How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd.
- Alexander Pope
So I finally managed to catch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on the telly. I was given a really good review of the movie, and I think, although surreal, the film did hit me, like a Darren Aronofsky's movie (much less dark, however).
I pride myself as someone who values memories. I used to tell myself, almost as a personal mantra that we live our lives in the pursuit of happy memories. That happiness is only as the memory is fleeting, we try to hold on to it like gold dust.
It's quite apt that this movie's changed that impression quite a bit.
I realise now that I will forget more than I will remember, that I will have impressions more than I will have recollections. Perhaps with that in mind, it is more important to have a pure heart than a spotless mind, for then at least, we get to make up our own minds.
It's interesting that what I got out of the movie was a strong theme of personal authenticity and self-determination. And ironic also that in that self-determination came a strange theme of fate, of "liking someone and not knowing why, just because". Almost as if our preferences came through more strongly than our choices or past choices, and that almost inevitably, we end up falling for the same person, for the same type of person, we look for things that remind us of that one true love we almost seemed to have used to know.
I wonder if that's really true.
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incidentally, i did want to mention that i do recognize that alex pope said "how happy is the blameless Vestal's lot" as a sardonic question disguised as an exclamation. to be blameless is to also be empty, meaningless and blank, without the weight of choice and consequence. the liberty of the lack of responsibility is naturally also the restraint of having "each wish resign'd". if we want only what we're given - is that happiness?
13 comments:
(i can't believe you haven't seen it till now)
i'm not sure if its preferences that comes through more strongly than our "freedom to choose". my preferences inform, but they are also (largely) inconstant. its seems more muscle memory than anything else, because its just easier, more comfortable, more familiar, to make choices i've made before.
i've come to believe the way forward lies inward, not outwards.
that's exactly it, it's just muscle memory. what difference is this from the path of least resistance human nature always seems to take?
it's almost as if we naturally resist change.
no value judgement there on whether or not we should or should not, but i'm beginning to observe that it is a fact of life - it's difficult to choose something other than what we've always known.
so "how happy is the blameless Vestal's lot" is not merely an exclamation, it's also a subtle question. if we do not choose, obviously we do not face blame, regret, repercussion. but we are with "each wish resigned".
can the resistance to change can also be born of our proclivity for self-preservation?
change can be costly, and not always rewarding, while standing still costs nothing except dreams and desires.
it's difficult to choose something different, but isn't it also difficult to choose nothing different?
i find the state of contentment very difficult to achieve.
like me, you like living behind the glass, eks.
you have your small victories, and i have my small insecurities.
yet times are a-changing. i can feel it in today's pre-cataclysmic wind.
it's time to be bold, no? before there is no more time left for these mundane heroics.
can anyone please give me a simple meaning of this quote... what it actually means.... please... in simple words...
My apologies saher1991 that in looking for the quote in simple terms, you came upon a website that meant to use the quote in anything but.
My take on Pope's quote is that it's saying, quite simply, that ignorance is bliss. "Vestal" in its original sense was "virginal" and therefore, not having known sex (or any form of corruption), it was a happy fate because they were ignorant and therefore pure and blameless.
Of course, there's no such thing as simple if you know Pope, he was probably being ironic.
i agree with lemiel. it was very obvious to me that innocence lost is what made people unhappy. it was quite obvious to me the first time i heard the line.
Well thought out. I too just saw the movie. Twice. Almost back-to-back. The film affected my deeply because I too thought of applying for the use of such machine. The movie convinced me otherwise.
I heard a quote once: "God gave us memories that we might have Roses in December." I have always been a memory seeker. I am a filmmaker, and it's hard to make films. It's easy to make memories that play in my head like films.
Pope's quote in the film made me curious out the poem. I recommend all who have loved and lost to read it. Clearly Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter, read it. For the poem reads much like the movie:
"Of all affliction taught a lover yet,
'Tis sure the hardest science to forget!
How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense,
And love th' offender, yet detest th' offence?
How the dear object from the crime remove,
Or how distinguish penitence from love?
Unequal task! a passion to resign,
For hearts so touch'd, so pierc'd, so lost as mine.
Ere such a soul regains its peaceful state,
How often must it love, how often hate!
How often hope, despair, resent, regret,
Conceal, disdain — do all things but forget."
And he finishes up with an invitation to Mr. Kaufman:
"Such if there be, who loves so long, so well;
Let him our sad, our tender story tell;
The well-sung woes will soothe my pensive ghost;
He best can paint 'em, who shall feel 'em most."
Mr. Pope written a sad and beautiful work, overflowing with grief. There is music in is words as sorrowful as any symphony.
We are our memories. From the time we are born to the time we die, we constantly make memories. Good and bad. We learn from both. No one truly wants a vestal's lot. True they have not pain, but they have not joy.
The key to happiness is the same as the key to a good film. Editing. Cut out the bad memories by cherishing only the good.
I believe we keep looking for our first love. We are chemical factories after all. I only wonder how many find anyone close to that first love, and whether it lasts, or even if that's illusion too.
I conclude with a another line from Charlie of similar theme:
"That's because I love Sarah. It's my love. Even Sarah can't take it away from me. You are who you love. Not who love you"
He best can paint them, who shall feel them most.
Now this post makes me wanna see this movie really bad...
Keep up the good writing buddy...
In the simplest terms possible, I read it as this: there will always be a particular memory of a moment or person that is so beautiful, its painful to remember. However, we keep remembering it even though it hurts, and cannot bring ourselves to succumb to "the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" - forgetting. Pope is asking the age-old question: is it better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all?
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