[lit-ideas] Re: What, then, is wanting to know?

  • From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:25:28 -0500

Andy: erotic is associated with the flesh.  ... Erotic has to do with sex.
Eric: Well, yeah ... we are social mammals after all. What do you think it had to do with?
Andy: I would be interested in why you think sex is so obsessed over and so overblown.
Eric: Because many people are not good at sex. And because there is a tendency to try to possess a good moment (as in Faust's default clause with Mephistopheles, "Stay moment, thou art so fair!") rather than letting the moment go.
Andy [on Groundhog Day]: Naturally, it has to be a sexual experience that brings the character enlightenment. Why not some other thing? Are humans that simple minded? Clearly they are.
Eric: Watch the movie. No sex. Bill Murray is constantly rebuffed and constantly strives to make himself acceptable to the beloved. In the process, he acquires skills and knowledge that enable him to truly love.
The same day repeats. Bill Murray starts as a basic hedonist. Tries to screw every woman, tries to rob banks, take advantage, etc. Then he tries to manipulate his beloved (because he has the power of re-living the same day). It fails. He tries to save an old bum who dies anyway, and there is the turning point where he meets the limit of his power. Then he starts helping people for their own sake, learning the piano for its own sake, learning French poetry for its own sake, trying to save lives -- doing good for people (a boy falls out of as tree and he catches him) who never even acknowledge his help. He truly loves ... and thereby becomes lovable. 


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