Twice-Told Tales

 The Twice-Told Tales was a short-story collection by a famous New England writer, you might have heard of him...Nathanial Hawthorne, who wrote them based on the idea that many stories were just re-tellings of other stories: some famous ones are like "The Lion King" is based on Hamlet, the musical Rent is based on the opera La Boheme, and "Bridget Jones's Diary" is based on "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. I like the name because it fits with a theory of mine: that in order to learn something and remember it, you need to read it/watch it/absorb it at least twice. It's like painting: the first time is just to cover the old coat, but the second coat is needed to really smooth out the color, fill in the cracks, and complete the picture. I first noticed this pattern when I studied for tests that required memorizing a lot of facts......I just couldn't remember much if I just read my notes once, but if I just read it again I'd be able to notice things I hadn't before, and the second time through I could see familiar patterns and make links in my brain, almost like things "clicking" the second time around. I wonder if that was the secret to test-taking, where my sister always complains she's not a good test-taker. It certainly might be that she's not gifted in that area and brain is not wired the same as mine, but another factor may be just not going over enough times to get a full understanding, so when the test comes she wasn't totally ready for it. 

Reading books or watching movies, I feel similarly but instead of trying to remember/ memorize something, I'm looking to see the story from a different perspective and when looking at it from the bigger picture or catching just the tiniest detail, I can just blow my mind with what I just glossed over on first watching. I just watched the movie "Sideways" last night with Paul Giamatti, which I watch soon after it came out in 2004, didin't really think it was that funny and remembered it just as 2 guys getting drunk in California and doing some ridiculous stuff and lying to get to sleep with 2 women. So much has changed since my 17-year-old self watched the movie, I grew up and realized the despair that Paul's character was in, how much failure hurts, the power of alcohol, what the Hollywood scene is like (in a negative way), so I felt much more empathy towards the Miles, the main character, but also realized how bad his mental health was, something I've just noticed recently (read Matt Haig's books like Midnight Library about suicide/mental health) and that he was suffering through depression. Then, the tiniest detail at the end where Miles has the class reading a book, "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles. The book is about 2 boys, one shy and reclusive, the other successful and living life to the fullest, and one day the shy one shakes a tree and forces the other one to fall off a tree and break his leg, thus ending his sports career. Did the shy boy do it out of spite, or he was lashing out due to his own internal struggles??? ALMOST EXACTLY the trope in the Sideways plot! Sideways is the modern version of "A SEPARATE PEACE!" Mind blown. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you should re-read books/ rewatch movies you didn't really understand the first time. Only deep books in need of a re-read though; don't need to watch "Fast and Furious" movies again to understand them. 

And yes, I absolutely do watch Jeopardy episodes multiple times. I find if the answer to a clue is someone/something I've never heard of, I'll have almost no chance of remembering it later on. But if I watch it again, it's like the first time was to just holding a spot in my brain for that new information, but not inserting the actual piece, the name of the person/thing. That's what the second time is for- I hear the clue again, Oh I know where in my brain that fits, but what is the actual name of it? The 1991 novel by Jane Smiley that is a modern re-telling of the Shakespeare play "King Lear?" Oh, glad I re-watched it, now I can fit in that it's called "A Thousand Acres." 

How about Coach K retiring from Duke after 41 years coaching basketball? I can't help but marvel at the longevity of his tenure, especially with how millenials and young people in general change jobs so often. Granted the head coach of probably the most decorated college basketball program in the world pays pretty well and a nice job to have, but it still amazes me that he's been doing the same thing for 7 years longer than I've been alive. Many companies now complain that their employees come on the job, get trained for several months (even up to a year) and absorb all the knowledge that the company gives them, then soon after just jump to another company, so it becomes hard to retain employees and less incentive for companies to train new people if they're going to just leave. In large law firms there's the allure of "making partner" and in academia the allure of "tenure" that incentivizes employees from staying loyal, but outside of that it's hard to convince people to stay except for some outdated sense of loyalty to the company. That used to be what it was like, as I understand: people started with a company and expected to stay with them for their entire careers (this is still the main system in Japan), but that's just not how most industries work in the U.S. Even in Coach K's field, basketball coaches don't stay on for long anymore..... often jobs are just a steppingstone to get to the next job; I can barely keep track of who coaches at major college basketball programs anymore, something I used to pride myself doing during high school/college. Anyways, happy retirement Coach K! If it were me I'd do a giant whirlwind tour of somewhere OTHER than Durham, North Carolina (not that Durham's vacuum, but there must be so many other places in the world! Oh the Places You'll Go (Dr. Seuss book)