Favorite Movie
In response to what I wrote about the movie Brazil, Andrew inquired about my favorite movies.
But, for now, let's not talk in particular about movies or favorites. Movies, like anything else, are specific forms of abstract ideas, and favorites, well... I just don't have them.
I find it difficult to assign the word "favorite" to anything. I like some movies more than others, some people more than others, some cities more than others, and some public transportation systems more than others. I don't keep favorite movies or best friends or anything like that in my head, though.
How does one determine a favorite? Consider, for example, the drinks I enjoy. Wine is elegant, beer is comfortable, Scotch is sophisticated, gin martinis are cosmopolitan, Champagne is traditional, and limoncello is another world altogether. Is it possible to reconcile all these different drinks and all the special circumstances in which I drink them into one single category and then rank them, from top to bottom, in order of preference? I don't think that can be done.
The same goes for movies and people and cities and public transportation systems. They are so diverse in their qualities and the situations through which they can be experienced that I would find it to be a task of monumental futility to attempt to find a handful of favorites, to say nothing of a single favorite that outranks the rest.
I thought about answering Andrew's question directly by spending some time thinking about the films I found memorable over the past ten years. It was, indeed, a futile task: at every point in my consideration, I was unable to find a "good" reason to justify putting a particular movie on the list. Sorry, Andrew!
Comments
Wow, cww, you're like partial differential equations....very complicated on the outside, but easier to understand the more your study. One of these days, we need to sit down over coffee and talk about life. I would say that we could go to your favorite coffee shop, but then that would be missing the point entirely. :-)
Posted by: arc | March 31, 2007 08:58 AM
come on, we all know no@no.com is your favourite blog commenter. you dont have to pretend.
Posted by: no | March 31, 2007 11:07 AM
plus, we also know that a certain charles findeisen is your favourite chemistry teacher.
ps -- what's your favourite spelling of fav*rite?
Posted by: no | March 31, 2007 11:09 AM
so i thought you'd enjoy this:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment/article/0,28804,1602354_1603074_1603535,00.html
interesting, dont you think... that computers consume a quantity of Watts per day. ... fascinating unit, the Joule per second, per unit time. .... ... someone needs to go back to physics 1. in TIME MAGAZINE!
Posted by: no | March 31, 2007 06:52 PM
I hear you. It's like when you were a kid and you had a favorite color. Who has favorite colors anymore? I think movies and the like are similar; no need to have a favorite movie.
I do, however, have a current favorite Indian curry. Aloo ghobi. Curries are different kinds of things. You can have favorites. Like kitties.
Posted by: Katy | April 1, 2007 10:19 PM