College classics: Donnie Darko

Another film I think most current college students know, and should know, is Donnie Darko. This mind-bending thriller has been a cult classic for a few years. I once had an entire Philosophy club session devoted to it. We'll ignore the bizarre world of Southland Tales for now and go back to this great dark movie, which should be a hit with students for years to come.

From the shadows of obscurity comes one of the most fascinating films of our time. Donnie Darko appears at first to be a demented horror film, but as it progresses, it touches on all sorts of subjects, from social commentary to metaphysics. This unheralded film tells an amazing story about love, fate, and more.

The film revolves around the life of Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal), a troubled high schooler in Northern Virginia. Donnie has had problems, and his current delusions include seeing a giant rabbit called Frank (James Duval). His mother (Mary McDonnell) wants to help him, but his troubles are deep and hard to solve. Donnie’s psychiatrist (Katharine Ross) tries all sorts of methods to help him.

Strange things happen after Donnie’s first encounter with the rabbit. His vision prompts him to sleepwalk out of the house, and while he is gone, a plane engine crashes into his room. No one is hurt, but if he would not have been led outside, he would have died. Authorities have no answer for how the plane crash happened.

Donnie’s troubled state worsens. Frank begins to visit him more and more often. At school, Donnie must deal with an annoying teacher (Beth Grant), who uses her class time to promote infomercials for local motivational speaker Jim Cunningham (Patrick Swayze). Donnie finds a love interest in Gretchen Ross (Jena Malone), a girl who has moved to escape her psychotic father.

Frank instructs Donnie to perform several acts of vandalism, all of which lead to bad things happening. Donnie has two positive teachers in school, aptly portrayed by Drew Barrymore (one of the film’s executive producers) and Noah Wyle. Donnie continues to get in trouble for talking back, and his actions lead to Barrymore’s dismissal. His life crumbles, along with his mental state.

Frank’s original message to Donnie is that the world will end in about a month. As the date gets closer, Donnie tries to figure out what this means. He begins to experience other delusions besides seeing Frank, which he discovers relate to Stephen Hawking’s theories of time travel. This is where the film broaches such subjects as time, fate, and predestination.

Without giving away too much, the ending is amazing and a shocking conclusion to the film. Audiences may not understand it at first, and this film may require several viewings, but it says a lot about the deep subject the film touches on.

Jake Gyllenhaal shines as the title character. He pulls off the demented side of Donnie well, along with his more average, teenage moments. Malone and McDonnell perform well as the women who care about him. The real acting treat of this movie, however, comes with all the minor characters, mostly hilarious chariciatures. Holmes Osborne plays Donnie’s aloof dad, Grant is extra annoying as his teacher, and Swayze makes his first appearance in a worthwhile film in a long time.

Writer and director Richard Kelly makes a stunning debut in a major film. Just a few years removed from film school, Kelly fits sci-fi special effects into a relatively low-budget film. He manages to capture the dread that Donnie feels, the ignorance of the community and the school leadership, and the unique relationship Donnie has with both his mother and his girlfriend. It is astounding that a young filmmaker could create a film that breaks so many different genre molds, but Kelly makes it look easy. His film is not only one of the best of 2001, but one for the ages.

The Player: an academic reading

Robert Altman’s film The Player shows the inside dealings of Hollywood- what goes on behind the camera. Altman’s film is very ironic in that it really makes fun of the Hollywood system, while being a product of it. Altman teases the idea of having big stars in movies, only to get many famous stars to cameo as themselves in this 1992 film. It is a movie about movies, in short. Altman has a strong directorial voice in this; his shot selection definitely affects how the story is told.
The most obvious example of directorial voice comes early on in the movie. Altman shows the parking lot of the studio office where Griffin Mill works. With a very long take, he moves around different areas to show what’s going on. He shows Griffin, the young producer, listening to stories from writers. He then moves over to show tours going on inside the movie lot. He then shows some person stopping Martin Scorsese to tell him how much he liked Cape Fear. In all, this take lasts minutes before it is over and shows about 4 or 5 different events going on.
This long take shows that there’s always something happening in Hollywood. Everyday, people are denied (except for a few per year), tourists come, and a multi-million dollar business goes on. So many things happen at once, and this scene captures that feeling with its rambling style from one situation to the next. This appears to be a signature shot for Altman, and there are some scenes later that are similar.
One example of a recurring idea in mise-en-scene and framing is Altman’s shot from outside. Altman chooses several times in the movie to shoot people in a building from outside, leaving the audience with an obstructed view. He does this in the long take with Griffin talking to writers. The audience can hear them talking perfectly but the view remains from outside the window. This also happens when Griffin is talking to Kahane’s foreign girlfriend on the phone outside her house. The audience has the same view that he does: restricted and through the windows.
This is a strong directorial voice because Altman could have easily shot the characters from inside in both cases. He chooses not too because it keeps the characters somewhat mysterious. In the first scene, the audience cannot see Griffin’s face very well, even thought hey know what is going on. They know what his job is like before they can really see him. In the second scene, the audience sees as much as he can, leaving their attention to what the girl looks like. Griffin is intrigued by her, and by not showing her completely, Altman creates intrigue in the audience. This also reflects a change in Griffin: he has been faithful (or so it’s assumed) to Bonnie so far, but he begins to fall for the foreign girl.
Altman also likes to use the various close-up shots to show emotion. He often shows Tim Robbins’ face in detail to convey Griffin’s feelings and anxiety. Griffin becomes more irritable after killing Kahane, and Altman tries to show this with Griffin’s actions and different shots of him. One moving scene comes in the police station where (I forget their characters’ names) Whoopi Goldberg and Lyle Lovett interrogate him to the point of making him explode. Altman starts with a close-up of Griffin’s head and zooms in as he gets more and more irritated. This makes a dramatic, emotional scene.
Altman’s shots at the end show a happy couple with a beautiful house and seem so romantic. Yet the audience knows that Griffin has killed his wife’s former lover, and that if he hadn’t, this happy scene would not have happened. The shot, though very beautiful and typical of a classic happy-ending movie, seems tainted. Altman keeps that in the audience’s mind as he drifts away to the close.
The ending of the movie is very ironic and reflexive. After all their talk about making a real and truthfully dark movie, the writers in the mock-movie Habeas Corpus fall to temptation, hiring big stars Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis, and giving in to the classical Hollywood happy ending. This is a great movie-within-a-movie ploy because The Player is definitely not a true happy ending: Griffin has cheated on his wife, killed a guy, gotten away with it, and now is married to the dead guy’s old girl. Of course, for Griffin, it is a happy ending, so does that it make it good? Is it acceptable?
The last sign of reflexivity comes when a writer tells Griffin about a movie called The Player that basically is about what happened in this movie (hence the name). Altman does this to leave a hint of doubt in the audience: is this movie for real? He tries to make it look that way. Few would believe so, but the scene gives a sense of uncertainty to the movie (it also shows that Kahane may not be the threat Griffin thought he was). This is a dark scene, and what is worse is that Griffin knows very well what’s going on-and he doesn’t care. This is somewhat reflexive because he has admitted to himself the truth and will use his own murder story to make money- in the movie we are currently watching. Altman’s dark comedy can admit to the audience that it is indeed funny and disturbing. His satirical picture of Hollywood dealings is not Classic Hollywood Styled, and yet it makes for a good movie. He proved his own characters wrong.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Judd Apatow was on fire. I just caught this on cable, and think I might have laughed more at this one than the other two (much more successful) Apatow films of that year, Superbad and Knocked Up. It's silly and more of a straight up, winking at the camera parody than a perfect mirror image like Hot Fuzz, but it has some great moments. And some really ridic cameos.... maybe the most random cameos of various people portraying famous musicians ever. After being heavily disappointed with Ray and Walk the Line (in structure and over-melodrama, not performances), this was a great send-up. Every biopic cliche, every Behind the Music episode structure was made into comedy. It was about time John C. Reilly, one of the best supporting character actors ever, got to be the lead guy. He's great, as always.

Pirates of the Caribbean 2

I caught this on cable. The subtitle should be At World's Very, Very Long End.

I think we should force Diznee to use that title in all packaging of this movie now. They ended their big franchise with so many drawn-out fights and tough posturing, that I was just bored during the last two. How can you make an action film geared mostly for children and teenagers that last three hours and puts you to sleep? I could sit through Barry Lyndon easier than this.

Look, I was pleasantly surprised like the rest of you with the first one, despite my hatred of uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and my total apathy towards the whole pirate fad. They got me. Then they wasted their good graces by going way over the top with the next two and making it a world-wide battle and having too many fight scenes and effects and melodrama and JUST END THE F-----G MOVIE ALREADY! You see why I hate him? And why I can never trust the mouse again?

Of course, there will be a third.

Futurama: Bender's Big Score (direct to DVD)

To break from all this serious-ness, I turned to a very unheralded comeback. Futurama was granted a new life through a straight-to-DVD release, which isn't perfect, but enough to satisfy all us nerds who grew to love it too late. This 90 minute journey is like three episodes stitched together, but it helped me feel better. They did go the Family Guy route of bringing back things from the series as nostalgia (Fry's dog, Al Gore, owls, the Harlem Globetrotter science team) but they also made some nice jokes. It's something. Not enough Branigan, though. Also, watch on the DVD for the extras, as you can see how just how huge nerds they are, and us for loving them.

Retro: All the Real Girls

After the success of Pineapple Express, I wanted to take a look back on the first David Gordon Green movie I saw, All the Real Girls. I actually got to meet Green and star Paul Schneider at a screening after I wrote this.

There has been a trend in several low-budget, independent films made within the past few years, focusing on the struggles of relationships between rustic people in small (often Southern) towns. Films in this pattern include The Good Girl, In the Bedroom, You Can Count on Me, and now, All the Real Girls.
David Gordon Green, who wrote the screenplay and directed, gives audiences a simple but stunning look at a small town in Appalachia. Paul (Paul Schneider) is a goofy but seemingly good-natured young man. His womanizing, however, has left him with a bad reputation. He hangs out with his buddies like Tip (Shea Whigham) and Bust-Ass (Danny McBride), drinking beer and talking about girls. Things change when Tip’s little sister Noel (Zooey Deschanel) returns home after graduating from an all-girls private school. Paul instantly becomes enamored with Noel, and Tip, knowing Paul’s ways with women, warns her not to fall in love.
Paul begins to let his guard down with Noel. He becomes more sympathetic with her and shows signs of maturation. Paul has slept with many different girls, and Noel is a virgin, but Paul does not push anything too fast. Just when the film seems like a lower-budgeted version of a sappy romantic comedy, Noel turns the tables on Paul. Now he must deal with the feelings of loss and heartbreak that he has caused so many girls.
Paul also has to deal with a depressing situation at home. His single mother, wonderfully portrayed by Patricia Clarkson, takes a job as a clown. Paul wants to help her, but he also wants to keep some of his individuality.
Paul eventually learns something about relationships, young love, and maturation. After his breakup with Noel, he begins to see how his past mistakes have hurt many people. Even Tip and several other characters go through a maturation process. These are simple people, but they can learn. In the end, it seems as though every character has learned something.
This is a solid film, supported by Green’s appropriate cinematic work. He captures the stale atmosphere of the town beautifully. He shows the monotony of the factory that holds the town together and the decaying neighborhoods on its riverbanks. In a memorable sequence, he juxtaposes drawings made by sick children with their actual facial responses to Paul and his mother dancing at the hospital. He includes enough comedy to keep things from being overdone, but for the most part, it is a serious and well-made drama.
The cast includes some unheralded actors, but performs well. The one film veteran, Clarkson, does a fantastic job. Deschanel, who was in The Good Girl (and makes the connection between these two films stronger), aptly portrays the naïve but unique love interest of Paul. Schneider, who helped come up with the story, handles the main role with a good amount of goofiness and seriousness. McBride, another newcomer, is a hilarious scene-stealer.
Green succeeds in his second feature film. Sometimes it seems a bit hokey, and a little overdramatic, but All the Real Girls holds up amazingly well for a film with its budget. This heartwarming and serious tale of young love is as strong as most independent films can hope to be.

College classics: Fight Club (with a Tao twist)

Here's another film that I think most college students are familar with, especially guys: Fight Club. The 1999 David Fincher dark-comedy-actioner has been a pretty strong hit with 19 year old males, but women and adults should take a look at it as well. Here, I compared it with Tao philosophy. Hopefully, this will show students how to take a new spin on popular movies.

Philosophical lessons do not usually saturate Hollywood action movies. Most of the time, a movie about people kicking and punching each other is not going to amount to much more than that. Sometimes, however, great ideas are hidden underneath layers of flash and advertising. Much like The Matrix, Fight Club is an action movie geared for younger audiences that also has deep philosophical teachings that audiences (and perhaps even the filmmakers) missed. Fight Club is a work of social criticism and contains many teachings of the Tao, which we have learned in this class. More importantly, I have recognized these lessons and they have changed my life. The Taoist teachings reflected in this movie show how modern American society can make people ill.
The story begins with a young man, age 30, who works for a major automobile manufacturer. His job is to investigate crash sites where the vehicle’s safety features may have malfunctioned. Basically, he checks to make sure that his product does not kill enough people to issue a costly recall. This relates to recent exposures of corporate greed and deception, most notably the Firestone Tires scandal. Like the chiefs of that company, he knows his product can kill but his job states that he must try to report it in other ways as to save his corporation money.
He is, like many of his generation, a nameless face: a person working in a huge office building, trying to make some money. In fact, one of the quirks of this movie is that he does not have a name (the credits call him “the Narrator”). He is not a smashing hero or exceptional individual, and he spends his free time shopping for furniture and name brand items that will spruce up his apartment. In all, he leads a pointless existence and knows it. He does not go out often, and his job takes up his life.
His boring life and his pursuit of empty possessions lead him to insomnia. He is so bored and apathetic that he cannot sleep, and he tries various methods to cease his monotony. His real problem is that he has tried to make himself happy with brand names and possessions. As the Tao Te Ching states, “Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench”(9). He talks about the imported Swedish tables and handcrafted dishware he bought and wonders sarcastically why they do not please him. His life has become completely useless because he has not filled it with anything real.
A doctor, upon hearing his pleas for help, tells him that real pain comes with real problems, and suggests he try seeing cancer patients in pain before deciding that his life is horrible. This piece of advice leads the insomniac to various support groups. He visits with cancer patients, pretending that he is afflicted, and sees true pain. “If you open yourself to loss,” the Tao Te Ching states, “you are at one with loss and you can accept it completely”(23). Of course, the movie presents his visits in a dry humor, which can be offending to anyone who has gone through cancer. The point is that he realizes he has less to worry about than he originally thought, and begins to “sleep” better.
For his work, he travels across the country to check out claims. During these flights, he makes a terrific point about American business and hospitality, which he calls “the single-serving life”. He describes the single-serving meals on the plane; the single-serving coffee at offices; the single-serving shampoo bottles in the hotel bathrooms; the single-serving packets of condiments at these bland, uninteresting places; and the “single-serving friends,” who are the people he meets during flights and has brief conversations with. His annoyance is with America’s tendency to be convenient and quick without establishing any quality, which sounds much like Robert Pirsig’s grievances in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about quality and the people in a hurry. The Narrator knows that he cannot create a serious conversation with someone he will likely never see again, and thus his life is full of business terms and idle small talk, while completely lacking any depth.
This changes on one flight home when he meets Tyler Durden. Tyler is outgoing and completely unreserved in his mannerisms. He is nearly the opposite of the Narrator, and from their brief conversation he learns that they live near each other. The Narrator then returns home to find his apartment in ruins. An explosion completely wiped out his apartment and destroyed everything he owned. He has relied on these possessions, as I have mentioned, and so he is heartbroken and unsure of what to do next. He has no friends, so he calls up Tyler, who lets him stay at his place.
Tyler and the Narrator go out often and discuss the problems that they face. The Narrator is so unhappy because all of the things that he has worked for are gone, and how he almost had enough stuff. Tyler begins to shed light on his new friend. He explains that the important thing is no one died, and urges the Narrator to forget about his clothes and furniture and other items. “The things you own,” Tyler says, “end up owning you.” This is a very Tao statement, much like “If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich”(33). I will note the relation to Christian teaching in this, as Jesus taught this idea many times. It makes his friend realize even more the pathetic nature of his life.
Another point that Tyler tries to make is that the Narrator should be himself and quit worrying about his appearance. As the Tao Te Ching states, “Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner”(9). Tyler knows how to let insults go, and thus has an extreme amount of confidence. This reflects on his friend, who is very uptight and unhappy when they first meet.
The two continue to live and talk, and the Narrator is very impressed with Tyler’s views on life. Both of them were raised without much help from their fathers and are stuck in a mid-life confused state; they are looking for the meaning to life and trying to convince themselves that they are special. Tyler, who makes soap in his basement and works odd jobs at night, is an interesting character. Without ever admitting it, he is quite a Taoist master.
He encourages the Narrator to have “near-life experiences,” which are random stunts designed to help him accept death and not fear it so much. “You’re one step closer to rock bottom,” he tells the frightened Narrator after he burns his hand and makes him miserable for one night. “It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything.” This relates to the Tao The Ching, which states several times that death is your wisest advisor. “He [the Master] knows that he is going to die, and he has nothing left to hold on to… He holds nothing back from life; therefore he is ready for death”(50). “If you want to be given everything, give everything up”(22). The Narrator has given up the comforts of home to live in a rundown house without all of his possessions. He accepts it, and then enjoys it because there is no pressure.
The two friends decide on one of their early nights out that they need to release some aggravation. This is where the namesake of the film comes in. They find it refreshing to engage in hand-to-hand battle, just for the rush. “All of them [athletes and others] embody the virtue of non-competition. Not that they don’t love to compete,” as the Tao Te Ching says, “but they do it in the spirit of play”(68). They create the Fight Club in a local bar’s basement, and its popularity grows because it is strictly a positive release from the modern world. It is a place where men can go and let out their pain. The point is no to hurt the other person or even to win, but to release bottled emotions. It becomes an absurd, alternative therapy session for men.
Tyler continues his odd teaching of the Tao. He uses his platform as the creator of the Fight Club to say a few words to its members about society. “Look at the guys in Fight Club,” he says. “The strongest and smartest men who have ever lived -- and they're pumping gas and waiting tables; or they're slaves with white collars.” Tyler is unhappy with modern American society. Many of the members come to release the stress they get from pointless jobs, and Tyler bemoans the system. This relates to the Tao Te Ching’s sections on society in general. “When the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible,” it says, “while the poor have nowhere to run-all this is robbery and chaos”(53). Tyler sympathizes with his working-class fellows, and voice this to them.
Tyler continues to describe America’s preoccupation with materialism, saying, “Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes. A whole generation working in jobs we hate, just so we can buy shit we don't need. We were raised by television to believe that someday we'll all be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars- but we won't.” He realizes the futility of his culture and wants to change it. He rejects our cultural traditions, which goes along with the Tao Te Ching passage reading, “Ritual is the husk of true faith, the beginning of chaos”(38).
Unfortunately, this platform creates problems. As the movie goes on, the Narrator realizes that Tyler’s great ideas are getting more and more radical. They are also getting more and more dangerous. He threatens a stranger working at a mini-mart to either die or change his useless life. The Narrator fears these changes and begins to see Tyler as a dangerous reactionary. Tyler continues to preach to the members of Fight Club and eventually recruits them into a sort of underground army. He does not encourage them to fight a traditional battle, but fight the facets of society that he finds useless. “We're the middle children of history,” he tells them, “with no special purpose or place. We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression. Our great depression is our lives. Our great war is a spiritual war.”
His spiritual war becomes a series of random pranks around the city. Each member has a certain prank to pull that mocks corporate America. Tyler contends that corporations are not even human anymore. His idea seems justified, as once again the Tao Te Ching backs him up, saying, “Throw away industry and profit, and there won’t be any thieves”(19). Eventually, however, these pranks increase from childish vandalism to major destruction of property, as stores are smashed and buildings set ablaze. Tyler again tries to justify his actions with the fact that no actual person is hurt, but the Narrator sets out to stop his actions before they get way out of control.
The Narrator’s search proves difficult. New clubs begin popping up all over the country, and Tyler is the official leader of all of them. The Narrator quits his job and trails Tyler all over the country, hoping to halt the spread of his messages. Tyler, however, stays a step ahead of the frustrated Narrator. To make matters worse, Tyler has been involved in a relationship with a weird lady whom the Narrator met at the self-help meetings (she, like him, was just going to observe). This girl, Marla, acts very strangely around the Narrator, as if he is the one having an affair with her. Eventually, after days of searching, he calls her up to ask for clues about Tyler’s whereabouts.
The movie reaches its shocking climax here, because Marla tells the Narrator that he is Tyler Durden! Everything comes into focus for the Narrator, who realizes the truth. Tyler Durden is a fictional character; a split personality created by the Narrator to be everything that he was not. For the entire time, the Narrator has been the actual radical in charge of all the plans. He sometimes has imagined himself watching Tyler, but when Tyler has interacted with anyone else, it has just been the unconscious Narrator. He actually has not cured his insomnia; rather, when he believes he is asleep he really “becomes” Tyler. He blew up his own apartment because he hated it.
Armed with this revelation, the Narrator figures he can stop all the plans easily because it was actually himself who created them. His unconscious mind, however, is a step ahead of his conscious being. “Tyler” told his followers that nothing could change, even under direct orders from himself. Thus, the Narrator cannot undo the orders for Tyler’s final project, which turns out to be the complete bombing and destruction of several buildings. These buildings hold offices for major credit card magnates, as Tyler wants to eliminate all credit debt.
Exhausted, the Narrator turns himself in to the police in a final ploy to stop the destruction. Even the police officers, however, are under orders from Tyler. The Narrator makes it to one of the sites and tries to diffuse the bombs when his imaginary friend shows up and “stops” him from doing it. He cannot get over this mental block fast enough, and the explosions occur.
At the end of the movie, the Narrator approaches his problem directly. He overcomes his block and mentally “kills” Tyler, but it is too late. He realizes what has happened and he finally understands why he created this mess. He reaches his enlightenment, and then the film ends.
As I think about what really happened in the story, the Taoist teaching becomes clear to me: take the middle path. “Reach for the center,” as it says many times. The Narrator was an extremely boring person with a pointless life based upon useless items. He created this split personality that was the opposite of himself because he was in such an extremely dull state. This personality engaged him and made him think. Tyler, however, was not a good thing for him. He was too extreme. He placed too much emphasis on action and was far out of control. Therefore, both characters are lost because they are extremes. At the heart of one extreme, the Narrator, is another extreme, Tyler. They are the ying and yang. The Narrator needs to follow the middle path and destroy the extreme influences in his life on both sides.
Another common theme in the Tao Te Ching is “Know thyself,” and the Narrator did not. He did not realize that this was his own soul, crying out for action. He created this person because he was so ridiculously empty, and instead of fixing his life, he simply took it from one extreme to the other. At the end of the movie, he realizes this.
When I first saw this movie, I was amazed. The philosophy that Tyler showed spoke to me. Of course, I have no desire to attempt near-death stunts or blow up buildings because I realize that Tyler is not complete. I also, however, realize that the Narrator is far from complete. When you take the middle path, and look at the both of them as whole (because they are the same person), you see how sick this man has become.
I loved some of Tyler’s ideas about modern American society and our worship of useless things. It always amazes me how much the average person wishes to be rich and famous, as if that is all there is to life. We treat our celebrities like Gods, and then gasp when they fail and become human to us. His attitude about death also really made me think. Personally, I have always been very afraid of death, but I am now starting to understand how it can be a helpful tool for living. I can also see why he lived in a real shoddy house- he wanted to have nothing.
The Narrator’s experiences show how unsatisfying a career can be when it does not positively affect the community. He practiced non-being in a literal sense- he did nothing. As I have learned, that is not true non-being. He needed to take action to make his life worthwhile. He was calmer and more flowing than Tyler at most points, but he was not awake. He was not aware of his own true problems and did not seek them out until it was too late.
Many of the lessons that I enjoyed from this movie have been reflected in our class. We live in a spiritually unhealthy society, and we must realize that the teachings of the Tao can help us live better and see things more clearly. Fight Club serves as an unexpected source of life lessons. As Tyler told his disciples, “You are not your job. You are not your car. You’re not the clothes you wear.” We are human beings, and we are more important than the things we own or how much money we have. If only everyone in America could see this truth (this reality), we would be at peace.




Works Referenced

Fincher, David,Dir. Fight Club. 1998, Regency Films.
Mitchell, Stephen, and Lao-Tzu. Tao Te Ching. Harper: New York, 1988.
Pirsig, Robert. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Harper: New York, 1999.