I had a discussion with a few friends last Sunday when we were gathered at our typical McDonalds hang out after suffering a crushing softball loss. The topic of the movie Inception came up and while I was not too fond of the movie I could not come to terms with the concept of Limbo and why it was perceived as such a bad place to be in. Looking at it objectively Limbo seems like it's a place where time is perceived, where knowledge is procured, where life is lived, similar to how our lives are lived, but the difference is that this life is constructed from what we grasp reality to be. The conclusion we came to, after 5 or so hours of debate, was that Limbo is bad. It is a place where one goes when they have no where else to go, and once there, you forget your initial thoughts, motivations and purposes. Because you come in knowing nothing, you create for yourself a world of something that makes sense to you or reflects your understanding, people that come in hence forth will abide by the constructs set up by first man who defines the limbo. After a while it got to technical.
But I still couldn't give up my admiration of Limbo. It presented itself as an opportunity to redefine yourself. Just like coming out of jr. high into high school, just like coming out of highschool into university, just like coming out of university into a career. To be able to spend one's lifetime in a way that you think best. A place where you wished and willed your dreams would come to fruition. Could a person ever tire of a place that ceaselessly affirms the person's place and need in the world? People are constantly searching for a place to belong to, ideals to aspire to and in a place that draws out the best in you, that caters itself to you, why does it seem people are less than satisfied with it or even afraid of it?
I'll try to string together more coherent thoughts in the morning.
2 comments:
yes i agree that limbo is a place where you can redefine yourself and start things new, but in the end, it is a detachment from reality.
What good is it to create a new identity for yourself if it is just a dillusion or distortion of who you actually are, what your reality actually is. If we view limbo as a place where we can escape our actual lives, we are no different than the bummed out teenager that obsesses over the SIMS.
A movie that kind of sums of the dangers of getting too caught up in what we wish we were and how we can lose sight of reality is Being John Malchovitch. In this movie, the main lives vicariously through his puppets, dreams of being someone else, etc...that he loses a complete hold on who he actually is and basically gives up on his life (which is real) to pursue a bizzare fantasy of his life (which ceases to exist). In the end, he has nothing.
I understand that limbo becomes what you percieve as an actual reality, but all in all, to know objectively that it is not is enough for me to say it causes the same outlook as depicted in the movie. You can also use the argument that hallicinatory drugs do the same thing, yet their turnoff is that we know they are giving us the truth.
All this is said without tackling the mere fact that limbo messes ur brain up and ruins you completely. But again..another day, another Mcds.
What I fail to understand is how we are living in something different than limbo. We ourselves are in a world that we perceive is real, fabricating ourselves and redefining ourselves to suit our world. In the end "distorting" ourselves to fit into one facet or another of the world.
I propose that it's just easier in limbo to achieve success because the world is reflective of your wants and needs. You're living a grandiose delusion that you do not wake from, which makes it fundamentally no different than a "real" life where you die. Limbo becomes your reality, and as such, becomes your actual life. If you never wake then how would you know the difference?
Our lives are played out in how our brains perceive sensation. We receive cues from our external environment and our brains adjust our behaviour according to the stimuli. How is that different when in a dream? In incidences of REM Sleep Behavior Disorder people act out their dreams, which means the people who are in a dream state interpret the stimuli generated by their own brains as "real" and would elicit reactions in the same way they would have if they were awake.
I'm just saying limbo offers an easier life, so why would that be all that bad? Real is what you perceive it to be.
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