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| “Male, Jumping; standing broad jump (shoes),” by Eadward Muybridge. Model is Percy C. Madeira (1862-1942)(Image: University of Pennsylvania Archives) |
How does this chapter's observations about misery, fear, anxiety, and depression shed life on Nora’s suicide attempt?
How does exploring lives help Nora accept life and reduce the potential appeal of death? Consider the way in which it breaks the mental binary that there is EITHER life (singular) OR death (singular).
What do Hugo and Nora speculate about joy? Whom do you agree with more? Do you think it lies in the jumping or the landing? Which of the photos in the image at the top of this post captures the moment of greatest joy?
What is Nora losing that makes her want to land?
What Nora realizes about her suicide attempt was that it wasn't because of the suffering, it was the perceived lack of escape from suffering. By exploring lives, Nora sees that there is an innate suffering to every choice she makes, but the suffering isn't inherent to any one choice she makes. It is simply cause and effect. However, while Hugo finds joy in the process of life-hopping, Nora wishes to seek the joy at the end of that jumping. The hypothetical of a 'story arc conclusion.' To me, in the picture, the greatest point of joy is the landing. It is the certainty that the jump, the choice, was able to exist in the first place (sidenote: I actually did a mini long jump in the Pesagi hall while reading this to review my own experience, Dr. Benton. I would tell you to ask Camden as proof but he wasn't paying attention). Sure, my feet were already sore, and maybe I made the soreness worse by jumping, but it was the fact that I made the jump in the first place that matters. At least I saw my choice come to completion.
ReplyDeleteHugo speculates that fun comes from jumping into new experiences, but never fully letting yourself enjoy the moment before you move onto the next. Nora believes, however, that happiness comes from settling down and allowing yourself to immerse yourself in the environment before allowing yourself to judge if something better is out there. I agree more with Nora. I feel that Hugo struggles with committing to a life because he does not allow himself to stay for long. The possibilities are endless, but this has a different meaning to both of them. Hugo feels that there is always something better out there, yet Nora struggles with believing that she could ever be fully content in any situation. The photo that captures the moment of greatest joy, in my opinion, is the very last one at the bottom right. The feeling of completion, that “I did it!” moment, is where the joyful feelings spawn from. The anticipation of an action is where the most anxiety lies, but after completion, feelings of pride and fulfillment show through as well as a boost in self-confidence. To me, telling yourself you can do something and demonstrating that you can do it are two different things that carry similar but contrasting emotions. Self-assurance can foster joy, but self-achievement is what really motivates someone in a positive way.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on the completion of something or the landing being where the greatest joy comes from. I think there is nothing better than proving to yourself you can do something that you once didn’t think you could do. I love how you go further and explain why there is so much joy in the completion of something rather than in the anticipation of something.
DeleteIt sheds life on Nora's suicide attempt by helping her realize that life was not meant to be perfect by any means. There were negatives and positives to each life, and it was up to her to decide if those positives outweighed the negatives to each one. By experiencing multiple different realities, she realized this more and more through each reality. While Nora is hopeful of a singular, joyful life that she is content with, Hugo believes that joy stems from skipping reality to reality and living in the best moments of those realities then moving onto the next. I agree with Nora that she thinks life is best lived in one singular life compared to skipping life to life, as skipping from one life to another can desensitize you to that feeling of content and happiness. That true happiness lies in the landing, as shown in the picture above, and that true happiness is in the completion of the jump. Nora is wanting to land due to feeling as if, by living an abundance of different realities, she is beginning to lose sight of who she is in her root life.
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