I saw and loved the movie Black Swan. Natalie Portman is outstanding as she immerses herself in her craft and portrays that obsession in which artists envelop themselves. It is an immersion that dominates an artist’s life. Hallucinations and all, what’s so strange about that?
If you get fewer than 2,000 rejections a year, you are not working hard enough.
©Ida Kotyuk, Portrait Painter, MA
Foolishly, some critics describe Portman’s goal as the pursuit of fame and glory. But Portman’s obsession is about recognition. And that is why the movie is popular; we identify with her. We have our own ambitions and goals, our own expectations, and we have our own illusions and hallucinations.
From office employees (both professional and non-professional) passed over for promotion, to students hoping for a top grade, and everyone in between; we are all subjected to a review. A review to be faced again and again, this year, next year, and again the following year. Think of those individual sports figures and teams who fall somewhere as number three or four, or lower, in ranking.
If one intends to do one’s best, pursuit of recognition is unrelenting. Not only are we as good as our last effort (for actors their last picture or play), but now we must haul ourselves up to be better for the next event. How often can we give, or improve on, one hundred percent? And all that labor is assessed by someone who may have had a good or bad day; to be judged by someone who had a fight with a spouse or was caught in a traffic jam for hours. Who and how we identify ourselves is tested by such individuals.
And then there’s the competition. Not only do we have to strive for personal best, but we must “beat out” others striving toward the same goal.
Portman’s pursuit of recognition is experienced across all cultures. We would like to be told “you did a good job.” Not to hear those words implies you were not good enough. My belief is that the Black Swan will become a classic because it speaks to many people on many levels.
If you get fewer than 2,000 rejections a year, you are not working hard enough.
©Ida Kotyuk, Portrait Painter, MA
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