Chauncey Gardiner and the Audacity of Hope
(A tale of two political figures – one fictional as well as accidental, one real and very intentional.) As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. This week I re-watched the brilliantly constructed satire, “Being There.” (A 1979 film directed by Hal Ashby, adapted from the 1971 novel written by Jerzy Kosiński.) Peter Sellers plays a simple-minded gardner with no social or intellectual skills, being essentially raised by television sets and the plants he tended. When forced into new situations such as befriending a billionaire and meeting the president, he is mistaken for a genius of sorts. “Chance the Gardner” becomes “Chauncey Gardiner,” his simple sentences interpreted as deep metaphors about the state of the nation.
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