This is my favorite scene from Ferris Bueller's day off. Yesterday my daughter and I were talking about existentialism as it relates to this scene. Yeah...having me as a mother is a unique experience. This scene has always touched me deeply. When I look into Cameron's eyes I see myself...my own thought process. Even before I knew what John Hughes thought as he wrote the scene I felt something similar; I felt as if each little dot within the painting meant nothing on it's own. Cameron looks at the little girl and the closer he looks the less he sees. There is nothing there and that is what he sees when he looks at himself.
I actually named my son after one of the characters purely because of this scene. I did not name him Ferris.
I like that scene from the movie also, Kim; especially the focus on the Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason the viewer looks intently at the little girl in the painting is she is the only person pictured who is looking back at you. Once you notice that you automatically try to determine what the expression is on her face, but it is never clear, no matter how hard you look. The closer you look at her, the less clear it, and she, become. Eventually you begin to feel you are just as unclear to her as she is to you, and perhaps just as unreal.
As for existentialism, I like this quote from its father:
The truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught. You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you.
-Soren Kierkegaard
JG
I remember in school I did a project utilizing Seurat's technique only with pencil. My teacher explained that I could use screens to get a similar effect but I said no. That turned out to be incredibly tedious but the finished product was awesome. Wish I could find it...
ReplyDeleteI love talking about philosophy! There are so many types of existentialists but saying in general that I am one then everyone would know why I have barely done anything to become published. I think much like Martin Heidegger. He says that it isn't important to decide or to act, the importance is in knowing. For me this means that I am satisfied to know what I know. I don't have to make others believe what I know--I know I'm a competent writer.
By the same token once I RISK what I know I risk changing it. HA! See? It's not that easy for a person like me to become published. A guy named Bob Corbet wrote: By my acts I also begin to define and create the self I am, which is, to some extent a public self. Thus an act is like opening Pandora's box, it lets out what's inside the act and there is no getting it back.
I'm not saying that I will or won't be a successful writer if published...I'm saying that as an unpublished writer I already am.
The Philosophy of Pepper (smile)
Hey Girl, loving all the new stories you've done, but what happened to They Say Love is Blind?
ReplyDeleteKolby, I promise it's going to get written before the year ends.
ReplyDeleteDid Juicy ever get published? If so where can I buy a copy?
ReplyDelete