Some more random DS ramblings
You know... Now that I think about it... Isn't Fraser, um. Scary?
He talks to his dog.
He talks to his dad.
Displaced alter ego doesn't even begin to cover it. I mean, come on. What kind of a person is it that uses his most casual speech style(*) only to his deaf animal and a dead father?
It also looks pretty clear to me that he didn't talk to his dad as much as he does now, or at least, in as much depth, while the dad was still alive. The fact alone that Bob comes to him so often with pieces of advice (useless though they may be) looking like he can't get on with his afterlife with so many things unsaid... I don't know, it just feels so sad. Even at the same time as the ghost is this wonderful comic relief, there's always a sense of irreversible wrongness there, that IMO touches the core of DS. I was just trying to remember some scenes from TMTKTL, which made me think how poignant this piece of dialogue was, where Ray teases him:
Fraser: My father said something that's always stuck with me, Ray.
Vecchio: Your father never shut up, did he?
Fraser: He said a man with no future will always run to his past.
Vecchio: And when did this come up, Fraser, were you sitting around at breakfast when he came up with these things? Or did he come running into your room and just blurt them out?
Fraser: Ray, there's no need to be sarcastic.
Vecchio: No, I'm just curious. How did he work these things into everyday conversation? Did he say, 'son, did you see the size of that moose? And by the way, a man with no future will always run to his past?'
I love this scene, I think it's hilarious. It still makes me laugh every time I watch it. But when you think about it--
Obviously, he didn't, did he? When Benny so often talks about what "my father once said..." it's rarely about something that's been actually said in face-to-face conversation -- the poor boy never had his father "say" anything to him, did he? Not to his face, not while he was alive. I mean, how do you work those lines into everyday conversation all the time? I love how, in DS, the most hilarious scenes are often also the most heartbreaking.
(*) There's also something that's been making me wonder, about Fraser and the way he talks to people... something to do with polite/private social rules, I think, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I feel he's very Japanese, in some ways. RayV doesn't quite gain the same status as Dief and Dead Bob, even though he comes close, in Ben's system of language and politeness.
He talks to his dog.
He talks to his dad.
Displaced alter ego doesn't even begin to cover it. I mean, come on. What kind of a person is it that uses his most casual speech style(*) only to his deaf animal and a dead father?
It also looks pretty clear to me that he didn't talk to his dad as much as he does now, or at least, in as much depth, while the dad was still alive. The fact alone that Bob comes to him so often with pieces of advice (useless though they may be) looking like he can't get on with his afterlife with so many things unsaid... I don't know, it just feels so sad. Even at the same time as the ghost is this wonderful comic relief, there's always a sense of irreversible wrongness there, that IMO touches the core of DS. I was just trying to remember some scenes from TMTKTL, which made me think how poignant this piece of dialogue was, where Ray teases him:
Fraser: My father said something that's always stuck with me, Ray.
Vecchio: Your father never shut up, did he?
Fraser: He said a man with no future will always run to his past.
Vecchio: And when did this come up, Fraser, were you sitting around at breakfast when he came up with these things? Or did he come running into your room and just blurt them out?
Fraser: Ray, there's no need to be sarcastic.
Vecchio: No, I'm just curious. How did he work these things into everyday conversation? Did he say, 'son, did you see the size of that moose? And by the way, a man with no future will always run to his past?'
I love this scene, I think it's hilarious. It still makes me laugh every time I watch it. But when you think about it--
Obviously, he didn't, did he? When Benny so often talks about what "my father once said..." it's rarely about something that's been actually said in face-to-face conversation -- the poor boy never had his father "say" anything to him, did he? Not to his face, not while he was alive. I mean, how do you work those lines into everyday conversation all the time? I love how, in DS, the most hilarious scenes are often also the most heartbreaking.
(*) There's also something that's been making me wonder, about Fraser and the way he talks to people... something to do with polite/private social rules, I think, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I feel he's very Japanese, in some ways. RayV doesn't quite gain the same status as Dief and Dead Bob, even though he comes close, in Ben's system of language and politeness.