{"id":148,"date":"2009-06-25T17:46:35","date_gmt":"2009-06-25T17:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williamjcobb.wordpress.com\/?p=148"},"modified":"2009-06-25T17:46:35","modified_gmt":"2009-06-25T17:46:35","slug":"on-m-night-shymalans-the-happening-and-james-lovelocks-the-revenge-of-gaia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2009\/06\/25\/on-m-night-shymalans-the-happening-and-james-lovelocks-the-revenge-of-gaia\/","title":{"rendered":"On M. Night Shymalan's "The Happening" and James Lovelock's "The Revenge of Gaia""},"content":{"rendered":"

First, a confession: I’m no great fan of M. Night Shymalan’s films. Some of my students think him a “genius” but that seems a bit giddy: The Sixth<\/em> Sense<\/em> (1999) \u00a0and Signs<\/em> (2002) are watchable and clever in moments, but The Lady in the Water<\/em>\u00a0(2006) was beyond stupid. So I put off watching The Happening<\/em>\u00a0(2008) until curiosity got the best of me. It reminded me of a book I’ve mentioned here before, James Lovelock’s The Revenge of Gaia<\/em> (2006), which is an interesting read, frustrating and contradictory in its own right, but insightful. Lovelock argues that the affects of Global Warming will be like a fever for the planet, and that the super-organism of Gaia will heat up to eliminate and expel humans as a kind of sickness.
\nHe also makes the crucial point that his is not a consciousness<\/em> at work, or a conscious action, but one of the complexity of life, of its synergy and interconnectedness. The Happening<\/em> seems to be making a similar point, although clumsily adding a conscious decision on the part of plants to eliminate humans. It’s hard to say exactly, since he couches every answer to the mystery as a theory, but it’s strongly implied. It’s worth watching for the unintentionally laughable dialogue, most of it coming from Mark Wahlberg, who has actually made some good movies, so I blame the director, not the actor: “No, what?” he cried. After hearing about a terrorist attack in Central Park, he says, “Central Park? That’s odd.” And there are others.
\nAs a way to cleanse my video brain, I just had to watch The Big Lebowski<\/em>\u00a0(1998) this morning, one of my favorite films ever. Or as The Dude tells Jesus, “Well, yeah, like, that’s your opinion, man.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, a confession: I’m no great fan of M. Night Shymalan’s films. Some of my students think him a “genius” but that seems a bit giddy: The Sixth Sense (1999) \u00a0and Signs (2002) are watchable and clever in moments, but … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t