Midnight In Paris/ Typical Collegiate Rantings of Dissent/First Actual Blog
I’m watching Midnight in Paris again. And again I’ve come to realize that it’s genius. The wonder that Owen Wilsons character feels and his obsession with meeting the authors of the modernist period was perfect. Everyone can really relate to it whether or not they appreciate the Lost Generation.
Not many people are satisfied with every aspect of the life they live, and most people can relate to feeling that they would be better living in a different time period. Whether it be centuries or even the future, no one is entirely satisfied with the life that they’re living. Midnight in Paris not only discusses that insecurity that most people have, but it resolves those feelings of confusion by having the protagonist find his niche, and it isn’t in a different time period.
If haven’t seen it, fix that. If you have, read some of the work of the authors portrayed. It adds a whole new dimension to the film. I had to read more F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and T.S. Eliot for my American English Class this year and it amplified the movie so much to see how Allen thinks they would interact with each other. The characters are obviously a caricature of the actual people, but that makes it all the more fun.
END OF REVIEW/BEGINNING OF DISSENT
The movie also introduced me to the work of The Lost Generation. I had read “The Great Gatsby” and “The Old Man and the Sea” (…okay, I read, like, half of it) in high school. But I hadn’t been exposed to the prevailing theme that all of the works had. THERE IS NO MEANING TO LIFE.
The Lost Generation had a point, modernism had a point! And the point is, what is the point? Futility is a prevailing theme in every modernist piece of literature. The perfect example is “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot. Prufrock (prude frock, Eliot was pretty heavy handed in his symbolism) is a character who is neurotic about everything. He thinks that everyone is judging him at all times and even if he wasn’t such a skinny, ugly, balding, and boring man that woman wouldn’t talk to him. And he doesn’t care about that because there’s no reason to care. But he DOES care that he doesn’t care, because that reveals his absolute apathy to life.
Because why try? If you don’t derive happiness from just living your life, and many people don’t, what is there to live for? Impressing others? Making money? Modernists believed that the only way to find meaning in life is to appreciate true art, to raise oneself from the monotony of everyday life by creating beauty out of normalcy. By making something so vivid and pure that you know for a fact that there isn’t something like it anywhere else. Modernists had a very valid point. Most people have something that they prioritize, that makes them feel like what they’re doing in life is worth doing. Art, music, film, literature, or something branching out of those realms.
The trick is finding that. Hopefully, we can all dodge the temptations of finding something hollow to attach ourselves to (money, fame, the acceptance of others etc.) It’s hard, and I haven’t done a great job of it so far. I definitely haven’t chased what I really want from life. Due to fear of how others (family, friends, ANYONE) will view me. I’m trying to cut that out of my life. I feel like I’m making a good start. I don’t have to wear, listen to, or watch things because they’re how everyone around me act. Maybe I had it figured out in high school…probably not though. But I digress.
Modernists had a great point, but they were very wrong in one important regard:
Life may not have a purpose, but it doesn’t need one. Most satisfying things don’t have a purpose.
Do things you’ll regret. Do things that embarrass you. Because that’s what makes memories vivid, and that’s all that really counts in the end. How YOU feel about yourself. If you feel that your life was spent in the way that you wanted it, you don’t need a purpose.
Life is it’s own purpose.
I’ll probably delete this out of embarrassment in a few hours. Here’s to hoping I follow my own advice and keep it. After all, I think only my kid sister gets my posts or whatever anyway. Hey Grace! Disregard how haughty and conceited this all sounds. This is for me.
Either way, it’s a good start.
