thoughts on waking life.

my interpretation of said film. you really need to see it in order to understand what i'm talking about, but there's some interesting ideas presented in it. this is just me taking them in.

-What are you writing?
*A novel.
-What's the story?
*There's no story. It's just people, gestures, moments, bits of rapture, fleeting emotions.
In short, the greatest stories ever told.
-Are you in the story?
*I don't think so. But then I'm kind of reading it and then writing it.

if this movie had to be summed up for me in one scene, it would be this one. it's basically
what the film/dream nameless main guy is having.. is.

 

the end of their conversation ..

- im kind of reading it
and then writing it -

i got that he's observing what has already happened (reference to a universal soul?) and then creating it. totally illogical, yet perfectly understandable at the same time. it made me wonder if this movie itself started out as a dream.


there was a part near the beginning with this blond lady - one of the first people we see *observe nameless observing.* it was about communication and how language can hardly cover what we're feeling. in terms of expressing intangible things it's almost confining. as i continued to watch the movie i kept this idea in mind. after i'm done writing this, i will feel like i understood some of this flim, but how do i know? and how do you know you'll understnad what i took from it? thought this was pretty significant especially when it comes to trying to interpret this movie, or your observing my observations for that matter.

like saber tooth tiger lady says,"when we communicate with one another and we feel we're connected and we think we're understood i think we have a feeling of almost *spiritual
communion.*" < i kept this part in mind when i got to...

~the holy moment.~

every moment in the movie. every moment in your life. (then again maybe it is all one moment, one instant as the guy says in the end...something about time being a total illusion, and this ONE instant is "eternity." (which also goes with this very short scene with an old man when he says: to say yes to one instant is to say yes to existence. everything touches on everything in this.)

the writer decided to make this scene so obviously significant that it required a title. it's after nameless realizes he is still dreaming (lightswitch) and he ends up in a theater. we are not only the actors but the observers. all we have to do is put a frame around people whether it's more in
our minds or our eyes..i have no idea how to describe what i mean. you need to see this to understand. but yeah so guy in white shirt says well this moment's holy right?

 

-automatically assuming it is, to use it as an example.- 

 

his eyes tear up as he observes his friend as something more than a body sitting across from him. something more ethereal. nameless watches. he observes him observing.

there's this conversation between two women in a restaurant. one of the quotes:

"what we don't take into account when we're young is our endless curiousity.
that's what's so great about being human."-lady at restaurant.


they also talk about how we have to create stories for ourselves for people to fool themselves into
thinking they understand anything about us. we have to put ourselves in these situations that are supposed to be important and shape who we become. but what about who we always were?



my favorite scene was ethan hawke and julie delpy in bed talking about this 'collective soul.'

i couldn't get this idea out of my head the rest of the next day. julie's idea was that there is this memory we have all shared since the beginning of our existence (ethan says something about worldwide telepathic communication or something). he gives examples of how the same things will happen or some specific knowledge is gained around the world at the same time with no way the other culture/country whatever could have known about this already occurring. according to julie this is where we get our instincts. it made me wonder that if this was true, would our instincts come originally from what our original species was, going by the theory of evolution?

what if they had done something slightly different? what if something was out of place...just a molecule.

where would we be now?

 

to think about worshipping the devil instead of god so to speak..if this might somehow affect our perceptions of not just morality but of beauty or what makes us happy or sad or what's considered to be substantial.

if this has any truth to it we are currently so much more connected now than we would ever be able to conceive...ever.

 

and i wonder what brought about that first instinct. it would be related to evolutionary theory and creationism in a HUGE way if you think about it. an instinct can't come from nowhere, just as an atom can't, i guess.

((SN: good example of what julie and ethan were talking about slapped me in the face the next morning. i walk into sociology first thing, look at the leftover notes on the board from the previous religion class and it's all about reincarnation... knowledge or dreams or thoughts (whatever you consider reincarnation) happening around the world to different people with the
same stories some of them at the same times. it may sound dumb but i couldn't discard this as pure coincidence. it was like when i saw what was written on the board i was a living example, not that everyone else isn't. just that i was aware of it. i felt so connected and so alienated from everyone around me at the same time.))

so then nameless thinks he's awake for the first time in the movie. he walks over to this place to listen to more musings. (watching this for the second time i felt strangely uncomfortable. then i realized it was because he thinks he's awake but when he goes to this place and keeps listening to everyone he doesn't even stop to question why he's there or what's going on until the man he's listening to actually talks to him about it.)

i guess you could say it's really himself talking to himself since it's his dream. made me think about how much of my dreams (or life for that matter) i just accept without even questioning. even those i know who would pride themselves on their skepticism are most likely totally oblivious to a whole hell of a lot.

the guy tells him how you have to *ask yourself* if you're dreaming in the first place. the point was to just stop, and question. he tells nameless to check for the light switch if he's not sure..that if the lights are on and you can't turn them off, you're probably dreaming.

on his way out he flicks the light switch. nothing.

(that gave me the most awesome feeling. can't even start to describe it. to continue.)

there's also lots of comparisons of humans to other forms of life- animals (ex: monkeys), insects (ex: ants) and even extra terrestrials...i need to look up what he says cause it's hard to understand and i have no rewind button on the zapper in here or the dvd player. hm.

a few scenes later he accidentally bumps into this redheaded girl. they apologize. she stops him and gives him this talk about we are always on autopilot, how she doesn't want to be this 'ant.' he thanks her for bumping into him. they become friends. after talking for a bit he asks her:

"what's it like to be a character in a dream?"

she ignored his question. i don't think redhead could comprehend it or even knew she was
a character in a dream. maybe it was nameless who was the character in her dream.

i got the feeling it was both.

(SN: i remember when i was younger, whenever i felt embarassed or felt any negative emotion,
i thought that i shouldn't be embarassed, because it's the person watching who did something stupid and i am the observer (i am you and what i see is me type thing *pink floyd reference betch*). horrible way of describing it, but i don't know if there is a good one.)

she asked where he was from. who he is.
...his story... to go back to the restaurant ladies. it wasn't in so many words but he said his address, name etc. didn't seem too important at that moment in time. maybe they never are.

i remember when i first took this film's idea into consideration. i think i was in 6th grade reading an edgar allen poe poem. dream within a dream. this movie told me to look for the lightswitch.

sorry this was so jumbled. the 'gestures, moments, fleeting emotions' kind of go together.

the way the people/scenes relate aren't really in order...almost a visible example of this supposed nonexistant time...just one instant. knowledge occuring at the same time. the guy who thought this story up is proving his point. a part of me feels like they're all saying the same thing but i could never make sense of it in reality or consciously if you will.

there's a lot to think about and i wanted to get these thoughts down while they're still relatively fresh. i need to watch it again cause i probably haven't covered a hundredth of it.


you have to see this movie to know what i'm talking about. incredible, honest film.






about that question, "what is it like to be a character in a dream?"

...instead of asking you, i'm going to focus on answering this myself.