Friends! I want to share something with you- the definition of the term mono-no-aware. Have you ever learned a word that had a profound effect on the way you see the world? I hope "mono-no-aware" affects you the same way it has affected me.
This is how Christopher J. Moore defines it in his book "In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World":
.........
An awareness and appreciation of the ephemeral beauty of the world. The seasons change, the cherry blossom gently falls, the crops are planted, grow and die. Mono-no-aware is that poignant sensation one has of time passing, of the inevitable cycle of life and death. From the noun comes the idiom mono-no-aware. Roughly translated as "enjoying the sadness of life," it's that bittersweet, vaguely poetic feeling you get around dusk, on a long train journey, looking out at the driving rain... a few autumn leaves still clinging to your coat.
..........
The thing I like most about Jim Jarmusch's films is that they often capture the beauty and sadness of life, particularly Down By Law. Not long after I learned the term mono-no-aware, I saw Lost in Translation and I was struck at how it captured the same essence of a Jim Jarmusch movie. The Virgin Suicides captures the same feeling. I thought about the similarity between both directors' movies and realized that both Lost in Translation and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai both focus on Japanese culture. Possible both directors stumbled upon mono-no-aware in their research? Or maybe that's why they were drawn to Japanese culture to begin with.
As I watched The Wizard of Oz tonight I was faced with the unfortunately inescapable reality that the people involved with the great movies of the 30's are all dead. I know what you're thinking, and I thought it too. "Nuh uh Ben, there are probably three Munchkins who are still alive." Yeah, true- but when you see hundreds upon hundreds of Munchkins marching around singing, just try to focus on the fact that three might still alive.
The Scarecrow's dead- his brain stopped thinking. The Tin Man's dead- his heart stopped beating. The Lion, I'm sure he faced death with... you know. The inept man behind the curtain, he's dead too although he lives on metaphorically as the current president. Dorothy, the beautiful voice, the personification of innocence, she grew old and became nothing. The animals too, Toto and the farm pigs... they're lucky if they saw V-J Day.
But they all created something beautiful, something that has lasted- something that will last at least until I'm gone too. They have significance because we are here to appreciate what they've done. The autumn leaves of these movies cling to our coats.
Mono-no-aware is not a Japanese concept- it's a human concept and learning the term helps us recognize that. Perhaps Jim and Sofia were influenced early on by The Wizard of Oz, and later on by the Japanese films- and perhaps that's why their films are appreciated across cultures.
Yes well, I have to wake up for work in five hours. It won't be enough sleep, but it will be beautiful. Good night friends.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Dream Interpretation, part 2
Posted by Leon:
just awoke from the craziest barrage of headcold-induced dreams, including but not limited to (and in no particular order) telling Lindsay to run off to the hospital for her "beginnicals", listening to a moth flutter around his ears before it crawled inside his head and emerged from a nostril in a caterpillar form, feeding the dog a peach and having him bark back in a southern accent, and ordering a "Tebow steak" at a restaraunt only to have the waiter/angel cross his arms, shake his head and murmur "tsk, tsk, tsks" as he ascended into the heavens.
My interpretation:
God, where to even begin! You've got several of the most basic mythological archetypes there. 1. The creation story- lindsay going to the hospital (where we all "begin") to get her "beginnicals"... certainly something that would somehow shed light on our strange emergence into the world. Can our emergence be explained? Not in any normal way, so a word must be invented. 2. The peach- forbidden fruit? I associate southern accent with racism. Incorrect sustenance (dogs don't eat peaches) leads to negative effects. Have you been eating well? Is a lack of nutrition or bodily maintenance leading to a Pandora's Box of health problems, like your sickness? 3. The transformation of the hero- a simple moth fluttering about enters your head and emerges in glory, transformed, not unlike a Native American sweat lodge or a bar mitzvah... but obviously, and oddly, your HEAD is the medium! It symbolizes your own act of becoming. When I think of moths I think of the woods, camping, and them flying into the fire. Brings up issues of duty, compulsion, and action- not unlike your own act of becoming, in the woods, running the trails, getting faster, rising through the ranks, becoming more than you were, but also sacrificing your body, in a way. 4. Which brings us to- the rise to transcendence. It's as if Freud himself wrote the Tebow sequence, with it's transubstantiation metaphor, the chiding of the one thinking he can judge himself worthy of entry to the heavens, and then the rapture. The rapture in runners' terms I suppose would be losing the race, getting left behind. You have misgivings about your rising stature and your ability to maintain it. Remember that existentially we make our own rules, we are not beholden to rules from above. Transcendence is not given, it's taken. We are free. Free to run as fast as we want, or not at all. The journey is what's important, not the beginnicals and not the endicals- THE JOURNEY. Run free Leon.
just awoke from the craziest barrage of headcold-induced dreams, including but not limited to (and in no particular order) telling Lindsay to run off to the hospital for her "beginnicals", listening to a moth flutter around his ears before it crawled inside his head and emerged from a nostril in a caterpillar form, feeding the dog a peach and having him bark back in a southern accent, and ordering a "Tebow steak" at a restaraunt only to have the waiter/angel cross his arms, shake his head and murmur "tsk, tsk, tsks" as he ascended into the heavens.
My interpretation:
God, where to even begin! You've got several of the most basic mythological archetypes there. 1. The creation story- lindsay going to the hospital (where we all "begin") to get her "beginnicals"... certainly something that would somehow shed light on our strange emergence into the world. Can our emergence be explained? Not in any normal way, so a word must be invented. 2. The peach- forbidden fruit? I associate southern accent with racism. Incorrect sustenance (dogs don't eat peaches) leads to negative effects. Have you been eating well? Is a lack of nutrition or bodily maintenance leading to a Pandora's Box of health problems, like your sickness? 3. The transformation of the hero- a simple moth fluttering about enters your head and emerges in glory, transformed, not unlike a Native American sweat lodge or a bar mitzvah... but obviously, and oddly, your HEAD is the medium! It symbolizes your own act of becoming. When I think of moths I think of the woods, camping, and them flying into the fire. Brings up issues of duty, compulsion, and action- not unlike your own act of becoming, in the woods, running the trails, getting faster, rising through the ranks, becoming more than you were, but also sacrificing your body, in a way. 4. Which brings us to- the rise to transcendence. It's as if Freud himself wrote the Tebow sequence, with it's transubstantiation metaphor, the chiding of the one thinking he can judge himself worthy of entry to the heavens, and then the rapture. The rapture in runners' terms I suppose would be losing the race, getting left behind. You have misgivings about your rising stature and your ability to maintain it. Remember that existentially we make our own rules, we are not beholden to rules from above. Transcendence is not given, it's taken. We are free. Free to run as fast as we want, or not at all. The journey is what's important, not the beginnicals and not the endicals- THE JOURNEY. Run free Leon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)