Series finale of the BBC Wallander. Kurt stands with his father on the beach, watching his life dissolve into unconnected moments and memories he cannot place. His father, having succumbed to Alzheimer's before him, tells him that someone else will now remember.
The process of remembering, of witnessing, of care-taking, as a community act. It is passed down, and in this scene, the process of forgetting is also passed down, father to son.
Insecurities of being a father. Which is worst: to act, or not to act? Violent disagreements in that field between parents.
Wallander's Alzheimer's come on a day that also sees the real effects of a parent's Alzheimer's on a loved one, a radio show depiction of coping with the disease, and an Anime feature that emphasizes the threads that tie us all over distance and time. Our duty to each other is forgotten. As the details of our lives accumulate, the details of our obligations become hazy.
Soon it will be time to let someone else do the remembering.
The Soap Strip image is from my wall: my father's Yale pennant, a striped tie, and two books: One volume of Paul Metcalf's Collected Works, and a Network Plus certification manual. My father's life at Yale a story of conflict for him: a lover of academia, yet forever shamed by unearned and undeserved privilege. The tie I will never wear, a club I will never be a part of, nevertheless, as a child, an emblem of adulthood. The books: two parts of me, leaning toward my father and my past, and toward myself and my future.
Wallander series finale ends with Tomas Transtromer's The Half-Finished Heaven. The Eno quote a line from that poem. Even the ghosts take a draught.
The title evoking two meanings. "Examine here some ephemera of my legacy." and "My legacy? Nill but ephemera."
Series finale of the BBC Wallander. Kurt stands with his father on the beach, watching his life dissolve into unconnected moments and memories he cannot place. His father, having succumbed to Alzheimer's before him, tells him that someone else will now remember.
ReplyDeleteThe process of remembering, of witnessing, of care-taking, as a community act. It is passed down, and in this scene, the process of forgetting is also passed down, father to son.
Insecurities of being a father. Which is worst: to act, or not to act? Violent disagreements in that field between parents.
Wallander's Alzheimer's come on a day that also sees the real effects of a parent's Alzheimer's on a loved one, a radio show depiction of coping with the disease, and an Anime feature that emphasizes the threads that tie us all over distance and time. Our duty to each other is forgotten. As the details of our lives accumulate, the details of our obligations become hazy.
Soon it will be time to let someone else do the remembering.
The Soap Strip image is from my wall: my father's Yale pennant, a striped tie, and two books: One volume of Paul Metcalf's Collected Works, and a Network Plus certification manual. My father's life at Yale a story of conflict for him: a lover of academia, yet forever shamed by unearned and undeserved privilege. The tie I will never wear, a club I will never be a part of, nevertheless, as a child, an emblem of adulthood. The books: two parts of me, leaning toward my father and my past, and toward myself and my future.
Wallander series finale ends with Tomas Transtromer's The Half-Finished Heaven. The Eno quote a line from that poem. Even the ghosts take a draught.
The title evoking two meanings. "Examine here some ephemera of my legacy." and "My legacy? Nill but ephemera."