有些人,头一面就全无兴致。有的人,第一眼感觉不错,却很快下头。还有的人,会想要花多点时间去了解和探索,如果值得那就再好不过了。而这部电影至少当得起两面之缘,而且,还是很容易被忽略和错过的那种。所谓的白噪音,到底在讲些什么呢?海报上给出的题眼是: You can’t hear it if it’s everywhere. 大体就是这个意思,基本说的就是忽视与忽略(包括主观不去感受的和客观感受不到的)、死亡、恐惧、 家庭、信仰,和当然不能不涉及的——爱。
“The family is the cradle of the world’s misinformation. There must be something in family life that generates factual error…” 因为庸常,而有意或无意地去忽略,而只对那些切身相关的,或莫名沉迷的“重要事情”在意,比如对死亡的恐惧,当然这也是作为指代的终极大事,它也可以是希特勒或者猫王,耶稣或者Dylarlama。“人们因为恐惧而聚集、集会、游行,而迷恋、崇拜、信仰,成为集体的一员则可以感到逃避了恐惧,脱离集体则意味着要独自面对恐惧,而最深的恐惧即——死亡。”
于是,“灾难成为面目模糊的日常信息洪流的缓冲,这是人脑的一种需要。”这让人从背景的白噪音中获得暂停或者激活,再也或者终于不能有意或无意地忽视,自己或者别人的生存面临威胁,死亡在徘徊。Over-closeness, the noise and heat of being. Perhaps even something deeper like the need to survie. Murray says we are fragile creatures surrounded by a world of hostile facts. Facts threaten our happiness and security. The deeper we delve into something, the looser our stucture may seem to become.
The family process works towards sealing off the world. Small errors grow heads, fictions proliferate. I tell Murray that ignorance and confusion can’t possibly be the driving forces behind family solidarity. What and idea, what a subversion. He asks me why the strongest family units exist in the least developed societies. Not to know is a weapon of survival, he says. Magic and superstition become entrenched as the powerful orthodoxy of the clan. The family is strongest where objective reality is most likely to be misinterpreted. What a heartless theory, I say. But Murray insists it’s true.