Have you heard the conspiracy theory that Robert Zemeckis knew exactly what he was doing when he made Forrest Gump and that it's secretly a subversive critique of the audience he knew would love it?
Forrest is the naive boomer. His "Life is like a box of chocolates" philosophy can be contrasted with the Buddhist symbology of the lotus flower: beauty growing from shit. Unlike the Buddha, who recognizes that life can be made worthwhile despite the inherent shitty nature of it, Forrest Gump is rubbing your face in the shit. He sees no distinction between a good life and a meaningless one. He's eating shit, and he loves it.
The horrors and atrocities of the 20th century are completely lost on him, he attains success because it doesn't take intelligence to be successful in post-war America.
Forrest is also the ultimate cuck/simp. That Farah Fawcett Charlie's Angel with the invisible nips boomers had hanging from their dorm room walls? Forrest got the real-life version of that. An abused girl who became the town slut, who became a national slut, who returns home to strap Gump with a kid that she somehow knew wouldn't be anything like him (hint: it's not his).
That everyone saw the movie and thought, "I wish I was like Forrest" was Zemeckis' last laugh. You already are Forrest. Your government sends you off to die in pointless wars, your sports and business games are designed to be won by idiots, and you've been conditioned to desire unfaithful women. Your life is a sick comedy, but you think it's Oscar-worthy because Alan Silvestri did the soundtrack and the MSM tells you so.
You think you love Forrest because he's profoundly naive. They want you to love Forrest because willful ignorance is just as good as unquestioning obedience.
I just re-read your post and realized that I didn't really add much to your analysis, so I will say this: Forrest Gump embodies the secular puritanism of the American rube. He is the Protestant work ethic of "unquestioning toil is good, don't try to figure out the plan" but with God removed. He is how the establishment sees the common man.
Here is a question, compared to Forrest Gump as a Idealist/Clueless/MidWit/Gentry movie (see Danco & Rao), what are some of the movies that plays through similar themes for Pragmatist/Losers/Dimwit/Labor and Opportunist/"Sociopath"/Topwit/Elite?
that's something along what I mean about "the difference between books and movies". I feel like this kind of thing must necessarily be the case, it's the only way I could imagine the same story, as a novel.
In that sense, I suppose Zemeckis pulled a 'Reverse-Shining". Where Kubrick took an airport horror novel about a haunted hotel by Stephen King and turned it into a multi-layered psychological masterpiece about American manifest destiny, Gump's director took a satire on American values and flattened it into a feel-good movie shellacked over with plot armor.
1. find meaning within the search for meaning debord-yelling-at-hegel style by reading literal piles of theory
2. you may not become ungovernable but you’ll maybe learn to levitate?
3. convert to Orthodox Judaism. go hard with the halachic observance… gulf war? Proletariat? Simulacra? I’m only worried about keeping my milk spatula far away from my meat sponge….
Fuck
Have you heard the conspiracy theory that Robert Zemeckis knew exactly what he was doing when he made Forrest Gump and that it's secretly a subversive critique of the audience he knew would love it?
Forrest is the naive boomer. His "Life is like a box of chocolates" philosophy can be contrasted with the Buddhist symbology of the lotus flower: beauty growing from shit. Unlike the Buddha, who recognizes that life can be made worthwhile despite the inherent shitty nature of it, Forrest Gump is rubbing your face in the shit. He sees no distinction between a good life and a meaningless one. He's eating shit, and he loves it.
The horrors and atrocities of the 20th century are completely lost on him, he attains success because it doesn't take intelligence to be successful in post-war America.
Forrest is also the ultimate cuck/simp. That Farah Fawcett Charlie's Angel with the invisible nips boomers had hanging from their dorm room walls? Forrest got the real-life version of that. An abused girl who became the town slut, who became a national slut, who returns home to strap Gump with a kid that she somehow knew wouldn't be anything like him (hint: it's not his).
That everyone saw the movie and thought, "I wish I was like Forrest" was Zemeckis' last laugh. You already are Forrest. Your government sends you off to die in pointless wars, your sports and business games are designed to be won by idiots, and you've been conditioned to desire unfaithful women. Your life is a sick comedy, but you think it's Oscar-worthy because Alan Silvestri did the soundtrack and the MSM tells you so.
You think you love Forrest because he's profoundly naive. They want you to love Forrest because willful ignorance is just as good as unquestioning obedience.
I just re-read your post and realized that I didn't really add much to your analysis, so I will say this: Forrest Gump embodies the secular puritanism of the American rube. He is the Protestant work ethic of "unquestioning toil is good, don't try to figure out the plan" but with God removed. He is how the establishment sees the common man.
Here is a question, compared to Forrest Gump as a Idealist/Clueless/MidWit/Gentry movie (see Danco & Rao), what are some of the movies that plays through similar themes for Pragmatist/Losers/Dimwit/Labor and Opportunist/"Sociopath"/Topwit/Elite?
that's something along what I mean about "the difference between books and movies". I feel like this kind of thing must necessarily be the case, it's the only way I could imagine the same story, as a novel.
In that sense, I suppose Zemeckis pulled a 'Reverse-Shining". Where Kubrick took an airport horror novel about a haunted hotel by Stephen King and turned it into a multi-layered psychological masterpiece about American manifest destiny, Gump's director took a satire on American values and flattened it into a feel-good movie shellacked over with plot armor.
That sounded like good writing, has Nolan or other screenwriters do something similar?
You mean he is Jewish ‘ !?
1. find meaning within the search for meaning debord-yelling-at-hegel style by reading literal piles of theory
2. you may not become ungovernable but you’ll maybe learn to levitate?
3. convert to Orthodox Judaism. go hard with the halachic observance… gulf war? Proletariat? Simulacra? I’m only worried about keeping my milk spatula far away from my meat sponge….
4. inner peace :) :) :)
simply bonk yourself over the head with immersion in tradition until you don’t want to remove your skin with steel wool anymore :)
broke: creating inner peace
woke: creating outer war and disorder
can and should coexist…
Brb giving myself brain damage through excessive sugar consumption.
Dodge a wrench ‘ dodge a ball ‘ Dodgson ‘ wake up ‘