The car drives down the lonely road, followed by Tony Bennett’s iconic voice. His music, his voice, will live on long after his body is ash and dust. That a part of a man could exist beyond his solid, corporeal self is a mind-fuck in itself. Rock god legacies are sealed in little silver discs. A life time of experience and lessons and choices summed up on one best-of compact disc. Ten dollars at most at your local used CD store. One would have thought that a man’s life would be worth more than that. But then, how many people get to leave a legacy behind, even if it is in the form of a soon to be obsolete audio format? Those that do are either murderers or rock stars. Sometimes both. Not even a presidency can assure immortality unless of course you get lucky and fuck a dame they call Monroe. And who knows of immortality? The CEO of General Electric? The guy that donates to sperm banks or the mother that window shops there? The girl next door that discovers her own sexuality for the first time? Can you freeze existence and call it immortal? Because everything eventually dies. And what of our two anti-heroes that stare solemnly out their windows as the passing trees wash over the reflective glass and over their faces? Can they taste immortality? They can see it in each other’s eyes. The fear, the doubt, the broken lines of the word status quo all shattered… it’s all their in their eyes. Immortal. Only one of them will taste immortality. It’s a vision so clear, that only time will show the way. A life less ordinary than the last, it goes from a “just add water” kind of life to one where a soul can colour outside the lines. And Tony Bennett, of course, sings the goddamned soundtrack…
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the three chapters/segments, by the way, are called the following: i heart you, infamous, and eulogy (open fire).
Immortality through fame is an illusion - legacies are invented by the living. Case in point: Jebbediah Springfield. However, our actions do permanently change the world, even if they are small. Case in point: the jocks who stuffed Hitler in his locker.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but no one cares about the jocks.
ReplyDeleteToché. Lots of people care about Jesus though. Is Christianity his legacy? Emperor Constantine and the Apostles did way more to form this religion than Jesus did. But people tend to remember Jesus, not Saint Paul, even though the religion would have died in its cradle if it wasn't for Paul and his gang. But does Jesus really live on? Sure people are praying to him and worshipping him and not having sex in his name, but it’s not like we remember the real Jesus. We remember some white guy. Muslims remember a different Jesus than Christians, and Catholics remember a different Jesus than Protestants.
ReplyDeleteI guess to me, immortality implies that you live on unaltered and unchanged in your present form. If I'm going to be remembered as a Mexican and a great hero and a perfect person, then I'm not really living on, because I'm none of those things. But the consequences of my actions will live on, even if people don't remember them. When people think back about CNP in 200 years (after it goes big of course) they won't think of Len, they'll think of Loring. And rightly so! But CNP will always be partially a consequence of my actions, even if nobody remembers me.
To me, immortality is more about a part of you living on, even if it is fake. I mean really, Jesus' true self, if he did exist, is probably nothing like the image it is today. Just the fact that the simplest rumour today can morph into a great big lie is proof enough that people's memories are fickle. But that being said, it doesn't really matter in the end if people remember the real Jim Morrison or the real Ted Kennedy; the thing is, they live on regardless. Or at least, some skewed version of them. Whether it is the truth doesn't seem to matter to people.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's interesting how that works. Do people care about the truth of history? In the Education programme, I heard about a student teacher who got in shit with a group of parents because she told her students that John A. was a huge drunkard. I guess the parents thought that was inappropriate, as if that would validate drinking or make MacDonald less of a "hero."
ReplyDeleteReally? My teachers had no problems telling us that John A. was a drunkard. It is definitely interesting how history can be changed or omitted.
ReplyDeletehaha, i spelled touche wrong. now i'm on a mac and I can't even put in the accent on the e.
ReplyDelete