I watched this movie over the weekend, and there were several quotes that I wanted to record as part of my “reading notebook.” Maybe I need to change the name of that to “media notebook,” as I have been putting in some some lyrics and music reviews here and there… I have long considered putting something here about movies — at least those movies that have the strongest impression on me, but have kept putting it off. So maybe this will be the start of a new category. (I have always hesitated in doing this as I don’t want to spoil any movie, so I will likely stay away from a true “review” of the plot, but only give my impressions of it while trying not to give too much away — if that is possible! I tend to do the same with my book reviews, at least for fiction, and hopefully I’ve been at least somewhat successful there)

I read this book by Jon Krakauer some time ago. I checked back through my old on-line reading notebook (before I started the blog), but there was nothing there, so I must have read it before the year 2000. I did pull out the book and put it on my stack to read, as I would like to read it again after watching the movie. And I’m not listening to the soundtrack again, which I bought as soon as it came out. I am still a big Eddie Vedder fan, and to me, he is one of the all time best lyricists, up there with Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Dar Williams…

So here are a few quotes from the movie:

1. This one really jumps out at me, as in so many ways it lines up with the “Wild At Heart” book we are now reading in the men’s group at church. I will be writing about that book when I finish it:

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greather joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”

2. “The core of mans’ spirit comes from new experiences.”

3. Tolstoy:

“If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed.”

4. Paraphrasing Thoreau:

“Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness… give me truth.”

5. Lord Byron

“There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea and the music in its roar;
I love not man the less, but Nature more.”

6. Tolstoy:

“I have lived through much and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet, secluded life in the country with the possibility of being useful to people…”

7. Another one that goes well with “Wild at Heart:”

“…the sea’s only gifts are harsh blows and, occasionally, the chance to feel strong. Now, I don’t know much about the sea, but I do know that that’s the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions, facing blind, deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your own hands and your own head…” — From Bear Meat, by Primo Levi

Great movie, definitely recommended!