sfiff film of the day was Doppelganger, which was pretty fucking crazy. not crazy “i can’t believe it’s not butter,” but crazy “what the hell is going on in the film” with random splashes of outrageousness and violence. it’s making more (or less) sense the more (or less) i think about the film afterwards, but basically it was exploring the idea that you not only have dopplegangers who are identical to you, but maybe there are anti-you’s out there, which aren’t necessarily evil, but just the opposite of you, capable of doing things that need to be done that you wouldn’t think of or dare. i just can’t decide if the movie ended up being brilliant or a total mess.
however, this did remind me of something that’s been bubbling in the back of my head, related to that article on blogging that zero’s writing. one (of many jumbled) thought that had was that in some ways, temporality is important when you’re recording thoughts, as you’re going to say something or record something in a certain way depending on what you’re feeling at that moment, as opposed to when you record it later more reflectively. but more than just going back and editing an entry later to correct something or to be more discreet, it’s almost that how it looks or feels to you is a actually reflection of what you’re feeling at that time, and so by extension isn’t that almost a different you that’s experiencing it?
what sliver of you or your personality exists at that time is then like its own doppleganger, acting according to its own agenda and desires, and not necessarily doing what the other dopplegangers want or need. snarky-wiseass-you might make some remark, which would cause problems for caring-concerned-you later.
ultimately you’re supposed to integrate them all back into yourself, and become some super über-you, right? i wonder if people find it just easier to kill off the weaker or more troublesome dopplegangers and let the dominant ones live on, even if that’s not what’s best.
like yuka says in the movie, “well, a lot of stuff happened, but i guess it all worked out.”
Posted at April 22, 2004 10:34 PMMr. e,
You have stumbled upon a component of the Buddhist notion of emptiness. If we examine individual moments and the “me” or “you” in them we find “me” or “you” quite different from moment to moment. There isn’t really a fixed, solid, or permenant “me” or “you”. There is something, but it is empty of definition.
Does that make me my own doppleganger?
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