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Brigadoon, or What is wrong with me?
Jun. 15th, 2003 11:00 pmI went to the local civic theatre production of Brigadoon today with my dad. It seemed important, one of those cultural touchstones that I needed to understand, since I base so much of my mental map on mythological fantasy.
I'd always been given the impression that Brigadoon was the story of an idyllic, perfect place, ranked up there with Never Never Land, Shangri-La, Avalon, and Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
So, I think my perceptions must be even further off from other people's than I thought, because this seemed like it was written by Lovecraft on a saccharin bender.
( Itemization of HUGE FLAWS IN THIS SYSTEM )
So you're left with one man desperate to get out, and the only way to stop him is to kill him. The kind scriptwriter kept the townsfolks' hands clean by getting a clueless outsider to do it, but without that intervention, let them go another week (2700AD, here we come!) and see how idyllic they feel about being wiped out of existence by some upstart kid... or the next, or the next.
And another man sent back to civilization a shadow of his former self, haunted by ghosts of a "perfect place," unable to savor real life as a result, until months later he travels back to the spot to be engulfed by his dream and disappear from the world forever.
In fact, I think I read that Lovecraft short, only I can't remember whether the man was eaten by the dream or just consumed by its memory because he couldn't get back in.
I'd always been given the impression that Brigadoon was the story of an idyllic, perfect place, ranked up there with Never Never Land, Shangri-La, Avalon, and Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
So, I think my perceptions must be even further off from other people's than I thought, because this seemed like it was written by Lovecraft on a saccharin bender.
( Itemization of HUGE FLAWS IN THIS SYSTEM )
So you're left with one man desperate to get out, and the only way to stop him is to kill him. The kind scriptwriter kept the townsfolks' hands clean by getting a clueless outsider to do it, but without that intervention, let them go another week (2700AD, here we come!) and see how idyllic they feel about being wiped out of existence by some upstart kid... or the next, or the next.
And another man sent back to civilization a shadow of his former self, haunted by ghosts of a "perfect place," unable to savor real life as a result, until months later he travels back to the spot to be engulfed by his dream and disappear from the world forever.
In fact, I think I read that Lovecraft short, only I can't remember whether the man was eaten by the dream or just consumed by its memory because he couldn't get back in.
