“When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole life with him. He has a million reasons for being anywhere, just ask him. If you listen, he'll tell you how he got there. How he forgot where he was going, and that he woke up. If you listen, he'll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel or dreamt of being perfect. And then he'll smile with wisdom, content that he realized the world isn't perfect. We're flawed, because we want so much more. We're ruined, because we get these things, and wish for what we had."
This is by far the most over-quoted monologue from Mad Men or perhaps in the world of television as a whole. But take it from the guy who's watched this series more times than he can count on one hand, there's a reason this is so popular.
I'm an Aquarius, like Don; born in the middle of winter. My zodiac tells me I connect more to abstractions of reality than to reality itself. But this trait isn't exclusive to people born between MLK and Valentine's day. It's the reason we all love fiction and mythology.
As I mentioned in my one of my first blog posts, the term "myth" isn't synonymous with false. In fact, mythology is one of the only elements of humanity that has transcended all time periods. Humans need to tell stories. Mythology is a microcosm of our values, people and culture, told through fiction.
This monologue from season 4 episode 8 "The Summer Man" is the synopsis of our protagonist character Don Draper. He's a perfect character because he's not the archetypal hero that we normally see in fiction. Although he has heroic qualities, like his exceptional talent for creative copy writing, he's flawed.
"He'll smile with wisdom, content that he realized the world isn't perfect." Therefore Don isn't perfect, and doesn't always succeed in the end. He's an introspective man, forced by the world to have a hard exterior. Most of all he's imperfect, because ultimately he's human like the rest of us.
I like the concept of mythopoeia and it's use in new and different storytelling mediums. I know you talk about anti-hero's and their popularity in television and movies, and I think that this has to do with the growing "library" of works that in the attention of modern culture. In the past, stories and myths have contained a distinct cast of characters. Each one distinctly represents a different facet of human expression or intention. People recognize characters and what they represent through the different contexts that they're presented in. But until fairly recently in human history, all stories have been exchanged orally, making the cast of human expression the easiest pattern to remember in telling stories. But with a catalogue of centuries of stories to study, examine, and borrow from, stories have intensely evolved to contain more complicated contexts and less distinctive characters. This is possible because of the way that humans retain characteristics from stories that they have been exposed to in the past. The idea is basically this: a person that has never read the Bible before will come to different conclusion or impression from reading Paradise Lost than a person that has read the Bible. Human minds have strong pattern recognition, and whether we are aware of it, the literature that we have read in the past continues to affect our opinion of what we read afterwards.
ReplyDeleteAnti-heros and flawed characters are a popular element in literature since the age of Greek and Roman tragedies. But since then, characters have been mixed and muddied to the point that protaganist is no longer synonymous with hero.
Do you understand there's a 12 word sentence you can say to your man... that will trigger deep feelings of love and impulsive attractiveness to you deep inside his chest?
ReplyDeleteThat's because deep inside these 12 words is a "secret signal" that triggers a man's instinct to love, worship and care for you with all his heart...
===> 12 Words That Trigger A Man's Love Instinct
This instinct is so hardwired into a man's brain that it will drive him to try better than ever before to love and admire you.
In fact, triggering this dominant instinct is absolutely essential to having the best ever relationship with your man that as soon as you send your man a "Secret Signal"...
...You will instantly notice him open his heart and mind for you in a way he never expressed before and he will distinguish you as the only woman in the galaxy who has ever truly appealed to him.