Bibular

I’m not sure what it is, or what I feel, but some ‘things’ (for lack of a better term) feel almost bibular. Bibular being a new word, just invented by yours truly, derived from the word ‘Bible’ which many people follow their lives from. Bibular is used to describe ‘things’ which you get influence from, which help you along in the trials and tribulations of the big wide world, which become the foundations of life itself. Well, for you anyway. I mention said word due to the fact just minutes, maybe seconds ago (however long it takes to power up a Macbook) I finished watching ‘(500) Days of Summer’, one of my favourite movies and also something I propose to be bibular. Off the top of my head I can think of two other movies, ‘Juno’ and ‘High Fidelity’ (why, of course) which too fall into this category. Basically making up my movie bible. There’s something about the character of Tom Hansen which makes him not only like-able, but live-able too. By which I mean, you want to be him. His likeness to the character of Ted Moseby from ‘How I Met Your Mother’ often baffles me (except maybe on the age front) but I’m not sure whether it’s his laid back, yet slightly smart dress sense, or architecture driven brain, or amazing taste in women which draws me so close to his personality. As I watch said movie I feel like I’m living his reality, like everything is constantly turned round and round and upside down, like a washing-machine. Beliefs are rooted to an idea, and an idea is usually rooted from something with influence. For me, the influence is movies. Since I saw ‘High Fidelity’ I’ve always wanted that slacker-style “I’ll do what I want’ type lifestyle. And one of those awesome old fashioned style telephones. But that’s not the point. The point IS that my beliefs stem from these 3 movies, thus making them bibular, thus meaning I live my life from movies. It’s very rare for me to find a movie which I feel connected enough to that I start wanting to be a part of, so when I find one, it’s the most precious thing in the world. A lot of people grab thoughts (mainly quotes) from books (mainly the Bible) to live their life by, so I see no reason why you can’t do the same from movies, it’s just a video based form of fictional story-telling instead of word-based.

There’s only one bone to pick, which isn’t even a bone because it’s fiction and fiction isn’t a perfect re-telling of life, because if it was, these ‘heros’ wouldn’t be heros, they would be whiney nut-sacks which everyone found depressing and dull. Said bone is of course, Tom’s ability to woo Summer into spending roughly 200 days as his girlfriend. It’s the same with Rob Gordon of ‘High Fidelity’ and even Ted from ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and I’ve come to the cruelly un-fulfilling but ultimately definitive answer that, it’s the city. All 3 dudes live in 3 of the greatest and most beautiful cities in the world (and the US of A) and somehow, they work the spirit of the landscapes into their advantage. The ancient cinemas, smokey bars and charming artistic underbelly of the cities’ histories makes them the most ideal and interesting places to pick up women. In my town you have a street of shops and thousands of houses, no where interesting to amuse your damsel. In the end, movies, like story books, are fictional meaning we can’t take everything from them, but there’s one dying piece of life love that still remains at the heart, and that is ambition. The ambition to truly be Tom Hansen, to be Rob Gordon, to feel what they feel, experience life like the greats. It’s the only good fight there is.