And before that...

OK, because I am so fucking APPALLED at my last diary entry, I think now's a good time to write about Being John Malkovich.

So, consciousness. What is it?

Ok, the portal itself is more of a question than an answer, I believe. The portal asks the question, what is the connection between the conscious mind and the body it inhabits? For instance; if a puppeteer controls the limbs, facial expressions, actions of a puppet, does that puppet in fact have the same "consciousness" as the puppeteer? I guess you can shoot this down because the conscious entity does not feel any of the things that happen to the puppet, so I guess in a way it's sort of a one-way consciousness, almost like yes, the puppet has the consciousness of the puppeteer but the puppeteer does not have the consciousness of the puppet. But maybe only strictly because the puppet does not have consciousness to pass along, yes? If the puppet was receiving information, would it pass it along to the puppeteer?

Which is where you get into John Malkovich as the host body, or essentially, bidirectional puppet. Since John Malkovich receives information, it is indeed passed along to the puppeteer. In that way, John Malkovich has the consciousness of the puppeteer and the puppeteer has John Malkovich's consciousness, or at least intercepts it right? I need to see it again to get a better grasp of where exactly JM's consciousness was hiding out that whole time, was it in the subconscious?

Oh and speaking of which, wasn't it interesting that if you took a portal into an infant, you would essentially be killed... buried forever in the subconscious of the person the infant became? Fascinating, because it implies (in my mind, correctly so) that infants are not necessarily conscious, and that consciousness' existence is gradual... that a consciousness develops over time after birth. Totally.

Ok, then you've got the chimp. In what I thought was a very important scene that was buried under a sort of Lancelot Link silliness, Elijah's parents CALLED HIM ELIJAH. Actually, even the fact that it was buried under Lancelot Link silliness is probably important, because I think it highlights the fact that it's ridiculous for Elijah's parents to call him Elijah. Secondly, how would Elijah have communicated to Lotte that his name was Elijah? He wouldn't have. It was a joke. What was it a joke about? Do chimps have consciousness? Maybe the answer is we never know until they communicate? Or is that they don't until they communicate, as with the infant? Or wait, chimps communicate... maybe until they communicate to a degree that they find names useful? Chimps can certainly distinguish between chimps; maybe they need to wrap language around it to become conscious, or maybe it really is a question of naming because to have a name is to acknowledge your separation from the world around you? I don't know. Neat scene.

Ok then another question: When Craig inhabits JM for an extended period of time, what are the benefits? He loses JM's suaveness... within time JM looks just as dumpy and poorly dressed as Craig had, and is just as socially inept. Does he gain fame? Partially, but the film also takes pains to point out that the Craig JM had to "start from the bottom" as far as puppetry was concerned, had to prove himself from the beginning. Perhaps it was just money. Not sure. But it does leave one with the impression that consciousness, or the mind, is the dominant characteristic of a human being, not so much their corpus, yes?

Anyway, I do need to see it again and take better notes, but I really honestly think this was one of the better films this decade. It sort of goes along with Schizopolis for me, which explored language in some of the same ways BJM explores consciousness and just as entertainingly if not as subtly.

Hey also I heard that Charlie Kaufman is actually Earl Parker, or maybe related to Earl Parker... anyone know if this is true or have supporting or detracting evidence? If so definitely email me.

Love,

Mary.