Revisiting Donnie Darko

Last Monday, I blogged about Siddhartha.  Just me, seeking to decode a kind of meaning out of the artificial flotsam and jetsam of our human experience.  I found another source to turn to in my philosophical quest, even if it's one that many would find unusual.

The name of the film is Donnie Darko.  I've reviewed it on this blog before.  A simultaneously mindbending and mindexapnding film that deserves every little bit of its cult film status and more.  There is just so much to this for the dark, brooding philosopher.  Youth in search of self-identity, self-knowledge, the existence of God, and the meaning of life.  Pretty much what we all want, isn't it?  Those of us who can think, that is.

Are we in the Primary Universe or the Tangent Universe?  There could very well be arguments for both.  Donnie was told that [SPOILER ALERT] the jet engine that fell into the house was construct from the Tangent Universe, knocking all things "over here" all helter-skelter.  Only he can set this cause and effect to right, thereby in my opinion, granting him meaning and purpose...those elusive intangibles that we're all after.  It might even be Gretchen who telegraphs this a bit when she says, "Donnie Darko? What the hell kind of name is that? It's like some sort of superhero or something."

For those who find Donnie Darko nonsensical, I can concede that point...to a degree.  Donnie says and does things that appear to defy reason or what the bland, stinking normals would argue as being "well-adjusted."  It may be, however, that Donnie's actions are perfectly in line with what he is here to do.  It's almost as if he's being fed some code of conduct that even he isn't aware of.  Something in his subconscious or within inactive memory or...I don't know what, is already solidly aware of his meaning and his purpose.  It is Donnie himself who has yet to learn it.   If that makes any sense.

In fact, this may be an indicator, a signifier that somehow it is Donnie who is an artifact of the Primary Universe and who finds himself living out life in the Tangent Universe.  He is an outsider, the same as many of us feel sometimes...or most times even.  He cannot relate to those around him for they value other, more tawdry concepts.  Donnie thinks.  Few of the others in his universe seem to be capable of that action. Therefore, he doesn't belong there.  Wouldn't that just explain everything if you knew that about yourself?  Would do it for me.  Or as Donnie said: "I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to.

I realize that this might be one of my most rambling and crooked-pathed posts to date.  Sorry.  These are the mere stream of consciousness musings of a heat oppressed brain.  I leave you now with one of my favorite scenes from the film, sorry for the crazy crude intro that the uploader tacked on:



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