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Author
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Topic: Are You Nuts?! (A Beautiful Mind)
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Ouroboros
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posted 01-06-2003 04:24 AM PT (US)  
Okay, I just watched A Beautiful Mind and I was totally unprepared for the revealing of the guy's condition. I had NO idea what that movie was about (the only clues I had were that thing planted in his arm [yeah right] and the idea that people behind the popular magazines could be all in involved in a commie conspiracy [yeah right x2]).Now, I don't know how true to life that movie was, but what struck me is that the guy's hallucinations weren't random and different everytime, but instead they had persistence and they developed over time. They kept making comparisons to dreaming, but there's no comparison at all; when you dream, you don't leave the dream in the morning and then pick up on the dream again where you left off the next time you sleep (right?). But his hallucination developed itself at least over months, judging by the number of envelopes he stuffed into that mail slot, and maybe years. So I ask: How would you know if you were nuts? How do you know that you aren't? To my recollection, it was Sigmund Freud who pointed out (well, asserted, anyway) that the moment you begin to question your sanity you've lost it, so I'll have to volunteer that I'm somewhere off of the deep end, an admission that allows me latitude to have conversations such as this one which I had a day or two ago: quote:
Session Start (MSN - Ouroboros:SomeoneElse): Sat Jan 04 12:24:13 2003
*** someone@else.com (SomeoneElse) has joined the conversation.
Ouroboros: isn't it strange that existence exists?
Ouroboros: that "the is" is?
SomeoneElse: "is" is?
SomeoneElse: now what are you on about?
Ouroboros: THE is
Ouroboros: is
Ouroboros: I am on about how I just woke up and...
SomeoneElse: isn't existence "is"?
Ouroboros: ...there's this environment around me
Ouroboros: my bedroom
Ouroboros: it was there when I went to sleep
Ouroboros: and there's a computer in it
SomeoneElse: and still there when you woke up?
Ouroboros: and on my computer is a program called Outlook Express - and there's email in there that I read previously
Ouroboros: There's trees outside
Ouroboros: they were there before, too
SomeoneElse: snowstorm here... wants some coffee?
Ouroboros: isn't that weird?
SomeoneElse: weird? no, .. what is weird is that the word weird does NOT follow the i before e except after c rule
Ouroboros: see? You were that way a day or two ago - reality maintains itself
SomeoneElse: wake up and die right, will ya?
Ouroboros: Is your head in the world? Or is the world in your head? If the world is in your head, why keep recreating it the same every day.
SomeoneElse: saw Groundhog day too many times I guess
Ouroboros: But it's NOT the same - there's less snow on that lawn across the street....
Anyway, if the persistence of reality isn't what gives it away, what does? And isn't it strange that the guy in A Beautiful Mind managed to distinguish between reality and hallucination because his hallucinations persisted too well (i.e., his imagined people didn't age)?Ack! Good movie.
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Crysnia
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posted 01-06-2003 05:46 PM PT (US)
I agree, A Beautiful Mind was just the coolest movie...but there is something in that movie that disturbs me. I found myself feeling sorry for the made up people, because he wouldn't talk to them anymore. They were so sad. He could have at least sent them an email. :) hehehe |
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Ouroboros
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posted 01-06-2003 08:20 PM PT (US)
Well, I suppose that answers the question about Crysnia....Who's next? ;-) |
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Gladrial
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posted 01-07-2003 12:08 PM PT (US)
*contains spoilers DO NOT READ if you have not seen the movie*
It broke my heart when he would not hug the little girl with her arms outstretched to him, but you knew he was beating his own mind games when he refused to do it. I started thinking don't do without the hug even if she isn't real.
I liked how he asked the guy in the library to eat a sandwich to make sure he was real and all the people layed pens on the table when he was having tea to let him know they were real. I just got through watching the movie and I could not stop crying for 30 minutes. The most amazing part to me was when she didn't commit him but came back to stay with him even after all she had been through. I admit I started to wonder it that part of her coming back and standing in the doorway was a hallucination. Luckily it wasn't. That was the best love story I have ever seen. She helped him make his life liveable by having faith in him. That faith in him made it possible for him to believe he could sort it out and he did. Somehow he managed to sort out the real from unreal and ignore the unreal. But hallucinations can go as far as they want to...even the sandwich having a bite out could be part of the hallucination. I missed the beginning 30 minutes of it this time but I will catch it the next time it comes on HBO. I am so glad I got to see this movie today.
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Gladrial
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posted 01-07-2003 12:13 PM PT (US)
Sure I am nuts, I would have it no other way in this existence. ;) |
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Ouroboros
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posted 01-07-2003 01:38 PM PT (US)
hmm...The sandwich thing: I don't think it had anything to do with making sure the guy was real. I think it had to do with being able to see something of himself in the student and remembering that he, at that age, was forgetting to eat as well. He did for that real person what only his imaginary friend would do for him: make him eat (that was earlier in the movie). The pens thing: That wasn't associated with making people think they're real, either. Earlier in the movie, when he'd still not published a single paper, his advisor took him into that same room where he watched that ritual take place with another gentleman; the ritual of giving pens to a distinguished collegue had to do with recognizing him for his life's accomplishments. That's why his advisor asked, "What do you see?" to which he responded, "Recognition." His advisor, in trying to spur him to publish something said, "Try seeing accomplishment." He replied, "Is there a difference?" For the purposes of the movie, showing this collegues giving him their pens in that cafeteria was demonstrating that he'd actually done in his life what he set out to do: accomplish and be recognized for that accomplishment. Perhaps all of that took place in the first 30 minutes. (You weren't doing dishes while "watching", were you?!) ;-) |
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Gladrial
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posted 01-07-2003 07:44 PM PT (US)
No... I was here at camchatting for those 30 minutes posting. :P Where were all of you eh? Ok, thanks Ouro for clarifying that for me about the pens and the sandwich. |
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Crysnia
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posted 01-08-2003 11:38 AM PT (US)
I don't even remember the sandwhich thing!! what are you guys talking about?? who ate the sandwhich..and what kind was it? was it a bologna and cheese? a ham and cheese? a vegetarian? meatball sub? did the contents of the sandwhich not even matter? or was it the bread? white or wheat? lots to say about a person's sandwhich... |
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