Second post from my blogging series on Substack. Sign up here.
A couple of weeks ago I discovered the film ‘Yesterday,’ a 2019 British/American project that imagines what it might be like if suddenly all the music of The Beatles had been lost to memory. You may wonder how it could be that I’d never heard of this film, not even once, but that’s a story for another day. (Written with a cheeky grin!)
Apparently the key to enjoying this film is not to have ever seen the overwhelming advertising campaign. Advertisers take note.
Apparently the key to enjoying this film is not to have ever seen the overwhelming advertising campaign. Advertisers take note.
I absolutely adored the film. So much so that I watched it five times the first week and a couple more times the second week. I’d like to tell you I’ve gotten all the watches out of my system, but I would probably be lying. I may watch it a few more times, a bit more leisurely.
This film is one of a handful I’ve seen that asks the question how would things be different if we changed one thing?
It’s a similar idea to what if this person who is otherwise ordinary was unordinary in one particular way? I’ve just written a novel in which I came up with the idea by asking myself that very question. What if we took something that even now we’re skeptical about and gave it to someone a hundred or more years ago? How would it affect their life?
It’s like that game Jenga, with the wooden pieces stacked on top of each other, if you pull out the crucial one the whole thing falls down. Some pieces do nothing. In ‘Yesterday’ the protagonist discovers some other small things have changed. There’s no Coca Cola, only Pepsi. No one cares. There are no cigarettes. No one seems to notice. There’s no Harry Potter. No one is devastated. I guess it would’ve been the same with The Beatles’ music, if the protagonist hadn’t remembered.
So go ahead. Think of the world at a particular time and change one thing. Give a person a special gift (in Yesterday it’s his memory of The Beatles along with the ability to sing and play the piano and guitar).
In general, stories hinge on one thing. If you’ve ever had something go terribly wrong, you have probably spent time afterward thinking about what one thing could’ve prevented it. If only you’d arrived five minutes faster, so if you hadn’t stopped at that Seven Eleven to get a soda. If only you hadn’t asked your friend to come with you If only you’d stayed home.
It does kind of make you think about what one thing we could change that would save the world.
In London, on a corner where I was frequently asked which way to the Maida Vale Tube station, unexpectedly a sign appeared that pointed the direction of the Tube station. There was no evidence whatsoever that it was a new sign. It was planted in the pavement (sidewalk, for Americans) and yet the cement looked just as weathered as the rest of it. The people at the doctor’s office a hundred meters away said it had always been there.
I blame that sign for a lot of things that happened later that year. It was 2016.
This film is one of a handful I’ve seen that asks the question how would things be different if we changed one thing?
It’s a similar idea to what if this person who is otherwise ordinary was unordinary in one particular way? I’ve just written a novel in which I came up with the idea by asking myself that very question. What if we took something that even now we’re skeptical about and gave it to someone a hundred or more years ago? How would it affect their life?
It’s like that game Jenga, with the wooden pieces stacked on top of each other, if you pull out the crucial one the whole thing falls down. Some pieces do nothing. In ‘Yesterday’ the protagonist discovers some other small things have changed. There’s no Coca Cola, only Pepsi. No one cares. There are no cigarettes. No one seems to notice. There’s no Harry Potter. No one is devastated. I guess it would’ve been the same with The Beatles’ music, if the protagonist hadn’t remembered.
So go ahead. Think of the world at a particular time and change one thing. Give a person a special gift (in Yesterday it’s his memory of The Beatles along with the ability to sing and play the piano and guitar).
In general, stories hinge on one thing. If you’ve ever had something go terribly wrong, you have probably spent time afterward thinking about what one thing could’ve prevented it. If only you’d arrived five minutes faster, so if you hadn’t stopped at that Seven Eleven to get a soda. If only you hadn’t asked your friend to come with you If only you’d stayed home.
It does kind of make you think about what one thing we could change that would save the world.
In London, on a corner where I was frequently asked which way to the Maida Vale Tube station, unexpectedly a sign appeared that pointed the direction of the Tube station. There was no evidence whatsoever that it was a new sign. It was planted in the pavement (sidewalk, for Americans) and yet the cement looked just as weathered as the rest of it. The people at the doctor’s office a hundred meters away said it had always been there.
I blame that sign for a lot of things that happened later that year. It was 2016.
RSS Feed
