Are stories all we really have in the end?

What can ever be real without passing to us through story first?

WHEN MARK HOGANCAMP WAS BEATEN to within an inch of his life outside a bar, he lost many of his memories of his life and himself. As a form of therapy, he created Marwencol, a fictitious Belgian village during World War II. Marks story, and that of Marwencol, has since become a documentary with the same name.

What began as a process of creative healing branches into a much richer universe. Marwencol comes to straddle the boundary between what is real, and the stories we weave in such detail that they might as well be.

Friends and family become alternate characters in Marks continuously developing storyline. The cast of Marwencol includes both a time-travelling witch and Nazi SS officers, and in this world, Marks alter ego is a former US pilot who finds himself drawn into various plots as they unfold.

As a documentary of Marks journey, Marwencol looks bloody fascinating. As an artistic exploration, it asks profound questions about the role of stories in constructing meaning, memory, and identity.

The very act of remembering, for all of us, is a complex weave of what was, and what it meant. Stories are intimately involved in tying together events in our lives, in making sense of who we are, where we are, and why any of it matters.

The world cannot mean anything to us except through stories. Through a gently applied weave of fiction passing through everything we do and think. Occasionally, those stories can become the foundation for whole lives. Or second lives where the memories of one have been lost.

To varying degrees, we all have a foot, a toe, or a mind, in a place called Marwencol.

Via PetaPixel


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Worlds Oldest Maps

Image
Man has been carving symbols in to stones as well as upon cavern walls for thousands of years so it was usually a make a difference of time before maritime inscriptions would arise to assistance guide a hunting as well as foraging patterns. From cavern drawings as well as Babylonian clay tablets to mill carvings as well as papyrus text, here are a little of a worlds oldest maps (in no particular order). 1418 Ming Dynasty Map The map graphic upon top of is pronounced to be a copy of an strange 1418 Ming Dynasty Map, that potentially proves that in a 15th century, a Chinese were already exploring a shores of modern-day North America. This chronicle was copied in 1763 by artist Mo Yi-tong as well as was sold for $500. Read A Review of a Historical Importance of Oldest World Map by Gunnar Thompson, PhD for some-more information. atalhyk 6200 B.C. Babylonian Clay Map During a 1963 excavation in Ankara, Turkey, British archeologist James Mellaart unearth what is pronounced to be one of a be...
Keep reading

How meditation relates to happiness

Image
Meditation leads to mindfulness Studies point out how valuable meditating can be to overall well-being. PEOPLE HAVE BEEN meditating for thousands of years, but it seems only recently that its gaining credibility by the scientific community. The shame is that many wont even give things a second thought unless some researcher or scientist proves its benefits, choosing to ignore the wisdom of experience. An article at Forbes discusses research done that correlates meditation and happiness . First, a Harvard University study has shown that wandering minds are an attribute of unhappy people. 2250 volunteers (ages 18-88, from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds and occupations) were used in the study they were contacted at random intervals by the researchers and asked what they were currently doing and what they were actually thinking about. almost half of the time (46.9%) people were thinking about something else. They were then asked whether what they were thinking about ...
Keep reading

Notes on a shrike

Image
Photo: dobak Mary Sojourner cant leave the dead bird there to get flattened. I WALK NORTH in the Mojave. I listen to my friend on the cell phone. She tells me of her recent work with a healing process called EMDR. Im about to cross the two-lane highway. Something lies on the edge of the asphalt. I look. It is a dead bird gray and black and white. I pick it up. There is no mark on it, no blood or broken bone. I cant bear to think of it being flattened. The feathers are exquisitely soft against the palm of my right hand. I am walking to the Joshua Buddha and I know to carry the bird to the dead tree that looks like a gray seated Buddha. My friend begins to tell me the details of the second EMDR sessions. I realize I am not listening because I need to concentrate solely on carrying the bird to the Joshua Tree. I tell her I will call her back. At the tree, I tuck the bird in the broken space between the stump and a dead branch. He for I know somehow it is a he is just below what would b...
Keep reading