Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

holy moments

skindeep's picture

the concept of holy moments in movies fascinated me, mainly because i had never thought about it like that before, and its true, movies do do that for me, as do tv serials - i remember me in high school and whenevr i was having a particularly bad day i would just sit in front of the tv and watch anything that was even midly interesting, simply because it distracted me. and thinking about it, obviously its a successful distraction - it takes over your sense of vision, sound and a good part of your mental cognitive ability, leaving little room for thought.

a book on the other hand needs more work, you need to read it, and sometimes, if your thoughts are too loud, you skim the book, because you can. and its easier.

or so i thought. thinking back on it, when i was younger, books did for me what i now depended on the tv to do. i used to have those holy moments, completely absorbed in a book more often than i ever do now. had i just become more lazy? had my problems magnified? or had i just become subject to technology?

leaving all this behing though, the holy moments we spoke about, when we become more aware, i wonder if finding those in a movie or a book is easier only because we wont let ourselves keep our minds quiet outside of a movie -- would we be able to find those moments if we did? if we allowed  ourselves to just be more often?

 

 

Comments

jrf's picture

how holy?

This understanding of "holy moments" is interesting to me, and a different (though not that different) from what I imagined while listening to the clip from Waking Life. I had thought of holy moments as instants, in 'real life' or while involved in a book/movie/performance/etc., that caused complete engagement with that instant-- moments where the usual distance between one's self and one's surroundings (one's conscious thought/"mental cognitive ability", I guess?) seems to disappear. I hadn't thought to imagine complete engrossment in a work of fiction (in whatever form) as an extended holy moment, even if what that means is the willful putting-aside of critical thought to lose oneself in whatever's on TV. What I understand by/associate with the idea of "allow[ing] ourselves to just be" isn't something I would have connected to the experience of letting television take over my brain-- that experience doesn't feel transcendent or like it's somehow connecting me more closely to the universe, but it might not be so different in concept from losing oneself in other "holy moments."

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
1 + 3 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.