[MD] The Revolutionary Road

Mon Feb 21 07:22:05 PST 2011

Hi John,

I had to go off and see American Beauty.  Somehow, I'd managed to miss
it.  Where American Beauty is from the male perspective, Revolutionary
Road is from the female.  Such a huge gulf, though it looks like you
can clearly see both sides.  I hadn't intended to talk about this
until a funny thing happened at work the other day.   I was writing an
article about culture change which is something my company seems eager
to do.  Trying to explain what it is and why it is so powerful.  After
I got it ready, I ran it by our copy editor.  I do this routinely
because I trust his judgment.  Here's a snippet.  It's supposed to be
an example of just how powerful culture change can be.

"Depending on how old you are, you have already lived through a number
of culture changes in your lifetime.  For instance, in the
not-too-distant past women were not encouraged to work outside the
home - and more than just not encouraged - they were actively
discouraged from it.  Today, slightly more than 1/2 the American
workforce is female."

His feedback went something like this.  "I liked the article except
for that part about working women.  That's not an example of culture
change.  Women actually went out and got jobs because of the invention
of the vacuum cleaner, the washing machine, and the dishwasher.  If it
weren't for those labor-saving devices, women would still be at home
cleaning the house.  It takes a lot of work to maintain a house and
women were needed at home to do it before there were machines to do it
for us.  The other thing that happened was the high taxes.  When you
pay 50% of your income in taxes it takes two incomes just to survive."

I told him that by all means we should take that part out. If he
didn't find it compelling then other people wouldn't either.

I think I deserve a medal.  :)  Is this the kind of revisionist
history kids are learning these days?  The funny thing is I picked
that one on purpose, believing it to be a far less controversial
example than the civil rights movement.  Guess I should have asked
him.  It would be interesting to hear why black people now have equal
rights.  Was it the invention of the automated cotton harvester?

Best,
Mary

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 12:15 AM, John Carl <ridgecoyote at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the recommendation, Mary.  I enjoyed it a lot, though it wasn't
> quite what I expected.  I didn't even notice it was by Sam Mendes till the
> end and then it all came quite clear.  This was definitely the bookended
> missing half of American Beauty - a movie which hit me hard when it came out
> and to my mind more along the lines of what you describe as the conflict of
> Social sq and freedom/DQ.  But I think both together make the whole
> statement in complete glory - showing a sort of Yin/Yang approach from both
> sides now.
>
> When I walked out of the theater of after watching American Beauty, it was
> with Lu, in Fort Bragg, for our 11th anniversary and it connected a whole
> bunch of thinking along MoQ lines.  Mainly I thought of the tale told in
> Lila, of a man who goes to work each day on a train, commuting to work, with
> a stable and comfortable life and yet he's not really happy.  That story
> connected with that movie, in my mind.
>
> Some things hit you harder at some times and it's not easy to explain
> later.  An 11th anniversary isn't usually any big deal.  People focus on
> other numbers, like their 10th for instance.  But Lu's and my 10th we
> completely ignored.  We'd lost a child a few months earlier and we weren't
> in any kind of mood to celebrate our 10th.  And then  also, after that we
> stopped watching movies for a while and just like the heightened taste of
> food after a long fast, a movie seen in the context of being like, the only
> one you watched in a year or so... it makes a bigger impact than normal.
> American Beauty was like that for us.  I was dumbfounded when I walked out
> of the movie theater.  But then, other people also reported a similar
> feeling; my brother said watching was akin to downing a pan galactic gargle
> blaster - having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a
> large gold brick - and I have to say I somewhat agree.
>
> Revolutionary Road didn't affect me in quite the same way; I wasn't in the
> same frame of mind, for one thing.  But seeing it in the light of the
> earlier movie - the mirror image, the "bookend" as I say, of offering the
> view of the opposite coast; Rev. Road was set in New York.  I don't know
> where Amer. Beauty was supposed to be, but it felt like California to me.
> The opening scenes of suburban roofs was shot in Sacramento.  Roofs and
> homes I know well.  In American Beauty, the husband is killed by his efforts
> to escape middle class conformity and in Revolutionary Road its the wife.
> There was also a bit of balance in having Kate die and Leo live on which
> balanced out the ending of Titanic.  So all in all, it felt to me like a
> very satisfying balancing act and I'm glad I saw it.  I want to watch it
> again.
>
> And yeah, Mary.  When I saw American Beauty I'd wondered if Sam Mendes had
> read ZAMM and was heavily influenced it.  After watching this one, I thought
> that idea was even more confirmed.
>
> Extraordinary indeed.
>
> John
>
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 12:17 PM, Mary <marysonthego at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> If you have never seen the movie "Revolutionary Road" you will enjoy
>> it.  There is a character in it which could be a young Phaedrus.  He
>> makes astounding insights near the end.  I have no doubt you will spot
>> him.  This movie has so much to say about the conflict between the
>> Social Level and freedom/DQ it could have been written by Pirsig
>> himself.   The movie came out in 2008 and if it's already been
>> discussed here I apologize.  I don't see much that hasn't been out for
>> a while.  If you've ever groped for an example of one level being
>> unable to comprehend another, then this is the movie for you.  Have I
>> piqued your interest? :)
>>
>> There are so many messages for MoQers in this movie I admit to
>> watching it twice - back to back - just to catch references.
>>
>> Pay attention to Phaedrus' mother and the main character's neighbors.
>> Reigel is married to Lila in 2 mirror images and Phaedrus' mother is
>> the archetype "moral" Victorian.  It is extraordinary.
>>
>> Best,
>> Mary
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