Thursday, July 24, 2008

What's your story?

"When the doors of perception are cleansed, man will see things as they truly are, infinite" - William Blake

Story telling is one of those great art forms, which not only entertains but also has the ability to render different perceptions of this world to us. But when it comes to oneself, most of us don't have a very fertile imagination. Reality is pretty mundane isn't it? Why is finding a story for your life elusive?

Being unofficially rechristened as IMDB, it should be no surprise when i use cinema as my muse. Big Fish (2003), King of California (2007) & Kung Fu Panda (2008) are movies that are great stories in themselves. But the point they are trying to drive is larger, and one which makes story telling such an effective medium. Big Fish is about a son learning about his dying father through stories and myths about him. Stories which seem to be concocted out of a fertile imagination are actually very clever metaphors. King of California is about a mentally unstable father trying to convince his daughter that there is Spanish treasure buried somewhere below California. And well, Kung Fu Panda is one of those totally kickass Jack Black movies about your dreams and purpose in life (with awesome kung fu, awesome dialogues and sheer awesomeness). Now, before you start branding me an escapist with rose tinted glasses, theres something common to all these movies, and at the heart of these movies. And thats the use of stories,myths and imaginations to tell us how important perception is to the way we see reality. So whether its having an adventurous life, a purpose in the madness or achieving awesomeness (:D got to see that again). That perception is the looking glass through which we see this world. And that our lives can be just as special, just as full of story as we want it to be. And thats a very powerful message, existential even, that we have the ability to change the perception.

Now theres a difference in thinking that everything is hunky-dory always and things will always work out. But we, all of us, do have the answer to our existential concerns in ourselves. Just open the different doors.Infinite doors.

7 comments:

Gajendra Sidana said...

If it was possible to achieve everything through perception, I would have done it long time back. Whatever doors of perception you open for yourself, I am sorry to say, you will still be spending your 50% time doing something which won't even change an iota in this world and rest 50% time sleeping which will also not change an iota even about you forget about world :D

Rider on the Storm said...

thanks for the ... encouragement :)

Dilettante said...

Dude, you are an awesome writer (I'm saying this because I have been reading a lot of Indian bloggers lately and I'm not happy with what they write). I have blogrolled you. Find your blog on the bookmarks section of my blog's main page.
cleverdoll.com

Anyhow, if you know some good Indian blogs, lemme know...

Maverick said...

Makes me question how we define reality!
Sometimes, the perception is more believable than the real. The intangible more real than the tangible.

~M

Anyways, I'm surprised that 'babel' didn't figure in a post about perceptions and cinema.

Rider on the Storm said...

@ clever doll - thanks man...even i'm searching for some good Indian blogs, will let you know

@ maverick - very well said. The reason Babel doesn't figure here is that my blog talks more about defining your own purpose in life by having different perspectives while babel is more external, as in it depicts the cultural differences in the backdrop of human similarities. still, good point!

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