A quote from Calvino in the movie: "the ultimante meaning to which all stories refer has two faces: the continuity of life and inevitability of death. Tragedy, you die; comedy, you get hitched.
It seems that as long as the diaphragm is still pumping, the blood is still thrust to the heart and the brain, and pupils shrink at direct light, we are still in the comedy. The difference is that Harold is knowingly dying, beholding the tragedy while in his comedy, while the rest of people is living in a comedy with an uncertainty of the tragedy. If the uncertainty is far fetching enough, we are happily lost in the mindless waiting, the waiting for the seemingly far fetching tragedy. In nuances , mundanes, routines, constancy, depaire, and all sorts of insignificance, there may lie some nobler cause. This may sound very cliche, but, yes, sometimes, the most silly mundanes make me love the mindless waiting game, the loving comedy.
The novelist is like God. it's like God said, let there be light, and there was light. She has all her power in her words, and the omniscient words have the omnipotent power, saving or killing lives.
Tears rolled down my face when I saw Harold's face flooded with tears as he was told that his death, his inevitable death, no matter in whatsoever form it could be in his comedy life with uncertain length, wouldn't be as "meaningful and poetic" as the one plotted by the novelist, which is right around the corner.
"In the grand scheme, it wouldn't matter."
In the grand scheme......
I was actually reading a similar short story last week on the subway. The protagonist leads a mundane life as Harold does in the movie, but, one day, he found that another rendition of his own life is going on in his TV set. He watches another self leading a fabulous brilliant life in his TV set. He felt dwarfed, bullied, frustrated.... Finally, he crashed the TV set, ended the perfect his-other self's life.
Harold transgresses his fictional life, and changes his real life as the plot unfolds
What if there IS a life, parallel to the real life that we live on a daily basis. What do you want it to be? And what is real then?
View more about Stranger Than Fiction reviews
