Don Hertzfeldt has an interesting video called “The Meaning of Life”
It’s a bit obscure, probably because it’s been taken down, but you can watch it here.
On wikipedia, it’s been compared to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odessey, a movie which I do like. Actually most of the movie is too slow for me, and it’s the beginning and ends that make it up for me.
You might find the ‘stories’ people tell interesting about it. And how he relates this against the narratives of evolution, death and universal chaos/order is particularly telling. One of the strengths of a visual and musical narrative is that you can’t quite argue with it. In effect he points at certain images, which are vaguely related to concepts. You can see what you want.
What I mean is that the visual and acoustic connections are the links. In order to relate one part to the next in words… that’s room for argument. In effect then, it’s not really saying anything. Except look how visually stunning this can be.
How people’s stories, the things they walk around with their heads full of, aliens or not, doesn’t seem to match up at all to anything that happens in the larger whole. That’s not to say that their stories are meaningless, it’s just meant for a more personable context, here.
Our pettiness is where we are. And for our everyday lives, that is what we are. Just like our pets are what they are, which is part of where they are.
Nonetheless, the 12 minute short is definitely worth watching. If the awe we get from us connects us to a larger whole, then I think the video has made it’s intended impact.
That is, the point I think, a point in art. At least the ‘great’ art which is meant to be ‘universal’ To make that larger impact, so that for a moment we are beyond where we are, beyond being me or you, beyond our every day attention, beyond being human… and beyond sentience.
Language is part of our every day negotiation with each other, and a natural extension of who we are where we are in the world. It’s one of the best tools that we have. Unfortunately, it’s not made very well to express something like the beyond…
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