Tuesday, May 20th, 2025
As I prepare my meal in the kitchen, thinking about how much protein mushrooms must contain, out of nowhere the Gatsu theme from Berserk plays in my mind. The name “The Struggler”, as Guts was called throughout the manga, made me think of all the humans on this planet busy in their daily struggles.
The sudden reappearance of Berserk in my mind made me realize just how deeply I was affected by the manga. I take this as proof of how good it really is. I don’t usually think about Berserk, but the feelings it made me feel while reading it were apparently stored away in some deep corner of my mind.
This little moment inspired me to note down some of the media that has impacted me throughout my life.
1. The Big Lebowski
I’ve read and seen a lot of content on different types of mysticism (albeit not very deeply). Be it Advaita Vedanta from Hinduism, Sufi philosophers like Ibn al-Arabi from Al-Andalus, Christian mysticism, Daoism, Buddhism, and maybe a couple of others—these all share a common thread: they emphasize sageliness.
All of them attempt to understand and make sense of our universe, and how one ought to live in it. For modern times, the way of The Dude seems to make the most sense.
What is the “way of The Dude,” you ask?
Well, how about you figure it out by watching the movie yourself. :)
Here are a few memorable quotes from the film:
- “This aggression will not stand, man.”
- “The Dude abides.”
- “Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.”
- “Strikes and gutters, ups and downs.” (In response to “How’s it goin’?”)
- “I can’t be worrying about that shit. Life goes on, man.”
The Dude is a modern-day sage. He can’t be bothered by complex—uh… y’know.
Sorry, I lost my train of thought there.
Keep it simple, man, because life goes on. There are gonna be strikes and gutters, but you gotta abide and take it easy.
The Coen Brothers were able to capture something very, very special with this film. And it doesn’t hurt that Jeff Bridges is a Buddhist in real life.
All in all, this is an absolutely S-tier movie that I would recommend to everyone.
2. No Country for Old Men
Wowsiee! Yet another Coen Brothers film. I have to admit that I haven’t watched this movie as many times as The Big Lebowski. Nonetheless, it’s oddly calm for how violent it is.
The opening monologue narrated by Tommy Lee Jones’ character resonates so strongly with me—it’s my favorite part of the film. The movie deals with perennial themes of trying to understand the changing world and the indifference of the universe toward good and evil.
As I grow older (hell, I’m only in my mid-20s), I can feel how the sheriff must feel—and how my grandparents feel—about the current state of the world. It’s always a pleasure to hear tales from the old-timers, as the sheriff says.
And by old-timers, I mean the people of the previous generation. Tales of carefree days out in the mountains and outdoors, climbing trees, eating mangoes, and so on. Having grown up in a city, I never got to experience the kinds of things my father and his generation did.
As the old-timers reminisce about their good old days, my generation is already old enough to have started recounting the days of old—the days when the internet wasn’t as big and there was a sense of wonder about things. Now, everything worth documenting has been documented on the internet, and it’s a wasteland ravaged by bots and advertisements.
In our timeline, the internet truly took a dystopic direction.
This might read like an incoherent ramble, having started by establishing that I like No Country for Old Men. However, all of these feelings related to the changing world really do relate to the themes of the movie—in my view at least.
At the end, one has to come to terms with the fact that the workings of the world are far too complex to keep up with and make sense of as one grows old. And you say:
“Okay, I’ll be a part of this world.”