{"id":1486,"date":"2014-10-17T04:37:42","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T04:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=1486"},"modified":"2016-08-22T20:45:02","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T20:45:02","slug":"hector-and-the-search-for-colour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/hector-and-the-search-for-colour\/","title":{"rendered":"Hector and the Search for Colour"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lauren Rosewarne<\/a>, University of Melbourne<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Opening in Australia on October 23<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A six dollar ticket and 114 minutes of my time felt like a fair exchange.<\/p>\n

Sure, seeing Rosamund Pike<\/a> in a Best Supporting Girlfriend<\/a> role after all her scene-stealing craziness in Gone Girl<\/a> was a tad sad. That said, Christopher Plummer<\/a> lecturing a class wearing a pastel hoodie was also a tad delightful.<\/p>\n

My takeaway from Hector and the Search for Happiness<\/a> however, centred on skin colour.<\/p>\n

Aesthetically I think of myself as an \u201ceverywog\u201d. I\u2019ve been in Istanbul and told \u201cyou have eyes of the Turk\u201d and in taxis in the US and asked if I\u2019m Armenian. At home in Melbourne and there\u2019s endless Jew\/Greek\/Maltese\/Arab speculation.<\/p>\n

Sure, I talk with my hands a lot, but I was born in Melbourne, my parents were born in Melbourne, two of four grandparents were born in Melbourne. (The other two and it all gets a bit roll-call-at-the-Olympics). I just think of myself as Australian. White<\/em> has always felt much less relevant than Melburnian<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Watching Hector and the Search for Happiness<\/em> however, and I felt white. So white in fact, that I\u2019m sure my skin was irridescent there in the empty cinema.<\/p>\n

And, for the first time in my life, I felt a little defensive about it.<\/p>\n

Hector and the Search for Happiness – trailer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the film\u2019s better parts it reminded me of Rachel Joyce\u2019s lovely novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry<\/a> where a 65-year-old Englishman man heads out to post a letter and just keeps on walking. A surprising and gorgeous book.<\/p>\n

At its worst however, Hector<\/em> shared some of the bits that bugged me most about The Secret Life of Walter Mitty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both Hector (Simon Pegg<\/a>) and Walter (Ben Stiller<\/a>) are white guys in their 40s who have epiphanies about life lacking excitement\/wonder\/meaning.<\/p>\n

Both films and the solution is the same: pack a bag and leave all that you know behind.<\/p>\n

As someone who is very familiar with the pack-and-flee, I get it. Not so much any idiotic quest to \u201cfind myself\u201d – as a wanderlusty 44-year-old ex used to say, \u201cWherever you go, there you are are\u201d – but I do get the appeal of a change of scenery. I type this article from a diner in Albuquerque. I really do understand.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What I don\u2019t get however, is the mystical properties of running from whiteness.<\/p>\n

Walter and Hector took themselves abroad. Abroad because a) they could afford to go and b) because apparently the journey of self-discovery, of happiness, of a life-more-interesting, is travelling not merely to lands afar, but to lands where white people are few.<\/p>\n

The way to be fulfilled seemingly, and to become more interesting<\/em>, is to buy some transitory experiences with people who look, dress and eat differently to you.<\/p>\n

Cue copious footage of dancing non-whities. Riding in unsafe vehicles with non-whities. Trying \u201chilariously\u201d to communicate with non-whities.<\/p>\n

Cue gorgeous faces of non-white beaming children. Of beautiful and \u201cexotic\u201d non-white women. Of strange non-white foodstuffs.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re familiar with this, of course. Travel advertising is abundant with such images: destinations free from white people are so much more fascinating, more diverse, more likely to be places where you truly find yourself<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I don\u2019t really have a problem with showcasing difference, or presenting it as a lure for travel or change. It\u2019s the other side of that coin I\u2019m less enamoured by.<\/p>\n

Why is white so invariably linked to vanilla? And not in that delicious tasting, great-smelling way, but as a euphemism for plain, mundane and generically uninteresting?<\/p>\n

Where does this idea come from that white people are so very uptight<\/em> compared to everyone else with every other skin hue?<\/p>\n

Why are these foreign lands filled with foreign people, foreign food and foreign music so inspiring and yet, simultaneously, so worth leaving so quickly?<\/p>\n

Why do these films keep making the tired correlation between whiteness, affluence and dissatisfaction?<\/p>\n

Both films have their merits, sure. Mitty<\/em> was beautifully shot with an excellent soundtrack<\/a>. Hector<\/em>\u2019s music was less exciting but it also didn\u2019t have that neverending-music-video feel. Neither alas, had the seize-life-by-the-throat\/balls\/whatever impact that the trailers promised. But then, I\u2019m apparently inoculated against \u201cinspirational\u201d clich\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

\n

If you\u2019re awake on Saturday the 18th of October at about 5.15am I\u2019ll be on ABC Overnights<\/a> talking about Albuquerque. Tune in!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Lauren Rosewarne does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\nRead the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lauren Rosewarne, University of Melbourne Opening in Australia on October 23 A six dollar ticket and 114 minutes of my time felt like a fair exchange. Sure, seeing Rosamund Pike in a Best Supporting Girlfriend role after all her scene-stealing craziness in Gone Girl was a tad sad. That said, Christopher Plummer lecturing a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":7075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,36,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1486"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7076,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486\/revisions\/7076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}