Changes In Resonance

Almost everyone who appreciates art is bound to go through stages in terms of what resonates with them. I personally have a history of first hating what I come to love, mainly in film.

The first time I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey I absolutely despised it. I thought it was boring, tedious, and overall meant nothing. Then I had my first coup in terms of arriving at somewhat good taste (by my standards, anyways). I got seriously into Kubrick, hailing 2001 the most epic film of all time, that it was the zenith point of film history and nothing could touch it. That statement seems ridiculous looking back on it, and that is mainly because of Virginia Woolf.

I've recently become infatuated with Woolf's writings, mainly To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway among others. You see, 2001 deals in big abstract intellectual ideas that we must struggle with. Woolf deals with the most human, the most necessary and basic ideas, those of humanity and connection. While 2001 may help us understand where we are in terms of time and space through the use of big abstracts, Woolf helps us understand who we are at the most fundamental level. While both are important, I just happen to have had a change in resonance.

That is one of the beautiful things about art: it does not change, we do. The film you see throughout your life is always the same film, but it is what we bring to it in terms of memories, feelings, and beliefs that truly makes it live within us.


What spurred on these ideas was my watching La Dolce Vita again. I've always loved it, claiming it in my top 10 films of all time. A poster of it hangs above my bed. But I watched it again on my birthday yesterday as a tradition that I've been trying to start for years now. You see, I saw the film before I truly had my own taste and liked it, but was somewhat befuddled by it all. I then read Roger Ebert's great movies review of it and that is what made it a top ten caliber film in my mind. He talked about how every time he saw the film he had changed and had a new perception on what the film meant to him, like I was talking about earlier. I thought it would be neat to watch it every year once a year on my birthday to try to achieve the same thing.

But actually watching it last night made me realize that it's just an okay film, not much more. Yes, we are losing the ability to communicate due to our desensitization through the constant onslaught of scandal and decadence and meaningless "loves", but so what? I'm not living in that world anymore, don't know if I ever was. I am living a fundamentally connected, human life, if ever there was one. And again, Virginia Woolf is the catalyst for this change in resonance. I can only look forward to the next work of art that will be the cause of my next change in resonance.