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wFriday, April 28, 2006 |
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October 2005, Part I
(Spoilers listed below for Unknown White Male)
p3000: how was your second movie last night?
zenbetty: i really really liked it
zenbetty: and it really really made me think
zenbetty: do you know what it was about?
zenbetty: god it made me think all night, couldn't sleep
p3000: no idea what it's about. do tell...
zenbetty: 35-year-old guy in NY had amnesia
zenbetty: he's originally british, his brit friend came over and recorded the two years after the amnesia incident, with him (doug) learning his new self, him desperate to know the past - then transformed to not really wanting to know the past anymore
zenbetty: crazy stuff. i mean, if you could start over...
zenbetty: would you want to remember everything you did, good and bad? or would you want a clean slate, at 35 (if you were single) and people said you had a good life before, and said you were a good person.
zenbetty: so why not just start making new memories & new friends & new relationships
p3000: that's fascinating
zenbetty: the only thing he wanted to remember was his mother
zenbetty: because his mother had passed away, so you couldn't re-learn that person, except from photographs etc
zenbetty: (and that just so terribly terribly got me, about my father)
zenbetty: and that i wouldn't want to forget him, but that would be it
zenbetty: i mean, i could re-learn my mom & my sis cuz they're still here
zenbetty: and it was also funny cuz his brit friends said
zenbetty: what a refreshing feeling that would be, you wouldn't have to hang around some blokes you didn't really like. you could just say hey, man, i don't remember you, then start over
zenbetty: ha
p3000: funny
p3000: yeah, so you wouldn't want to remember or would you?
p3000: i would, even the bad stuff
p3000: i'd be too damn curious
zenbetty: well that's how he was in the beginning...then it sort of changed
zenbetty: he had a new girlfriend with the new him, and they were thinking
zenbetty: well what if it all just comes back one day, will he be the same old person he used to be or the new one he has become
p3000: no shit
zenbetty: it was sort of like you had to re-learn the people you "already knew"
zenbetty: so in the process the guy who made the documentary was an old brit friend who flew in
zenbetty: and he was narrating saying that as he learns the new doug
zenbetty: the old doug is disappearing
p3000: how sad!
zenbetty: no, but it's sort of for the best
p3000: oh
zenbetty: it wasn't sad, it was beautiful
zenbetty: he was seeing the new york lights for the first time
zenbetty: and the ocean for the first time
zenbetty: and fashion and people and tv and music
zenbetty: he was like, i just found this great band! the rolling stones!
p3000: HA!
zenbetty: gave me chills, made me cry
zenbetty: i mean, to see the world through the eyes of child but with a mature mind, it was so incredible
zenbetty: made me want to take NOTHING for granted
zenbetty: but we can't help it sometimes, we get stuck in routine
p3000: i'm so putting this on my netflix
zenbetty: he was taking history classes
zenbetty: and re-learning what had happened in the world, re-learning history & everything
zenbetty: i mean, how incredible is that
zenbetty: i don't know if it was that good of a documentary per se
zenbetty: but personally, though, it just made me really really think
zenbetty: who am i? what makes us who we are?
zenbetty: is it our memories? etc etc etc
zenbetty: ugh! i couldn't sleep. brain in overdrive, haha
zenbetty: http://www.unknownwhitemale.co.uk/
p3000: wait - so he just woke up with amnesia? there wasn't a blow to the head or anything?
zenbetty: he "came to" on a subway bus in NY
zenbetty: they don't know
p3000: that's fascinating. why would the mind do that?
zenbetty: they really sort of don't know
zenbetty: in general, in the medical community
p3000: i wonder if it's something that the mind can't handle (crisis, extreme stress) so it shuts down or if it's biological - his brain just restarted like a computer
zenbetty: sort of yeah
zenbetty: that and sometimes for whatever reason
zenbetty: after it shuts down, the mind no longer wants to handle it or the brain no longer wants to remember
zenbetty: i don't know
zenbetty: it would be so fun to see sand and the ocean for the first time
p3000: yeah
p3000: but i'd hate to relearn all my mistakes
zenbetty: well
zenbetty: yeah
zenbetty: but maybe they're in there
zenbetty: what you learned, it's all there, you just can't grasp it exactly
zenbetty: you know, he was nice before *and* after
zenbetty: he didn't turn into a jerk or anything weird, you know, he didn't turn into a totally different type of person
zenbetty: i mean, just cuz you can't remember something, you're still the same person, right?
zenbetty: or are you?
zenbetty: or are you better? because you have no guilt and no regret
zenbetty: no conceit, no pretensions
p3000: well yeah, i believe you'd be the same kind of person basically
p3000: whenever people say "if i had it to do all over again" - i'd never want to do it all over again b/c i believe it would still come out the same way. even if you tried to make it different.
p3000: not like fate really b/c you could do "it" in different ways, but i believe the result would be the same
p3000: which takes the edge off of fretting about "should haves" and "meant to bes"
zenbetty: i know, for the most part, i'd do most of it the same
zenbetty: but you never know though, do "things happen for a reason" ?
zenbetty: who knows...
posted by
zenbetty at 2:29 PM
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