A brain cloud.......

[aureantes]

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....

Comments

[litharriel.livejournal.com]

This is still one I need to watch (or re-watch--I won't know until I can get ahold of it... which I think I'll see about doing today, if I can)...

[aureantes.livejournal.com]

Sounds good....my little sister came home with it this evening, as all the talk over it had inspired her to watch it again. The scenic music is beautiful, and I found some of the scenes just catching me very hard this time, whether the emotion going on was just roused inside me or projecting off the screen as well from the film itself.

[beow11.livejournal.com]

Haha! Joe Versus the volcano! Cool! ;-)

[aureantes.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's from 'before I got tired of Tom Hanks'.....(which was right around the time of, oh, "Forrest Gump"...). Plus, I hadn't gotten oversaturated on his earlier comedies beforehand.