Strange as it is life imitates art and art imitates other art. The theme of memory links Dark City and Memento together. However in Dark City John Murdoch's long term memory has been erased but his short term memory still functions. In Memento Leonard's long term memory still functions but his short term memory does not.
Mr. Bennett pointed out in Dark City that Inspector Bumstead was working on a case. He was trying to solve who the criminal was behind the murder. Leonard was also working on the case of who killed his wife.
Anyway the lack of memory allows the characters to wake up before deciding what to do each day. This existential concept is known as existence precedes essence. In real life this concept holds true. Every morning I wake up and then decide whether or not to eat breakfast or go to school or whatever. Point being, I exist before I define myself. God has no divine plan or predestination for us. So we get to choose which case we get to work on. I rather enjoy the metaphor of working on a case. I enjoy it because it captures the monotony, absurdity, and meaninglessness of our existence. In Memento I assume that Leonard will work on his wife's case ad infinitum. Now my case is writing about working on cases. Tomorrow my new case will be passing a math test or reading Shakespeare. I will take up these new cases because the writing case will be a moot point. Until the day I die I will always be working on some kind of case. The cases do not have to be the classical whodunit case, so everything I do is the case I am trying to solve. To end this relatively bad blog post I have adapted the official song of the army to show everyone what I mean.
Over hill, over dale
We have hit the dusty trail,
And the Cases go rolling along.
In and out, hear them shout,
Counter march and right about,
And the Cases go rolling along.
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Your posts are always entertaining, Danny. I'm not even sure how to respond so I'll just say, nice.
ReplyDeleteI am often at a loss for words with your posts, but not this one. I very much like your observation about Dark City/Memento. They are much alike and yet very different. Your musings on Existentialism hit home as well. Alas for me, I am a failed Existentialist. The case is not enough for me. I crave an over-arching meaning. My sensibilities are those of the monk. My soul cries out for God. But, I won't allow my desires to influence what I know to be true. And so, like you, I awaken each day and search for more clues, knowing full well that, while there most certainly is a crime, there is no perpetrator.
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