Everyday Virtue | Paterson & David Foster Wallace
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Analysis of Jim Jarmusch’s 2016 film Paterson through the lens of David Foster Wallace’s philosophy.
SPECIAL MESSAGE | To celebrate my first month on Patreon; I am uploading 2 extra videos (for free!) in addition to my regular uploads every other Friday. That means 1 video a week for the next 4 weeks!
Featured films, in order of appearance:
Paterson
Stranger than Paradise
Down by Law
Broken Flowers
Music:
Mary Lattimore - Let’s Talk About Your Dead Friends
Mary Lattimore - That Was My Language
This video is part of my first month on Patreon celebration; which consists of 2 extra videos (for free) in addition to my regular uploads every other friday! My first goal is to reach 50 Patrons, so if you want to be part of the future original Patreon crew of Like Stories of Old and get access to additional content; head on over to the Patreon page! www.patreon.com/LikeStoriesofOld
Like Stories of Old I love the movie Paterson so underrated
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Great video! You say that your favourite moment is the conversation between the two guys on the bus which shows that there probably never really was a story to begin with. Please could you elaborate why this scene, to you, is particularly significant?
Thank you for all your beautiful work. Would you consider doing a piece on Code 46 and/or Michael Winterbottom?
Finding a sustainable routine and then being able to breath within it has become my only obsession.
is this not mediocrity?
@@sportsportsport I believe you can achieve extraordinary things within the confines of routine.
@@sportsportsport For a Long time the Idea of Mediocrity was my bittest fear. And i Thought that routines are sure way there. But a solid set of routines is one or the way to be able to be extraordinary. The cognitive capacity that you don‘t waste on insignificant things, you can use towards extraodinary goals or thoughts
@@TimSmithWordSmith I totally agree with you.
Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
Who said this?
@@ScotisticDad Old Zen koan. Maybe even older, into Taoism.
Yes grasshopper
Hahahah
I got to write this on my bedroom wall.
This has been my favorite film for the past 7 years.
No storyline. Just a dude chillin'. Reminds me of my life.
Same.
"That loneliness is not a function of solitude [...] That sometimes human beings have to just sit in one place and, like, hurt [...] That there is such a thing as raw, unalloyed, agendaless kindness [...] That if you do something nice for somebody in secret, anonymously, without letting the person you did it for know it was you or anybody else know what it was you did or in any way or form trying to get credit for it, it's almost its own form of intoxicating buzz. [...] That it is permissible to want [...] That there might not be angels, but there are people who might as well be angels." - dfw
All are the cited lines from Infinite Jest? I remember the last one coming from the Don Gately character...
Tooni thank you
My favorite piece of writing from the entire novel... things I learned in a halfway house. Thanks for sharing.
Just read this part from IJ today... really amazing affirmation of mundane life.
i think another example of this "unconscious behavior" of seeing life as a linear progression of events with us at the centre was when the group of friends in the Low Rider car approach Paterson and ask him about the bulldog. Paterson then walks into the bar; leaving the dog on a leashe outside. And my brain, with the mixed need for some kind of explicit conflict and also a biased mistrust of that group, immediately thought that the dog was going to be kidnapped.
That doesn't happen though. And Paterson didn't worry about that either, I did. Paterson's unyielding optimism is awe-inspiring really
Love this comment
yes!
The book to the right of Paterson’s hand at 2:19 is Amerika by Franz Kafka and I think that is worth noting.
Tilda Swinton in Only Lovers Left Alive has Infinite Jest in her suitcase when she travels to Detroit.
The first thing I thought after I saw Paterson was DFW “This is Water” Speech. Your absolutely right, they share such a similar message.
In a certain way, this is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen throughout the course of my entire life (and I am a cinephile). This film can always cheer me up and help to appreciate the beauty of an everyday life. For me it works like some kind of meditation... it makes my mind zen. No words in english vocabulary can replicate spectrum of feelings I experienced during my first time of watching this piece of art. It was so poetic... and it still is, because "Paterson" is so rewatchable. Jim Jarmusch, thank you
Severe melodrama kept threatening to rear it's head all through the film "Paterson" but at every turn it's hero squelched calamity simply by accepting people for who they are.
Thank you for a most excellent video essay. Allow Rilke to guide the way, “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
"nothing really significant seems to have happened"
I think there *is* a very significant event around the end, with which every creative person can deeply resonate with...
I happen to be reading DFW's Infinite Jest. And I also loved the movie Paterson. Boredom and routine-like jobs have become something of an anathema in today's world, but this, I think, is mostly thanks to the internet, to the modern world that is "speeding" everything up - we want everything to happen now, we want a life of constant entertainment where we can be (and should be, or so we think) distracted all the time, a life in which something always happens (or should happen) lest we get bored and dull, lest life becomes, well, "just a life", routine-like and... dare I say normal.
I agree some of the most peaceful times of my life was when I was driving a rock truck for a living.
I have never known boredom. What is that? Seriously.
@@TheCompleteGuitarist Maybe definitions vary, but looking back at my youth (not that I'm really that old to begin with), I find "boredom" was a word others attributed to me (and, consequently, I attributed to myself) when I was under-stimulated. I wasn't actually bored, I was craving something that my mind could latch on to. If I wasn't playing with toys, or reading, or watching cartoons, or solving artificial school-appointed problems, my mind became desperate for something to wrap itself around and devour, as eagerly as a starving rat might jump onto a wheel of cheese. (Sometimes, this proverbial rat would find that the proverbial cheese was just too large, or too hard, or somehow too complex for it to devour wholly, or even at all, which would gnaw at the rat's soul for several months before it could bring itself to forget the encounter. On some occasions, the piece of cheese was in size akin to an ant, meaning many of them had to be taken in before the rat was full, and yet many more had to be eaten before the rat realized that it was not only full, but on the edge of sickness.)
But my mind's desperate need for stimulation (or the overabundance of stimulation) in my childhood didn't become a problem -- I now realize, all these years later -- until the arrival of the internet in its modern form. Suddenly, a bright new world of possibilities opened up, with stimulation as plentiful or rare as I would desire, often, of course, the blissfully ignorant child that I was, not so much opting to indulge in endless hours of consumption, but somehow coercing myself into it.
Given the exponentially ecstatic disposition of modern technology over the years, my mind, of course, followed, until there was nothing left but a shell of a person who had not only wasted years of human time experiencing small fragments of others' lives instead of building and experiencing its own, nor only realizing the daftness and futility of -- and also resenting itself for -- the continued participation in this scheme, but, and this is crucial, for some reason, wanting _more_.
Here this rat stands humiliated, and, for the moment, humbled, realizing that, perhaps, the fact the wasted years of participating in this world only as a third-party observer, the missed opportunities, the unfulfilled potential for development and growth, mean it is too late for it (the rat) to rebound and enjoy a life of normality. Never again will it be "un-bored", never again be able to appreciate the so-called simplicity of day-to-day life, the so-called normality of it all.
Hi, it's been two years, but I hope the rat knows it can fully enjoy life, all bored, anytime the rat feels like it - it'll take effort, but good effort after all. Your writing is hauntingly beautiful :)
"I don't like you, Marvin"
Adam Driver's chillest role to date. And it premiered at Cannes a mere six months after mainstream audiences watched him kill Han Solo.
And he STILL LET HI BACK IN from the garage! Most zen character of all times
If not for this video, I would have never taken the time to see Paterson. My own self involvement would have demanded too much from it in the way of personal relevence to keep watching beyond the first slow minutes. That narcissism blinds us to the wonders of life is the message of the film (one which I obviously needed to receive.) Thanks for another great video. I will see Paterson now, and watch it all the way through to the end. Your insights open these films to an audience who would not otherwise see them.
Paterson is one of my favorite movies!
Another insightful, truth filled peice. The more I understand David Wallace the more I admire his insight
I went to see this movie in a theater the day of D***** T****'s inauguration. I am very glad I chose to go to the cinema that day and experience this beautiful celebration of the mundane instead of sitting at home and brood.
Now I must watch this film. In addition to David Foster Wallace's books on the bookshelf, there's also William Carlos Williams' epic poem Paterson, which explores disillusionment, fragmentation, and solitude...it's a fantastic read.
I finally got around to watching this movie, and I am glad I did because it is one I can watch over and over. A lot has already been said. I just wanted to mention the dog here. I thought the dog was amazing! Never seen a doggie act so well :-)
YES!
I swear dude ever since I've been looking into and adopting Zen it seems like everything around me is geared around it. I started watching this movie without even choosing to, and without even knowing the title. It also thought me significantly and was the perfect pace for me in my life right now. It's moments and moviws like these that make be greatful for everything and not take anything for granted.
In my life I attribute that to meaningful coincidences from fine tuning your attention. It's similar to when you bump into a stranger then you end up seeing that person everywhere. Them coincidences are a good thing, keep up the practice
This is Water is one of the greatest speeches of all time. It seems like a deeply personal speech, while at the same time setting the stage for the next stage of growth for the audience. Even my grandfather found that speech meaningful, and it should touch anyone who wants to believe in the greatness within each person.
to see life as it really is, a mostly ordinary series of days filled with small victories and defeats
Great truths need constant repeating...thankyou!
This was incredible. Thank you for this video essay - it was beautiful. Both Paterson and DFW's "This is Water" speech have impacted me in ways that nothing else has before.
Thanks! I feel the same way!
I don't even know how to say how much your videos mean to me, and I'm just discovering them. These are films that rank among my most cherished--Paterson, Arrival, The Tree of Life, etc--and you do them such justice with such educated, thoughtful, lyrical pieces like this one. This is eye-opening, life-changing stuff. Thank you
Jim Jarmusch is the master of the "small" movie. His genius is in making the mundane nearly divine. "Paterson" has the same "feel" as other Jarmusch movies such as "Ghost Dog" and "Dead Man", both brilliant in their scintillating irony and visceral dissonance. He's always been one of my favorite film makers...Listening to David Forster Wallace speaking like an optimistic mystic is a little eerie though - considering that his own philosophy could not save him from ultimately deciding life is not worth living and thus taking his own life. The irony! Quite appropriate for discussion of a Jim Jarmusch film.
se ha hecho un brillante intento de hallar palabras comunes al español y portugues para entendernos en la traduccion.gracias
Great take! I found comfort and joy in watching this film but didn’t really know why. After watching this I think it slowed down my thought enough to enjoy the little moments in my life the next few days after watching the movie.
Every one of these videos has a life affirming quality.
I think the general message of the film is to find meaning in the mundane and often repetitive nature of everyday life. I think we see that through the main characters preoccupation with writing poems and perhaps the inspiration comes from seeing his wife experiment with some of her artistic passions or perhaps it’s when he’s at work driving the bus in circles all day.
Your videos are extremely well thought out! I have no doubt your channel will become one of the greats. I want to encourage you to never give up even if it takes many months of work, because all it takes is one video becoming popular on reddit or some other platform and people will notice how all of your content is amazing. That is how many great channels gain their popularity. Truly you are the best video essay channel I have ever seen and I'm excited to be one of your first patrons ever.
Thanks Sam! Really appreciate the support!
Sam Clay The complimentary comment describes the hero’s journey. 👍 DFW probably wouldn’t appreciate the irony given the film’s message.
We often seek stimulation and/or escape from our daily routines and realities when we could easily find joy in the most mundane activities, find things to like in people completely different from us, discover strengths within that lay dormant or unrecognised for the majority of our lives, if we simply breathe deep and open our eyes and hearts and arms wide, and let in the positive stuff, see the silver linings, accept the disappointments and savour the sweet moments. It's a lifelong challenge, an exercise in patience and self-awareness, and like anything that stretches us beyond our place of lazy discomfort, rewards us tenfold mentally and even physically.
The whole of DFW's commencement speech can be found on youtube. It is called "This is Water."
Thank you for making this video. Jim Jarmusch's films have touched me in numerous, inexplicable ways. Paterson manages to fill my heart with gratitude, love, and hope in this crazy, violent world...
This is a wonderful analysis and comparison between two great artists' work and philosophies. Thanks, man.
Paterson and Walter mitty, though very different movies, taught me in the words of Sean o'Connell "beautiful things don't ask for attention."
I love this movie! And watch it when I want to enjoy something peaceful.
what struck me most about this film was i went out on a limb and actually bought an ESTEBAN guitar through the mai,l even though my head said no it can't be any good if its coming through the mail and what will all my musician and family say about my blind faith well i couldn't resist i got my black ESTABAN with his image on the back of the guitar home and i played it like it was the best guitar in town like i struck gold i convinced myself that it was a great guitar for the money and i hit the jackpot then i proudly showed it to my brother one day he knew his way around the git box and he didn't give any signs of enjoyment that playing a guitar usually brings, then at the end of his spin around the block he stated that i should learn how to play slide guitar and that one of his co workers bought the same guitar and the neck snapped on it, while we laughed together i was was convenience of my new investment and by weeks end like on cue the neck on my beautiful ESTABAN SNAPPED TOO i was not saddened i was not mad i was like pattinson i was zen about it and i went on my way still loving the muse and then years later i took another chance at a mail order bride and that has made all the difference... that's my story and i'm sticking to it, peace out
for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
- George Eliot :)
I can't get enough of your videos, man.
They have changed my life. That's not hyperbole.. it's just the truth.
Great essay and very well edited. There's a line in the speech about a job "whose daily tedium and meaninglessness surpasses the imagination..." It's almost like Jarmusch took that as a challenge. He picked a character with a job that people would perceive as tedious/meaningless and turned it into something not only meaningful, but "sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars..." I really love the association you drew between the film and speech.
отличная рецензия, благодарю LSOO
Honestly, everyone needs to listen to This Is Water at least once in their lives.
I agree :)
I admit that when I began to watch this video, I wasn't expecting something as deep as it really is. And it's really beautiful, well-documented and I think you nailed absolutely Jarmusch's movie. It made me falling even harder in love with the movie than I already was. This movie touches my soul everytime and now with your video in mind, it's even more true than before.
Thank you for a such high quality work!
I have a similiar situation. My girlfriend has a dog with nature like Marvin. ;) Sometimes wen we watch PATERSON in TV, we see the mirror of our life. It's weird and really fun feeling :) Sorry for the spelling. it is not my national language.
I agree completely! I think the movie did a phenomenal job of highlighting my own tendencies to do this. The entire time, I was trying to figure it out, what the twist or big moment was. But, in the end, it was a beautiful movie because it was so ordinary.
Daniel Drylie For me, the evident “big thing” in the movie was the accidental loss of a whole year of creative work and the possibility of becoming a popular poet, as his admired William Carlos William. Getting more spare time to write poetry and not drive buses all day would probably have been quite satisfying for him too. He also loses that chance when his notebook is destroyed. My two cents.
This almost made me cry
Brilliant! As a huge fan of Jarmusch and DFW, this essay hit the spot for me! How did it take me 6 years to see it though? Really well done!
“Your self-partiality is at the root of all your illusions. There aren't any illusions when you don't have this preference for yourself.” - Bankei Yōtaku
Studying feldenkrais... and it's all about awareness. Thank you for presenting another view. Deeply helpful today :)
Wonderful analysis as always! Keep up the great work!
Everybody knows. You only live a day, but it’s brilliant in a way.
-Elliott Smith
I have favorited three of your videos by now, and even bought the book Facing the Dragon which was in your Spiderman 3 vid. You sir deserve more subscribers! Keep up the great work.
I loved Paterson. Another Great video!
I loved this video, thanks for putting it together. Keep up the great work!
Such great videos 😍 Thank you Like Stories of Old!
Thank you so much. People like you and movies like these keep us grounded in reality and maybe even accept it on some level.
Really interesting channel. Quality, thoughtful insights. Subscribed.
Thanks. This is really nicely done.
Beautiful analysis
Wow. Fantastic. Thank you so much for this video.
Damn man, your editing with these videos is on point. I really love this channel and your analysis is so insightful. Thank you so much and please keep making these.
As always, stunning & profound. Your work is enriching, thank you-
Your videos are incredible dude, keep up the great work
What a remarquable work you've been done! 🙏 Thank you
Thank you for bringing this movie to my attention, it’s one of the few I’d call life-changing.
Paterson really spoke for me and so did this video. Thank you!
Dude thank you from the bottom of my heart
GOD, I'm so glad to have found your channel. Thanks for this amazing video!
This was very thoughtfully done and well presented. Thanx!
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I think a thing of great significance has happened by the end of the week. Paterson has lost his secret book of poetry and then in the face of that setback, decided to go on writing. This signifies both to the audience and Paterson himself that he is a real poet.
All artists lose work sometimes, occasionally very important work. Leonardo lost one of his most important works before finishing and another began deteriorating very badly right after completion. But he went on creating and subsequently painted the Mona Lisa, the world's most recognized image.
But a dilettante wouldn't recover from such losses. He or she would be too bound up in the signifier of their creativity, the product, rather than being driven to create for creation's sake. But not Paterson, as devastated as he feels, He puts pen back to paper and keeps going.
I love this interpretation so much! I knew that his book getting destroyed had to be significant but couldn't put into words why 😅
Finally someone points this out. I think all creative people can resonate with that deeply. It's so beautifully shown how he silently grieves over his loss. His life is somehow emptied, his morning, his own-time in the basement, when he sits on the couch and his face is dark and somewhat painful which he tires to hold back not let it be seen by Laura, he tries to faintly smile to Laura's offers trying to cheer him up.. he has now a better understanding of Everett's pain when they meet. (He was kinda laughing on him earlier in the pub.) Jim Jarmusch is amazing. So is Adam Driver as an actor.
@@micahscanz I really, really loved this comment! I do have one suggestion (disagreement, maybe?) that I wonder what your thoughts on it would be. So I studied Arabic & Islamic civ. in my undergrad and got heavily interested in both the sufis (Islamic mystics) and Arabic religious calligraphy. One really important concept for entire schools of that stuff is that they create calligraphy that is impossible to read if you are not the one writing it. They have big and long ideas about why they do that and it all centers around themes like the individual before God, excellence for its own sake, etc. I wonder if you would think that “God” would be the other for whom that art is created? Or maybe the people who see such indecipherable calligraphy would still count as the other for whom the art is made, even though they can’t interpret and/or receive the intended message of the artist? My personal experiences with such people when I lived in the Middle East leads me to believe that there are people whose lives stand in disagreement to your ideas. I don’t think something receives its “art status” in its reception, but in its conception maybe?
Beautiful video thank you
Wallace learned a lot at AA Meetings.
Like others have mentioned in previous comments, this is a great analysis of both DFW and Jarmusch. It's been a while since I saw Paterson, but I know I fell into the trap of thinking that there was some unspoken trauma being eluded to, being worked out. But it's a refreshing thought that there is something more poetic about the mundane, or pedestrian for lack of a better term. And, like Alicia G. mentioned in her comment, too, the William Carlos Williams poem is a fantastic parallel.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful reminder to step out of ourselves
Such a wonderful analysis of Paterson. It’s actually one of my favourite films
spot on. this content enriched my morning. thx
bless your heart, this video is great!
You make very beautiful and insightful videoessays. Great work!
Thank you for making this video. I really enjoyed it and it helped me to put a few of my own experiences into perspective.
Yeaaah! I'm so glad I found your video about my favourite feel good movie! You managed to put into words some of the things I love about this movie and couldn't quite articulate.
Right On!
That was beautiful on a exquisite core level. The meaning of life is how you comport yourself and navigate through it.
Great video! Your channel is one of most underrated channels on youtube. Keep up the good work.
That was great. Thank you.
My favorite channel in youtube, thank you.
Wonderful words, compelling remarks. well done and well said.
He wonders whether DFW's speech was an influence for Jarmusch. I can't prove it, but I have a feeling that Jarmusch was an influence on DFW, though perhaps obliquely. Anyone of DFW's age who was restless, intelligent, and frustrated with the terrible media offerings in the 80's watched Stranger than Paradise and were left wondering. The title itself fits right into the theme of this analysis.
I really loved your video. Thank you for it. :) I had already loved Paterson so much and watching this just reinstalled that great feeling of awareness that the movie had walked me through. Great work. ;)
Thank you for this video. It was beautiful on top of a beautiful movie already. Woke me up a little, which is nice.
phenomenal
All of your videos are so beautiful, and I think this is one of your most poignant. I can’t thank you enough for what you do.
Excellent Review
A video essay on Paterson? I like the cut of your jib. Subscribed.
I'm glad I discovered you
Thanks for making thus connection 🍥
i loved the video man. keep it up.
This movie reminded me of the graphic novel The Walking Man by Jiro Taniguchi. I would say that the main character experiences the world the same way as Paterson does.
thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts!
@@marcobounce you're welcome, hope you read the comic :-)
@@pincmin Yes i will do so - thanks again!
This was beautiful