Something More
I know many Stephen King fans. I don't read horror, generally, though I did in my teens and I did like him. However, across the board, if you mention the movies The Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile, both based on King stories or novellas, most people I know wax poetic about them. I know very few men who don't love both those flicks. Even guys who generally don't go for sentimental seem to love them. Women, too. And I have met more than a few people who saw the movies, loved them, and didn't realize they were based on King's work.
Having just watched The Green Mile on Christmas with my brother-in-law, and having seen The Shawshank Rdemption a few times, I think it's this universal need to believe in something more. The power of friendship, the triumph of good over evil, of faith. Maybe, simply, just hope. It's interesting to me that a writer known for writing some of the scariest stories ever, in which very often evil trumps all, seems best-loved for writing very "small" stories. Not complicated. Very heart-felt. Filled with hope.
It should come as no surprise that I am a spiritual person. Faith is woven in nearly everything I do. A healthy dose of faith, a dash of superstition, and a belief in something more. My more-than-a-passing interest in astronomy and quantum physics is really that searching. Buddhism has a great deal to do with quantum physics--so much so that the Dalai Lama wrote The Universe in a Single Atom.
And so I got to thinking about those books people are most passionate about. Those forever books that people hold onto, give to friends, tell people about. For me, they are books that resonate with the idea that there's something more to this existence. They are books that make me hope. The Little Prince. Man's Search for Meaning. And my childhood faves . . . books like Anne of Green Gables, were almost all universally about the goodness of people deep down.
Thoughts? Do you hope for something more?
9 comments:
Aw! You really going to make me think? I've eaten enough snickerdoodles in the last few days to be in a complete sugar coma.(have to get them all out of the house before New Years =)
The books you mention do all resonate with the idea that there's something more...but on the flip side of that, I think they also all resonate with the implication that there isn't. That life is about simply surviving, regardless of what is thrown at you.
Or maybe I'm just oversimplifying.
Time for a cup of tea and a few more snickerdoodles. :0
Hi Lainey:
Funny uou should mention that . . .
I gave my father, an atheist, Man's Search for Meaning, as a way of perhaps opening up the possibility of "something more." I read it and feel yes, there is a soul, something more. He read it, called me, and said, "I don't think Frankl believes in anything more--certainly not God."
So you may be right. Maybe the "something more" is simply our own humanity and survival.
E
Lainey, Erica always makes me think! I'll see if I can get The Universe as a Single Atom from my library system.
I've been reading books about reincarnation and life between lives (not after life but between reincarnation; I've read books about life after life long ago). And sometimes I get the feeling that people I knew who passed are sending me love.
edie:
That must be a wonderful feeling. Every once in a while, I will feel that . . . . Sometimes just in a dream.
E
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
The same is true, of course, with laughter, introspection, and so on.
My favorite books are the ones that throttle me emotionally.
Same with my favorite blogs.
Thank you, Erica. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Let's misbehave in 2008.
stephen:
You know, I cried writing a scene in The Roofer . . . and it still is the one scene I am proudest of.
And thank you back. Fun fighting the fascist hordes with you. :-)
E
I don't think any religion has it right, but I do believe in something more.
I think it's way beyond our comprehension.
All we have to work with are the physical universe and our measly brains. Human beings understanding the spiritual world is about as likely as an alley cat understanding the space shuttle.
BTW, Stand By Me is another one of my favorite King adaptations. Most of his stories are about human relationships, faith, hope, love...
Hollywood hardly ever gets it right.
As I was writing this, the shower curtain in my master bath fell down all by itself. Okay, now I'm freaking...
Jude:
LOL . . . you get the feeling SOMETHING is watching you?
[cue Twilight Zone music]
E
Exactly. I'm walking through the house with a crucifix in one hand and Darth Maul's lightsaber in the other...
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