In 1912, Gregor Samsa described by Kafka turned into a big beetle and died at home. However, the alienation of human beings has not stopped, and even new tricks are constantly taking place. In 1983, Woody Allen filmed a True Metamorphosis-a pseudo-documentary film "The Legend of West Lie". "Pseudo documentary refers to a fictitious film that is shot in the form or style of a documentary, and the storyline is designed. It can use documentary photography techniques, use fabricated sets, actors or scenarios, and it can use digital effects to change the shooting scene or even create a fully synthesized scene. In "The Legend of West Lie", Woody Allen invited several writers to appear as interview guests, and used technical means to film and produce Zelig's "historical archives" with the American style of the 1920s. "Leonard Zelig, Jews, whether he is personally or his people, have been at the bottom of the food chain throughout the beginning of the 20th century. His original words are like this, "My brother beats me, my sister beats my brother and me, and my father beats me." My sister, my brother and me, my mother beats my father, my sister, my brother and me, our neighbor beats our whole family, and the upper community beats our community". He did not really alienate into a beetle like Gregor, but changed his image in the crowd like a chameleon. Get close to the upper class and become the upper class; walk into the slums and become the poor. His "chameleon syndrome" goes beyond the meticulous imitation of general behavior, but pathologically changes physical characteristics-and can even become fat or black during conversation.
In "The Legend of the West," Woody Allen used the media or the public's attitude to Zelig to make a three-pointed satire of entertainment to death. The discussion of Zelig's disease quickly turned to become a curiosity about the symptoms of the disease under the expectations of the media and the public. Zelig began to frequently occupy the headlines of major newspapers, and the hospital cooperated with permission to conduct various experiments. People quickly got the nickname "Chameleon" for Zelig, and composed popular songs and lizard dances. The people are shouting for this disease, and they rightly feel that it is a kind of carnival and luck, worthy of cheering and love.
After Zelig was cured for the first time by Dr. Eudora, this love reached its culmination. People invite Zelig to give lectures, to educate children, to preach the "American spirit." It is not only an old saying that it is easy to lose weight when climbing high, but also a certain way of writing drama. Zelig lived up to expectations and was exposed to a scandal. Although this is a pseudo-documentary, it also makes viewers feel that Zelig's sudden turnaround is a story planned by the media. Neil Bozeman once said that people are always willing to create gods in the wave of boredom or helplessness, using him to bear the passion of blind optimism and kitsch, and at the moment when they are about to have fun, they are eager to find the flaws of God. , Join forces to smash this god and cast aside him. "Xili Biography" is presented in the form of a pseudo-documentary, interspersed with real-life interviews in Zelig's therapeutic clips, in which a writer plays himself in the mirror. One of them is Owen Howe, who sums up Zelig’s frenzied ups and downs with his true self. “In the 1920s throughout the United States, people always liked someone crazy, hated him, and loved him again because of amazing performances. He. Is there any change now, I don't think there is any."
God means that there can be no mistakes and weaknesses. People are demanding heroes in the spotlight like this. But no one can really be without weakness, he will always fall off the altar, and even be deprived of human rights.
Before Dr. Eudora appeared, there was no Zelig in "The Legend of West Lie". He exists in the form of a disease, wears the character of others, and has no self. When being used by his family, he smiled cooperatively at the audience. And when no one was around, he would just stare at the sky blankly, like a nobody with an empty body. He originally only wanted to blend into the environment, but now he is being watched instead, and it is not a friendly watch.
Dr. Eudora is the only patient who insists that Zelig is in urgent need of treatment.
She hypnotized Zelig, and gently asked him: "Zelig, why do you want to be someone else?" "Because of safety, you have a sense of security just like others. I hope to be welcomed." Zelig replied with closed eyes.
We are familiar with Zelig's ideas. In the face of the crowd, we will look for topics to help us quickly blend in, choose less eye-catching outfits, use friendly expressions and tones, and rush into the flames like moths to destroy ourselves. Zelig suffered from chameleon disease for the first time because his schoolmates were discussing a book that was extremely difficult to read. He felt embarrassed that he hadn't read it, so he chose to lie, and has been out of control since then.
He resisted being treated because it was too much for him. When we can integrate into all groups, it often means that we cannot leave the group. Loss of contrast means loss of identity. When someone confesses to your heart, we will not know how to respond, because we can neither imitate a confused person nor can imitate his inner thoughts. It didn't help him, it didn't help the world. Zelig's illness caused him to lose himself, unable to talk to others, and was trapped in flashy greetings, like a mystery.
There are always countless jokes about life in the scripts written by Woody Allen, and "The West Force" is no exception. Zelig once asked the rabbi (the wise class of the Jews) what is the meaning of life. The rabbi answered him in Hebrew. Zelig said that he did not understand Hebrew, and the rabbi then told him that he needs to hand in first. 600 yuan to learn Hebrew. You have to talk about your life with others, and they just want to talk about your purse. Questions that are important to you are likely to be just a matter of routine.
Everyone is an independent species, with their own heavy and infinite universe, walking from a distant childhood to death. No matter who you are, I'm sure you have countless things you want to say, and you need to fish in a lone raft in the ocean of words. This kind of process is boring and dangerous. It requires a long time of contemplation and deduction, speculating on theories and grammar borrowed from elsewhere, judging their ups and downs, and then looking for opportunities to agree or deny them. Finally you have your own ideas. And no one can guarantee that your ideas will always be consistent with the public, unless you give up your ideas, just like Zelig.
Of course, we rarely really become Zelig, and it is extremely rare to even lose ourselves completely. It is more common that we try to keep a little bit of ourselves, cover them with silence, and let them burn for nothing in the body. If you don't open it, you can pretend that they are always there. But are they really there all the time?
Every kind of doctrine that encourages individuals to be as small as dust will eventually tacitly allow behavior to be distorted like maggots. The dimension of existence is self, which needs to be respected and deserves to be with the life that oneself likes. This kind of like life does not need to be bound by elitism, does not need to pursue the same paradigm, does not need to make the same kind of dedication, and does not need to have the same ending.
Only by telling you have not read a certain book can you make friends who also don't like that book. Only when you say you don’t like can you be with others. Maybe it needs to pay a price or be called a "strange person", but it is likely that there will be new gains. Isn't making a choice just to open a blind box? At least you have to pick a blind box that suits your heart.
Zelig was finally cured by Dr. Eudora's full respect. He expressed his thoughts. Although some people criticized these thoughts as shallow and ignorant, he gained the love of Dr. Eudora and himself. After getting rid of his illness, he is an ordinary person with ordinary happiness-this echoes what Woody Allen said in another movie of his own: "Every ordinary and sad life is lucky Yes, because we really can’t imagine how those truly unfortunate people live.”
I really like a concept in the novel "Dark Shop Street". Beach people, that is, people who have lost track.
They suddenly emerged from nothingness one day, flashed a few lights and then returned to nothingness. Queen of beauty. Little white face. Flower butterfly. Most of them, even in their lifetime, are no more textured than water vapor that never condenses. Yu Te gave me an example of a person who he called this person a beach person: Forty years of his life spent on the beach or by the swimming pool, chatting cordially with summer vacationers and wealthy idlers. In the corner or background of thousands of vacation photos, he appeared in a swimming suit among the happy crowd, but no one could tell his name, no one could tell why he was there. No one noticed that he disappeared from the photo one day.
In most cases, we are beach people, and the world is like a beach. "The sand only keeps our footprints for a few seconds."
So in these short seconds, I want to ask you:
"Zelig, why do you want to be someone else?"
"Did Neil Bozeman really say that?"
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