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escapism (was re: JIN-ROH and LotR)

The Mattrix wrote:
> I think we create or partake of art to "escpae" the pain of everyday 
> existence in a constructive or intellectual manner.

Oh, boy, do I disagree.  :-) I mean, certainly *some* art serves that function,
but to say *all* of it does is I think unecessarily reductionist.  Either that
or it dilutes the definition of "escape" to such a degree as to render it
useless.  Some art *focusses* on the pain of everyday existance.  Some art
focusses on the *joys* of everyday existance.  Some critics (those who hated
the LotR book, for example) believe that the purpose of art is to explore and
reflect everyday existence and that escapist art is inferior.  While I can
appreciate that sometimes it's fun to unwind and unplug, I find the idea
completely baffling that some people think that's all movies are for!  I'm not
saying you do, but my grandmother, for example, thinks it *ruins* the movie to
discuss it afterwards.  For me, I don't feel like I've really *seen* a movie
until I've had a chance to discuss it.  Heck, I run a monthly movie discussion
group.

> 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.

Why is safety important?  Isn't that a bit unfair to the filmmakers, who may
have spent all their effort to set up a structure so that you will get that
delicious feeling of being surprised?  I mean, if you just "ride it out", then
there's nothing for the film to shatter, and the whole thing's just been
wasted.  I mean, for example, how can you watch a mystery and not try to figure
it out?

But then, I'm very much in the Brechtian school of drama, and he felt that
theater should alienate the audience, rather than help the audience escape.  He
didn't want the audience to forget they were in a room, watching actors, and he
always wanted them to be questioning and challenging what was going on and why.
So while occasionally I like to escape into a film, usually I am continually
questioning and probing what's on the screen: why this and not that?  Why that
lighting choice?  How is the editing affecting the way this sequence is
presented?  What assumptions is the artist making about the world that are
reflected in the art?  These ideas and questions don't necessarily have to
carry through to the end of the film to be relevant or important.  For example,
in _The Matrix_ (appropriately enough), there's a brief scene in which Mouse
says "to deny our impulses is to deny that which makes us human".  Why is this
in the film?  I can't for the life of me see how this is carried through.  Is
this theme of denying impulses explored anywhere else in the film?  If
anything, Cypher's acts seems to contradict this claim, as it's following his
physical impulses that direct his choices.  

and Gilhamilton wrote:
> I remember one writer on Tolkien saying that after reading LotR he was
> walking through a forest and the trees about him became, for a while,
> electric and magical again like in his childhood.

I think you might be referring to (or the writer you cite might have been
referring to) Tolkien himself, who in his essay "On Fairy Stories" said
the purpose of faerie was not to make the world seem more dull and drab,
but to inject the world with a little magic, so that after reading the
stories, the normal, everyday world seems at least a little more mysterious
and full of potential.  I remember a usenet post I read years ago, in
which someone was arguing that children should not be allowed to read
books like the Narnia series, because they might get the idea that faith
was exciting, and then when they grew up and found out how dull it is,
they would leave the church.  How sad, on so many levels.  

Anyway, I have to get the day underway.  See you all later,
-- 
Don Smith                          Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
donaldas at umich_edu                                http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/

"In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd" - Miguel de Unamuno
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