Muhammed Ali Week 16 - My First Star Wars Movie...and Monopoly
I vividly remember when Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which is episode 7, the first of the sequel trilogy) came out in 2015. I was only 8 at the time, but I recall it being such a special and incredible moment in my life.
I had been indoctrinated with Star Wars since I was six years old by my dad, with whom I watched all 6 of the movies that were out at that point. I was obsessed with Star Wars growing up as a result, so when I was told we were going to see the first new Star Wars movie in 10 years in theaters, I was beyond ecstatic.
Whether you think it was a good movie or not, it was a special experience regardless. I got to watch it with all of my cousins, who are also huge Star Wars fans. Seeing the opening crawl run across the screen in an actual movie theater was magical. After the movie, we all went back home—still jumping with excitement—and opened up this new version of Monopoly we had just bought that used credit cards instead of cash. It was a pretty cool day that I’ll never forget.
The inclusion of the Monopoly game we played after may seem random, and it is. However, it demonstrates the weird ways in which our memories work. Both me and my cousins remember this rather odd fact of that day, and we can’t really explain why. We don’t remember who won the game (or whether or not we even finished it), but the fact that we remember it at all demonstrates that it was a genuinely enjoyable and overall memorable moment at that point in my life. Memory works in mysterious and unpredictable ways, and that’s not always a bad thing.
Hello Muhammed! The Force Awakens was my first taste into the Star Wars universe, and I would say that it did a really great job at that. I enjoyed the storytelling, characters and scenes a lot. Surprisingly, my father didn’t really have an interest in Star Wars, despite being the biggest fan of Star Trek I know. His reasoning is that he doesn’t really like the “alien design” and the simplistic storylines, no matter how much I convince him to come along and rent one of the originals. To each their own I guess. I also thought that your point on the randomness of recall is something pretty interesting to add to the whole article too. It’s strange that sometimes we remember useless information over useful information. I’d throw away my right arm if it could trade it for a photographic memory to make math and lots of other academic subjects easier, but that’s not happening anytime soon. Instead, my brain adds insult to injury by replaying an extremely cringy memory that I would trade my arm to never see again. And sometimes, we recall the strangest things. I can list to you and rank every bad dream that I’ve had between the years of 3-6, and I mean every single one of them. There was one where I was asleep in this random cabin on a desert, waking up inside the dream, peeking through the chimney to see a bloody moon staring at me with bloodshot eyes, dripping blood into my eyes, which went phased straight through them and landed in my brain case, making dripping sounds. I woke up in real life with a dull headache. Anyway, I was getting sidetracked there, but yeah, I do think it’s interesting how the brain cannot be selective at all when trying to decide what to remember and what to forget. I enjoyed reading your blogs this year, and I hope you’ll consider continuing to write more blogs in other places, about other things!
ReplyDeleteHi Muhammad! Sadly, I was never indoctrinated into the not-cult Star Wars fandom, but nevertheless, I can only remain on the stands as a lonely bystander. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about how George Lucas indoctrinates the youth into his space-cult! Aspersions aside, your blog was a really wholesome recollection down memory's lane about a sweet childhood memory. I find that it is always the most random of memories that are always my most treasured, like my grandparents buying me a lot of icecream during a trip to China in my youth. Although perhaps one should question if it is the randomness of the stories that causes the sweetness, through being an accurate description of your youth, or if it is the age of it, not the content that truly matters. Perhaps it is correlation, not causation. But perhaps it is also both; certainly, it cannot be a sweet childhood memory if it is not from your childhood. I like your mentioning how wether or it it is a good movie objectively, you still liked it anyways. Some of my favorite movies are really bad, but honestly fun. Nowadays, people are looking for the holy movie that will transform everything, or a random, lame, regurgitated plot, when all that matters when you watch a movie, is wether you have fun or not.
ReplyDeleteHey Muhammad! Even though I am not a large Star Wars fan, I definitely love Monopoly, especially the competitiveness it brings. My belief, although slightly controversial, is that any movie can be enjoyable, as long as it is viewed in a theater, and that the movie theater, as you experienced, is an excellent place to make memories. So, I totally understand the magical feeling the theater provides, and how it is only amplified with loved ones. Truthfully, our brain is extremely complex, and memories are only a small component of the madness within. I love how you acknowledged this simple truth instead of trying to come to some outlandish conclusion to justify your memories, as sometimes not-knowing is better. For example, when I was little and read Harry Potter, I believed that as soon as I turned eleven years old, my letter from Hogwarts would arrive at my door. When I found out that this in fact would not happen, all it did was negatively alter my joyful memories of "Harry Potter".
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