Mendalla
Woody Allen interview. Whatcha' think?
Posted on: 09/17/2010 13:49
Read the following in an article about Woody Allen. It's from a press conference that he gave for his new movie (You Will Meet a Talk Dark Stranger) which has been playing the festival circuit (including TIFF). I'm still digesting it myself, but thought it was good WC fodder.
The full article is here.
"The subject matter is still the same thing," Allen said. "The inability of people to relate to one another; people needing some kind of certainty in life; people deluding themselves into some sense that there is some purpose to life or that there is some extra meaning to life when in fact it's a meaningless experience.
"And yet, in the end, even faith in anything at all is better than no faith at all," he said.
Allen recalled a TV appearance years ago with the Rev. Bill Graham debating the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life. "Billy Graham was saying to me that even if I was right and he was wrong and there was no meaning to life and it was a bleak experience and there was not God and no afterlife and no hope for anything, then he would still have a better life than me because he believed differently," Allen said. "Even if he was 100% wrong, our lives would both be completed and I would have had a miserable life, wallowing in a bleak outlook, and he would have had a wonderful life confident that there was more.
"So that was one of the main themes of this picture, that someone like Gemma could be deluded (as I felt Billy Graham was deluded) and she would have a better life than someone like Josh who is more scientific-minded and had a more realistic view of life, but was going to have a more miserable life.
"I do feel that it's important to have some kind of faith in something, but impossible for many of us," Allen said. "I personally don't have any faith in anything. But it's great if you can."
Mendalla
Comments
Arminius
Posted on: 09/17/2010 14:33
We, the contemplator, invest our existence with meaning, regardless of whether or not there is an ultlimate creator or what s/he/it may or may not have meant.
jlin
Posted on: 09/17/2010 15:59
My only question is why Woody feels he has to put the people in a relationship with each other. From a community based perspective of a form of truth and observation that doesn't always attach itself to only a lover, his use of the relationship to portray a trust and truth tells em that he has faith in the United States/New York relationship ( where the act of not having one is actually a statement and not just a private matter) as an avenue of personal investment of time and dialogue; ultimately fulfilling one's sense of self. At least, it has made him a lot of money and apparently, the use of the trust relationship is to make money.
Allen is really manipulative, you know. And the problem is that even though he's even been charged for being manipulative, intelligent people still want to take him at face value. I find that really bizarre.
InannaWhimsey
Posted on: 09/17/2010 16:09
Yes Mendalla, much fodder.
Good Woody is still doing therapy through movies, I see...
An interesting thing...
I think that "Life is meaningless" hinges upon needing meaning to exist intrinsically, 'supernaturally', outside oneself. It is ironic when I hear the non-religious say that life is meaningless. Supernaturalism runs deep within our species :3
All it takes is a bit more thought to break through that stage and get into the notion that ok, if there is no objective meaning then...we give life meaning...and that that is as important, if not more, than any meaning imposed from without.
All that is gives us life and then we do with it.
It has been difficult to put into practice. So we get people like TE Lawrence having meaning and purpose and feeling alive when he was over in Arabia, but then giving in to meaninglessness when he came back home. We have Vincent Van Gogh who had periods of intense aliveness, where he painted those amazing paintings; and then, he would fall back into his depressive moods, where all of life is meaningless. And so forth. How do we sustain this purpose and meaningfulness?
This has been a tough question, I think, of our civilizations, that we still face.
Pilgrims Progress
Posted on: 09/17/2010 18:56
I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens
- Woody Allen
We are the only species that understands that our death is inevitable. The thought is so overwhelming that it's the father of all fears.
How to continue existing with this knowledge?
Denial? "I'm not afraid of dying". (I just spend a lot of my time looking after my health).
Deferring worry? "Let's see - I'm twentyy four - I'll worry about it when I'm seventy".
Believing in an afterlife? "For whosoever believeth in God shall not die but have everlasting life." (This one's popular - and not just with Christians.)
Find meaning in our lives whilst we live?
Woody Allen seems to favour this approach. His films will outlive him and his constant worrying - which suggests to me this is a healthy approach.
My faith gives my life meaning. Ironically, it has nothing to do with an afterlife. I have no idea if such a thing exists - and I've got to the point that I have little interest in it.
My faith is firmly within the context of my life. I think my birth - like everyone else's, is a miracle.
I experience God as the Other in my life - and I trust that experience.
If we are all unique, it is up to us to spend our lives in pursuit of our uniqueness.
That is where we will find our meaning.
jon71
Posted on: 09/19/2010 06:27
I find the interview extremely sad. He seems so empty.
Arminius
Posted on: 09/19/2010 11:19
I find the interview extremely sad. He seems so empty.
Yes, jon, I had a similar impression: empty, shallow; like many modern people who neither have the living faith of a mystic nor the doctrinal faith of a believer.
As Inanna said, many people confuse faith with a dogmatic belief in supernaturalism. By rejecting unquestioning belief supernaturalist doctrine, they throw out the proverbial baby with the bath water and discard any kind of faith in a spiritual dimension. Consequently, their lives become empty and sad.
Traditional authoritarin religion, by pushing the opinion that the unquestioning belief in doctrines is the only way to be spirtual, is partially to blame for this sad state of affairs.