khil

Alyosha

‘The human body is a watch, a large watch, constructed with such skill and ingenuity…’~Julien Offray de La Mettrie

Materialism is the philosophy that consciousness is the direct product of material components interacting. At death, those material components disperse, with consciousness coming to an end.

With the rise of atheism, materialistic ideologies have risen to prominence. Advocates against this increase in popularity claim that this type of ideology leads to a degradation in character through apathy–namely that with no belief in an afterlife or a higher authority, what is to stop humanity from falling into a state of destructive appetite–eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.

In Hugo a 2011 children’s movie directed by Martin Scorsese based off the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznic we are introduced to the setting with the whistle of a train. Indeed, our main protagonist Hugo lives in a train station. The importance of this symbology being that it facilitates transportation between two points. The secondary sound before any image on the screen is that of a clock. This is perhaps an even greater symbol than that of our setting, for time is the vehicle by which we attain our goals. 

And if one believes that life must come to an ultimate end then time is god. This is highlighted as we are introduced to the film with a tracking shot that ends with our first look of Hugo as he peers over the denizens of the station through the view of a clock. 

We come to find that Hugo is forced to keep the clocks running lest he be discovered and sent to an orphanage. The orphanage being a recycler for children who have nowhere they belong. Hugo is trapped in transition, but it can not last. He must find his place. 

We are consistently reminded of this throughout the film in the form of the Station Inspector, having himself been raised in the orphanage. He is quite literally the image of man and machine in one as he uses a brace for his injured leg. Now it is his duty to recycle children the way he once was. His constant prowl through the station heightens the tension and reminds us that Hugo’s time is limited. However, this is not something that is necessarily evil in and of itself.

There is a scene in which Hugo, with Isabelle, is once again looking through a clock. This time over the entirety of the city of Paris, once again striking us with the seeming importance that time plays in the themes of Hugo. In this theme comes one of Hugo’s most prominent quotes: ‘I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.’

This is the key to Hugo’s thematic doctrine. We are all part of the machine called humanity. Life is about finding your purpose in that machine. It is not interested in exploring any theological theory of the origin of humanity or, for that fact, our ultimate resting place, but in the simple grounded logic that finding purpose not only is our function but also brings us joy–whether you believe in god or not is beside the point.

It can even be flipped on its head. One may argue that belief in an afterlife has a larger negative impact on society. As Julien Offray de La Mettrie wrote in his work, man a machine: ‘If atheism were generally accepted, all the forms of religion would then be destroyed and cut off at the roots. No more theological wars, no more soldiers of religion. Nature infected with a sacred poison, would regain its rights and its purity. Deaf to all other voices, tranquil mortals would follow only the spontaneous dictates of their own being the only commands which can never be despised with impunity and which alone can lead us to happiness through the pleasant paths of virtue.’

I may not agree completely with Julien that it is necessary for atheism to be generally accepted, but I do agree with the reasoning behind it–that all the fights over who is right and wrong about what comes after this life is a poison that causes us to lose sight of why we are here in the first place. For as long as we are conflicted we can not find happiness.

Happiness is believed to be achieved like a metal at the end of a race track, and something you can only obtain if you beat those you’re racing against. That is of course idiotic. Happiness is as inherent within us as the ability to breathe.

This is illustrated in a more personal representation by the character of Georges Melies. He is a man that has achieved his dreams but because of extenuating circumstances beyond his control did not receive the notoriety he felt he was deserved and has largely been forgotten. He is now a miserable man who sees in Hugo the cruel passage of time. Time, he views as a thief that robbed him of the reward his labor deserved. 

Unhappiness does not necessarily come from a disparity of aspirations and current standing, but from actions to achieve aspirations. Georges has been blinded to the fact that it wasn’t for notoriety or reward that he began creating art. Yet, that viewpoint changed, and so when he lost it his happiness also went with it.

This separation from the knowledge that it is only the achievement of our dream and not also the road that gets us there that brings us happiness is shown in the image of the automaton. From the Greek word automatos meaning acting of itself. In other words Georges is no longer acting of himself. He is not himself. He is a cog in the machine that has stopped turning.

As a side note I think it is interesting that the automaton’s function is to draw. There is an incorrect notion among artists that our work comes from some otherworldly source that somehow separates us from the average worker, but that can’t be further from the truth. Art like construction is done a day at a time through intense labor. The titular identity of the tortured artist comes from a lack of an understanding of this.