Some people interpret the "contemporary nomads" in "A Land of Nowhere" as a group of poor people forced to flee "normal life" with bereavement under economic pressure. It is not denied that there is indeed a "passive" element in the motivation of these people, but it is more of "a powerful active choice". "have to" is not always helpless, sometimes it is a stronger subjective will than "must", if "must" is "follow my heart", then "have to" is "follow my fate", those who cannot Those who are not on the road, on the road is their mission.
In every era and every country, there is no shortage of people who have fled. We can see the same thing from the beat generation, hippies, and the Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest. Contemporary nomads are also a group of people outside the conventional social system.
They have the "on the road" spirit of the Beat Generation in them:
Beat Generation, the word "beat" means "tired" or "down-to-earth", which Kerouac interprets as "beatitude", which is a religious word meaning the supreme joy of the heart. The misery in the eyes of others, the joy in one's own heart. Taiwan once translated Beat Generation as "beating generation". This translation may be more appropriate, reminiscent of the "beat" in music, a powerful rhythm.
There is also the gregarious, mutualistic communist atmosphere advocated by the hippies:
The nomads at the "hippie rally" claim to be free from "the yoke of dollar tyranny," embracing nature and enjoying the community's free food supplies, second-hand markets, RV displays, bonfires and dancing. They are willing to accept strangers, greet you with a smile like a brother, and never hesitate to lend a helping hand when they encounter difficulties. In these retirees, you will see the shadow of young people-playing in bands is replaced by senior ballroom dancing, rock music is replaced by blues, love and sex are replaced by taking care of each other in pain.
Kerouac is in their blood, but that's just a corner of their hearts, and there's a heaviness in their freedom that can't be ignored -- assembly line work, sickness, hunger, and a death that could show up at any moment. The real pain in their hearts is life-given, and unlike middle-class kids who can only learn theory from books, they are real victims of the economic crisis. "Nowhere" is a road movie not about sunny vacations and rock music, but about 21st century social problems that are commonplace and allows us to hear the voices of the neglected old people.
What kind of person loves RVs?
In the crowd, and out of the crowd: connection with people
We enjoy connecting with people, but at the right distance. Give me a little, don't give me too much.
"In the crowd, and out of the crowd" street photography. "She knows nothing about you, but you own her" telescope.
The sound of sex next door, someone else's notes on an old library book.
There are also those paradises: Hutongs, alleys, demolition sites... The characteristics of paradise are: no real secrets, no truth to be revealed. You can see life, but only part of it—underpants hanging on the tree, vague radio from the house, the smell of food at dusk, old photos of demolished houses... The charm of a paradise is typically half-hearted. The half-closed door, you can't tell whether it's inviting or refusing.
This is where the first charm of the RV is. Those who guard their privacy would never choose an RV. Shrinking in a very small space, someone will break in at any time: sitting on the toilet, someone is about to come in; eating pizza, scared by the sudden knock on the door. I have lived in a similar place, only two square meters, barely put a bed, you have to use the space reasonably to the level of perversion. Intentionally or not, there will always be someone breaking in suddenly, and a sigh in the middle of the night will be heard. At the same time, you can also lie in bed and listen to other people's secrets. You are alone, and it seems that you can never be truly alone.
Free, Beautiful, Connected to the Earth: Connecting with Nature
Open the door and see the snow mountain. Brush your teeth against the morning mist on the green hills. Encounter meteors while pooping.
Campers can enjoy it too, but they won't make their tent home. The RV can carry all the sweet memories, even a fallen leaf picked up on the way home from school twenty years ago.
You will never doubt that this place does not belong to you. You have a sense of security and belonging that campers don't have, and you have no interest in a home that does it better.
A fluid life is the only possible life
Always suspect that you are missing something, always suspect that you are wasting time. Fear of stability, stability equals death. Without changes and surprises, it will dry up and die. In unfamiliar places, there will be arousal similar to sexual impulses. Likes thrills and adventures, and their inherently sad and ephemeral nature.
outside this fu*king society
Manual labor is more attractive than 996 social animals. Part-time jobs are the way to resist entering the social system. You are only temporarily in it, you can withdraw at any time, and there is no promotion or salary increase to bind you. The location is free and the type of work is flexible. People who are engaged in part-time disdain it in their hearts, they have more important work to do.
Those who have no home, the world is home
Street sleepers, exiles, spiritual exiles...
Don't have a house? No relatives? No sense of belonging? If you satisfy any one of them, you can embark on the road of finding a home, or simply treat the road as life and the flow itself as "home".
Why are you hitting the road?
The film "Nowhere" is adapted from journalist Jessica Bruder's non-fiction book "Nowhere: Surviving in 21st Century America", which follows and records the lives of several "RV homeless". Different from the original work, the director pays more attention to the situation and heart of individuals in a depressed social context, rather than the economic recession, rising housing costs, and the failure of the social security system.
I try to focus on human experiences because I feel like those experiences transcend political stances to become more universal - losing a loved one, finding a home. I've been wondering what my family in China would think of an American woman in her 60s, and if I make the problem too specific, they'll say "it's their problem"
The expression of depoliticization has a wider resonance, and we no longer feel that the film has nothing to do with us, but use it to think about our own pain and confusion, and think about how we should live our lives.
When evaluating the film, the public account Poison mentioned a poem by Mu Xin describing the Great Depression in the United States in the last century:
war, economic depression
It has its own style of peace and happiness
If you ask a ninety-year-old
what is the happiest time of your life
He would say: the thirties
Because we share weal and woe
The cyclical crisis of capitalism has made the American people, who generally believe in individualism, have the feeling of "sharing weal and woe".
Human nature is greater than ideology, which is similar to Zhao Ting, the director of "Nowhere".
The group of people in the film, known as the "modern nomads", have very specific reasons for going on the road: a Vietnam veteran with post-war traumatic stress disorder; a black man who embarked on a journey of healing after both parents died of cancer A girl; a middle-aged man who was touched by the death of a friend and wanted to see more of the world before he died; the protagonist of the film, Fern, whose gypsum mining company went bankrupt, all employees were dismissed, and the entire town disappeared from the map, even the zip code all failed. Having lost her husband and no children, she chose to go on the road with the modified car "Pioneer".
The voice of the individual makes us stop looking at this group of nomads from a distance, but realize real empathy.
The details of laughter and tears add to the realism of the film. Sharing his experience at the camp, one nomad mentioned that RV travel was cool, but "you gotta manage your shit" and showed three different capacity commodes. One woman confided to Fern about a suicide she had experienced. When she was about to end her life in the gas, she suddenly saw her dog looking at her, "I found that I can't do this to my dog." She said, "And then I thought, I can't do this to myself either!" Another nomad, witnessed the death of a friend before he could make a "retirement plan". Before she died, a friend told her that his new, once unused sailboat was still parked in the driveway. The incident touched her deeply, and she said, "I don't want my sailboat parked in the driveway when I die."
In the movie "The Shaded Sky" it says:
Because we don't know when we're going to die, we always think that life is a well that won't dry up, but all things are finite. How many charming childhood afternoons that still fill you with deep tenderness in retrospect? Maybe only four or five times, or even less. How many times can you see the full moon, maybe 20. And people think that everything can be squandered.
The film also makes the distinction between a "tourist" and a "traveler."
"Tourists" can't wait to return home after months away. The "traveler" has no way back. In fact, in so many places he has been, it is difficult for him to tell which is most like his hometown.
What is home? not homeless but houseless
This film gives us poetic loneliness, empty freedom. In Ludovico Einaudi's music, we see snow-capped mountains, wasteland, sunset, sea, rays of light, starry sky, water plants, wandering clouds, and the migratory bird flying to spring, Fern.
Fern always rejected the kindness of others, and even seemed inhumane, but she was warm and soft. She hides behind Dave like a little girl while watching the crocodile eat meat. When visiting the Geopark, she ran away from the tourists by herself, bouncing in the sea of pink and purple stones. On New Year's Eve, she lit fireworks and said to herself, "Happy New Year" while walking alone.
She was brave and free, refusing to go to the poor's sanctuary church, shutting her door against the cold all by herself. Be a migratory bird, follow the laws of nature, add firewood and cheer for yourself in the cold winter, and continue on the road when the spring flowers bloom.
She can recite Shakespeare's sonnets, but without the hypocrisy and confusion of Wenqing, she declares like a rebellious young man "Never quit smoking", but without their cowardly bluffing anger.
She doesn't advocate loneliness, telling young boys who are also campers who meet on the road to "find a girlfriend and don't be lonely."
She is close to nature, instead of taking artificial nude photos in the forest, she lies naked in the water, gives herself to the water, and lets it take her anywhere. She is not afraid, thus realizing the true intimacy between man and nature . Under the setting sun, before the stormy waves, she showed the smile from the deepest part of her heart.
She does not pursue a maverick and beautiful posture, does not wear fancy clothes, and even allows her RV to look "dirty and broken". What she values more is the content of the RV. When people come to visit, she takes out her father her plate.
The film features an Amazon employee showing a tattoo to a colleague. She said, this is my favorite lyric, and I tattooed it on my body: "Home is just a word, or is it something to be at ease?" How many people go to work during the day and go home at night, but never understand What is "home", living in a house for which you have worked hard all your life, but it is just a house.
Fern, a person who is always on the road, loves home more than anyone else, and knows more about what "home" is . She has a deep nostalgia for her deceased husband, her vanished home, and her childhood memories. She caresses old photos tenderly, and lives alone in Empyle's house after her husband's death. "I've spent my whole life remembering him," she said. Her husband has never met his biological parents, and they have no children. If she forgets her husband, it's as if the person never existed. In "coco", it is said that the real death is to be forgotten. That place disappeared from the map, that person disappeared from the earth, and she couldn't allow that to happen.
Forgetting is easy, but she is determined to protect the pain, the memory, and the lover. She rejected Dave's offer of love, and what if she went to start a new family, as everyone usually does, to cover her past with her husband and the forgotten town of 4,000 meters above sea level?
When you persuade a person to "move on", do you still remember the "Sea of Memory" in "Fly to Space"? What you never forget, your deepest emotions, all your consciousness is in it, what you can't avoid on earth, are all driven into the ocean, they are visited day and night on the planet Solaris "guest". They're not gone, they're far away in the universe, you just can't see them.
Not everyone wants to "get out". While watching the movie, I thought many times of "Manchester by the Sea". The protagonist of "The Sea" didn't want to come out, because he wanted to atone for his hatred for himself. Fern didn't want to come out. It was out of love for others that he spent the rest of his life reviewing , moving forward in memory, and re-understanding memory in moving forward. She walked with her husband for the rest of her life, even if he didn't have a physical body to accompany.
Fern chose to "remember", which does not mean immersing the rest of his life in pain and closing his feelings, but like the old man who lost his son, living in love by serving others - only On this road, they will truly reunite with their old friends.
Being on the road means saying goodbyes constantly, and therefore no real goodbyes.
The emotional climax of the whole film also falls on a special farewell ceremony: nomads sit around a bonfire in the wilderness, throw stones into the fire, and sparks scattered in the night sky... to commemorate a lost friend: We will see you on the road, if not, then we will see you in heaven.
On the road, a way to overcome "loneliness" with "lonelier".
Bless Fern, bless the brave nomads.
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