Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (Illusions 1)

"Fantasy, escape."

"That's fun, too. One. "

"Technical reasons. To see how a film is made."

"Learning. Two. "

"Escape from boredom . . ."

"Escape. You said that."

"Social. To be with friends," I said.

"Reason for going, but not for seeing the film. That's fun, anyway. One."

Whatever I came up with fit his two fingers; people see films for fun or for learning or for both together.

"And a movie is like a lifetime, Don, is that right?"

"Yes."

Then why would anybody choose a bad lifetime, a horror movie ?"

"They not only come to the horror movie for fun, they know it is going to be a horror movie when they walk in," he said.

"But why ? . . ."

"Do you like horror films ?"

"No."

"Do you ever see them ?"

"No."

"But some people spend a lot of money and time to see horror or soap-opera problems that to other people are dull and boring? . ." He left the question for me to answer.

"Yes."

"You don't have to see their films and they don't have to see yours. That is called 'freedom. "'

"But why would anybody want to be horrified ? Or bored ?"

"Because they think they deserve it for horrifying somebody else, or they like the excitement of horrification or that boring is the way they think films have to be. Can you believe that lots of people for reasons that are very sound to them enjoy believing that they are helpless in their own films? No you can't."

"No, I can't," I said.

"Until you understand that, you will wonder why some people are unhappy. They are unhappy because they have chosen to be unhappy, and, Richard, that is all right!"

"Hm."

"We are game-playing, fun-having creatures, we are the otters of the universe. We cannot die, we cannot hurt ourselves any more than illusions on the screen can be hurt. But we can believe we're hurt, in whatever agonizing detail we want. We can believe we're victims, killed and killing, shuddered around by good luck and bad luck."

"Many lifetimes?" I asked.

"How many movies have you seen?"

"Oh "