Aw man, i'm confused. Help me?
Just watched a film, on film four i think, called The Escapist. Not great, by any means. But my confusion is as follows;
At the end, the main character didn't escape. It was all a fantasy. His 'escapism', was his imagination. Effectively, it was all dream.
Gwwwrgh.
Now, this reminds me of the time me mum lent me the book 'The Life of Pi', with her recommendation. There's me, reading reading, enjoying it, nicely written, clever, unusual. Then, at the end (if i remember rightly), there's a strong insinuation that none of the story was true and that the boy (Pi), had made the whole thing up.
Yes. Thats the fictional main character. I was ANGRY that a fictional made-up character had made up some fiction within a fictional made-up novel.
As i said, I felt kind of angry. A bit cheated. Said to my mum "Man that books was annoying. Was really into it, and then, it turned out to be all made up....pffrt."
And, inevitably, my mother eloquently pointed out the ermm, inherently spirally twisted logic at the root of my upset.
....and i felt pretty stoopid.
And yet STILL angry.
Of course, i still tried to argue along the lines of; "yeah, but i was buying into that fiction, and the least it could do would be to have the decency to maintain it's own internal reality, and, and,......"
But my heart wasn't really in it anymore.
So, i don't know.
Say, for instance, the last line of Lord of the Rings*, was; 'And Frodo woke up from his afternoon nap, safe in the Shire, and thought 'My, what a long and peculiar dream'.......
Well, that'd be kind of redonkulous, and massively annoying.
My reaction i think would be, well, largely unprintable. What, so none of that stuff HAPPENED??!?! WHAT a F&%king HEINOUS waste of my PRECIOUS time!!??? I spent WEEKS reading this F£$KING B*llocking long-arse piece of SH*T!?! Dirty......%&*%&*&%**% tolkien mother @&^^*^&^&%$& 'stard......
None of it happened Tom, either way. Regardless. As soon as you close the book, you are reminded (as if you needed to be) that it was FICTION. So, what am i so uptight about?
I don't get it. Whats the big problem?
Genuinely, i want some other opinions on this......
(* I have never read Lord of the Rings. Maybe it does say that at the end, and they just cut it out of the film**)
(** Then again, i've never seen the film either.)
Just watched a film, on film four i think, called The Escapist. Not great, by any means. But my confusion is as follows;
At the end, the main character didn't escape. It was all a fantasy. His 'escapism', was his imagination. Effectively, it was all dream.
Gwwwrgh.
Now, this reminds me of the time me mum lent me the book 'The Life of Pi', with her recommendation. There's me, reading reading, enjoying it, nicely written, clever, unusual. Then, at the end (if i remember rightly), there's a strong insinuation that none of the story was true and that the boy (Pi), had made the whole thing up.
Yes. Thats the fictional main character. I was ANGRY that a fictional made-up character had made up some fiction within a fictional made-up novel.
As i said, I felt kind of angry. A bit cheated. Said to my mum "Man that books was annoying. Was really into it, and then, it turned out to be all made up....pffrt."
And, inevitably, my mother eloquently pointed out the ermm, inherently spirally twisted logic at the root of my upset.
....and i felt pretty stoopid.
And yet STILL angry.
Of course, i still tried to argue along the lines of; "yeah, but i was buying into that fiction, and the least it could do would be to have the decency to maintain it's own internal reality, and, and,......"
But my heart wasn't really in it anymore.
So, i don't know.
Say, for instance, the last line of Lord of the Rings*, was; 'And Frodo woke up from his afternoon nap, safe in the Shire, and thought 'My, what a long and peculiar dream'.......
Well, that'd be kind of redonkulous, and massively annoying.
My reaction i think would be, well, largely unprintable. What, so none of that stuff HAPPENED??!?! WHAT a F&%king HEINOUS waste of my PRECIOUS time!!??? I spent WEEKS reading this F£$KING B*llocking long-arse piece of SH*T!?! Dirty......%&*%&*&%**% tolkien mother @&^^*^&^&%$& 'stard......
None of it happened Tom, either way. Regardless. As soon as you close the book, you are reminded (as if you needed to be) that it was FICTION. So, what am i so uptight about?
I don't get it. Whats the big problem?
Genuinely, i want some other opinions on this......
(* I have never read Lord of the Rings. Maybe it does say that at the end, and they just cut it out of the film**)
(** Then again, i've never seen the film either.)
I know your pain. Fiction has a certain allure because even though we know it's made up, maybe it could still happen to us. If someone could imagine it, them perhaps it really could happen. Finding out that the author couldn't really imagine it happening and had to use a dream scenario to write a book about it bursts our bubble of pretending we could be the main character and have all the adventures. Which is why we feel cheated.
ReplyDelete