The zone of social media that I want to call "men's twitter," (because I refuse to use an au-courant term that I won't say) has a fascination with a concept that I also happen to consider essential. They, and I, call it "frame" or frame-of-reference. "Frame" is, sort of, a man's sense of himself as well as his commitment to himself and to excellence, his ability to be the best version of himself, and, not least, his essential clarity on his own purpose and mission in life as it relates to himself , his family, and his community. A second-order meaning of "frame," which might actually be more important than the first, is the degree to which he is able to stay attached to his own mission (frame) in the face of social and/or relationship pressure to go off that chosen path. Me? I call this kind of thing the center of one's being, a concept to which I came very late in life. Better late than never, I guess. Others, if I understand the current state of the world correctly, call this kind of thing "toxic masculinity."
In the film, the camera focuses mostly and correctly on the climbing and the courage. That's essential and it's pretty cool. It's impressive, too. The cinematography is awesome. Alex is very fit and has (almost) no fear. For my part, I happened to inexplicably acquire a fear of heights three years ago (fading) so I felt this film viscerally. But all that direct explication of climbing and courage is the melody. The harmony is in the people. And the most interesting, and shortest, harmonic segment when it comes to people, is expressed in some dialog between Alex and his girlfriend. She, naturally, is afraid, and, if I recall correctly, is tearful throughout the whole segment while she asks him to not do what is important to him...in order to assuage her own fears and priorities. This is not an unreasonable "ask" for her of, course. But what I found fascinating was Alex's irrevocable and anchored commitment to his own mission. Writ large, this is, I think, the kind of thing men more or less face today in general, the pressure around: don't excel on your own terms, foster status for "us," make money and perform for us, make "me" happy, abort your mission, step away, conform, be safe. Did I miss anything there? In the academy and social justice circles this would not even be a "micro" aggression. This would be really big and horrific.
Now, let's take a look at an example of the film's dialogue that I happened to excerpt from https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/
Without further comment:
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[a friend] to free solo at that level, you
really have to have the mental armor.
Having that romantic relationship
around is detrimental to that armor.
You have to focus and inherently
a close romantic relationship
removes that armor.
You kinda can't have
both at the same time.
There's always something that
has to give you the confidence to
go out and free solo a route.
So sometimes, that confidence just
comes from feeling super, super fit.
Sometimes, that confidence comes
through preparation and rehearsal.
But I mean there's always something
that makes you feel ready.
...
[him] Hmm, I'm processing.
I wanna, like I wanna have this more,
like, holistic approach that you have where
you're like "Well,
we're all gonna die,
like might as well do what we
wanna do while we're here and
it's okay when people die,"
[her] but I feel
like I want you to meet me halfway
and when you solo to
take me into the equation
and then I think you said...
[mixed] Is there a question? -Some,
there's going to be. -Okay.
[her] Um, would putting me into the
equation actually ever change anything?
Would you actually make
decisions differently?
[him] If I had some kind of obligation
to maximize my lifespan, then like yeah,
obviously I'd have to
give up soloing and, um.
[her] Was me asking you, do you
see that as an obligation now?
[him] ...Uh, no, no.
[her] Oh.
[him] No, but I appreciate your concerns and
I, you know, I respect that, but, but I,
in no way, feel obligated, no.
No, no, I don't know.
Um, but I mean like you saying, "Be safer,"
I'm kinda like well, I mean I can't.
You know, I'm already
doing my best.
So I could just, like, not do certain
things, but then you have, like,
weird simmering resentment because
it's things that you love most in life
have now been squashed.
You know what I mean?
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