We were looking for something light and fun to watch last night and had planned all day on the movie “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. The movie starring and directed by Ben Stiller is indeed based on the short story by the same name by James Thurber. Thurber was a famous author and wit, especially in the 1930’s to the 50’s. He wrote “Is Sex Necessary?” and many articles and short stories.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a well-known story about an unprepossessing man who often slides out of his actual reality and into internal realms of fantasy. Watching the movie, which is light and fun, I can see the problem of modern storytelling and special movie effects. It was difficult to guess which parts were supposed to be happening in Walter’s life and which parts he dreamed up. Unless we see something happen that we are confident cannot be done by a human being, especially flying unaided, we can’t tell what is real and what isn’t. No matter what we see happen, we are aware of the possibility that someone will awaken from a dream in a bed somewhere and find that the preceding was all a dream.
“Secret Life” was published in the New Yorker magazine in 1939. In 1931, Thurber had published an earlier story of Jack “Pal” Smurch. Earlier still, Charles Lindbergh had made his famous flight across the Atlantic, flying solo, to much acclaim. In Thurber’s earlier story, Pal Smurch flew around the whole world at a time when experts were confident it could not be done. The media and the politicians looking for reflected glory and borrowed fame are impressed and interested but quickly learn that Smurch is an unsavory character with a unsavory background and unsavory habits and personality. This earlier story is called “The Greatest Man in the World” and also appeared in the New Yorker.
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Bill
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