The Invention of Lying

Interesting thing it is, when you watch a movie expecting it to be funny, and it ends up colliding head on with life as you know it. Naturally i never thought that i would have life dramatically shaken by a Ricky Garvais movie, but as the movie would say, it seems the man in the sky who is kind of a prick but yet a really good guy had other plans. It actually all started earlier today while I was running my tail off trying to make a living. I start in Vermillion with a dentist appointment, rushed to the FA to drop of info cards and touch base with a couple teachers, call housing and chew them out for forfeiting my housing deposit, drive to Yankton for a photo shoot, get to the apartment to find that the graphics professor wrote me back and wants to have a meeting in vermillion so i rush back to meet with her, run into a friend and suddenly time sorta slows. We talk about philosophy and theology some. Talked about how what we think and how we act are related. How we were brought up doesn't always mean thats how we are going to be when we are older. Then things speed up again and I'm setting up conventions and shows, taking calls from clients, rushing back to Yankton to photo edit before I have to go to work at 11:00pm, editing then running to the folks' so I would have a computer to do something on while I sat behind a desk all night, and then I started to watch "The Invention of Lying".

Needless to say after a crazy day like today all i really wanted to was some comedic relief for some pent of stress. What I got was a slap to the face and a "cheers" from Ricky Gervais. Not a bad slap to the face mind you, rather an enjoyable one if there is such a thing. If you haven't seen the movie I would highly recommend it. It takes a serious issue like religion and says take everything away that it promises and this is the life you can expect. It is a world without lies. Everyone is honest. I mean brutally honest. Like "I won't marrie you because your fat and genetically that isn't what i want for my kids." honest. Funny thing was Ricky Gervais plays a man who suddenly finds that he can lie, and fully extends what we no longer concider to be lies. Things like "Don't kill yourself, you are worth something. It would bother me if you were dead." to "The world is going to end if you don't sleep with me this instant." Comedic yes, but thought provoking non the less specially at 5am.

The movie brings concepts to mind that I have recently pushed away as to complicated, for me to want to try and unravel them. Unfortunately my mind doesn't just shut off and things came unravelled themselves with these ideas presented. Can there be love without lieing? Can there be hate without love, can you be happy without sadness, and why do people ignore what they want and do other things? The last one was sorta random but some how played a part in the movie, becuase even though these people were in capable of physically telling a lie, they were more than capable of living a lie. They lived the lie that you have to be a genetic match to get married, that you are what you are and thats all you are, that there was nothing deeper than what you see on the surface, and that ones happyness is decided by genetics, money, beauty, surface junk.

The movie also takes an interesting turn when Garvais's character tells everyone about the Man in the Sky. Could have been a jab at religion, i don't really know or care, but it brought up how much hope that one particular religion gives to people. An after life with something other than nothing in it. An after life with mansions and anything you could ever want and everyone you ever loved would be there, and it was all made by this man in the sky with strong hands and a great head of hair. It references this religion many times throughout the movie and at first i thought it was all just for a joke, but the movie became serious in the end and came up with a simple yet profound answer to the question "Why won't you tell me what the Man in the Sky wants?" "No"... Interesting concept when you bring it up in reference to God. Why can't God just tell me what he wants it would be so much easier? The answer is simple, but also leaves you with the "prick but yet a really nice guy". He wants you to choose. Why? Maybe becuase honestly you already know the answer you just don't want to do it becuase it doesn't suit you genetically or financially, its not how you imagined it, or its not in you're timing.

So how do I end this? I suppose I will ask the question that was asked to me many years ago. Interestingly enough at the time I figured there was no answer and if there was time would help unravel the mystery. Funny how things tend to happen that way. "What is the question?" or "What is the question you want answered but can't seem to come to terms with as the real truth." Its usually the truth and as the sayings go. The truth hurts, but it can also set you free.