My so-called waking life

Waking life is a dream controlled.  — George Santayana

There’s a certain altered state that comes into play when we travel: we see things differently — sometimes flying to foreign lands, other times when we touch down and nestle ourselves into new surroundings, usually the farther away the better. Europe in particular, for me, brings out new ways of seeing. 

Because of this, there’s a certain movie I always have on my iPod whenever I’m on trips abroad: Richard Linklater’s Waking Life. Released 10 years ago, it’s a Rotoscoped, animated examination of what it means to confront and embrace life. It’s like sitting through a whole semester of “Western Philosophy 101” in 94 minutes — and enjoying it. Plus it looks really cool.

Reincarnated:Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke revive their romantic slacker roles from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset to discuss reincarnation.

In it, a nameless young man (played by Wiley Wiggins) wanders from place to place, listening to different viewpoints on life’s meaning, slowly realizing that he’s actually in a dream; yet each time he tries to awake, he discovers he’s still dreaming. It’s a talky, European kind of movie: each person he meets espouses a philosophy, and at first they all seem radically different, but they do have a few things in common: they’re either talking about overcoming social constraints on our thoughts or actions — or they’re trapped inside a rat maze ruled by those conditioned thoughts and actions.

The philosophers he meets touch on existentialism, Descartes, film theorist André Bazin, Philip K. Dick, reincarnation and the nature of time, among other things. On first viewing, it’s a lot to digest: but over the years, I’ve come to appreciate the film’s affirmative message, its insistence that we say “yes” to life. You don’t have to watch the whole movie to get the picture: just a vignette or two puts you in a philosophical frame of mind — just as travel does. Linklater — whose films span everything from the hipster romance Before Sunrise and the social critique of Fast Food Nation to more commercial fare like School of Rock — is a genuine indie auteur, always imprinting his viewpoint on his films. He released Waking Life shortly before 9/11, so a decade later, it’s interesting to see how its nascent optimism stands up. Here are some key quotes:

1. “The ride does not require explanation; just documents.” That’s us. We are the ones who make sense of it all, give our lives meaning. In the movie, the dreaming dude is offered a ride by a guy in a motorboat on wheels. The “skipper” asks where he wants to get off; he doesn’t know. Also in the backseat is Linklater, who suggests a random drop-off point. Making a choice — any choice — is key, in other words. 

2. “We should never simply write ourselves off or see ourselves as the victim of various forces. It’s always our decision, who we are.” Existentialism is not a philosophy of despair, but an empowering life choice. The same character remarks: “There are six billion people in the world. Nevertheless, what you do makes a difference.” Now it’s seven billion — and counting. The importance of believing that we can make a difference is even more crucial now.

Little fluffy clouds: The Rotoscope animation of Waking Life allows philosophical discussions to morph into dreamlike imagery. discuss reincarnation.

3. “The new age of mankind is based on personal choices. Evolution now becomes an individually-centered process, not a passive process where the individual is at the whim of the collective.” One character talks about “neo-humans,” people who will transcend the social forces that historically condition us to react instead of choosing our lives. He also says “The new evolution stems from information.” A decade later, we’re in the thick of the Internet era; people invent and broadcast their lives on YouTube, Facebook and blogs. But are we really at some transcendent stage, or more or less like cavemen, enjoying the flickering shadows on the cave wall — getting our cheap thrills instead of evolving?

4. “The function of the media has never been to eliminate the evils of the world. No, their job is to persuade you to accept those evils and get used to living with them.” Waking Life has a pessimistic side as well. Now, more than ever, it’s important to consider what we believe and don’t believe, to select our information carefully. Don’t count on media to inform you, the movie says; they’re in show business, just like everybody else.

5. “Reincarnation is a poetic expression of what collective memory really is.” One scene reunites Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke’s characters from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Typically, they rap about philosophical matters, with Delpy saying that reincarnation might not be “the ego thing of eternal souls” that some believe, but a vestige of our genetic memory: the inherited traits and instincts from over a million years of evolution, which may in fact hold glimpses of past lives as well. Hmmm…

6. “It’s up to each of us to turn loose just some of the greed, the envy, the uncertainties that rule our lives, because that’s a central means of control.” The character shouting this is a red-faced Texan driving around with a P.A. system and speakers mounted to his rooftop. He’s trying to warn the populace — Americans — about their trapped status. But this tirade comes just before a decade of “War on Terror” politics by another Texan: George W. Bush.

7. “The quest is to be liberated from the negative, which is really our own will to nothingness. And once having said ‘yes’ to the instant, the affirmation is contagious. It bursts into a chain of affirmations that knows no limit. To say ‘yes’ to one instant is to say ‘yes’ to all of existence.” Words to live by.

8. “Art was not the goal, but the occasion and the method for locating our specific rhythm, and various possibilities of our time.” A monkey reads from a script, as a video of Kurt Cobain smashing his guitar plays in the background. This is Linklater’s manifesto, a call that began with 1995’s Slacker, identifying “a subversive microsociety in the heart of a society that ignored it.” Another character says: “Exercise your mind as fully as possible, knowing that it is only an exercise.” As with any era, it’s the time for youth to try, fail, try again, fail better. (Hear that, you Occupy Wall Streeters?)

Waking Life’s narrator (Wiley Wiggins) discovers he’s in a lucid dream: able to recall details, but not quite able to shape its outcome or wake up. discuss reincarnation.

9. “Our planet is facing the greatest problems it’s ever faced — ever. So whatever you do, don’t be bored. This is absolutely the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive. And things have just started.” Apathy is not an option. We are only at the beginning of a brave new world. And only the brave will understand it.

10. “Actually there’s only one instant, and it’s right now, and it’s eternity. And it’s an instant in which God is posing a question, and that question is basically: ‘Do you want to be one with eternity? Do you want to be in heaven?’ And we’re all saying, ‘No, thank you, not just yet.’ So time is actually this constant saying ‘No’ to God’s invitation.” Linklater helping the dreamer wake up near the end of the movie. If we see that each moment is divine, but invisible to us as divine, life is then revealed as a ceaseless striving with blinders on. But that striving is all we have while we’re alive. Linklater’s movie peels back the blinders as deftly as Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.”