Saturday, December 5, 2009
Living With Godless Killing Machines!!!
I feel that Timothy is uncomfortable with his normality--in a way that comes from a dissonance between the self and the ability of the self to either manage, tolerate, or succeed an environment. I believe Timothy possess the will to achieve greatness but for various reasons has never reached it. Timothy's angst against human society is derived from his expectations with himself versus what humanity can offer him. Such an example is when Timothy almost got an acting job for cheers. This is why Timothy ended up befriending the waitress who had also fallen short of her own expectations when attempting to create the extraordinary. I believe the key difference between humanity and nature is the inherent indifference that exists in nature. Timothy is attracted to this indifference as if he is not judged, than who is to force him into metacognition? Who is there to provide tangible evidence that he, for a given facet of talent, is not #1? To Timothy, this indifference much outweighs the positives of humanity such as a stimulating conversation or relationship with another human. Timothy is attracted to nature because it does not see his failures or successes and because of this, Timothy's will to succeed allows him to learn to live with bears. By living with Bears, Timothy's self is satisfied along with, ironically, his interaction with others as he is proving that he can, in fact, be "the best" which would explain why he is so vindictive towards those who tell him he is crazy. These animals have given him the life that makes him extraordinary, something that I believe has needed all his life.
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I would agree with this point. I think it is important to point out that fundamental difference between nature and society. In my opinion, this can be expressed as that there is no formal hierarchical system of our society to decide who "wins", as everything is by consensus. In nature, their are clear predators and prey, and instinct (with a few subsequent calculated decisions) defines all actions.
ReplyDeleteFor this reason, it is somewhat easy to see how Timothy was so easily disillusioned with our society and so fascinated with the Grizzlies. It was on some subtle level that would be able to advance in THEIR society simply by being the "best", which is no longer determined by other bears, but rather, only by your individual actions.
That's a compelling view on Timothy's psychology, Brendan: that he, in part, was fleeing society as much as he was pursuing 'nature'.
ReplyDeleteIt is complex, though: he brought society with him, in terms of people and in terms of his videocamera, and lived most (half?) of the year back 'in society', and the ostensible purpose of his films had to do with people seeing them. The line between 'nature' and society' for TImothy seems less clear the more one thinks about it.