So why did Rob Morrow leave NE mid-season?
Dr Gafia
In article <5ug7hc$hgv$1...@newsd-113.bryant.webtv.net>,
Epic...@webtv.net writes:
<<snip some sensible [I may not agree but can't find fault
with] alternatives to opinions I expressed about why *other*
aspects of the show Went Wrong as well, to get to this:>>
>[ . . . ] To me, it seems that when Joel finds peace and open
>acceptance to the others, they would become uncertain and
>question who they were. Examples are: . . . Marilyn finding
>out that her normal super-observant nature was not working as
>she refused to believe that Joel was changed until one of the
>natives told her he had changed until she arrived.
I can't agree. This doesn't mean I'm right and you're wrong
(or vice versa); it just means we have different viewpoints,
and in different contexts they might *both* be right no matter
how they may seem to be contradictions. Just as a lens shaped
like an "opening" parenthesis [in the middle here, between the
X and the O below]--
X ( O
--is >both< convex and concave (convex as the "X" would see it,
concave as the "O" would see it). In other words, the truth of
the matter in this instance depends on the point of view . . .
To my mind, that episode with Marilyn is one of the finest of
the series, and certainly of the section dealing with Joel's
trip up river. I suppose I have to give the edge to the
episode where Joel and Maggie go on their quest and Joel winds
up leaving, if only because of its dual nature -- that is, it's
both the people of Cicely saying their goodbyes to Joel and the
actors and actresses of Northern Exposure saying their goodbyes
to Rob.
But that episode with Marilyn . . . well, my, oh my, how we
disagree.
I don't think her normally "super-observant nature"--or what I tend to
think of as her uncanny ability to cut straight to the
heart of any matter--was inoperative or failing her when she
refused to believe that Joel was "changed". Rather, I think
that, as usual, she was Right On The Money.
>WHAT!??< I can almost hear people exclaiming, what in the
*world* can I mean by that? It's so OBVIOUS that Joel has
changed that proof need hardly be cited. Still: Joel has
grown, Joel has improved, Joel has released (and is still in
the process of releasing) a part of himself that he had never
previously acknowledged.
Yes, yes and yes, these are very definitely changes in Joel. I
don't deny it. Nor does Marilyn by what she says and does.
What Marilyn brings to light is that the change which Joel is
unconsciously trying the hardest to project has not actually
happened. Cannot happen. What Marilyn sees and thereafter
Joel, seeing her see it, can no longer deny, is that it is
Simply Not True that the "old" Joel no longer exists.
Joel has always appreciated Marilyn's finer qualities and at
some points he has almost venerated her. So it is perhaps
appropriate that she is the last one he feels he "must"
convince. It is also true, I think, that she is the one he
most wanted to convince (because then he could let himself
believe it without reservation).
So she just stood there, saying hardly a word, until he was
forced to see it himself. Proof of the pudding is that he even
got a little mad at Marilyn, for >not< letting him continue his
pretense--but in doing so, he lets out a little of the "old"
Fleischman by yearning for things the "old" Fleischman had
yearned for! (Well, it convinces _me_, anyway.)
Now I don't mean to say or imply that I think Joel was being a
deliberate "phony" about it--I think he wanted to believe it so
much that he really >did< believe it.
Look. It's a downright comical understatement to say that Joel
had, at that point, Been Through A Lot. I'm sure I'm not going
to shock anyone when I say he was absolutely devastated when he
realized he had pushed thing to the point of no return in his
relationship with Maggie. I mean, when he was first sent to
Cicely, I feel certain that of all the horrors he may have
imagined that might conceivably befall him, in and out of
nightmares dreams, it never once occurred to him that he would
close out the final months of his contract knowing he had no
one but himself to blame for alienating the Woman He Was Meant
To Be With Forever, and to such an extent that no matter what
he said or did now, not even if he cut out his heart and laid
it at her feet, no matter what he did to try to explain or
excuse or expunge beg forgiveness for, he would >>never<< be
able to win her back. Like Woody Allen at the end of
"Manhattan".
I think this is something any one of us would probably see as
an "excuse" for anyone to be devastated. Some of us have even
Been There and Done That.
Since Joel realizes he can't win Maggie back, the only thing he
can really "do" about what has happened is to change what
caused it to happen, i.e., himself, radically, by submerging
himself beneath a sea of changes until he turned into something
totally different than what he had been. He was as successful
at this as virtually anyone possibly could be--but, after all,
he undertook it with the same will, intellect and mind that had
put him through medical school, one of the most grueling and
exacting intellectual regimens ever developed by the mind of
man.
So Joel Fleischman "became" a simple man, a tribal mountain
man, a man who took pleasure in standing on the earth, seeing
and smelling and hearing the river beside him, taking in the
valley and mountains all around, and the sky above, and the sun
a warm kiss on his brow. He provided for himself a simple
shelter and what he needed to eat by fishing, possibly hunting,
and practicing simple crafts, tanning hides and the like, that
could be used to trade for what remained of his simple needs.
Becoming someone calm, someone wise, someone at peace with
himself and the universe, someone very close (in fact) to being
a saint.
Marilyn showed him that these changes had to happen _to_ the
old Fleischman--because no matter how different or many the
changes he heaped on his self, he'd never succeed in smothering
that old self. Sooner or later it would come out, and if he
didn't start applying those changes to himself and making them
an outgrowth of himself, his old self might rise up in anger at
some point, declare it all a waste of time and destroy the good
he had managed to do.
He didn't realize it, of course, until she gave him the
moccasins. I forget the pertinent details, excepting only that
these moccasins had to be woven by a special friend, who in
giving them acknowledges that the recipient has both _come_ a
long way _and_ yet still has far to go. That's what sets him
free.
As I see it. (Is "YMMV" a net term or just something used on a
few newsgroups? YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary. Anyway:
YMMV.)
--rich brown aka DrGafia
Epicurus
<html>
rich brown aka Dr Gafia wrote:
I can't agree. This doesn't mean I'm right and your wrong (or vice
versa); it just means we have different viewpoints.<br><p>
(refering to the episode where Marilyn visits Joel in the bush)<br>
I don't think her normally "super-observant nature"-- or what I tend to
think of as her uncanny ability to cut straight to the matter, was
inoperative or failing her when she refused to believe that Joel was
money.<br><p>
...........................................................................<p>Dr
Gafia,<br>I want to hear yours and everyone else's different viewpoints.
I really have never had anyone to discuss or debate NX with me. If my
opinions seem strong, it is only because I have not had a chance to
express them before finding this ng. I in no way wish to force my
opinions, and would greatly like to have others tell me how they feel.
I believe it will benifit us all. In my case, I will be able to watch
the reruns as if I had never seen them. I will be seeing them through
your eyes! I would really like to be an accepted regular on this ng.
<br><p>
As far as Marilyn's uncanny ability to cut straight to the heart
matter, I am looking at this from the way I remember her reacting to the
native telling her that Joel was different before she came. I just look
at it as people who have been close for a long time tend to act and
react to each other in a manner that they are accustomed. I also agree
with the fact that Joel was not a different person. I believe that we
each have a medium of behavior and can deviate from that medium to two
extremes, but we never really change. This is only my opinion, and I
will not flame someone if their opinion is different. Please tell me
your opinions.<br><p>Epicurus </html>
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