When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
Muir was talking about the natural world, but I like to think this applies to many things, including film editing. One of the challenges of A Life’s Work is showing the interconnectedness of these four subjects. To a certain degree, I am saying they are connected by default: “Look, these four people are in one film, therefore they are connected.” But to hitch the whole together so that when you pick one scene out and examine it, it brings with it other scenes, and those scenes bring with them other scenes, and so on, like a barrel of monkeys, that is the goal. That, and to make it good.
Kate
This quote is really good and interesting, but I have to say that the fact that you used the term, ‘barrel of monkeys,’ in response to it is even gooder and more interesting. xok
Bill
I’ve always been partial to this quote of his:
“On no subject are our ideas more warped and pitiable than on death…Let children walk with nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life, and that the grave has no victory, for it never fights. All is divine harmony. “
David Licata
Kate! I agonized over “like a barrel of monkeys.” I was going to write “like an ecosystem,” but barrel of monkeys seemed so much more vivid. And fun.
Bill! That is a HUGE quote and fridge worthy. I will place it next to the Martha Graham quote. http://alifesworkmovie.com/blog/2010/04/divine-dissatisfaction-blessed-unrest/
Thank you both for commenting!
D.