Discuss: Zeitgeist of Doom

I find that whatever people think the future will be is exactly what isn’t.  Neither the Jetsons nor The Road.  Yes, the book is powerful and what stays with me are the positives: the boy’s concern for who’s good, the father’s concern for survival without reason, the vague and holy ending. I haven’t seen the movie because the book renders it unnecesary—maybe unnecessarily gory. (Even though Mortensen is great.) McCarthy loves the horror of apocalypse overmuch, as maybe we all do now. Actually, that’s not completely right; what he loves, what we love, is catharsis.  (But going to a hard rock concert is more cathartic and fun!) Maybe what’s scarier than the Road is what John Berger wrote twenty years ago, that we can’t believe in any imagined future now.

I just finished watching the movie a half hour ago. I thought it was very powerful, and yes I can see how the voice-over and some of the scoring was a bit superfluous. I was struck by it’s similarities to There Will Be Blood, except that that story was about psychosis and power and The Road was about love and belief. In both, a strong man perseveres to achieve what he desires against all odds. In the case of The Road, the Man wants some peace for the boy, for them to share together.

I don’t think that this is a story about the real end of the world, I believe it is an analogy of the way love grows and sustains us all. How it is painful and joyful at the same minute. It could be seen as an exploration of a possible nihilistic future, but I feel that that is too simplistic. Carrying the fire is what this story is about. Carrying the fire of our luminous self, our soul. Connecting with the heart fire of others. Perhaps that was the meaning of the scene where they looked upon the forest fire in awe. Sparking the smallest fire can create such power.

I don’t know, exactly is that story about the real end of the world or not, but we must think about our mistakes and try to correct all of them. And I’m sure that it’ll help you in future.