Saw this at the start of the year and had thoughts. This article might end up being a sort of fever dream of references and quotes ha.
Living the wrong life
“I don't want to live the wrong life and then die” - quote from Station Eleven, a miniseries about a traveling theatre company in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s interesting the idea of how we find meaning when all the old systems are gone, and finding hope in art etc. Regret was a big Vanya theme - living the wrong life, wasting time being loyal to and loving the wrong people.
I’ve been thinking about this quote in combination with “aging is the aggressive pursuit of comfort” - Gary Brecka. Just in general, but also in terms of UX - iterating, fail fast etc. I’m not sure there is a right way or a “properly”, but I think it must be the opposite of comfort - “an idle life can never be a pure one” - Uncle Vanya
Choosing the right place to put your love, reminds me of The Hound of Heaven and the priest in Fleabag (also played by Adam Scott) - he struggled to choose, but in the end making the right choice allowed him to find peace with the fox, who was in a sense his guide, conscience, instinct - primal knowing, the wisdom of nature. In Vanya, most of the character chose wrong or don’t choose at all and end up living wasted lives. It’s easy to idealize life and love and remain in a dream state (Matrix, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Inception, Meditations by Descartes), but that’s not really living.
The art = life, gives hope theme in Station Eleven reminds me of this Ethan Hawke interview (below), where he talks about the meaning of art - “art is not a luxury, it’s actually sustenance. We need it.”
Also, reminds me of the “loneliness epidemic”, and how boys miss out when they’re not taught socialization skills in the way girls are, but that is a big topic so I won’t go too much into it here ha.
Man vs. Nature
Uncle Vanya, a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov was first published in 1897. The NTL Vanya I saw was a one-man adaption, with Adam Scott playing all the characters - impressive.
Uncle Vanya portrays life as a cyclical and repetitive process, in which the characters are caught in a never-ending cycle of hope, disappointment, and resignation. The play suggests that human beings are doomed to repeat the same mistakes and patterns, unable to break free from the constraints of their own nature. The characters' struggles with love, disillusionment, and purpose seem to play out in an endless loop, highlighting the tragic inevitability of human existence.
Uncle Vanya nature quotes:
“forests embellish the earth, they teach man to understand beauty, they inspire ideals in him”
“When I go past the peasants' woods, which I saved from destruction, or when I hear the hum of my young trees, which I planted with my own hands, I know the climate is a little in my control and that if in a thousand years man is happy, the responsibility for that will in a small way be mine”
“Who but a stupid barbarian could burn so much beauty in his stove and destroy that which he cannot make? Man is endowed with reason and the power to create, so that he may increase that which has been given him, but until now he has not created, but demolished.”
More quotes and themes