Waking (Dreaming): A Vedantic Reflection on Richard Linklater’s Waking Life

Authors

  • Jaya Upadhyay University of Lucknow

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2021.330

Keywords:

Dreaming, Illusion, Waking, Vedantic, Consciousness

Abstract

This is a reading of the film Waking Life (2001) in the framework of the Indic philosophy of ‘Vedanta,’ more specifically the ‘Advaita’ or the non-dual school of Vedanta. The film’s narrative is constructed out of the protagonist’s dreamscapes. The itinerant protagonist moves through conversations within his dreams, trying to make sense of his ‘wake walking’ situation. These conversations take the form of a more significant philosophical reflection upon the conscious life of humans. In this paper, I analyze some of these conversations and discussions from the Advaita point of view to affirm the film’s orientation towards a spiritual and metaphysical reflection on human life.

References

Albahari, M. (2019). Beyond Cosmopsychism and the Great I Am: How the World might be Grounded in Universal ‘Advaitic’ Consciousness. The Routledge Handbook of Panpsychism. 119-130.

https://www.academia.edu/29740491/Beyond_Cosmopsychism_and_the_Great_I_Am_How_the_World_might_be_Grounded_in_Universal_Advaitic_Consciousness.

Chang, C. (2001). Movie of the moment: Waking Life--cosmic babble. Film Comment, 37(5), 22-24.

Elsaesser, T., W. Buckland, D. Polan, S. Jeong (2021). The Mind-Game Film: Distributed Agency, Time Travel, and Productive Pathology. Routledge.

Great Unsolved Philosophical Questions. (2018, January 27). Oxford University Press. Retrieved from https://blog.oup.com/2018/01/5-great-unsolved-philosophical-questions/

Grabiner, E. (2015). The Holy Moment: Waking Life and Linklater’s Sublime Dream Time. The Film Quarterly, 68(3), 41-47. https://online.ucpress.edu/fq/issue/68/3.

Linklater, R. (Director). (2001). Waking Life [Film]. Thousand Words. https://yts.mx/movie/waking-life-2001.

Linklater, R. (Director). (2013). Before Midnight [Film]. Castle Rock Entertainment. https://ytson.com/movie/before-midnight-2013/.

Mann, D. (2010). Buddhists, Existentialists, and Situationists: Waking up in Waking Life. Journal of Film and Video, 62(4), 15-30.

Astavakra Samhita. (2015). (Nityaswarupananda. S, Trans.). Advaita Ashrama.

Sarvapriyananda, S. (2020). Consciousness and Self in Advaita Vedanta. Prabuddha Bharata, 125(1), 87-97. https://advaitaashrama.org/read/.

Shaviro, S. (2007). Emotion capture: affect in digital film. Projections, 1(2), 37-56.

The Mandukya Upanishad with Gaudapada’s Karika and Shankara’s Commentary. (2013). (Nikhilananda. S, Trans.). Advaita Ashrama.

Wilson, D. K. (2016). Tango for a Dream: Narrative Liminality and Musical Sensuality in Richard Linklater’s Waking Life. Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 2016(8), 1-16. http://www.alphavillejournal.com/Issue8/PDFs/ArticleKulezicWilson.pdf.

Downloads

Published

2021-07-14

How to Cite

Upadhyay, J. (2021). Waking (Dreaming): A Vedantic Reflection on Richard Linklater’s Waking Life. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 9(1), 292–319. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2021.330

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2021): Spring 2021

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.