It seems that what the film wants to show is the collision of rationality and sensibility, and the ending prompts the re-approval and return of rationality to sensibility.
I'm not sure if that's what the film is really trying to convey, but it seems to me that it's not just a contrasting picture of reason and sensibility.
Maybe everyone has experienced or is still in it, the opposition between rationality and emotion. Those who uphold reason despise the rash indulgence of sensibility, and those who advocate sensibility despise rational rigidity, lack of freshness, beauty and passion. Or some people are swinging between the two, not knowing which side to lean towards.
Just like the discussion about philosophy at the beginning of the movie. The classical philosophers, as well as the major religions, have chosen a position between reason or sensibility, and each presents their own arguments. However, I have read some books, and I am fortunate to see that those classic discussions, by 2013, have progressed. Plato and others' respect for rationality, and the simple and convergent "law" upheld by Buddhism are all based on a premise, that is, the dichotomy of human thinking sensibility-rationality. With a new development of the premise of this dichotomy, we can jump out of the suffocating compulsion of "choosing rationality or choosing sensibility".
Even if we are not philosophers, we can experience both the pleasure and the unpleasantness of reason and self-discipline, and the pleasure and unpleasure of sensibility from our own experience. In the book "The Elephant and the Elephant Rider", it begins with Plato and Buddha's interpretation of the opposition between reason and sensibility, and then proposes a set of explanations for human reason and mind at more levels. In a crude metaphor, reason is the rider and emotion is the elephant, but the rider and the elephant are not the relationship between driving and being driven. With the size and power of the elephant, it does not deliberately control the drive completely. Elephants need to understand, adapt and guide elephants in order to move towards a common goal.
A writer once said that metaphors are always on their feet, and metaphors can make you feel instantly assent, but accurate and thorough interpretation must not depend on him. Seeing the comparison between the two lifestyles of the elder brother and the younger brother, and seeing the unrestrained and affectionate younger brother, I can't help but turn the scales toward sensibility. But if you think about it carefully, the younger brother's behavior cannot be completely explained by "sensibility". He could have acted with more thoughtful "sensibility" and more consideration of the consequences. Like the poetess in the play, she is emotional, but she is also quiet.
The life of the "emotional" younger brother is not set to give him the correct answer to return to himself, but a reference, a hint, and an inspiration. This experience of returning home reminded my brother to face himself, to face the past and fears that he wanted to leave behind and throw away.
What is the self actually? My understanding is that a person is partly innate and partly the combined influence of all your past experiences. The so-called "searching for the self, being faithful to the self" is a incomplete concept, because your "self" is not a fixed origin for you to look for, let alone any definite reference to prove that you have really found it. I think it would be more accurate to say, look for "happiness, fulfillment, and purpose" and live a life in which you feel "this is me," and that "this is me" belief is partly derived from some kind of To a certain extent, it fits your "ego trait", and part of it is that you choose it and identify it.
Even though my brother is fully devoted to academia, his past experiences cannot be rejected or thrown away. For his past, he first adopted an attitude of panic and avoidance. He hated his mother's chaotic life, so he took the cultural history course in the 1960s. He was afraid of storms, so he read the causes of storms, which is exactly what Marie Curie said. The motto of "Life is only to be known, nothing to fear". At the end of the movie, on the eve of the storm, my brother was sitting in the courtyard and said, I have read about the causes of storms, but it still happens that way, (I always hid when I was a kid), and this time I'm going to sit in the storm for a while.
It's all too common to run away from absolute rationality for things and situations that you fear and feel unable to cope with. For example, a moral gentleman feels the attraction of young women and the uncontrollable passion and impulse in his heart. He is deeply fearful and trembling, so he believes in the so-called "one drop of essence and ten drops of blood" on the Internet. Reasonable and eloquent, he devoutly implemented his juvenile self-cultivation Dafa, and felt that he had surpassed low-level tastes, but he did not know that his state at this time was in the bondage of deep fear.
The film is named after the collection of leaves of grass, and through the mouth of the female poet, Whitman's poems are read out. The poetess said that Whitman's poems have no fixed and format, and are not restricted by stereotypes, but are completely unshamed, pure passion. I think this is also the attitude towards life that the director/screenwriter wants to answer.
Unashamed, pure passion, not necessarily fiery excitement, not absolute abstinence into a given format, not "this" or "that". Everyone's answer lies in everyone's heart, lies in the truth, lies in the pure. And the truth and purity of each person are different.
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PS: One of Shu Ting's poems wrote that I am a small boat, and my father is the wind in one direction, and my mother is the wind in the other direction. go ahead. I think this is a great metaphor for life. Any kind of concept is correct under the premise of reference. A luxurious life needs some cleaning and letting go, a life full of rules and regulations needs some hedonism and humor, and a modern society with a clear division of labor and high-speed operation needs spirituality and small freshness to support. Self-awareness, and utopian experiments as long as divinity does not recognize human nature require utilitarianism, etc. to reconcile. We are a ship, and every idea is a wind blowing in a different direction, and any kind of wind that is too strong has the potential to overcorrect. Under the checks and balances of various wind directions, we swayed forward.
PPS: As young mainlanders like us, before discussing freedom, let’s pay attention to the “freedom of choice”. It is true that life is difficult to choose, but at least we need more space to have the possibility of different options. When can we drink marijuana and doubt life, and then think about it in the center of the light and flint, and then go to the academy to think about life in another way?
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