No one cares about your stupid dreams

You are special you're the only one
You're the only one like you
There isn't another in the whole wide world
That can do the things you do
--Barney

The idea behind Barney's song is that what makes us special is our uniqueness, our subjectivity. And presumably, that's what makes art interesting too. Art is the subjective counterpoint to scientific objectivity.

And yet, subjectivity isn't all that interesting. If you doubt that, recount the dream you had last night to a friend and watch how fast his eyes glaze over. Or watch Nothing But Trouble (1991), a film Dan Akroyd said came straight out of his mind. Or consider the movie the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. OK, I admit I never saw it, but I *did* read the children's book based on the screenplay of the film influenced by the TV show made from the original book (talk about an authoritative critique). Most of the film consists of the filler-like backstory of the Grinch and how he came to be. Director Sidney Lumet calls this the "rubber ducky" school of drama: "Someone once took his rubber ducky away from him, and that's why he's a deranged killer (pg. 37)."


(Two strands seem to weave through this blog: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Estelle Winwood.)

For me (subjectively speaking of course) what's interesting about film is not character or backstory or individual quirks and complexes, film's dreamy or mythic quality, the act of storytelling, or the subjectivity of the director's vision. No, I don't really have any stories to tell. What's engaging is the underlying narrative.

Borrowing from Jerome Bruner, I think that narrative is a way of understanding the world. It is a way of saying "this is how things work." It's the "how," that's more important than the "why." As humans, we are continually creating and trading narratives to help us come to grips with the complexity of our everyday experiences. So making a film is not the act of projecting subjectivity onto the world. It's a way of participating in process of collecting, trading and appraising narrative understandings. Narrative baseball cards: now that's a good idea.