only hope for your sake that somehow you do eventually gain that emotional growth. Otherwise your life and worldview will remain sadly narrow and limited. Human existence is far more than the by-the-book literalism that seems to be your modus operandi. I just feel badly for you. You are missing out on a deeper dimension of life.
Yes, the difference between the inner-directed life & the other-directed life! :)
You give a fine & heartfelt analysis of the film indeed.
Well said!
I've always seen this as a midlife movie in some respects. George has done all the right things, setting aside his own wishes for most of that time ... and now his world is crumbling around him anyway. What did his life ever mean? The fantasy element could easily be seen as what's going on in his psyche, where the negative impulses created by unspoken resentment, feelings that the world has been unfair, etc., are struggling against his better nature, which knows that he's actually accomplished a great deal & that his life has indeed been meaningful, both to himself & to the entire town.
Most people, when they get to a certain age, have these questions & self-doubts. Some sadly succumb to their shadow side, others work through it & come to a greater, deeper, richer self-knowledge of themselves.
He doesn't grasp what the rest of us already know, sad to say. He might even think A Christmas Carol has a bad ending.
The key phrase is "more than a person needs."
If you're generally happy with yourself & your life, if you've developed a strong inner life, knowing what really matters in the long run, then a philosophy of "More! More! More!" is just sad & absurd, pointing towards an inner emptiness that no amount of money or possession will ever fill.
What's wrong with "want more?" A psychologist might be able to tell you, or a philosopher, or a genuinely spiritual teacher. For example, if you told me that I could be the richest person in the world, but that I'd have to give up my wife, I wouldn't hesitate to stay with my wife & to hell with all that money. There isn't enough money in the world to even begin to compensate for losing the most meaningful part of my existence.
Interestingly, quite a few sociological studies have indicated that constantly seeking more & more & more does NOT correlate to increasing happiness. In fact, it seems obvious that someone who always wants More can never be truly happy, because there's always More to get. And yet no matter how much they do get, it's never enough.
Yes, we all need a certain baseline of security. But for those who have grown inwardly, those who are emotionally & psychologically secure within themselves, "want more" is a death trap. It isn't constantly getting More that makes life better, it's having Enough. That's maturity.
But it's not just about politics, though. It's about the essential human condition, especially the dangerously & darkly absurd side of the human condition. It show how our best impulses are all too easily & much too frequently pushed aside by human pettiness, ambition, one-dimensional thinking, and just plain sheer stupidity,
No argument there, I agree. The surrealism & psychological aspects of the show are what make it so darkly poetic, enduring, and timeless. It's about nothing less than the often embattled & precarious state of each one of us in this modern world, and all the more relevant today, when people willingly outsource their humanity to devices, and eagerly seek to become "brands" & commodities rather than fully realized individual human beings.
If it were a completely new series, unrelated to Star Trek, they might be able to do something with it. But as it is, they just seem to want to ignore/deconstruct/destroy what makes Star Trek, Star Trek. It's really bad fan fiction, from "edgy" wannabes.
He was always so good in anything he did.
And his role in Marty as one of the guys who invites Marty to come along with some really wild girls. He's both brash and then later sadly let down as the excitement of telling his story runs out of steam.
Just watched it again last night. It really is the most Christmasy of Christmas movies, in its evocation of a mood & of sweet memories made even sweeter & more precious over time.
Well, we're old enough to remember the nightmarish insanity of those days, and the harm they did to so many innocent people. The McMartin School, for instance, and similar cases all across the country.
Midnight In Paris might not be one of Woody's finest films from an artistic viewpoint, perhaps, but it's a lot of fun, very sweet & charming, quite rewatchable, I think.
I actually like some of the serious stuff, but agree that the blend of comedy & drama is where Woody really excels.
Just watched this again last night on the Criterion DVD, and it's still just as charming & enchanting as it was to me as a child, all those decades ago.
I don't know that Dylan is a conscious liar; it may well be that she actually believes what she says, as her brother Moses once did before he grew older & thought about things for himself. In which case she is a victim, but not of Woody Allen, rather of Mia Farrow.
Personally, I love Midnight In Paris!
You're being remarkably patient in keeping up the good fight against willful ignorance in this thread.
"Self-realization" is the exact word. :)
Genuine hippies (there were quite a lot of superficial wannabes) were striving for that very thing. The only real problem is that they (we) were so young, often unable to see the difference between faddish fleeting aspects (the outward trappings) and what was real & vital in the long run (the inner life). But this is part of being young & feeling as if there's all the time in the world. I don't dismiss the pursuit of joy & immediacy; it's important to have & appreciate those parts of life. But there's also hard work over the long haul, often painful work, in the process of growing. Tolkien's long-lived characters of wisdom & deep knowledge embodied that: Gandalf, the Elves, Treebeard, etc.
I'll admit to mixed feelings about technology, even as I do so over this computer. The unease over what technology might do the human beings is part of the English Romantic tradition, which carried over to America in the likes of Emerson & Thoreau. My objections are only focused on those who think all technology is good & only good. But like all aspects of human life, it's a double-edged sword & casts its own shadows. I guess I'd say that for me, technology is part of the whole, but not the entirety of the whole in & of itself, as some tend to think.
"The hippie and 'The Man'" is a wonderful way of putting it, then!
I find it interesting that Tolkien shares that quality with Patrick McGoohan, both of them devout Catholics, both of them troubled by some of the ways society was developing, both of them wanting to preserve what was best & most nourishing in past traditions, and both of them addressing their concerns & beliefs through a deeply personal work of art that continues to enthrall new generations. And both of them in some ways "The Man" while also being countercultural in their own way, and embraced by young people. "Countercultural" in the broadest sense of the word, delving into the prevailing culture & critiquing it, I mean.
I'm really enjoying this discussion. :)
I can easily imagine Tolkien studiously delving into the derivation & development of the word "nerd" as well. :)
Agree that he would had heartily disliked the merchandising of something so deeply personal & meaningful to him & to countless devoted readers. There's a good reason many of his first enthusiastic readers were among the then-current counterculture: the simple joys of life, the love of Nature & environmental concerns, the antipathy to power & to those who obsess over it so destructively, the importance of living with a deeper purpose & transcendent meaning to existence, the encounter & communion with the Sacred. I know that Tolkien had rather mixed feelings about some of his flakier hippie admirers, but the best of them found much to admire & respect in his work.
He doesn't have a clue that he doesn't have a clue. Dunning-Kruger in action.