Ignorance is bliss. A controversial cliché that happens to be completely applicable to the events in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The characters who seek memory erasure in the movie, Clementine, Joel and Mary, could be considered blissful until elements of their past lives are reintroduced indirectly. For Clementine it was Patrick stealing Joel's memories to try and recreate a bountiful relationship. The only way Joel could ever cope with the realization that Clementine erased him from his memory was to reciprocate the procedure and essentially become ignorant of their past relationship. For Mary, her shot at blissful ignorance was disrupted by her innate and inerasable connection to Dr. Mierzwiak. Even the title happens to side with the fact that ignorance, or an erased memory, can provide bliss, or in this case, sunshine. The titular reference comes from the Alexander Pope poem, "Eloisa to Abelard".
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!/The world forgetting, by the world
forgot./Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
The lines address the potential, yet unattainable, concept of a cluelessly content society. This is disproved through the reconnections of Clementine and Joel. Despite the fact that they knew each other unbeknownst to the other, there was still tension and this sort of deja vu effect.The movie also alluded to existentialist Fredrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil when Mary quotes, "Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders." This is very much in favor of how easy for forgetful have it than those who have to own up to their memories.
The movie supports the ideal nature of blissful ignorance but shows that there can be no pure instance of it in real life.
3 comments:
Great insight about the movie. I feel like not enough people know who Nietzsche is. And by the way, way to use huge words. Somehow, i hadn't even thought of the ignorance is bliss cliche, but you are completely right that it is applicable. I don't know how I feel about that specific cliche, though. Although I do believe that ignorance is, in fact, bliss, it is not worth it. A life of ignorant bliss can in no way compare to a life of knowledgable pain. I would take pain any day.
You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? [Takes a bite of steak] Ignorance is bliss.
Sadly the scripts of the next two movies were just slightly better than Koko the gorilla's most recent work "All Ball Dead???". Sorry for the tangent.
Anniessa: very interesting blog. Do you think that maybe Patrick's use of Joel's things and quotes maybe helped to bring Clementine's memories back to Joel? So in a way, what Patrick was trying to do backfired? Just a thought...Also, I agree; I think that you can erase someone as much as you want, but you can never erase your personality or likes and dislikes.
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