Thank you, Troy Dyer, the Reality Bites character who says the line made famous first by Shakespeare, and a couple hundred years later, by John Steinbeck. I first saw Reality Bites a couple of weeks back, and at the same time was finishing Steinbeck's last novel, "The Winter of Our Discontent."
The novel, which plainly describes the moral unrest at the tail end of the 1950's, follows Ethan Allen Hawley, who, apparently, is one of the most analyzed characters in modern American lit. Hawley, whose dialogue with characters is drenched in lighthearted quick wit, inwardly struggles with serious ethical decisions that define his sense of self-worth and the rustling cultural atmosphere of his small Northeastern town.
In Reality Bites, Ethan Hawke plays Troy Dyer, a well-read but lazy college graduate, who is torn between taking an entry level corporate job like his friends (which he considers "selling out"), or playing in his band.
One day, as Dyer and his roommates sit on their time-worn couches and drink cheap beer, the phone rings. He answers by saying the aforementioned line. The caller is his roommate's new boyfriend, a change (like many others) for which he has much disdain.
Both of these stories came into my life at an interesting time: one in which my threshold for change will be tested ad infinitum. I don't care if the critics think Steinbeck's themes of morality and change were too apparent; I think they are important to digest at some point, for everyone.
So, dear readers, I leave you with a note on change from Steinbeck (from "The Winter..", p. 12):
"A day, a livelong day, is not one thing but many. It changes not only in growing light toward zenith and decline again, but in texture and mood, in tone and meaning, warped by a thousand factors of season, of heat and cold, of still or multi wind, torqued by odors, tastes and the fabrics of ice or grass, of bud or leaf or black-drawn naked limbs. And as a day changes so do its subjects, bugs and birds, cats, dogs, butterflies and people."
The novel, which plainly describes the moral unrest at the tail end of the 1950's, follows Ethan Allen Hawley, who, apparently, is one of the most analyzed characters in modern American lit. Hawley, whose dialogue with characters is drenched in lighthearted quick wit, inwardly struggles with serious ethical decisions that define his sense of self-worth and the rustling cultural atmosphere of his small Northeastern town.
In Reality Bites, Ethan Hawke plays Troy Dyer, a well-read but lazy college graduate, who is torn between taking an entry level corporate job like his friends (which he considers "selling out"), or playing in his band.
One day, as Dyer and his roommates sit on their time-worn couches and drink cheap beer, the phone rings. He answers by saying the aforementioned line. The caller is his roommate's new boyfriend, a change (like many others) for which he has much disdain.
Both of these stories came into my life at an interesting time: one in which my threshold for change will be tested ad infinitum. I don't care if the critics think Steinbeck's themes of morality and change were too apparent; I think they are important to digest at some point, for everyone.
So, dear readers, I leave you with a note on change from Steinbeck (from "The Winter..", p. 12):
"A day, a livelong day, is not one thing but many. It changes not only in growing light toward zenith and decline again, but in texture and mood, in tone and meaning, warped by a thousand factors of season, of heat and cold, of still or multi wind, torqued by odors, tastes and the fabrics of ice or grass, of bud or leaf or black-drawn naked limbs. And as a day changes so do its subjects, bugs and birds, cats, dogs, butterflies and people."
