With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going past them into the impossible.
October 20, 2009 - 12:36 p.m.
I wanted to get up early today, write this entry, and start grading. So what happened? I had a rough night and slept late. No matter, I'm still writing this entry and since I have to move the car today I'll run over to Trader Joe's for hot chocolate and other treats.
I will keep the writing to a minimum. I'm just going to write about Where the Wild Things Are; that will reveal enough about me.
I went to see the film right after I finished my entry yesterday. I bought my ticket in advance and got to the theater early because I wanted to get a good seat. The film got an amazing review in the New York Times and I was seeing it at one of the few Imax theaters so I figured it would be packed. I was wrong. I could have walked in one minute before the show and sat in exactly the same seat that I got a half hour earlier. I like sitting closer to the screen than most. My preference is for the screen to exactly fill my peripheral vision on the sides. I was disappointing. This film should be a hit. I was at the first show after school, it should have been filled with parents bringing their kids. I hope the later shows were better attended.
I have a confession to make. I didn't read Where the Wild Things Are as a kid. It came out when I was six, it would have been perfect, but my parents were never great on being up on kid lit. I can't say it adversely affected me. I always had a love of reading, I just spent my time then reading science books. Still the only classics I can remember in the house were The Cat in the Hat Came Back an Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
Lauren turned me on to Sendak but I'm not sure I actually read the book till I gave it to Aubrey's eldest son. I wanted to make sure he read something cool. I also gave him a copy of TMBG's No. I try to be a good influence.
I didn't even remember the book, only images. I had totally forgotten the plot. I don't know how much was invented for the film. I should go back and read it now.
So why do I think the film should be a hit. Why did I want Aubrey's kid to read it? Kid stories in the end are all about teaching children to be socialize, to live in the adult world. There are about a clash of cultures with different values, children and adults. The ones I love are the great subversives, Lewis Carroll, L Frank Baum, Dr., Seuss, Roald Dahl, Shel Silverstein, Maurice Sendak who teach how to live in society while not submitting to it.
Max learns empathy, he learns how is actions affect others but that he also learns the worth of his values. A rumpus is good in and of itself. There is joy in being a wild thing. Imagination can make things real.
I love the violence of the film. It doesn't pull punches. When Max is caught at sea in the storm you feel the danger. It could be a scene from Moby Dick or the Odyssey. There was no prettying it up. No softening for children.
This fits a child's view of the world where things are bigger but simpler. They see things in primary colors, not shades of gray. Max's pain when his snow fort is crushed on top of him is primal. The adventures at sea and on the Island are no more devastating.
The Carroll, KW, Douglas, and the other Wild Things are how children see the world, filled with big things that are grotesque, scary, lovable, and cuddly at the same time. They can sleep with you in a big pile and they can eat you.
What makes a great children's story is exactly what makes a great story of any kind. It's real conflicts and resolution that leads to the protagonist being transformed.
When Max learns his great lesson, that his actions affect others, he returns home but he doesn't forget the Wild Things. He'll say nice things about them. He is transformed but he retains his identity. When he reveals that he isn't a king with great power he's asked, "What are you?" He gives the only possible answer; "I'm Max."
Too many people when they grow up forget the Wild Things. Some never learn to be adults, never learn that other people are as real as they are. But some learn but don't forget. Some lucky ones become Lewis Carroll, L Frank Baum, Dr., Seuss, Roald Dahl, Shel Silverstein, Maurice Sendak. Others never give up their love of the Great Subversives and pass that love on to the next generation.
There is such a thing as too much chocolate - October 26, 2009
A League of Our Own - October 25, 2009
Live from Town Hall not A Mighty Wind - October 24, 2009
Attack in Crohn's minor - October 23, 2009
What am I Going to Write About? - October 21, 2009
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile October 20, 2009
