the existential ramifications of being john malkovich.
last night i watched Being John Malkovich. why have i not seen this before? it's fantastically deep, darkly funny & fabulously weird & surreal- just how i like my movies... it ranks up there with i heart huckabees and waking life. has anyone else NOT seen this movie? it's been out a while & i've often heard it referenced by the cooler peeps, & now i know why. it's about a frustrated puppeteer who takes a filing job on the 7 & 1/2th floor of a building. the ceilings are incredibly low, so that everyone walks around bent over. so the puppeteer (john cusack in his finest melancholia) accidentally finds a tiny door that is actually a portal into the mind of john malkovich. so john cusack & his hot co-worker decide to sell tickets to the "ride" at $200/pop. there's tongue-in-cheek jokes about malkovich being such a well-known & famous actor, & yet no one can name anything he's been in... which is exactly the case w/ me- i know his face- he's rather iconic, but i can't tell you a single film, other than being john malkovich.
the film's finest existential moment comes when
john malkovich catches wind of the money-making scheme- & decides to enter the portal into his own mind... & when he does- everyone he sees is john malkovich. he's in a crowded restaurant & every person has his face & every word that comes out of their mouths is "malkovich". every item on the menu even, is 'malkovich'. i thought that was incredibly beautiful & so very deep. for everything that we perceive in the world is filtered through our necessarily self-centered perception. you cannot perceive of anything, no thing, no feeling, nothing at all, w/out linking it directly to how it affects you- to how it relates to you. "i am, as it were, an eye that the cosmos uses to look at itself."1 all we see, all we can ever be aware of, are our own projections- everyone is the center of their own universe, & we can never truly fully experience the universe of someone else- b/c we will always see it through the filters of ourselves... the scene ties in nicely w/ my recent existential ponderings about how everyone in my dreams is a facet of me. & also w/ my spirituo-mystical *struggles not to use the word 'belief' but can't find another more appropriate word* that everything & everyone is but another face of god & god is everywhere, everything, everyone. the only thing that IS is god & there are infinite ways to perceive god. "god is a sphere whose center is everywhere & whose circumference is nowhere."2
i must own this movie. its other highlights include seeing an almost unrecognizable cameron diaz w/ frizzy brown hair & baggy, unattractive clothes. yeah, i got a kick out of that. sometimes she's just so criminally beautiful & i think it's nice that she does penance every now & then by taking on the role of a regular person.
i also think that being john malkovich would make an excellent drinking game. ya gotta drink every time someone says "malkovich". sheesh- baby sips, y'all! or you'll be in an alcohol-induced coma by the end of the film.
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1 rudy rucker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Rucker), as quoted by leonard shlain in art & physics: parallel visions in space, time & light -one of most poignant books i've ever read as an artist.
2 joseph campbell- the power of myth -ditto.
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in other news, i've finally rescheduled my meeting w/ the co-worker-who-needs-a-mural, jessica. 'twill be today at lunchtime. i'll go out to her house & have a look-see. my new policy is to never give on-the-spot quotes- b/c i never ask for enough in that moment. i panic & blurt out some ridiculously low figure that i end up kicking my own ass about later. i have to let the numbers, the size of the task, & my self-worth all kinda mingle, ferment & coagulate in my brain for at least a day. then i can quote a figure that makes sense & doesn't sell me short. so that's my plan. i'm gonna photograph her space & measure it, & take into account the subject matter & then let my subconscious intuitively deduce an appropriate sum. yeah.
off tomorrow, w0000000t! haven't decided yet how i shall spend my day... i think i shall finish the 3-D model of the sleepy hollow set, work on a purse or 2, do some editing for fabuLor... & i should take a freakin' walk or something sometime. maybe on the beach? that'd be supa-nice...
the film's finest existential moment comes when
john malkovich catches wind of the money-making scheme- & decides to enter the portal into his own mind... & when he does- everyone he sees is john malkovich. he's in a crowded restaurant & every person has his face & every word that comes out of their mouths is "malkovich". every item on the menu even, is 'malkovich'. i thought that was incredibly beautiful & so very deep. for everything that we perceive in the world is filtered through our necessarily self-centered perception. you cannot perceive of anything, no thing, no feeling, nothing at all, w/out linking it directly to how it affects you- to how it relates to you. "i am, as it were, an eye that the cosmos uses to look at itself."1 all we see, all we can ever be aware of, are our own projections- everyone is the center of their own universe, & we can never truly fully experience the universe of someone else- b/c we will always see it through the filters of ourselves... the scene ties in nicely w/ my recent existential ponderings about how everyone in my dreams is a facet of me. & also w/ my spirituo-mystical *struggles not to use the word 'belief' but can't find another more appropriate word* that everything & everyone is but another face of god & god is everywhere, everything, everyone. the only thing that IS is god & there are infinite ways to perceive god. "god is a sphere whose center is everywhere & whose circumference is nowhere."2
i must own this movie. its other highlights include seeing an almost unrecognizable cameron diaz w/ frizzy brown hair & baggy, unattractive clothes. yeah, i got a kick out of that. sometimes she's just so criminally beautiful & i think it's nice that she does penance every now & then by taking on the role of a regular person.
i also think that being john malkovich would make an excellent drinking game. ya gotta drink every time someone says "malkovich". sheesh- baby sips, y'all! or you'll be in an alcohol-induced coma by the end of the film.
******************************
1 rudy rucker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Rucker), as quoted by leonard shlain in art & physics: parallel visions in space, time & light -one of most poignant books i've ever read as an artist.
2 joseph campbell- the power of myth -ditto.
******************************
in other news, i've finally rescheduled my meeting w/ the co-worker-who-needs-a-mural, jessica. 'twill be today at lunchtime. i'll go out to her house & have a look-see. my new policy is to never give on-the-spot quotes- b/c i never ask for enough in that moment. i panic & blurt out some ridiculously low figure that i end up kicking my own ass about later. i have to let the numbers, the size of the task, & my self-worth all kinda mingle, ferment & coagulate in my brain for at least a day. then i can quote a figure that makes sense & doesn't sell me short. so that's my plan. i'm gonna photograph her space & measure it, & take into account the subject matter & then let my subconscious intuitively deduce an appropriate sum. yeah.
off tomorrow, w0000000t! haven't decided yet how i shall spend my day... i think i shall finish the 3-D model of the sleepy hollow set, work on a purse or 2, do some editing for fabuLor... & i should take a freakin' walk or something sometime. maybe on the beach? that'd be supa-nice...