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Re: JIN-ROH and LoTR








>From: Gilhamilton at aol_com
>
><< Peter:
>  >Ah, but *are* movies about "escapism"?
>
>da Mattrix
>  Sometimes.  Or always- even the most gripping or depressing or 
>philosophical
>  film takes us away rom our own limited reality for a few dozen mintes or 
>so.
>    If we are reflecting on the lives of other characters, whether real or
>  imagined, are we not escaping our own, personal life reflections?
>   If I may interject one thing here. I would say the idea that naming 
>anything
>that takes you outside yourself as *escapist*  is a misnomer.

Okay, but why?  I mean, I agree if we are talking about the astral plane or 
out of body experiences, but we are not.  ;-)  So, please elaborate.

Isn't that
>pretty much the object of all art? To carry you outside of yourself into
>something *other* for a while.  Is all art escapist?

While I see your point, I tend to believe it is to a degree.  More or less.  
I think we create or partake of art to "escpae" the pain of everyday 
existence in a constructive or intellectual manner.  (Interestingly, 
JIN-ROH's creator, Mamoru Oshii, seems to think we, the race of men, create 
to compensate for our inablilty to bear  children.)  However, I've never 
really affirmed that belief during this thread just posited it.  It makes 
for an interesting discussion.

I think you have to look
>at it person to person and day to day. True, some people watch a movie, 
>read
>a book, listen to music on a given day only to escape their particular
>reality for a while but on another day they may do the same in order to
>venture into anothers story to get a bigger picture of life than they could
>get otherwise and also to bring back something from there to apply and
>understand themselves better.

Agreed.  I do that all the time.  However, with movies in particular, I 
don't think people truly start to reflect upon the purpose and meaning until 
the credits start to roll.  I mean, you can think about these things during 
the film, but your ideas are only validated if the movie carries them 
through until the end.  Many movies start out apparently going in one 
direction, and then abruptly veer off into different ones.  Sometimes, the 
ending is the event the shatters all your preconceived notions.  Its just 
safer to let the movie take you for a ride, rather than try to figure the 
desination throughout.

For that reason, I tend not to think too deeply about a film until later.  
During the movie, I just tend to allow myself to get lost in the unfolding 
narrative.  That's escap..er, entertainment!

Now, if your talkin' about revisting a film that "spoke to you" initially, I 
still think some escapism is going on at some level, but it really depends 
on the film and the person, as well as the circumstances, as you've said.

Really, Kev (may I call you that?), I find escaping from reality very easy.  
Perhaps I'm just simple-minded?  I could look at those swinging ball things 
on a desktop and get lost in the perpetual motion.  I'm like a cat in that 
regard.

>You get what you want going
>in, if you just want a bit of escapism that's what you get if you want
>someting more, you may get something more.

All I want is my MTV.

lost in space,

Matt - y

np Ghostwriters -Fibromoon

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