Beetles, Toys, and Plastic Bags
Will you flip a beetle lying on its back?
I watched last night a WIRED video featuring Willard Wiggan and his microscopic sculptures where he mentioned something similar to my question (but his is more metaphorical). Then, I also scrolled through this link on Twitter about how toys are reflections of adult life, and that’s when I thought about how I’m always interested in (small) things that mimic the material world.
Growing up, I watched a lot of Tom & Jerry, and besides the obvious gags of the pet show—haha—I enjoyed the depiction of Jerry’s “small life” manifested in his little possessions—his small bed, the picture frames on the wall, his bedside table with his tiny lamp on it.
I also remember watching this movie showing the life of insects (it’s not The Bug’s Life or Epic). I like that. I was always fascinated to witness and learn the routines of ants (and bees for that matter) in their minuscule worlds.
However, Nemo does not have that same effect on me as compared to, say, Toy Story for the simple reason that when I watch the former, I’m looking at the life of the fishes, or simply the fishes. But with the latter, I’m watching the life of the toys relative to the world of Andy.
The same goes, perhaps, with typical toy cars compared to the ones I once owned which look like small versions of actual cars. It’s probably the little details on the toys that make the difference: their (small) doors that actually open as they would be in real life, and where inside you can imagine the (small) driver person steering the (small) wheel and the other (small) people fitting in the backseats. For that, if I were a girl, I would have owned a doll house where I could park my cars.
The lack of a doll house, nonetheless, did not stop me from admiring them, or miniature buildings. If I remember correctly, my first time seeing a miniature was with the house project of my brother, and eventually the miniature buildings displayed in the hallways of the school he went to, where they are boxed in these large glasses, and when my mother and I would go to the school, I couldn’t help myself but stare at them like one would do at an aquarium (Nemo!).
And in my elementary days, I would spend hours playing GTA in my PSP even though I don’t understand—much less care about—the rules of the game. Yet I took pleasure in playing this virtual avatar who would/can spontaneously steal cars and randomly punch people in the streets. (good old days!) I guess, more than being able to do violence without real consequences, the thing that I took pleasure in is witnessing “actual” life on a screen. Maybe that’s also why I was fond of watching reality shows like Pinoy Big Brother because they show the basic nuances of life that we would not normally see in other shows.
And now I carry this temperament with the movies that I watch (and the movies that I hope to make). Remember the plastic bag in American Beauty? Unpretentious life, indeed.
It’s having an interest in looking at small basic things, at innocent things, at things that are not conventional spectacles. Interest in a microcosm. A more patient way of looking at the everyday. Sensibilities. And fleeting moments. A love for the mundane.
So, please, I hope you would also flip the beetle. Otherwise, it’s just cruel.