ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND...
I look into the mirror and reflect on how 27 years of my life have passed by me. I have come a long way since I was in my mother’s womb, unaware of the life that awaited me. I am now so far away from the beginning; still unaware of what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is so full of uncertainties. I am always so sure about what my plans for tomorrow are going to be, but am I sure about if there would be a tomorrow? What if everything froze in time? Everything I loved and I knew was forever erased from my mind. What would happen? This is what THE ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND TRIES TO ANALYZE. What would happen if you were to wake up one day and find out that the person you loved has erased all her memories about you? In the movie the memories were erased using a machine. In real life some people choose to forget, they claim they love you one day and forget you the next. I have always wondered if some of us need such gadgets to erase our memories. Most of us tend to temporarily forget the nasty incidences that occur in our lives, we only remember them when we encounter them in some way or the other. What would life be without bad memories? Bad memories are unavoidable in our short life. If given a choice, what memories of mine would I erase? Probably none! All my memories are linked to different incidents, whether they are good or bad I would not want to erase my memories. This is the subtle message in THE ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND.
The central theme of this movie is “LOVE”. The importance that human beings give to this word is paramount. It is impossible to think of anyone on earth who hasn’t fallen in love with someone.
What is LOVE? I searched for the dictionary meaning of love on the net and this is what I got…
love
n.
- A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.
- A feeling of intense desire and attraction toward a person with whom one is disposed to make a pair; the emotion of sex and romance.
- Sexual passion.
- Sexual intercourse.
- A love affair.
- An intense emotional attachment, as for a pet or treasured object.
- A person who is the object of deep or intense affection or attraction; beloved. Often used as a term of endearment.
- An expression of one's affection: Send him my love.
- A strong predilection or enthusiasm: a love of language.
- The object of such an enthusiasm: The outdoors is her greatest love.
- Love Mythology. Eros or Cupid.
- often Love Christianity. Charity.
- Sports. A zero score in tennis.
Does this definition satisfy any of you reading this? It certainly does not satisfy me, this definition certainly is not adequate. Love is a very ill defined feeling in all of us. It is a very selfish as well as an altruistic emotion. Yes, love is a big paradox. We cannot just call love a sexual feeling, for it is not. It is more than all that, it transcends everything. It is a very intense emotion; it digs deep into us like an abyss. Love can make or break things for an individual. It has the ability to motivate people to wage wars. Love can be a weapon of mass destruction or a solid foundation to another world trade centre.
Why am I rambling on and on about love? It is because science fiction writers have always tried to analyze human behavior and especially our emotions. There are many episodes of Star trek that have focused only on this aspect of emotional intelligence. Emotions are a human beings strength as well as weakness. So what has love got to do with memory? We as humans remember the things we love the longest. The people we love live in our memories the longest and so do the objects that we associate them with. It can be a simple watch that they used to wear or a ring, a pendent anything and everything. Isn’t our brain amazing? It recognizes and interprets our love and keeps it longer for us to recall every single detail.
I think its time for me to go to bed and to the world of my dreams…
