Can meaning be extracted
merely from living out an ordinary life in an ordinary town? Must a person be
among the literary, political, entertainment, or business elite to feel
fulfilled? Are the popular kids in school the happiest? If so, why does a sense
of over all contentment and ongoing enjoyment seem to come easily to some
people while being arduously difficult for people leading ordinary lives to attain?
Are people in the elites necessarily or even just usually happier than people
who live out ordinary lives by earning enough to put bread on the table and simply
enjoy friends and family. Would so many people be content to live such lives
without any publicized accomplishment that will outlast them if ordinary life
itself were not very satisfying? The 2011 film, Young Adult, is notable
for how it deals with these questions in a non-formulaic way. Aside from
contrasting ordinary living in a small town with being an accomplished, albeit
flawed, writer (and person) in a way that puts accomplishment above a life centered
on local events like high-school football games on Friday nights and family
birthday parties, the film can be read as providing a statement on how not to
write a novel. That the screenwriting is so good makes this dimension possible
even though the medium is film.
The full essay is at "Young Adult."
