Up@dawn 2.0

Monday, April 29, 2013

The Twilight Zone (1/4) Mason Riley G2 H01

(Sorry, haven't been able to get on wi-fi lately, but I'm putting up the three posts I finished this weekend now)
The Twilight Zone is an easily recognizable and very thought provoking series.  I plan on creating 4 posts, some over favorites of mine, others just ones that were particularly philosophical.  So let us begin:
Time Enough to Last
     Right off the bat, Mr. Henry Bemis' eccentricity can be seen, as he would rather read books and tell people about those adventures instead of doing his job of being a bank teller and enjoying the company of those around him.  His job, marriage, and personal relationships are in jeopardy because of his obsession with reading.  Barry Smith possesses similar feelings about his wine, but I think that even he would admit that taking an obsession so far that it becomes a detriment to the other parts of one's life is a little overboard.  Everyone should enjoy the things pleasurable to them, but solely focusing on one thing in life can quickly cause hardships.   His constant distractions from his job and from living his life coexisting with other people are in constant peril against the forces of reading.  It gets so bad that his wife destroys some of his books that he thinks he has hidden in order to get him to interact with his friends and converse with her.

His wife would strongly disagree with John Stuart Mill, because, although he may have a right to pursue his greater pleasure by reading, he is ultimately damaging their marriage and relationship with one another by refusing to converse.  Even if he was a genius, I do not think that the characteristic should give a person the ability to snub everyone else and swallow the opinion that by doing so, the world is a better place since the uninterrupted genius will contribute so much more to society.
     Later at work, Bemis sneaks down into the bank vault in order to peruse a few books unnoticed and undisturbed.  While reading a newspaper that is portraying the advent of the Hydrogen bomb, a bomb goes off in the world above, destroying everything that was in his vicinity as far as the eye can see.  He gets excited about his lucky break, but then questions whether he wants to continue living in such a depressing world in which only he exists, with little more to do but eat and smoke in the rubble from the world before.  He thinks about committing suicide, but stumbles upon local library and salvages a few texts from the ruins. 

After trying to pick up just one more to add to the hundreds he already has, he breaks his glasses and weeps.  After searching for solitude his entire life, he receives all that he could have ever asked for and regrets it: complete, unadulterated solitude.

 While Seneca may be a proponent of this lifestyle, in which one lives with much time devoted to being alone and thinking on philosophy, but I'm sure that anyone would agree that only so much of that is enjoyable until life loses the charm that that type of lifestyle once held.  Schopenhauer would likely chime in after the episode and point out that he finally got exactly what he had always desired, and just like any human being would, he suddenly wants something else entirely.


Word Count: 539
Total Word Count 539


1 comment:

  1. Anonymous10:54 AM CDT

    His wife was mean to him, not the other way around. If you look at the expression on her face it is obvious.

    ReplyDelete

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