I’ve been on a Hunger Games kick here recently, so I’ve seen it several times in the past few weeks. This scene jumps out at me each time:
President Snow : Hope. —Seneca : Hope? President Snow : Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear.
I have strong feelings about hope, a strong belief in the power of hope, and so that small exchange made an impression on me from the first time I saw it in the theater.
If you look at The Hunger Games trilogy, Katniss is considered a representation of hope by both sides. Rebellion leadership uses her as a propaganda tool, a beacon of hope for the masses, an incitement to war. Snow continues to see her as the embodiment of a hope that needs to be crushed.
But when I look at Katniss, I don’t see hope outright. I see defiance and will, compassion and love. Determination. I guess what I mean is Katniss doesn’t feel like a particularly hopeful character to me, and she doesn’t seem specifically motivated by hope. In fact, she sometimes operates from a place of despair – the opposite of hope.
And yet her actions incite hope.
Her acts of will unleash something stronger than fear in the hearts of others: the realization that things can change, that there is hope. If Katniss Everdeen can stand up against the capital, maybe I can too.
It’s interesting.
So, what do you think? Is hope the only thing stronger than fear?
I always get blog crushes. Some of them go the way of schoolgirl crushes, fading back into the mutual oblivion from which they sprung. But some of them have turned into truly lovely friendships. In that respect, my cup runneth over; I’m so fortunate.
Anyway, a blogger I’m crushing on right now is Clay Morgan. I know, you’re probably so shocked to hear that – but it’s true! I’ve really enjoyed his site, claywrites.com, and I loved his new book. Clay blogs about pop culture, history and the meaning of life, and his posts usually give me a lot to think about. And if you’ve been here a while, then you know I love that.
Clay recently submitted to an interview by me (and let me tell you, I did not know what I was doing). I’ll be posting it in pieces to finish out UNDEAD month, and yes, I squeezed that much material out of him. Poor man. He’s got patience, I’ll give him that.
Today I’m sharing something I had a lot of fun with: a Pop Quiz! Go ahead and play along at home; you know you want to.
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So I think I won, don’t you? Yes, I know that wasn’t a contest. Don’t be silly.
But those voices in my head are totally real. No matter what that picture of Clay said.
♦
ps: My favorite part is when Clay has such a hard time deciding between his beloved historical figures. I almost felt bad for making him choose. But not bad enough to let him out of it.
Today’s movie quote is sponsored by Clay Morgan. And by sponsored, I mean he knows nothing about this post. That’s Clay’s new book, Undead, on the side bar – give the cover a click to see what it’s all about! (It’s zombie non-fiction, so chew on that a minute. Chew on that, haha. I did zombie humor, ya’ll!)
Lars and the Real Girl is about a young man who buys a life-sized doll to be his girlfriend. Before you click away!, this isn’t a creepy movie, I promise. It’s actually – oh my gosh, this movie – it’s sweet and funny and sad and touching and it’s just so many things. It’s quirky and unusual, which I love, love, love. And I cry every single time, no matter how many times I’ve seen it. I won’t tell you when I cry, because it would be too much of a spoiler, and also it kind of makes me feel super foolish. But I guess that’s the thing, is this movie makes me cry (every single time), even though what I’m crying about is kind of ridiculous. The emotions they’ve built up behind this crazy scenario are just so deep that I can’t help myself.
(Fine, I sob. But let’s just keep that between us, okay?)
Family, community and relationships are at the heart of this movie, as well as loss and fear. Lars doesn’t know how to have relationships with people. I think he fears the thing he wants the most, which is so relatable. I have struggled with that, certainly not in the same magnitude, in such a life-defining way, but I know what that feels like. And so Lars buys this doll as a kind of emotional bridge: his interactions with this fake human are the first steps in enabling him to interact with real people.
In Undead, there’s a section about how we offer food to people when they need to be comforted. Clay talks about something I never paid attention to before, how Jesus would bring someone back to life and then tell the family to feed that person. “Jesus just brought you back from the dead… Let’s eat!”
That passage immediately brought to mind a scene from Lars that left a big impression on me. It’s one of those quiet and simple and wonderful scenes that speak so much, at least to me. I’ve written before about not knowing how to handle grief situations, especially not knowing what to say. It’s so difficult to know how to console someone , and that’s what this scene is about.
Ladies from the community have come over to sit with Lars while he’s hurting. And that’s it. They quietly do their needlepoint and knitting, just being there with him. And they feed him.
Lars: I feel terrible that all this is happening so close to the baby coming. —Mrs. Petersen: That’s how life is, Lars. Everything at once. Mrs. Schindler: We brought casseroles. —Lars: Thank you. Um, is there something I should be doing right now? Mrs. Bruner: No, dear. You eat. —Mrs. Schindler: We came over to sit. Mrs. Petersen: That’s what people do when tragedy strikes. —Mrs. Schindler: They come over and sit. Lars: Okay.
These women give Lars physical and emotional nourishment, food and companionship. They don’t offer up platitudes or condolences. They don’t give advice or talk about their own experiences of loss or heartache.
They come over and sit.
I feel like that’s a good lesson for me, in situations where another is suffering, to open my heart instead of my mouth.
I know I say this nearly every time, but I love this movie. I LURV it!
I listed this as a favorite on the 2011 Movie Quote Monday page, but it’s quite long so I never used it in a post. But last Thursday I heard an interview with Clay Morgan in which this particular quote was mentioned, and now I can’t get it out of my head. So, I decided to share my brains with you. You’re welcome.
Apparently, he referenced this scene in his new book,Undead.I haven’t gotten to it in the book yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing how Clay uses this quote. I can’t begin to get into Undead in a couple of sentences here, but it examines the fact that we can live without really being alive. I can see that idea playing out in Stranger Than Fiction.
So, if you haven’t seen this movie, then you should. But in the meantime, you need to know that Harold has begun hearing a woman’s voice in his head, narrating his life. As confusing as that is to him, it takes on new significance when she announces Harold’s “imminent death”. In his search to find a cure for this little problem, he meets a literature professor who is more interested in the literary quality of the narrative than in Harold’s fate.
Professor Hilbert: You were right. This narrator might very well kill you, so I humbly suggest that you just forget all this and go live your life. —Harold: Go live my life? I am living my life. I’d like to continue to live my life. Professor Hilbert: *signs* I know. Of course. I mean all of it. However long you have left. You know, I mean, Harold, you could use it to have an adventure. You know, invent something, or just finish reading Crime and Punishment. Hell, Harold, you could just eat nothing but pancakes if you wanted. —Harold: What’s wrong with you? Hey. I don’t wanna eat nothing but pancakes. I wanna live. Who in their right mind in a choice between pancakes and living…chooses pancakes? Professor Hilbert: Harold, if you’d pause to think, I believe you’d realize that that answer’s inextricably contingent upon the type of life being led…and of course, the quality of the pancakes. You don’t understand what I’m saying. —Harold: Yes, I do. But you have to understand that this isn’t a philosophy or a literary theory or a story to me. It’s my life. Professor Hilbert: Absolutely. So just go make it the one you’ve always wanted.
This really is a beautiful movie, about a man who was living a painfully ordinary life. When something extraordinary occurs in that nearly lifeless existence, he chooses to turn his life into the one he wants. And when the time comes to make a much harder decision, he chooses life once again, in a profound way.
Choosing to live the life you always wanted isn’t easy. For one thing, some of us can’t define for ourselves what that even looks like. And when we think we do know, that just leads to more work, more effort and sometimes even pain. And, you know, I like pancakes; pancakes sound pretty good, right?
What I think is there are plenty of people out there choosing pancakes.
These last few weeks, I’ve been aching to get a tattoo of the word “choose”. Because I do – I choose every day, every hour, every moment. I choose what kind of life I want to live, what kind of person I want to be. What physical and spiritual nourishment I put into my body. I choose how I treat myself and others.
I am constantly choosing who I am.
I don’t always choose well, but at least I stopped ordering the pancakes.
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So, what do you think?
Can it be as simple as choosing to live your life to the fullest – at least within the limits of your capabilities?
steadily skipping stones 