"For me it was when I understood what separated me from other people. A thing I'd always been able to see but never entirely understood. Divination of true nature. Of motivation. Of desirous hearts. I saw the whole world in a flash and I recognized it at once:
We want what we want.
Dick wanted Liz. Lick wanted Dick. And we want car wrecks. We say we don't. But we love them. To look is to love. A thousand people drive past the statue of David. Two hundred look. A thousand people drive past a car wreck. A thousand look" (Walter 244-245).
Michael Deane has a grand epiphany when he comes to the conclusion that "We want what we want". Before deciding if I agreed with him or not, I needed to think about what this simple phrase means. At first glance it seems very obvious that we do indeed want what we want. I think Michael Deane means more by saying this however. He means that even though much of what we want are things that we really should not be wanting (ex: car accidents), we still want them.
Humans are inherently curious creatures. There is something very mysterious about the unknown that people are drawn to. Personally, I would not go as far as saying that I want car wrecks, and I especially do not want anyone getting injured or killed in a car wreck, however I can see where he is coming from by saying this. There is an element of mystery when you drive by a car wreck and the natural curiosity of human's takes over when everyone turns their head to see what is going on.
Michael uses this newly-discovered idea to help him progress forwarding in the business of making movies. This concept helps him to realize that he can only change what he has the ability to change, and other things (like two people who love/want each other) he cannot change nor should he try to.
After further analysis, I agree with Michael when he says "We want what we want". When you break down a human and look at them in their most raw form, it comes down to their innate desires. There is no way to remove these desires, and the way Michael Deane simplifies this idea is very accurate.
Do you interpret this quote differently? Do you agree or disagree?
When I came across this quote, I interpreted it very similarly to the way you did, in the sense that many of the things we want, we shouldn't necessarily be wanting. We cannot help the desires we may have, and even if we try to suppress them, they will always be a powerful force that we can't just make "go away".
ReplyDeleteI believe that Michael Deanne originally tried to avoid this idea, and he thought that he would be able to overpower people's desires, and in the end, get what he ultimately wanted. However, as he tried to do this with Dee, he eventually discovered that it is nearly impossible to rid someone of their wants, no matter how difficult and "wrong" they may be, because a persons desires are much deeper than that. I believe he also learned that it was wrong of him to interfere with a person's desires, especially when involving the relationships of people.
This quote was present numerous times throughout the book, and another time it particularly stuck out to me was when Claire was conversing about her job with a woman at the "Front Man" after party. "Certainly not like she had dreamed. But maybe that's okay. We want what we want. At home, she works herself into a frenzy worrying about what she isn't- and perhaps loses track of just where she is." (Walter 301). It finally dawned on Claire that even though this isn't the job she dreamed of, doesn't mean it's not the right job for her. You want what you want, and that was just becoming clear to Claire.
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