여자의 질투

얼마전 치과에서 있던 일: 환자 대기실 자판기 옆 의자에 앉아 기다리는데 어떤 할머니께서 대뜸 내 옆에 있는 어머니께 나 방광염 있는데 뭘 먹으면 잘 먹었다고 소문날까뿌 ‘ㅅ’ 식의 질문을 하셨다. 어머니 왈, 물 드시면 좋을 것 같네요. 나 물은 하도 많이 먹어서 지겨워뿌 ‘ㅅ’ . 그럼 식혜 드시면  좋겠네요. 그러자 할머니께서 대뜸, 아 옛날에는 식혜가 참 맛있었는데… 하면서 능수능란하게 이야기 보따리를 한웅큼 푸시기 시작한다. 동전 꺼내지도 않는 것 보아하니 음료수는 애시당초 안중에도 없었고 당신 말씀 들어줄 상대가 필요하신 것 같았다. 그렇지 않아도 2시간 가까이 기다리느라 지쳐가고 있었으니 이어폰을 귀에서 뽑고 듣기 엄마와 할머니 대화를 옆에서 엿듣기 시작했다.

몇분이 채 안 지나서 할머니 스펙이 술술 나온다.  벽 건너편 병실에서 5천만원짜리 임플란트 치료 받고 계신 할아버지는 박정희 시절 공무원이셨고 아직까지도 사업하시면서 경제 활동 중이시며 할머니에게는 월 500만원 한도인 카드를 주셨다. 할머니께서 대학을 가고자 했는데 부모님께서 여자가 무슨 서울에서 대학이냐, 집 근처 조선대학교 (호남 출신이신 듯) 가라는 말에 화가 나서 아예 대학교를 가지 않았는데 그게 아직도 후회 되신다고 말씀하셨다. 하지만 영어도 하시고 (영국 액센트와 함께 ) 일본어도 하시고 논어도 줄줄 읊는거 보아컨데 단순히 돈만 많은게 아닌 박식하고 멋진 할머니셨다.

짧은 시간 안에 크고 작은 이야기가 부지런히 오갔다.  맞벌이하는 며느리가 손주를 자신에게 안 맡기고 젊은 가정 주부에게 맡긴 이유가 단지 영국식 영어 발음 << 미국식 영어 발음이라면서 노한 상황이며 이승만 박사와 김구 선생님의 대립과 저격 당하셨던 상황을 생생히 묘사해주는 등 정치, 역사, 가정학을 잘 엮어서 풀어내시는 모습을 보아컨데 엄마 옆에 앉았을 때부터 뚜렷한 목적-_-의식 있던  할머니였던 것이였다. 서로 얘기에 바쁘고 140자 트위터에 싸지를지언정남의 얘기는 도통 들어주지 않는 요즘 세상에 모처럼 잡은 기회를 최대한 활용하고자 하는 단호한 의지가 느껴졌다. 하지만 할머니가 기억에 남는 이유는 다른 것이 아니라 80세 가까운 이 할머니 – 폐경기 지난 것은 물론, 이제는 턱수염도 날법한  – 아니, 한 여자의 질투가 무척 인상적이였기 때문이다.

은퇴 이후 곧 사업을 시작하신 할아버지는 오늘날까지도 딱 한명의 비서를 두었다고 한다. 이제 나이가 40을 넘었는데 여전히 결혼 안했다고 하니 20대 청년인 내가 보기에는 30대 후반에 친 거미줄 이 굳어서 벽이 되지 않았을까 의아할 정도로 관심 밖 대상이건만 당신께서는 무척 신경이 쓰였는지 여비서가 마음에 안드는 점을 하나 둘씩 까발리신다. 예를 들어 월 500만원 카드 비밀번호를 할아버지께서 자신에게 절대로 가르쳐 주지 않는데 그 비서는 비밀번호를 알고 있는게 싫으시고 할아버지께서 하루종일 호주머니에 넣고 다니던 핸폰을 충전하라고 비서에게 건네줄 때 할아버지 체온이 그 여자에게 전해지는게 너무 싫다는 것이다. 할머니는 비서 바꾸라고 계속 말하지만 이런 질투심 느끼고 있음을 직접 말하지 않으니 할아버지가 그 원인을 알 터가 없지. 설마 80 노친네의 미지근하지도 못한 체온이 질투의 원인이 될 것이라고 상상이나 했겠냐고.

문득 여자친구 애태운답시고 바쁜척, 다른 여자들에게서 자꾸 연락 온다 등등의 정보를 흘려 보내던 나의 예전 모습들이 우습고 찌질하게 느껴졌다. 정작 내가 의도한 질투심은 전혀 발동 걸리지 않다가 어느 날 갑자기 너 내가 왜 화났는지 아직도 모르겠어? 이에 당황한 나머지 내 죄스러운 의식 중에서 닥치고 떠오르는 것 허공에서 막 끄집어 말하곤 했다. 그럼 그럴수록 그녀는 더더욱 갈피 못잡는 내 행동에 우선 1차적으로 화가 나고, 자신이 미처 알지도 못했던 나의 결함을 발견하니까 더더욱 화를 내니 상황은 악화될 뿐이다. 그냥 입 닥치고 내가 잘못했어 다음부터 잘할게라고 한들, 맨날 그소리냐고 핀잔만 날라온다. 스킨쉽으로 해결하는 것도 상황이 그나마 좋을 때 얘기지, 시도 때도 없이 시도했다가는 몰상식한 짐승 취급 받는다. 그리하여 시간이 지나도 뭘 잘못했는지 깨달지 못하면 말 없이 떠남으로서 남자를 벌준다.  여자의 마음은 오묘하고 깊기에 도무지 가늠할 수가 없다. 결국 남자가 취할 수 있는 최선의 선택이란 여자가 나를 좋아할 수 있게끔 기회를 열어주는 것이지, 남자가 여자를 고를 수 있다는 착각은 하루 빨리 버려야겠다는 생각이 든다.

태초 우리에겐 선택의 여지가 없던 것이다.

안경환 국가인권위원회 위원장의 이임사 전문

친애하는 국가인권위원회 동료 여러분, 인권을 지고의 가치로 신봉하는 국민여러분, 저는 제 4대 국가인권위원회의 위원장에서 물러나 한 사람의 시민으로 돌아갑니다. 2년 8개월 남짓 전인 2006년 10월 30일, 바로 이 자리에서 저는 어떠한 어려움이 닥치더라도 제게 주어진 3년의 법정임기를 채우겠다는 결의를 공언했습니다. 그러나 그때 그 약속을 지키지 못하고 앞당겨 떠나게 됨을 양해해 주시기 바랍니다.

법이 보장한 임기 만료일을 기다리지 못하고 앞서 물러나기로 결심한 사유는 지난 6월 30일, 사직서를 제출하면서 간략하게 밝혔습니다. 되풀이하여 말씀드리건대 새 정부의 출범 이래 발생한 일련의 불행한 사태에 대한 강한 책임을 통감함과 동시에, 정부의 지원 아래 새로 취임할 후임자로 하여금 그동안 심각하게 손상된 국제사회에서의 한국인권의 위상을 회복하고 인권선진국으로서의 면모를 일신할 전기를 마련해 드리고 싶은 강렬한 소망과 충정 때문입니다.

당초 취임의 변에서 말씀드렸고, 기회 있을 때마다 되풀이하여 강조했듯이 저는 인권이란 이념적 좌도 우도 아니고, 정치적 진보도 보수도 아닌, 그야말로 모든 사람이 일용할 양식인 인류보편의 가치라는 믿음을 안고 살았습니다. 이 평범한 소신을 국가인권기구의 수장으로 지켜야 할 가장 으뜸가는 업무수칙으로 삼았습니다. 그래서 언제나 엄정한 정치적 중립을 강조했으며, 위원회와 ‘긴장어린 동반자’의 관계인 시민사회와도 일정한 거리를 둘 것을 주문하기도 했습니다. 또한 모든 언론에 대해서 동일한 기준과 성의로 자료제공과 홍보활동을 할 것을 독려하고, 제 스스로 나서기도 했습니다.

그러나 이러한 저의 소신과 노력은 극단적인 분리와 대립이 항다반사가 되어버린 세태 아래 빛을 잃었습니다. 이념적 지향이나, 정치적 입장을 떠나, 모든 사람이 사람답게 살고 존중받는 일상의 인권을 신장하기 위해 쏟은 노력은 정권교체기의 혼탁한 정치기류에 막혀 걸음을 내딛지 못하고 있습니다. 국가인권위원회의 설치근거나 법적 업무와 권한에 대한 성의 있는 이해를 애써 외면하는 듯한 몰상식한 비판, 무시, 편견, 왜곡의 늪 속에서 갈무리할 수 없는 분노와 좌절을 겪은 사람이 저 혼자만이 아닙니다.

자리에서 물러나면서 재직 중에 얻고 쌓은 자신의 소회를 속속들이 드러내는 것은 결코 바람직한 공직자의 자세가 아니라고 생각합니다. 자신에게 ‘필요한 것은 시간이고, 당분간 할 수 있는 것은 침묵뿐’이라는 금언도 익히 듣고 있습니다. 그러나 막연히 먼 장래를 기약하면서 홀로 가슴 속에 담아두기에는 너무나도 간절한 소망이 있기에 감히 몇 마디 당부와 호소의 말씀을 드리고자 합니다.

우리 모두가 자부하듯이 한동안 우리나라는 아주 짧은 기간에 정치적 민주화와 경제성장을 동시에 이룩한 경이로운 나라로 국제사회의 평가를 받아왔습니다. 국민의 일상을 짓누르는 군사독재의 질곡을 벗어던지고 대다수 국민이 일상적 자유의 공기를 만끽하는 나라로 발전했습니다. 사회의 발전에 따라 인권의 외연이 크게 확대되었고, 다양한 세계관과 삶의 행태가 공존하는 관용의 사회로 이행하고 있습니다. 이러한 우리의 성취는 많은 후발 국가들에게 희망의 등불이 되었습니다.

그러나 그렇게나 많은 나라의 시샘과 부러움을 사던 자랑스러운 나라였던 대한민국이 근래에 들어와서 모두가 손가락질하는 부끄러운 나라로 전락할 위기에 처해 있습니다. 지난 해 7월, 고국을 방문한 반기문 유엔사무총장이 내뱉다시피 던진 충격적인 고백을 생생히 기억합니다. “국제사회에 나가보니 내가 한국 사람인 것이 부끄러웠다.”는 유엔 수장의 솔직한 고백이 곧바로 국제인권지도에 기록된 우리나라의 현주소가 아닐까 싶습니다. 이 서글픈 현실을 수치스럽게 받아들이는 정부 관료나 국민의 숫자도 많지 않다는 사실이 더욱 수치스럽기도 합니다.

아직도 우리의 인권의식은 과거에 자행되던 국민의 생명과 신체에 직접적인 위해와 같은 노골적인 인권유린의 악몽의 포로가 되어, 진정한 선진사회를 향한 전향적인 발돋움을 위해 먼저 갖추어야 할 의식의 선진화를 이루지 못하고 있습니다. 인권의 고귀한 가치는 정권의 교체나 연장에 따라 달라질 수 없을 것입니다. 정권의 교체는 국민의 선택입니다. 그러나 결코 국민은 인권의 탄압이나 후퇴를 선택할 리 없습니다. 앞선 정권의 실정의 유산을 시대의 흐름에 따라 수반된 필연적인 변화로부터 구분해내지 못하면 때대로 시대착오적인 반인권정책의 유혹에 빠지기 십상입니다.

‘선진사회’를 기치로 내걸고 압도적인 국민의 지지로 출범한 이명박 정부는 1년 반이 지난 이날까지 그 장점이 만개하지 않고 있다는 평을 듣고 있습니다. 국가인권위원회의 수장으로서 느낀 소감은 적어도 인권에 관한 한, 이 정부는 의제와 의지가 부족하고, 소통의 자세나 노력은 거의 보이지 않는다는 것입니다.

지난해 1월, 신정부의 정식 출범에 앞서 5년의 재임기간 동안 이명박대통령이 추진할 국정과제의 청사진을 입안했던 대통령 직 인수위원회는 ‘과도하게 높아진’ 인권위원회의 위상을 ‘바로잡기’ 위해 법적으로 독립기관인 위원회를 대통령 직속기관으로 변경하겠다는 계획을 발표하여 국내인권옹호자들의 반발은 물론 국제사회의 엄중한 경고를 받아야 했습니다.

2001년에 설립된 기관이기에 인권위원회는 이른바 ‘좌파정부’의 유산이라는 단세포적인 정치논리의 포로가 된 나머지, 1993년 유엔총회의 결의에 부응하여 설립된 기구라는 것, 권고결의 당시에 국가인권기구를 보유한 유엔위원국이 5,6개국에 불과했으나 15년이 지난 오늘에 120개국으로 급증한 사실을 감안하면, 그 누가 대통령에 선출되었더라도 필연적으로 탄생했을 기관이라는 사실은 추호도 의식하지 못하고 있습니다. 이렇듯 국제인권의 추세에 둔감한 정부이기에 지난 3월 말에는 ‘효율적인 운영’이라는 미명 아래 적정한 절차 없이 유엔결의가 채택한 독립성의 원칙을 본질적으로 침해하는 기구의 축소를 감행함으로써 또다시 국제사회의 조롱거리가 되고 있습니다.

정부 내에서도 국가인권위원회의 역할과 국제사회의 흐름을 너무나도 잘 알고 있을 고위공직자들조차도, 위원회를 특정목표로 삼은 명백한 보복적인 탄압에 침묵하고 심지어는 불의에 앞장서는 안타까운 현실에 실로 깊은 비애와 모멸감을 감출 수가 없습니다.

아무리 내 나라, 내 정부에 대해서 불만이 깊더라도 국제사회에서는 내 나라, 내 정부의 입장을 최대한 옹호하는 것이 공직자의 도리임을 믿는 저이지만 그간 빚어진 실로 수치스럽기 짝이 없는 일들을 국세사회에서 변론할 자신과 면목이 없습니다. ‘청구인 국가인권위원장. 피청구인 대통령’이라는 법적 형식을 취한 권한쟁의심판의 청구를 헌법재판소에 제기할 수밖에 없었던 것도 입장이 다를수록 요구되는 정부기관 간의 대화와 소통의 부재가 빚어낸 비극이기도 합니다. 지난 20년간, 한국의 민주화를 제도적으로 이끌어 왔다는 칭송을 받고 있는 헌법재판소는 국제사회가 주목하고 있는 이 사안을 심사숙고하여 결정을 내려주실 것을 믿습니다.

국제적 기준에 따라 설립된 국가인권위원회의 소임은 한 사안에서 나라 전체의 균형을 잡는 데 있지 않습니다. 국가권력의 남용과 부주의에 대해 경종을 울리는 일, 그것이 인권위원회의 본연의 소임입니다. 모든 국가기관을 대리하여, 약자의 호소에 귀를 기울이고, 이를 바탕으로 정부에 대해 고언을 제공하는 일, 그것이 국가인권위원회의 본질적인 임무입니다. 강자와 다수자에게 생길지 모르는 약간의 불편을 무릅쓰고라도 약자와 소수자의 인권을 보장함으로써 사회전체의 균형을 유지하는 것, 이것이야말로 민주국가. 인권국가, 법치국가의 본령입니다.

힘없는 자의 분노를 위무하고, 가난한 사람의 한숨과 눈물을 담아내는 일에 인색한 정부는 올바른 정부가 아닙니다. 흔히 소수자의 인권도 중요하지만, 다수자의 인권이 더욱 중요하다고들 말하기도 합니다. 그러나 이러한 불평은 인권의 본질에 대한 성찰의 부족에서 유래한다고 생각합니다. 인권은 다수결이 아닙니다. 사회의 모든 기재가 다수자와 강자의 관점과 이해를 옹호하는 데 초점이 맞추어져 있기 마련입니다. 그것이 인간세상의 자연적 속성이기에 인권의 본질은 강자의 횡포로부터 약자를 보호함으로써 최소한의 인간적인 삶을 보장하는 데 있는 것입니다.

언론에도 고언을 드립니다. ‘무관의 제왕’이라는 전래의 별칭이 상징하듯이 민주사회에서 언론의 권능은 실로 막강합니다. 그러기에 언론이 짊어져야할 책임 또한 무겁습니다. 다수의 독자에게 영향을 미치는 거대언론의 경우는 더욱더 그러합니다. 인권위원회의 생명이 업무의 독립성에 있듯이, 언론의 생명은 정확한 사실의 보도에 있다는 것을 그 누구도 부인하지 못할 것입니다. 특정 언론사의 정치적 입장이나 이해관계가 걸린 사안에서도 보도는 정확한 사실이 전제되어야 한다는 것은 언론의 기본양식이자 독자에 대한 최소한의 예의일 것입니다. 이른바 ‘북한인권’이나 ‘촛불집회’ 사건의 예에서 보듯이 국가위원회의 법적 권능에 대한 무지, 오해, 사실왜곡과 같은 부끄러운 언론행태는 불식되어야 할 것입니다.

친애하는 국가인권위원회 동료 여러분, 인간의 존엄을 숭상하는 국민여러분, 이제 저는 물러납니다. 비록 짧은 기간이었지만 정치적 배경과 철학이 다른 두 분의 대통령의 재직 중에 국제적 관심이 집중된 독립기관의 장의 직을 수행한 행운은 여느 대한민국 국민이 누리지 못한 특권과 축복이었습니다. 다만, 단 한 차례도 이명박대통령께 업무보고를 드리지 못하고 자리를 떠난 무능한 인권위원장으로 역사에 남게 된 것은 제 개인의 불운과 치욕으로 삭이겠습니다. 그러나 다시는 이러한 비상식적인 일이 되풀이되지 않기를 간절히 바랍니다.

존경하는 이명박대통령께 간곡하게 호소합니다. 대통령께서는 유엔총회가 결의를 통해 채택한 국가인권위원회의 설립과 운영의 원칙을 존중하고 국제사회의 우려에 경청하시기 바랍니다. 저의 후임자는 정부와 국민의 존중과 사랑을 받아, 지난 8년간 위원회가 범한 약간의 시행착오를 극복하는 한편, 그동안 이룩한 찬란한 업적을 발전적으로 승계하기 바랍니다.

흔들리지 않는 신뢰와 사랑으로 저를 지켜주었던 동료들께 감사를 드리고, 위원회의 독립성을 유린하면서 강행한 정부의 폭거로 인해 창졸간에 직장을 잃게 된 동료직원들에게 깊은 위로와 사죄의 말씀을 드립니다.

우리 모두 잘 알고 있습니다. 인권의 길에는 종착역이 없다는 사실을. 또한 우리는 너무나 잘 알고 있습니다. “정권을 짧고 인권은 영원하다”는 만고불변의 진리를. 우리들 가슴 깊은 곳에 높은 이상의 불씨를 간직하면서 의연하게 걸어갑시다. 외롭지만 떳떳한 인권의 길을. 오늘 우리를 괴롭히는 이 분노와 아픔은 보다 밝은 내일을 위한 작은 시련에 불과하다는 믿음을 다집시다. 제각기 가슴에 품은 작은 칼을 벼리고 벼리면서, 창천을 향해 맘껏 검무를 펼칠 대명천지 그날을 기다립시다.

모두에게 건강하고도 화목한 가정의 축복을 빕니다. 감사합니다.

2009년 7월 8일 제 4대 국가인권위원회 위원장 안경환

[swing] Django Reinhardt – Minor Swing

[premise] 연극, 참여, 무사

All the world's a stage (from As You Like It 2/7)

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

셰익스피어는 우리 삶 자체가 연극이라고 그래서 우리 모두 각자 나이와 사회적 지위에 맞는 역할을 맡은 배우라고  말한다. 햄릿은 아버지 원수를 갚는 과정에 두 가족 – 클로디어스의 왕가와 폴로니어스의 가문 – 송두리 박살낸 비극이기도 하지만 현대 사회 – 자신만의 성 안에서 제멋대로 행동하고 방종하던 과거와 달리 궁정에 살아가면서 어쩔 수 없이 예의범절을 지키고 끊임없이 남을 속여야 하는, 다른 말로 독을 품어야 하는 지금 – 에서 고뇌하고 연극해야만 하는 원치 않는 배우의 길을 걷는 한 사람의 모습을 다룬 연극이다.

흔히 말하길, 연극을 통해서 다른 사람을 표현한다고 말하지만 셰익스피어는 자신의 존재를 깨달면서 연기가 비로서 시작된다고 말하는 것 아닐까? 즉, 우리는 여태까지 남의 표정과 습관을 잘 관찰하는데 특출난 재능을 보이는 이들의 재현하는 모습을 연기라고 생각했건만 셰익스피어는 추악하고 소심한 사람들이 남으로부터 자신을 숨기는 모습 자체가 ‘연기’라고 생각한 것 같다.

세상은 ‘나’를 찾아가는 과정을 방해하는 요소로 가득하다. 클로디어스야 양심에 찔리니 햄릿을 지켜보았지만 폴로니어스는 원한 관계에 얽히지 않았음에도 불구하고 특유의 간섭하는 버릇으로 햄릿을 방해한다. 굳이 칼부림으로 이어지지 않더라도 우리는 끊임없이 방해 받는다. 사탄은 본래 “방해하는 자”라는 모호한 의미를 지녔으나 이를 좀 더 이해에 돕기 위해서 하나의 객체로 형상화한다. 어떠한 길을 택하든 필히 이를 방해하는 존재는 있기 마련이다.

그 것으로부터 내 자신을 남들과 차별화 시키고, 차별화 시키기 위한 방법으로서  참여하지만 이는 “연기”다. 이러한 연기를 거듭하면 거듭할 수록, 나에 대한 기억이 뒤바뀌며 겹겹히 쌓여 알아볼 수 없게 된다. 뒤집어서 말하면 방해 받지 않는 존재가 되기 위해서는 포기해라; 연기를 그만두자. 내가 느끼는 감정 있는 그대로 표현하여 연극으로 담아내자.

자 – 2년에 걸친 작업 터널의 끝이 조금씩 보이기 시작한다.

[song] Barcelona – please don’t go

Jaco Pastorius – Portrait of Tracy

Memory and action

동생에게 살해당한 햄릿의 아버지 유령이 복수를 요구하면서 자신을 기억해달라는 말을 남기고 떠나자 햄릿은 다음과 같은 대사를 읊는다.

Remember thee?

Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat

In this dsitracted globe. Remember thee?

Yea, from the table of my memory

I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,

All saws of books, all forms, all pressure past,

That youth and observation copied there,

And thy commandment all alone shall live

Within the book and volume of my brain

Unmixed with baser matter.

(Hamlet, 1.5.95-104)

중세 시대에 성행하던 믿음 중 하나가 세계의 모든 기억이 한 곳에 저장된다는 것이였다. 처음 읽을 때는 무척 바보같은 생각이라고 비웃었지만 막상 디지털 카메라로 찍은 사진들을 USB 혹은 백업 디스크에 저장하고 핸드폰 단축키는 기억할지언정 전화번호는 기억 못하는 사람들을 보아하니 아주 틀린 얘기도 아닌듯. 당시 정황이 글, 인쇄술이 흔하지 않아서였는지 혹은 육체와 정신을 분리해서 다루는데 익숙치 않았기 때문에 자신의 기억을 어느 물리적 장소에 저장한다고 생각하게 되었는지 그 경과를 정확히 알 수 없지만 Giotto 조또;; 종탑이 그러한 ‘하드 드라이브’ 중 하나라고 생각할 정도였다니 진지하게 믿었던 듯 싶다.

셰익스피어도이러한 믿음을 갖고 있었음을 위의 대사를 통해 엿볼 수 있다. “memory holds a seat in this distracted globe.”라 할 때 globe는 두뇌를 가르키므로 뇌 구석탱이에 고이 간직하겠다는 말도 되지만, 당시 셰익스피어의 연극이 연출되던 극장 이름이 Globe였음을 떠올리면 “얼래? 이거봐라?” 소리 나오게 되는 것이지. 즉, 연극이 진행되는 Globe라는 물리적 장소 안의 자리seat에 앉은 관객에 의해서 메세지/기억은 전해질 것임을 암시하고 있다. 이렇게 물리적 장소를 통해 기억이 되살아난다는 햄릿의 믿음은 그 이후에도 여러차례 나타난다. 숙부인 클로디어스 앞에서 부왕이 살인 당하는 장면을 연극으로 재현함으로서 숙부의 기억을 되살리려 했던 장면 – 숙부의 얼굴 표정을 읽고 복수를 확신하는 장면 – 도 이에 해당된다.

기억이 어떻게 행동으로 이끌리고, 행동이 어떤식으로 기억에 남게 되는지는 한번쯤 누구나 고민하지 않았을까? 그래선지 일찍이 어린 아들을 잃고 – 아들 이름이 Hamnet이며 Hamlet 쓰기 3~4년전에 죽었다 –  아들에 대한 기억으로 필히 괴로했을 셰익스피어가 연극을 통해 담아낸 기억에 대한 생각이 궁금하다.

p.s.

근데 조낸 비싸 아흙 ;ㅁ;

[commencement speech] Suzan-Lori Parks @Mount Holyoke

SUZAN-LORI PARKS COMMENCEMENT SPEECH TO THE MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE CLASS OF 2001 HELD ON MAY 27, 2001

THANK YOU, Graduating Class of 2001, Fellow Honorary Degree Recipients, Distinguished Administration and Faculty, Alumnae, Parents, Family and Friends, thank you all so much for inviting me to speak with you today. I graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1985. Here I am 16 years later. The learned faculty is seated there behind me, and so, before I get into the swing of things, I want to state that any grammatical errors, historical fabrications and inappropriate flights of fancy contained within the following speech are the sole responsibility of the Commencement Speaker and, if found objectionable, should in no way be viewed as an example of the caliber of education one would receive at Mount Holyoke College.

It is commencement and you all are commencing—you are beginning. Today is yr birthday. Its a sort of birthday for me too: this is my first honorary degree. Yr sitting there looking forward into me and Im standing here looking forward into you. I’ll be yr mirror for a few minutes, if you’ll be mine. All of us together, we are commencing. It is the beginning of things, its also the end of things and Ive brought along 16 SUGGESTIONS which may be of use—as you walk through the rest of yr lives.

Suggestions and Advice are funny things. In 1982 I took a creative writing class with James Baldwin. He suggested to me that I try playwrighting and I tried playwrighting and here I am today. That was some good advice. But it wasnt the best advice I ever got.

The BEST advice I ever got was also the WORST advice any one ever gave me. In high school I had a very stern English teacher and one gloomy day she summoned me into her gloomy office. She knew I loved English and that I wanted to study literature and perhaps someday become a writer—”Dont study English,” she said, “you havent got the talent for it.” What a horrible thing to say. What an excellent suggestion. It was an excellent suggestion because it forced me to think for myself. And thats my first suggestion for you.

SUGGESTION #1: CULTIVATE THE ABILITY TO THINK FOR YRSELF. When someone gives you advice, you lay their advice along side yr own thoughts and feelings, and if what they suggest jives with what youve got going on inside, then you follow their suggestion. ON THE OTHER HAND—there are lots of people out there who will suggest all kinds of stupid stuff for you to incorporate into your life. There are lots of people who will encourage you to stray from your hearts desire. Go ahead and let them speak their piece, and you may even want to give them a little smile depending on your mood, but if what they suggest does not jive with the thoughts and feelings that are already alive and growing beautifully inside you, then dont follow their suggestion. THINK for yrself, LISTEN to yr heart, TUNE IN to yr gut. These are just the things for which Mount Holyoke has educated you. Youve all received an excellent education here and education, excellent education, is just a kind of ear training. That’s all it really is—Inner Ear Training.

SUGGESTION #2: EMBRACE DISCIPLINE. Give yrself the opportunity to discover that discipline is just an extension of the love you have for yrself—discipline is not, as a lot of people think, some horrid exacting torturous self flagellating activity—Discipline is just an expression of Love—like the Disciples—they didnt follow Christ because they HAD TO.

SUGGESTION #3: PRACTICE PATIENCE. Whether you sit around like I do, working for that perfect word, or yr working toward a dream job, or wishing for a dreamy sweetheart. Things will come to you when yr ready to handle them—not before. Just keep walking yr road.

SUGGESTION #4; And as you walk yr road, as you live yr life, RELISH THE ROAD. And relish the fact that the road of yr life will probably be a windy road. Something like—the yellow brick road in the WIZARD OF OZ. You see the glory of OZ up ahead—but there are lots of twists and turns along the way—lots of tin men, lots of green women.

SUGGESTION #5: DEVELOP THE ART OF MAKING A SILK PURSE FROM A SOW’S EAR.

Cause, you know, it aint whatcha got, its how you work it.

SUGGESTION #6: For every 30 min of tv you watch, READ one poem outloud. For every work of literature you read, spend at least 30min in the mall, or in a mall equivalent such as Wal-Mart. This is cross-fertilization—a now-age form of crop rotation—a way to cross train yr spirit and keep interested in everything and not get too stuck in yr ways.

Speaking of yr ways and yr way:

SUGGESTION #7: GET OUT OF YOUR WAY. You can spend yr life tripping on yrself, you can also spend yr life tripping yrself up. Get out of yr own way.

Yr young, brilliant, and today is yr birthday. Yve got yr whole lives ahead of you and each of you will spend yr life doing some thing, or maybe a host of things. Dont just spend your life.

SPLURGE

SUGGESTION #8: SPLURGE YR LIFE BY DOING SOMETHING YOU LOVE. My husband Paul is a musician. He says that the concept of talent is overrated because “talent” is really the gift of love. “Talent” happens when yr in love with something and you devote yr life to it and its yr love of it that makes you want to keep doing it, its yr love of it which helps you overcome the obstacles along the way, and its yr love of it that begets a talent for it.

SUGGESTIONS #9, 10, 11, 12, & 13: Eat Yr Vegetables, Floss Yr Teeth, Try Meditation, Get Some Exercise, & SHARPEN YR 7 SENSES: the basic 5 Senses + the 6th Sense: ESP & the 7th Sense which is yr sense of HUMOR.

16 years ago I sat where one of you is sitting now. The class of 1985 was graduating. And we were lucky as we had a great poet speaking to us. She was a great writer and an MHC alum. She was pretty and poised and she had such grace—so much grace that I sat there looking at her thinking that she looked more as if she had gone to Smith. Anyway it was sunny and we were all in black probably sweating a little and she spoke brilliantly and eloquently and to this day I have absolutely no memory of what she said. I dont remember one word of her brilliant commencement address the address that launched the class of 1985. Not one word. I want you to catch my drift. Im not saying our speaker was boring. Im saying that I dont remember what she said. But I do remember some words that went through my head at the very moment our speakers words were passing by. It was a voice, coming from my gut, a voice coming from my heart and the voice said: “Ah, Suzan-Lori Parks, the next degree youre going to receive is an honorary degree from MHC.”

Yep I really said that to myself. And here I am today.

SUGGESTION #14: SAY “THANK YOU” at least once a week.

SUGGESTION #15: LOVE YRSELF. Why not.

16 years from now who will remember these words? Maybe no one. But maybe someone will. Maybe, from back in 1985, there is a classmate of mine who, to this day, remembers every word of our commencement address and this classmate repeats those words and they lighthouse her stormy days, maybe. Or if not a classmate remembering then maybe an alum if not an alum maybe a family member, maybe a parent, up there, gathered in the background having given so much, helping you get to this special day. Whether my words today will be remembered is not the issue because, you see, what Im saying to you right now isnt as important as what you are saying, right now, to yrselves.

SUGGESTION #16: BE BOLD. ENVISION YRSELF LIVING A LIFE THAT YOU LOVE. Believe, even if you can only muster yr faith for just this moment, believe that the sort of life you wish to live is, at this very moment, just waiting for you to summon it up. And when you wish for it, you begin moving toward it, and it, in turn, begins moving toward you.

As the great writer James Baldwin said: “Yr crown has been bought and paid for. All you have to do is put it on yr head.”

THANK YOU

[commencement speech] Oliver Stone @UC Berkeley

This speech by Oliver Stone is four pages, outlined below:

1. Searching for the Spiritual
2. Movies and American Society
3. The Dream-State of Recent History
4. The Struggle for Consciousness

Searching for the Spiritual

I had the fortunate privilege recently to be able to shoot one of my movies in Thailand. It was called Heaven and Earth, and it’s coming out this year. I spent several months over there preparing the movie, and I was struck, as was my crew, by the spirituality of Thailand. By the concept of Buddhism immanent in every walk of life.

Of course Thailand has a very corrupt part of society, much like our own land. The politicians for years have been known to be on the take; there’s a large amount of deforestation going on; bribes get you everything you need in that society. And the military pretty much dominates it. It’s a military-dominated society. When we were there a military coup d’état occurred and democracy was shuttled to the side. It was an interesting time, because the people are very quiet, and in a sense, very passive by our standards. Until they killed some young people, some protesters, there wasn’t the outbreak of sensational newspaper reaction that you get in our country; but something deeper was going on.

Thailand, as I said, is a Buddhist society; at 6:00 in the mornings everywhere you go you see monks walking on the sides of the roads with their beggar baskets. People give them food. It’s very beautiful, the sharing and the trust given the monks.

At one point in my stay there, approximately 100,000 monks got together — in a country that’s about as big as Texas — to chant and sing and pray in protest against the military regime.

It was something that was not reported in the newspaper; you didn’t hear about it probably because our secular press doesn’t pick up  on things like that, but it had a tremendous, tremendous impact in that country. It wasn’t too much longer after that day when the force of their prayers worked and the military government collapsed. They gave up, and they returned to a form of democratic government. It was a very noble example of bringing change through prayer.

When I got back to America, I was wondering where that element exists in our society. We are a very secular, information- and result-oriented society. There’s very little faith in the right side of the brain type of thinking, or mysticism, or what we call spirituality. Buddhism in this country is not really understood; it’s regarded as sort of quaint, it seems to be an old-fashioned religion. But it isn’t, really. It’s a very active one and has a place in the modern world.

I couldn’t find that kind of spirituality in this country, except, oddly enough, in the American Indian cultures where I’ve been able to travel with some friends over the last few years. With the Sioux up north in South Dakota, and the Navajo and Hopi tribes down in the Southwest. It’s been a very eye-opening experience for me to attend a sun dance, for example.

A sun dance, some of you may know, is a coming together of the tribes in a vast gathering in the summertime to pray, to exorcise the demons, to bring the tribe together, to make speeches. Certainly the physical highlight of the event is the piercing of flesh, where the males of the tribe walk around a tree in circles and dance around the tree for days on end. When I was there, there were 300 sun-dancers. There were old people, young people; they beat the drums through the day. There must have been a hundred with pierced flesh on the front, here on the breast, and on the back. They were crying as they went through a wall of pain, young boys up to age ll. I saw men lifted into the trees by their chests. Horses were pulling the ropes, they were dragging buffalo skulls in the dust like Christ figures. There was a man walking backward the whole time, for three or four days, until he was totally dizzy, I’m sure. But he was looking for the vision.

Visions — often of ancestors. Without food and water in a hot summer, you start to see a lot of ancestors. And I felt that I was witnessing a combination of fear and an act of faith at the same time, which is rare.

The sun dance was their opera and their theater event of the year. In our culture, you go to the theater, the curtain comes down, you applaud, you pay fifty bucks and that’s it. But there is faith in fear. And I think the whole event, the four days, the building of that fear was intended to induce a sacred state of belief in what St. Paul called “the evidence of things unseen.” To the Indians, the thing unseen is the Great Creator of Being, Tonkasha or Tongashira. He’s sacred in all things of the earth. The rocks that are our ancestors, Mother Earth, the sky, the sacred pipe that they smoke, the Indians view all things as spiritual. All our winters, the 70 or 80 winters that we pass here on earth, are as a speck in time compared to the eternity spent in the spirit world. We here in this room really are ghosts, secondary to that spark.

For them, the Holy Spirit very much exists, but it exists in ritual. A byproduct is art, and art exists for them only if it is holy, blessed with the spirit. Because art, cultural or whatever, is meant to heal, to bind the tribe together on an annual basis to revive mourning and tears and pity and horror and joy. Those things the Greeks called catharsis, the sharing of pity and terror and joy with all. A bond exists between the onlookers and the pierced ones. They give their flesh as offerings as Jesus did. We watch and we are moved by the sun dance’s sacrifice, and after four days, we once again commit ourselves to things of the spirit.

Movies and American Society

This is what I think; I might be presumptuous, but this is what I think movies are for in our culture, or at least what movies should aspire to. A coming together of our tribe. Drama as catharsis, as release, as reaffirmation of the power of the spirit. Films, I feel, should be like the great Hindu and Buddhist ideographs I saw on the temple walls of Southeast Asia. Massive paintings and murals telling the common tales, well-known tales of danger, fear, death, heroes, elephants, love, the birth of children and new kings, new dreams. They worship dreams. Holiness in art, ritual, entertainment.

I tried in my own way, with Born on the Fourth of July and JFK, to tap into the national American conscience of the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s. I tried to show that and I hoped to bring together the nation by depicting a national event and showing how it divided this country, and how it could also heal. But I feel the wounds are still too fresh. The film was attacked in many intellectual quarters from both the left and the right, for being false or simple-minded.

I sometimes think that America, unlike the Sioux or the Buddhist societies I’ve seen, is torn by too many opinion-makers that divide us into a quarrelsome Athenian society where individual artistic achievements are suspect as attempts to enrich ourselves, or as political propaganda statements. If art exists as spiritual revival for the country or the tribe, then it must include controversy, because art must challenge the thinking and fashion of the time and of society. Art must peel back the lie. Often the official lies, as you know, are confused in our history books with the truth.

In our culture I often find the artistic is denied, the concept of catharsis is secularized. All meaning is over analyzed. The truth of the time of a working-class boy, Born on the Fourth of July, losing his legs in Vietnam and being angry  about it, or a young president, Kennedy, being assassinated for a viable motive is just too sentimental or too controversial for our opinion-makers, our cutting-edge magazines, our secular newspapers. Very rarely, in my experience, can a movie break through this secularization of thought, this barrier of repression in our culture. The news must be made by journalists. History must be interpreted by opinion-makers and scholars. Drama is, in our country, a political weapon. Hitler taught us how, with his mass theatrical lies. This century, with Stalin and Hitler and Madison Avenue and Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, the political image-makers and their line of puppet presidents with smiling faces have taught us that the bigger the lie, the more likely that people are to believe it. We have, I believe, confused art, the spiritual basis of art, with media. Media as hysteria, media as propaganda, the skin of events only. We have taken the Hindu wall paintings and stripped them of religious and spiritual meaning, for our propaganda purposes.

This is frightening if you consider all the implications, because it puts us in a realm of 21st-century human beings who will not really be in touch with themselves. We’ll be cybermen and -women, artificial intelligence moving on fast-forward. It will probably be exciting but we may not be in touch with who we really are in our essence, our primal essence. I sometimes wake up and wonder how to make it through another day of belief. I feel as many of you might, stripped of spiritual meaning, of a place in the world. Sometimes we hear the earth is shot and the species is going to mutate into weird beings with plastic lungs, dying for food. The waters are dying. Progress itself is now suspect. Why do we breathe, why do we procreate? My generation, I think, is facing the most depressing moment in time. The question is why survive, why? Except finally because it is all we know.

The Dream-State of Recent History

As a filmmaker I have always responded as a dreamer, not as a doer. I don’t build houses, I don’t make the waters run, pump electricity, explore the universe, doctor people … all I do is dream. I make some semblance of those Hindu wall paintings that I hope people like because it reflects a dream of theirs. I try to go to the secret heart we all have, the collective unconscious. But the price I pay is that life increasingly seems to me but a dream, a psychological delusion and metaphor, all symbol, that I have witnessed in my lifetime. My critics like to call me “Oliver Stoned,” but I feel we all are “Oliver Stoned” because we have to be in order to fully understand the madness of modern times. Don’t we all, whether we know it or not, live in the mass delusion of a dream state of recent history? In my short lifetime, I’ve seen at least seven instances of it on a massive scale.

1. My mother was French. I grew up in France in the ’50s and when I was there everyone I spoke to, children my own age, adults, no one ever said one word about the French collaboration with the Nazis in World War II. As you may know now, it was very, very extensive. But everyone I talked to in those years was a member of the French Resistance or in some way had staked out his heroism. It wasn’t talked about, that was the point, it wasn’t talked about. It took one filmmaker, well more than one but one filmmaker in particular who did stand up, Marcel Ophuls, and his film “The Sorrow and the Pity,” to start to open up this aspect of French society that was a wound of denial.
2. I had the opportunity to go to Russia in the early 1980s to write a screenplay about dissidents in Russia under the old regime of Brezhnev, and all the people I talked to, old and young alike, were guilty of amnesia. No one accepted the crimes of Stalin. They treated Stalin like he was a benign grandfather, someone on the order of Winston Churchill. We all know that Stalin committed some of the largest numerical atrocities of this century, millions of people were killed. But they denied this — there was either an embarrassed silence about their leader or incredible praise. There again, I ran into society in denial.
3. In my own life, as you know, I went to Vietnam. I served over there in the military, once, and as a civilian another time, and I came back to America in 1969 and there was a blanket of silence over Vietnam. It was just not discussed. It was a very strange thing.  It was impolite. All the official histories I read of Vietnam were, in my opinion (everyone has a different Vietnam), all absolutely fraudulent. So that’s why I wrote Platoon, because I felt if I could do one thing in my life it would be at least to deal honestly with some truth I had experienced in my lifetime and to tell it like it is, as opposed to going along with this silence. Vietnam is still a wound, as you know. Bush and Reagan have told us repeatedly that the war is over, but Vietnam is a state of mind. It’s like the French collaboration, or Stalin in Russia — Vietnam is a sick state of mind that is evident in this country still to this day. I was just at a seminar down in Hampton-Sydney and the undergraduates hadn’t done a lot of reading, they didn’t know anything about Vietnam. They didn’t know what the Gulf of Tonkin was — which was, of course, one of the most interesting staged events of our lifetime. It led to the declaration of hostility against North Vietnam and was a staged and manipulated event. People forgot that we carpet-bombed Laos and Cambodia. Possibly a million to two million Vietnamese died — who knows, they don’t keep statistical MIA’s over there — but it was a holocaust for that society, and we were very much a part of it.
4. In the mid-’80s I was able to go down to Central America. That was another shock. I was in Honduras and in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala. I did a film called Salvador. There was a very strong bias towards invading Nicaragua at that time, up until 1986. When I saw the American soldiers in the streets of Honduras and El Salvador, I asked them if any of them remembered Vietnam. These were younger people but there in green uniforms, just like I was in Vietnam a few years before. And they really didn’t. They were embarrassed to draw any parallels to our behavior in Central America. I honestly don’t feel they knew anything about Vietnam. It was devastating, it was devastating to the shared experience of the country to find its citizens maintained an indifference to its own history.
5. Another example in my lifetime is certainly the John Kennedy killing. I won’t belabor it; I made a film about it, some of you people have seen it, but the official historians won’t tell you the truth. The polls have always shown a deeply inherent popular distrust of the government version of it, the Warren Commission. The people who control the memory of America, the newspaper, press people, the politicians, they would have you believe that Kennedy was killed simply by a lone nut in a random shooting and will not explore the pattern of events that has dictated our lives from the ’60s on. They tell you that Lyndon Johnson didn’t change a thing when he became president, that he didn’t change the policies of Kennedy. This is a very tricky question, but it is not accurate: there was a significant change of policies under Lyndon Johnson, starting with the day he came into office, his meeting on Vietnam with his chief advisors. They issued, two days after Kennedy was murdered, a new national security action memorandum called 273, which was much more aggressive in posture and tone than national security action 263 which was in effect until that moment. Kennedy had made very strong indications and plans, on paper, not just by saying it, but on paper, that he was going to withdraw by 1965, and it’s all in that paper which many intelligent people, in their contempt for Kennedy, continue to deny as some sort of public relations stunt.
6. I think another bogeyman in my life, another dream, is the CIA. To some people they’re benign, they don’t exist. But I don’t think the American people are aware of the strong links this country has to Germany, to the Nazis in World War II, and how much the CIA relied on the Nazi intelligence apparatus to get information against the Russians. I would argue that the Cold War really began in 1944, when we sort of knew that Germany was going to lose, when we started to collect all the smart people that we could in Eastern Europe, and in Germany and even in Russia, to start to fight the Soviet Union. The CIA is very much a part of that. In fact, I would argue that the Nazi scientists came here, the Nazi intelligence people, and they brought with them a Nazi frame of mind which inculcated itself into the American social fabric. What the CIA did through the 1950s and ’60s was destabilize foreign governments, use psychological warfare on a scale that dwarfed all Nazi efforts, and basically militarized our country into a state of fighting a Cold War. We were spending enormous sums of money that should have been going into a healthier society, being used only for weapons of destruction. The CIA is still there, it has not gone away. It is probably the largest criminal organization in the world, and has been in the past.
7. Another dream (or nightmare) is that the media industry can control the events of our time through the media, and through that media it becomes the truth. Every night on television you look at Dan Rather and he tries to sell you his interpretation of events, and it’s basically the consensus journalism that runs through channels ABC, NBC and CBS. The same story is repeated, the same take on the same story, the same spin. Vary rarely do they go into a deeper look, below the surface. This Afghanistan war business is frightening, the way they kept repeating the same mantra “the Russians did it, the Russians did it.” Anyone who studies Afghanistan, and I hope they will, will find that there was a lot of provocation going on in Afghanistan, through Iran; that we provoked the Russians, in many ways, to come into Afghanistan because we wanted to drain them.

The Struggle for Consciousness

I sometimes think that the media have dreamed our history up. They dreamed Watergate, the revelations of Watergate, of which we saw the surface. There so much missing tape, there’s 400 hours of tape, that we, the naive ones, saw just a few hours of — the surface events. There may have been a reason for Watergate, which I’m not going to discuss here, but I urge you to read a book such as Silent Coup. I urge you as students to look through Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States. It goes through American history upside down. It reexamines Columbus, the genocide against the Indians. It reexamines all the stories I grew up with; the Indian wars, the origins of the American Revolution, what George Washington was really doing. The origins of the Civil War. Was slavery really the issue it was supposed to be? Was it really such a noble conflict? How did World War I get started?  There are some fascinating economic reasons behind World War I. What about that most sacred cow of all, the origins of World War II? I’m not saying that Hitler was a nice guy by any means, but I am saying that the origins of that war were thicker and more dense than is the simplistic version of the “good war” against Germany. The Korean War is a puzzle to most of us. Vietnam eludes many people. I honestly have reached a point, cynical as it may sound, where I do believe that history is written by those who win. They won. They killed Kennedy, they rewrote it to match what they wanted you to believe, and if Hitler had won World War II, believe me, today we’d be reading a different history about the United States to justify Hitler. Winner takes all. Never underestimate the power of corruption to change history.

I guess I sound pessimistic, but in my heart, being a filmmaker and taking dramatic license, I am most optimistic. I do feel the media can be used for good purpose in the 21st century. I do feel that a golden age could be upon us. A higher consciousness, so to speak, through computers and communication. In a sort of Buckminster Fuller paradigm, people would be smarter because they have to be, in order to make the earth system work. Fuller would say no matter how greedy and selfish people could get, politicians, businessmen, lawyers, leaders, at some point it becomes naturally unproductive to be so selfish. They’ve got to start to clean up the atmosphere because it becomes economically profitable to do so. Profit motivates. Survival is profitable. Technology and soul.

We must, in our daily lives, struggle to keep our consciousness growing. I sometimes feel like my children, young people, are only getting film sequels, robots, sound-bites, created by cynical people. I feel that the minds of my children will perish in a sleepwalk through their adult years from the suburbs to the car to the golf course to the office. Devoid of a sensibility to look beyond their own lives to reach out to others. To trip over a homeless person in the street without noticing because they will be unable to deal with the reality of suffering. Nothing wrong with suffering, suffering is good. The Indians say “walk with the pain of the world.” It is good to be exposed to suffering, not to run from it, not to keep it at arm’s length through some expensive government program that we can ignore. It is good to make it part of your everyday life, like the Indians do in Calcutta.

I think with movies we can begin to strengthen people’s immune systems, because people go into the movies with their defenses down. It’s not real, therefore not threatening. When they least expect it, that might be the best time for the guerrillas of art to get in there and move the head  and the heart. One hopes that people will leave the theater renewed, sacred. In a system that has rendered man more and more insignificant, where artists and all people are packaged and trivialized by the media, where their dreams are categorized and destroyed, I really want to believe in the greatness of the spirit of man. And I think so do our movies, that’s why we all like happy endings. I think it’s something fundamental to all people.

I choose to believe, in the back-burner of my mind, in some old movie hero besieged on all sides by enemy swordsmen, who by some inner force and greater love conquers his adversaries against all odds. What is a movie but this parade of faces across the screen? Greta Garbo to Julia Roberts, they’re faces that, for the most part, you love. Most of the power of movies is the close-up of the face. People, I think, want to see faces because that face of sorrow, suffering, pain, resurrection makes the audience, once again, believe in being human. In traversing the odds, in getting up in the morning and making it through the day.

I think man wants to believe in man, woman wants to believe in women, people in people. And in a world where the systems are crushing us, where many of our leaders are shadow-puppets, mouthing hypocrisies on the media stage, where centralization, big business, big government, is constantly, fascistically, gaining each day on the individual and has wiped out so much of the human spirit in this century, I think that people are the one recurrent hope we have. Day by day in the Calcuttas and Manhattans of the world, you get up and you get through the day, inch by inch, and by making it, you win. If adversity is big, and it is, then I choose to believe that man is bigger than his adversity. In the words of Andre Malraux, “The 21st century will either be spiritual or it will not be.”

Thank you.

잠긴 글: [premise] remember, remember!

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