Real life encounters with great minds..

[Magical Realist]

This happened during France's Nazi occupation. Jean Paul Sartre profoundly answers a young man's question.


https://www.facebook.com/reel/1498412861990808

[C C]

[...] What should I do? .... He wanted to become a leaf blown in the wind, because that's easier. But what Sartre knew was that he was also existentially unhappier. Because when you go along with what somebody else tells you, whether that's a teacher, a parent, or even a rule system, then you come to resent them. You resent the life that you are forced to live...

Well, if he was an "old student", then perhaps Sartre knew that he was already equipped with the knowledge, and this really was purely an attempt to farm out responsibility to someone else.

Otherwise, it might seem a tad like evading any response that might result in future litigation. There's nothing wrong with alternatively offering neutral advice, like carefully considering the consequences or results of both choices. Of being informed before making such a decision, and fully evaluating if one can handle the different kind of guilt that results from neglecting either.

Certainly kids or older youth who already have their own ambitions and agency will rebel against or eventually resent those forcing or nudging them down an alternative route.

But Barbara Loden's "blank sheet" examples below are a different story. Those will remain aimless for much of their lives if they don't encounter the "right individuals" early on telling them what to do. The other empty pages who do grow up to have competent lives happened to luckily get exposed to skilled, knowledgeable people (which can include parents) who did coax, guide, and train them down a particular path or provided them with the "diving board" experience to effectively choose their own career. A Blank Slate needs an involved, enthusiastic, non-exploitive guide to steer them and make them practice. 

Wanda (film) #Concept: According to Loden, the character of Wanda was "created out of herself." In a 1971 interview, she said, "It was sort of based on my own personality ... A sort of passive, wandering around, passing from one person to another, no direction—I spent many years of my life that way and I felt that... well, I think that a lot of people are that way. And not just women, but men too. They don't know why they exist."

In crafting the relationship between Wanda and Norman, Loden avoided integrating any legitimate romance between the characters, as she felt it was unrealistic. Wanda's complete submissiveness to Norman was also partly inspired by a nonfiction book Loden had read about the upbringings of several prostitutes, one of whom recounted finding joy in her foster mother's severe overbearingness, as she was "the first person who ever told [her] what to do. She appreciated it, even though the woman was mean."

[Magical Realist]

There's nothing wrong with alternatively offering neutral advice, like carefully considering the consequences or results of both choices. Of being informed before making such a decision, and fully evaluating if one can handle the different kind of guilt that results from neglecting either.

Sometimes the best advice is of the unsolicited kind--a casual comment by someone you don't know or aren't really familiar with that opens your eyes to a new possibility. There is something magically oracular about it. Once when I was at my brother's apt we were all visiting and talking about my nephew's high school football game. Then out of the blue I just said: "You know Dylan, you don't really have to be interested in football. I never was." He answered that he really was and that was that. But some time after that he quit football and joined the band, becoming skilled in playing the saxophone. I wondered if that little tidbit of advice dropped down out of nowhere had changed his outlook. Sometimes what needs to be said is spoken THRU us more than spoken BY us.

[Magical Realist]

"Something happened when Beethoven met Goethe at Teplitz in 1812. Here's how it was described by their mutual friend Bettina von Arnim:

'While they were walking there came towards them the whole court, the Empress and the Dukes; Beethoven said: “Keep hold of my arm, they must make room for us, not we for them.” Goethe was of a different opinion, and the situation became awkward for him; he let go of Beethoven’s arm and took a stand at the side with his hat off, while Beethoven with folded arms walked right through the dukes and only tilted his hat slightly while the dukes stepped aside to make room for him, and all greeted him pleasantly; on the other side he stopped and waited for Goethe, who had permitted the company to pass by him where he stood with bowed head. “Well,” he said, “I’ve waited for you because I honor and respect you as you deserve, but you did those yonder too much honor.” Afterwards Beethoven came running to us and told us everything and was glad like a child because he had so teased Goethe.' "---- https://crumey.co.uk/beethoven_7_inciden...plitz.html