Characterizationalism

Characterizationalism. The act of comparing ourselves and our everyday lives and mechanisms to characters we see in movies and in TV shows. We just compare ourselves non-stop. We watch a Jackie Chan movie and we go "hey, that Chan guy has my determination and ingenuity," or "hey, the villain here expresses things about myself I dislike. And dislike greatly for that matter," or how about "wow, she's hot and she's blond and I appreciate her aesthetic value, but she in no way shares any characteristics with me, and thus, I could care less about her hot ass."

Maybe we don't say it out loud like that but I'm thinking that's what makes us love and hate the characters we--well--love and hate. I love Jack Bauer's badassedness because I love those ever-so-small but still there badassedness traits. I hate guys like the King Longshanks in Braveheart because he's a coward and he won't fight William Wallace himself (kind of like how I hated when I watched that Jim Carey movie '23' and I woke up in the middle of the night and I had to pee but I was afraid to go to the bathroom so I waited and waited and waited and eventually fell back asleep.) ((Also his son was gay.))

Maybe this is all really obvious detective work here. Maybe this is something profound. Maybe not. Either way I'm seeing parts of myself everywhere. And trust me, we LOVE to see ourselves (ie -- facebook photos, time to see if we were tagged in any.) But maybe movies, TV shows, and stories let us see ourselves and see our potential. Let us see our options. We can look see what is possible -- not probable. Either way---- I want to be that stoner from 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall.' That's who I want to be from this day forward.



I want to be a God-awful surf instructor in Hawaii.