What I like about Inception

Writing about dreams is hard. Depicting them in film/TV is even harder. That's my impression at least.

I know dreams. I can remember them quite vividly, so I can say from experience that usually writers don't really know how to frame them. I don't necessarily blame them, because if they depicted dreams as they usually are, it'd be extremely difficult to make narrative sense out of them.

But when you want to visualize a dream for the films, and you want to do it realistically, there's only one way to do it: vague. Vague vague vague. White borders at the edges. Characters switching positions without moving. People being recognized as who they are despite not looking like who they are. Places you recognize despite them not looking anything like what they are in real life. Difficulty moving. Difficulty thinking, but everything making sense.

With that said, "Inception" doesn't really depict dreams realistically, but it "gets" how they act, how they have no real form or purpose, how they just sit there, being born in your mind and dying if you can't remember them.

I used to think that dreams were just picture shows that my brain played while I was asleep to keep the night staff occupied. The poor janitor cleaning up my hippocampus after a busy day needed something cool to watch, after all. Apparently I internalized that idea so much that (and I may have mentioned this before) I actually had a dream end with a credit roll. Quintus Flufferstuff, you are the best director my mind's theater ever had!

Christopher Nolan seems to embrace this idea to a certain extent in "Inception." Though the dreams are crystal clear (on screen) and have more logic than usual, the entire premise of the movie is much like the theater of the mind. I won't go as far as CHUD's Devin Faraci and say that the entire movie is an alagory of movies as shared dreams, but the pathos that Cobb (Leo DiCaprio) goes through as he navigates the ultimate dream heist rings true to me.

Most of the time, dreams really are just theater, actions played out over a very simple narrative. Sometimes the narrative and settings and cast change, but it's the same basic actions over and over again. You're getting chased. You're chasing someone. You're talking to someone. You're walking somewhere. You're trying to shoot someone. You're avoiding a monster closet.

But sometimes dreams take those elements and push them in a direction that surprises you. You're in a crowded room. Someone very familiar is there. You have to get to her. You can see her. You sense she doesn't know you're there, and you have to change that. This is the kind of thing that sticks with you long after the details fade away, and like a good movie, it's the best kind of dream to have, even if it is sometimes unpleasant (that one wasn't, by the way).

Nolan seems to understand this. Cobb experiences dreams the same way I described above (the graf right above, not the other one. Well, that one too but let's focus on the one I just wrote out). The real story isn't the shootouts, the inception, the rescuing of wayward dreamers. The real story is the reminder that just because something is fiction doesn't mean it ain't real. Cliched, I know, but it's the kind of message that can only be driven home when the audience realizes that it too can participate in this kind of drama.

"Inception" was a fabulous movie all around; not since "The Dark Knight" has a movie hit all the right notes. But what it does beyond being a merely great flick (such as "Cliffhanger" or "The Fugitive" or "As Good As It Gets") is push you. Not necessarily challenge you (some movies don't need to be challenging to get a point across). But it pushes your mind. In a verb, it inspires.

"Jurassic Park" was inspirational to me. "Heat" was. "The Dark Knight" was. And so "Inception" is. These are movies that open up doors in our heads and let's us see what it's like to peer into another world, a world that's fictional but rings true to us. It isn't like "Avatar," which is empty and pointless, like an educational children's toy that can only shout random facts at an inattentive toddler.

The best part is that "Inception" reminds us that, should we ever hit a rut or a block in our creativity, we can fall asleep, and any given night can have a movie play in our head that opens a door for us. The subconscious is an extremely powerful weapon against boredom. Use it well.

Random thought that occurred to me today while in traffic

When my grandparents dreamed about each other, did they see each other as they were in the present, or as they were when they were younger?

A Flat (but Good) Book

In a way, it's a shame this book was not bad, because then I could've called this tome "Flat Earth Snooze." Alas, it is actually good. Not great, but good.

If you like the news, and you should or else you're a dummy, then you probably have at least an inkling as to how fucked up it is. Misplaced priorities, chasing down hot leads over substantive stories, and a complete inability to break meaningful stories are the obvious answers. But "Flat Earth News" digs a bit deeper.

Nick Davies works in the (British) newspaper system, and he and his contacts have a huge litany of sins committed by the press, a press that is increasingly dominated by RUPERT. Davies is more focused on newspapers (or as they call them in Britain, tabloids). Actually, he rarely addresses TV news, but many of the points he makes in the book are salient to the TV news world as well.

Davies does a good job illustrating the crazy (and harmful) shit that goes down in news organizations, whether it's hijinks involving an Israeli defector or an asshole managing editor or dudes going through trash looking for leads. He also helpfully explains the drudgery behind "churnalism," the mindless pumping out of stories no matter how pointless, and the tedious process involved in getting them out.

The stories Davies tells and the issues he explores are interesting, but as I said, in the age of the Internet and TV, his focus on newspapers makes things seem a bit quaint. You have to really be a newsie to stay interested, and if you're not, it's hard to recommend the book. Still, it has important things to say about our news media, so be a good citizen and read it. READ IT.