A brain cloud.......

Okay, it's obscure movie reference time -- where'd that phrase come from?

Hmm. Dare I say anything without invoking the entire web of inferences involving destiny and a more-or-less-literal "leap of faith"? Probably not, too late to worry about all that -- if it's there it's there, and those who have eyes to see --oh, sorry there, that was pretty low-- or ears to hear --again, pardon me (damn I'm on a roll tonight...)-- will be able to read whatever they need to find into/out of my latching off this cinematic fairytale, circa 1990.    (A good review here)

How very proper we are. *snicker*   Okay, a brain cloud....to be precise, "a fog of black tissue running up the center of your brain" -- according to Robert Stack's Dr. Ellison.  "You'd think they'd be able to think of something better than a 'brain cloud'," Patricia comments much much later, shaking her head...but no, I think that made perfect sense as a vague description of a vague malaise that was at the root of the whole existential boondoggle.  It's fairly transparent to me, at least, watching it again tonight after many moons (hah) and a whole lot of symbolic analysis.  Whether a real condition or not, the description makes sense, that a person can be self-split and their selfhood eroded, their soul lost through an insidious separation of consciousness--its blackness like an industrial soot encrusting one's natural essence.  And of course, after so many years studying and gathering and theorizing on the nature of the hemispheres, I suppose I could say that's another bit of pop-cultural evidence to rack up the case for left-right equality and integration.

But then....the movie itself's like a deliberate mystery, wrapped up in enough awkwardness to hide its symbolic realities and experiential nerve-clusters from those who aren't likely to "get it" anyhow.  If you don't feel anything from it, if you think it's just a silly little lark of a Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan vehicle, then you're absolutely right -- that's all it is to you, and all the intensive symbolic analysis in the world won't make it different unless you yourself are different. 

That said, I suppose it's obvious that I find a lot in it....though I have to say that my own liking for it is also partaking of the nature of mystery -- that is, I prefer not to try to explain too much.  There are a few scenes in it that always hit me hard--and even harder now.  I see connections, I see threads and elaborations and encapsulated things that can't be put into words.  And no, it's not a 'perfect' movie--I never said that it was.  It's a fairytale.  And fairytales aren't necessarily perfect or polished or exactly comprehensive and logical either--they get their strength just from having a lot of truths and visions inside them.

So......guess there's enough in that for me to spread it around a bit, torment my groups and blog-readers with my inconsistency....