"In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much that we crash into each other just so we can feel something."
Crash, 2005
While I am not in Los Angeles at the moment, this quote is still relevant. It retains relevance when applied universally. Our lives are composed of narrative motifs, which is neither good nor bad. However, we seem fixated on the idea of hoarding these motifs for ourselves, our own benefit. While it is good to reflect upon the chapters of our lives, most authors do not write books for the sake of reading what they wrote.
Neither should we hold the chapters of our lives to ourselves, nor should we do the opposite. Either we covet the narratives of our lives or shove them in the faces of others, expecting them to understand the current chapter completely without having any knowledge of what occurred in the chapters that preceded them. Is that fair? Is it fair to throw pages of a narrative at other people, expecting them to catch the pages and arrange them in a coherent manner?
Apparently, the media thinks so. News gets thrown around as sound bites, factual information blurs with theatricality, and we as Americans have grown to expect important issues such as politics and economics to be delivered in ways that entertain us. The narratives that used to challenge and stimulate the intellect have now become stories read curled up by the fireplace with a cup of cocoa.
2 comments on The Book that We Live
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Yes, the connection with the movie "Crash" (i.e. narrative tracks criss-crossing at random) is really appropriate, I think.
great movie mark!