It began with Woody Allen a few weeks ago now. The theme of real and not real in my life. What occurs and who makes up the rules for what can and cannot be. This is beautifully depicted by Woody Allen's asides in his movies. I followed up two weeks ago with more Woody Allen as I saw "Midnight in Paris" which was fantastic, so if you have not seen it you should. The lines of reality and fiction, blur in a surreal way, and the surreal is the real (which probably only makes sense if you have seen it). Today I listened to a short story by Woody Allen, where he pretends he is Socrates in a dream, it is real in the sense it is story, but highly unreal as well. I think I am talking in circles and repeating myself...good, such is life and the contemplations about reality, friction, real, and surreal.
I have been attempting to escape recently, not because of lack of employment but because of it. I got a job doing manuel labour in Vancouver for 8 hours a day, and I commute for about 4 more. It is mindless work and mindless driving. I have attempted to turn myself into a drone and jokingly said to my friends "lets pretend I wake up at 5:30 pm, because the rest of the day is not worth mentioning". I attempt to escape into a surreal time portal at 5am that will spit me out 12 hours later so I can continue my life. It is as "real" as anything can be, but for me that "real" is 'surreal".
This post, however, was prompted by the one and only Lady Gaga. She, being her brilliant self, offers an intriguing perspective into this dialogue. Read about it here. Please read it, because all of what I said was shared because I read this. I think it is because I longed for my life to be unified in the way she describes the blurry lines. I am not there because I am attempting to escape part of it. .
Gaga continues to enlighten me!
ReplyDelete"art is a lie and everyday I kill to make it true." - Gaga
ReplyDeleteBrilliant.
This is a topic I have been contemplating since New York when I made some comment about going home to reality and you, Silas, and I think Mark asked what the question why is home reality or why is this unreal or what is reality or something. I have contemplated this for 7 months now and I think for me, real has to do with sustainable. So a vacation in New York, with Broadway and 7 room mates and eating out and martinis is not sustainable and therefore precisely an escape from my "real" less communal and expensive life. However, Julia Cameron also made an amazing point in one of her books, that being "realistic" is almost exclusively associated with being negative. Reducing the negative by positively associating with the belief of truth. Where as in contrast to believe in one's artistic ability or vision is called, theatrical, escapist, unrealistic, fantasy, naive etc. Perhaps, it is part of our societies underlying ideology that is threaten by people who can imagine beyond current limits and therefore threaten the status quo so ingrained into us that we don't even need to be censored, we self censor. We are unrealistic so I will just get a 9-5 and give up on my writing projects. (much of my last bit here is inspired by Zizek)