"Everyone should try to figure out what they are fleeing, where they are fleeing, and why before they escape."
—James Thurber, A Collection of Contemporary Fables
The Hidden Life of Walter Mitty, written by Sagittarius cartoonist and author James Thurber in 1894, has become synonymous with daydreamers in the United States. Mitty has no special skills and lacks vigor in urban life, and can only rely on daydreaming to escape the reality that she can't cope with.
Interestingly, the career scenes fantasized in the story a hundred years ago seem to be similar to the popular themes of the current online articles, and they all prefer the identity of soldiers or doctors. The novel's daydream depicts the worst storm of twenty years of naval flight in the novel; the machine suddenly breaks down on the operating table, and the pen holder is used instead of a piston to continue the operation, and the calmness of the key moment and the ability to change the ending will always overlap with the picture of "Descendants of the Sun", that is, the soldier and doctor starring Song Joong-ki and Song Huiqiao.
Over the centuries, the fantasy objects of daydreaming seem to have maintained a high degree of unity, and the personality, values and heroic chivalry of the profession do not seem to change because of the war years, peace years or the Internet age.
Descendants of the Sun
James Thurber is a writer, cartoonist, and editor of the magazine The New Yorker, so he writes Mitty's stories that are very grounded, written for the crowd of people who are muddy.
Daydreams and life's dilemmas are absurdly intertwined, like comic book-like shots, stitching together reality and fantasy. The heroic character displayed in the daydream, the incompetent Mitty is very clear, he knows what he is missing, but he just does not want to work hard, he uses the daydream to maintain the inner order in real life, and then continues to maintain a chaotic posture to continue to live, the last paragraph of the novel declares Mitty's attitude and choice of life:
He straightened his chest and belly, and stood on his heels, "Go fucking blindfold." Walter Mitty said contemptuously. He took one last puff of his cigarette and shrugged off his ass. Then, with a smile on his lips, he faced the firing squad, straight, unmoving, full of pride and contempt; the enigmatic Walter Mitty, who had never been defeated, came to an end. ”
Writer cartoonist: James Thurber
The comic style of the author James Thurber is a bit bit of the black humor of Zhou Xingchi's "Journey to the West", which is to make a comedic treatment of the tragic fate, just like the man in the form of the supreme treasure in the Journey to the West, holding the woman in the shape of Zixia, turning his head and saying, "You see, that person is like a dog." Does this ironic statement seem to be hidden behind the novel, characters, and characters by Thurber, and Mitty leaps into daydreaming?
Maybe it's Thurber's humorous style, or maybe it's the story archetype that fits the pain points of this era. In 2013, director Ben Stiller adapted "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" into the fantasy film "Daydreamer". The first half restores the core of the novel: "In the city, there is no big ability of the middle-aged young man Walter Miti, who is angry everywhere in life and has an imbalance in his heart, but what is different is that he can detach himself from reality at any time and anywhere and immerse himself in heroic fantasies." ”
In the second half of the film, the director gives Mitty the power to "burn", and after experiencing the dilemma of graduating from the magazine and not daring to express love, he stops and reflects on "Have you ever done anything that attracts attention?" Let Mitty get on the plane and begin to go from fantasy to executing her own longing for life: "Adventurous, brave, creative, the ideal man in the minds of most women." ”
The movie "Daydreamer" uses a "discarded" perspective, that is, to restore the character of Mitty in the novel who indulges in fantasy and escape from reality, and to mix a kind of inspirational flavor that everyone likes at the moment, and depicts Mitty's modern life in the film a hundred years later with insightful and interesting and uninhibited storytelling methods.
In the movie "Daydreamer", Mitty goes on an adventure
This inner spiritual power of "adventure, fight, change once" seems to be a style of American cinema.
Quinn Ratifa's "The Last Vacation" tells the story of a salesman who is diagnosed with only 1 month to live at the last moment to realize his "possible list" and finally finds out that it is a joke of God. Because the diagnosis changed the way she lived.
There is also Meryl Streep, a small employee who also has Miti's dilemma in "Julie and Julia" starring the famous Aunt May, because he followed the idol's book to learn French cuisine, insisted on punching in 365 to share his experience, and restarted the trajectory of his life.
Julie and Julia
How can urbanites who are struggling in difficult situations leap forward from daydreams?
Maybe it's what "Daydreamer" says: "Broaden your horizons, break through the dangers, see the world, immerse yourself, get close to each other, and feel life." Because good things don't be easily disturbed. Beautiful things never seek attention. ”