The Kolog

Can’t Help It

Relegated to the couch for the weekend due to an infection on my elbow, I’ve been able to watch a few movies that I haven’t seen in some time but I can’t shake my dissertation when viewing them so it starts to feel like work.  Take The Big Lebowski, for instance, in which the trope of listening functions as a meditative process (when the dude listens to a bowling match on a walkman while laying on his floor, just before the trippy dream montage wonderfully accompanied by Bob Dylan’s “The Man in Me”).  Listening, or the refusal to do so, functions as a symbol of lost opportunity too.  For example, Walter refuses to listen to Donny during some of the early scenes (in fact, Walter listens to Donny only when the latter is referring to bowling), which he may very well regret later when Donny passes away two-thirds through the film.  Finally, not listening functions as a form of rebellion when the dude tells the police officer (towards the end of the film) that the former was not listening to the latter, an act of defiance for which the law officer pummels every dude out there.

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