Thursday, September 29, 2011
Spirit of the Beehive
In reference to Victor Erice's Spirit of the Beehive someone said that this film is essentially about a girl 'that has no idea yet whether the world is ordinary or extraordinary.' There is maybe no better way to describe the film. The sense of being caught halfway between the ordinary and extraordinary, and facing the fearful offerings of each extreme.
I think I like that statement's implication as much as how it expresses the terrain of the film. Is the world 'ordinary or extraordinary?' Spirit of the Beehive is the perfect text to address that question and formulate some kind of contemplation on it, even if it is an unanswerable question. But an answer to that question is beside the point, it is something that is valuable to think about, to try and view everything through alternating lenses.
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Yes, the question is much more interesting than the answer.
ReplyDeleteGreat film! Though it always makes me sad.
Why is the question more interesting than the answer?
ReplyDeleteI think I know a fair amount of people who think the world is ordinary, and, they don't think about it at all. I know a couple who think it is extraordinary, and they think about it all the time. Neither really seem happy with the outcome, one knowing, and one unaware of the decision.
If we haven't discovered the answer.....the universe maybe, just isnt collective enough to categorize so cleanly. Perhaps we get away a little easier, sometimes thinking of it, sometimes dismissing it. Perhaps then the question turns into saying, is the world collectively imagining me, or am I imagining it?
Fascinating last question, Forrest. But which one of those is ordinary/extraordinary? Both seem tied to the supernatural.
ReplyDeleteRather than saying the "question is more interesting than the answer," I would say that the question is fundamentally *better* than any putative answer. I think I will build on what you (Forrest) said: if we all thought the world was ordinary, then we actually wouldn't be thinking about it or our place within it. If we all thought it was extraordinary, then we would believe ourselves to be somehow divinely appointed within that world, and this viewpoint may lead to a dangerous species egocentrism.
Then again, maybe the issue is just that it is an unanswerable question, and any attempt to definitively answer an unanswerable question (even if the attempt is unknowing, as in the first case) has always already missed the point.
So yes, this is all very interesting.
Finally, I wrote a five-page paper in Spanish on /La espiritu del colmena/ about five years ago. I think the prof said my ideas were good, but my Spanish was shitty.
I think this is what you were saying, Dave. About "view[ing] everything through alternating lenses." So...I totally agree.
ReplyDeleteThank you Forrest and Boyda for articulating the idea much more coherently than I did at first.
ReplyDeleteand yes, it is all a little bit sad.