The Golden Globe Award for Best Picture, "The Land of No One," received four Golden Globe nominations earlier this month, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. Previously, "No Man's Land" won the "Golden Lion Award" for best film at the 2020 Venice Film Festival.
"The Land of No One" tells the story of a sixty-year-old woman who lost everything in the Great Depression and travels through the American West as a modern nomad living in a motorhome. The film focuses on the surge in motorhomes in the United States after the Great Recession of 2008, known as the modern nomad (nomad). Based on the highly developed highway culture in the United States, they used the car as a house and were always on the road. Not necessarily homeless, preferring to live in a homeless place, this may be a social phenomenon peculiar to the United States. However, the similar dilemmas of different societies reflected behind them can make audiences in various cultural circles feel empathy.
Is a house equal to a home? Does not having a house equal homelessness? After a lifetime of hard work, for whom is it hard work and for whom? If you don't buy a house/sell your house, you won't work for the rest of your life, is it okay? Many young people are still thinking about these questions, hesitating at the same time, and moving forward at the same time. But for the modern nomads of the United States, it seems that they have already thought it through.
*There are spoilers below, so please read with caution. *
Written by Zhang Zhe |
01
Cheap Motorhome Living: Selling a House for a Relaxing Life?
"Twenty years from now, what will disappoint you is not what you have done, but what you have not done. So untie the sails, set off from the safe harbor and ride the wind. To explore, to dream, to discover. ”
In 1990, American best-selling author Harriet Jackson Brown Jr. collected his mother's wise aphorisms and published them under the title P.S. I Love You, which included these encouraging words that exhorted people to step out of their comfort zone. Brown's mother may not have been the real cook of the chicken soup, but no reader will delve into it, and just a few years later, who first said the passage is irrelevant: due to a series of occasional misunderstandings, the world has come to believe that Mark Twain is the master of this golden sentence, even if Twain's researchers have repeatedly clarified that the matter is unsubstantiated.
Indeed, Mark Twain frequently praised travel and adventure, and in "The Fool's Journey Abroad", he satirized those who "grow vegetables in a small corner of the world all their lives" and pointed out that "travel is a bitter medicine for prejudiced, stubborn, and blind people, and many people in our country who have such problems absolutely need to travel." The literary hero seemed at least better suited to endorsing the independent, enterprising, and open part of the American spirit than the obscure passerby, so to this day, on the website's "Cheap Motorhome Life" homepage, the opening paragraph is still dubbed Mark Twain and displayed in a prominent font in key positions.
"A Record of Foreign Travels", by Mark Twain and translated by Liu Wenjing, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, November 2019
The arrangement is so deliberate, which shows that the founder of the website, Bob Wells, tried to hit it in one hit, evoking the restlessness in the hearts of the visitors who longed for change. Of course, underneath this passage, the website also calculates the account for the visitor: after owning a motorhome, you can afford a motorhome trip and become a modern nomadic herder with only $500 to $1,000 a month. As for how to ensure the flow of funds, "cheap motorhome life" offers a variety of strategies, the core of which is to sell the house that is already owned or mortgaged, because this is the biggest property or expense for most people. Other suggestions were exhaustive, including selling the garage, selling non-essential necessities as much as possible, cutting off the remaining items, working quarterly on the go, offsetting expenses with pensions, and managing to earn change by relying on one skill. In short, by overcoming all the fears in one's heart, it seems that everyone can withdraw from the ordinary modern life and embrace a free, light, surprise and imaginative way of life.
Bob Wells's efforts have paid off. In The Land of No One, modern nomad Linda May tells the heroine Fern about her transformation in her motorhome. Affected by the Great Recession of 2008, Linda May lost her job and fell low. After nearly 50 years of work, social security benefits are only $550, and suicide is only a thought. At this time, she stumbled upon the "cheap motorhome life" and realized that if she changed her thinking, she would not only be able to afford the rest of her life without having to work, but also be able to travel around freely. Linda May became a believer in Bob Wells, joined his "Tire Rangers Gathering" (RTR) and actively recommended RTR to Fern, prompting the latter to embark on a new life journey.
Screenshot of the "Cheap Motorhome Life" website.
In January 2011, the RTR was held for the first time, when there were only 45 participants in total. Linda May, who starred in The Land of NoWhere, is likely to be one of the 45, as the film's timeline begins in the winter of 2011. Eight years later, RTR's participation has skyrocketed to 10,000, making it the largest such gathering in the world. Bob Wells has been quite successful in any way of looking at it, leading and promoting a minimalist and modern nomadic life based on motorhome travel, and defining this non-mainstream lifestyle as a rejection of modern social norms.
02
Modern Nomads: People who refuse to participate in the game
In contrast to reality, in cyberpunk 2077, a video game that focuses on critical capitalism, nomads are one of the three alternative occupations for the protagonist. This group has become a new force in the future of the United States after war, financial turmoil and nuclear leaks, living in groups far from the Night City controlled by giant oligarchs. Although it seems barbaric and sloppy, it is more affectionate than the well-dressed Arasaka employees.
Screenshot of Cyberpunk 2077.
Through Linda May's introduction, Fern drove his motorhome to the RTR. The film depicts her through the camp in a beautiful long shot, the sky is pink and purple, and the sunset hovers over the curved ridge of the distant mountain, full of warm healing power. In the caravan camp, Fern was no longer a closed loner, she found an organization and became part of this utopian community.
Whatever story they have been through, this group of modern nomads almost resents the neoliberal-dominated social fabric. The middle class in "The Land of No Man" jokingly compares them to the western pioneers of the past, saying that they have inherited the American tradition, and the implicit ridicule is about to come out. While chatting around the campfire, one RTR member said he hated urban life and couldn't stand the loud noise and crowds. Another member used a colleague as a negative teaching material, the poor man who died of liver failure a few days after retirement, leaving a valuable life-summed testament "Don't waste time", which means not to spend your whole life on work.
As for Bob Wells himself, he used to do the work he didn't like, lived with people he didn't like, knew he wasn't happy, but couldn't imagine a life he never experienced. As Thoreau said in Walden, "Most people live quiet and desperate lives," and Wells thinks he was the kind of person he was, brainwashed by the American dream. Until the financial crisis after the divorce, he quit the house, bought a motorhome, and started a happy new life with his two sons. At the RTR scene in the film, Wells gave a bold speech, which was quite inflammatory:
"Not only did we accept the tyranny of the dollar, the tyranny of the market, we embraced it, gladly put on the shackles of the dollar tyranny, and lived our lives like this. This reminds me of the pack horses that do heavy work, the pack horses that willingly work until they die, and eventually banished to the steppes... If society is to abandon us and banish us, the pack horses, to the steppes, we must unite and support each other. That's the purpose of this place. ”
Stills from "The Land of NoBody".
These views are intriguing to Fern, who herself is a bitter bearer of neoliberalism: the bursting of the housing bubble and the precipitous decline in demand for gypsumboard caused by the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, the U.S. Gypsum Corporation closed its 88-year-old factory in the town of Empey, Nevada, in early 2011, and laid off all employees, including the Ferns. She not only lost her stable job, but also her husband and home. Even though the real estate market has gradually recovered years later, Fern still questions his brother-in-law, who is a real estate agent, to his face:
"You're encouraging people to spend their whole lives savings and take out loans just to buy a house they can't afford?"
This is one of the many golden sentences in this film, which not only strikes the audience's heart, makes them deafening, but also portrays Fern's determined personality. So even though Fern isn't really running out of places to live (she can actually live in her sister's house, a sympathetic man's house, or free beds in a Baptist church), she rejects all of this and wants to be a modern nomad, incarnating as a silent opponent of the neoliberal order by practicing this (relatively) autonomous, environmentally friendly lifestyle.
The film "No Man's Land" is based on the documentary literary work of the same name by award-winning American journalist Jessica Brudd. "The Land of No One", by Jessica Brudd, translated by Chen Yating, Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House, May 2019.
03
Tire Union House:
Solve real-world puzzles outside the film
Vern was lucky enough to meet the criteria recommended for "living in a cheap motorhome", neither too old, but also capable of working. So she could make her way from Neva to Arizona, from South Dakota to Nebraska, observe wild beasts, touch giant trees, bathe naked in streams, roar on cliffs, and walk through mist. At the same time, she did not forget to work all the way to make ends meet. Amazon, the tech giant busiest in the pre-Christmas fall, recruited itinerants — especially "campers" (a compound word for workamper) — to staff its warehouses for $11.50 an hour. Vern also cooked as a back cooker at a restaurant near Badlands National Park. In addition, she mentioned picking beets, a short-term job offered every October in Nebraska and further north in the Red River Valley, as the sugar industry rushes to complete the task before the ground freezes.
It seems that even a determined rebel like Fern cannot truly break with the neoliberal rules that the gig economy has risen with neoliberalism. Even if they leave everything behind to become modern nomads, they still need to accept and rely on neoliberal rules, even if to a much lower degree than before.
As for Fern's partner Swankie, he was not so lucky. She is 75 years old, seriously ill, counting down to her life, with no ability to work and no extra savings to treat illness or alleviate physical pain. She mentions a highly controversial book, The Last Exit (although she mispronouncies the author for the famous "death doctor" Kaiłocian, who is actually supposed to be Drake Hefri), suggesting that suicide was once on her list of options. But in the end, she chose to drive far away to Alaska to spend her life. Swankie said something very eloquent that multiplied the character's charm:
"I think I've had a pretty good life, and I've seen a lot of beautiful things when I've been kayaking around. On the river in Idaho, I saw a family of elk. On Lake Colorado, a huge white pelican landed in front of my kayak. After paddling a corner, I saw hundreds of swallows parked on the cliff. There were also swallows in the air, reflected in the river, looking like I was flying with the swallows. They danced up and down around me, circling around. There are chicks that have just hatched their shells, and the eggshells fall from the cliffs and float on the surface of the water, white, small, and simply cute. I've been through enough, my life is complete, and if I die at that moment, it's no problem for me at all. ”
This passage must have touched so many viewers that they almost believed that Swanki really put life and death aside because she had seen the beautiful scenery, forgetting that she faced the reality of poverty and illness. The character of Swankie is played by herself, and 99% of the plot is based on her own experience. Fortunately, the cancer was fictionalized by the creators, and she is still on the road, and even unexpectedly shortlisted for some film festival performance awards. She claims that she is healthier today at 78 than she was at 40.
However, for many elderly modern nomads like Swankie, how to afford the basic monthly expenses is still a problem that has to be faced. In 2018, Bob Wells signed up for the charitable organization Howa to help applicants (mostly elderly, disabled, and divorced women) learn how to save money by "making sure you save $200 a month" in exchange for a free rental car. When the saved money reaches the price of the car, the car will go to the applicant. Perhaps Howa could be seen as a complement to "cheap motorhome living," ambitious Bob Wells wants as many people out of his house and into his car as he wants to leave behind a livable world.
"The Land of No One" paints a picture of the life of modern American nomads for the audience, who randomly meet, make connections, leave, reunite, and hit the road again. Frustrated marginal people like Bob Wells, Linda May, Fern, and Swankie can still find new coordinates for the rest of their lives in a society where free movement and migrant workers, civil society organizations and charities operate healthily, and start over with a different mindset. In addition, behind these people's efforts to get rid of the shackles of modern social norms is also the helplessness and reflection on the current American reality. The film tears a hole in this, with a deep and tender snooping, showing some of the structural diseases deep in American society.
Editor| Li Yongbo
Proofreading | Liu Jun
Source: Beijing News