This weekend, my family and I vacationed in New York City. It was great. My wife and I love it there and loved sharing it with our kids. One of the things that my son and I did while we were there was…
Seeing both got me thinking. I enjoyed both movies for radically different reasons. It all came down to this: Oppenheimer made me think. Barbie made me feel. It got me asking which I liked better: head or heart.
Drawing from the Well
Sadly, no change here this week. With the vacation, I just didn’t have or take the time. This week, we get back into it.
Page 160/284
80,478/145,004 Words
Filling the Well
I’m back on track and in fantastic fashion. All These Warriors was a great way to close out Amy Tintera‘s duology. The Girl from Everywhere was a great time-traveling heist book with excellent magic limits; it gave me Six of Crows vibes and I loved that. Lastly, I finally finished Joy. It was written by a friend with a slow start but incredible heart and thought at the end. Now I’m onto the sequel to The Girl from Everywhere and I’m digging through Ron Chernow’s Hamilton some more. That book is DENSE.
61/105 for #ProjectBookworm2023
Well Chat
As I stated above, seeing both Oppenheimer and Barbie got me wondering about which is the better place to point your story: head or heart. Let’s take a look at this, shall we?
Oppenheimer was highly cerebral, which I expected out of a Christopher Nolan film. It was more straightforward than Inception or Memento. That laid it out more as the history of the man rather than uncovering some darker, deeper theme. That made me think about the nature of our journey as people, our search for meaning, and how long it really takes to understand the implications of the choices we make. Oppenheimer lived entirely in my head.
Barbie followed the journey of the eponymous Barbie and Ken into the real world to, essentially, find themselves and determine how to fix Barbieland. A LOT happened in this movie and it took turns I did not expect at all. You really should go see it. By the end, the search for meaning made me think about who I am and what it means to be me, especially my best version. I felt like I wanted to make the world better. Barbie lived mostly in my heart.
That raises the question of which is better: thinking or feeling, head or heart. The short answer, of course, is that it isn’t that simple. If a story is entirely heart, it may not have anything to say about society. That doesn’t make it bad, it’s just one kind of story. Conversely, if a story doesn’t move you to feel anything, it can be forgotten because there’s nothing to hold onto. Again, this isn’t a bad thing, but just another kind of story. There are places for both. My favorites are the ones that give me a bit of both. The Shawshank Redemption. The Devil Wears Prada. Les Miserables. All of these are incredible works that move your emotions AND make you think about aspects of life. That’s my favorite.
…and that might mean I like Barbie better. Come at me.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG