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"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a
career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, buy anything sold
or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, ... you know,
as a career."
TM watched the movie say anything again a few days ago, and was
struck with the realization that he loves it because it so closely mirrors
his relationship with the Virgin Mary. If you took out the sex and the
kissing and the mutual attraction and the happy ending, you would have their
relationship to a 'T'.
DC : I wouldn't get my hopes up, Lloyd.
Cory : I'm sorry, it's just that you're a really nice guy and we don't
want to see you get hurt.
Lloyd : I want to get hurt!
I sometimes toy with the notion that TM's relationship with the Virgin
Mary was another in a streak of masochism whereby TM only fell for those
girls who didn't like him but were afraid to tell him that.
It's amazing how like Diane the Virgin Mary was. Like Diane, she was
extremely driven in her academics; the Virgin Mary, last time I talked to her,
had yet to get her first 'B' grade. Both are totally subservient to their
fathers, both are uneasy with dating, both say that they just want to be
friends. It's amazing, TM got almost the same speach from the Virgin Mary
about being friends, word for word, that Diane gave Lloyd; only Diane did it
out of discomfort at dating, whereas the Virgin Mary did it because she didn't
actually like TM. I think.
Mike C. : I wanted to ask you, how'd you get Diane Cort to go out with
you?
Lloyd : I called her up.
Mike : But how come it worked? I mean, like, what are you?
Lloyd : I'm Lloyd Dobbler.
Mike : [nods] [smiles] This is great, this gives me hope.
TM could never believe that he was dating the Virgin Mary, especially
because she asked him out. (Perhaps that says something about his continuing
inability to believe that she could have ever liked him... Anyway.) The
Virgin Mary, like Diane in the words of DC and Cory, is "a brain, trapped in
the body of a talk show hostess". The Virgin Mary was so incredibly beautiful
and so smart, so driven, that I guess she seemed unapproachable to most guys.
Suffices to say, the Virgin Mary is a lot like Diane.
Lloyd : I'm not going to Seattle Junior College. I gotta be honest with
you, I'm not looking for that, I'm looking for something bigger, you know,
for a dare-to-be-great situation.
GuidanceCounselor : Lloyd, everybody in that party put something on their
record except you.
Lloyd : How many of 'em really know what they really want, though?
And then too, TM is a lot like Lloyd Dobbler. Both found themselves
dissatisfied with college, both hunger for something greater, and both think
that very few of the people around them truly know what they want out of life.
"I've been thinking maybe I didn't know you, maybe you're just a mirage,
maybe the world is just a blur of food and sex and spectacle and everyone is
just hurling towards an acropolis, in which case it's not your fault, you
know? ...so there's just one other thing, the letter that I wrote you; could
you please rip it up? Nuke it, flame it, destroy it; it hurts me to know it's
out there."
And, like Lloyd, TM was never very good at breakups. TM became bitter
and cynical and felt hurt and betrayed after he broke up with the Virgin Mary.
He acted like a guy, and not a man. That might be where Lloyd and TM diverge.
Lloyd had Cory and DC, who told him to be a man and not a macho guy, Lloyd
didn't give up. Of course, I guess he did give up after the 8th unanswered
call; the movie has a happy ending because Diane went back to him, not because
he didn't give up. Come to think of it, TM stuck it out longer than he did;
TM stayed in the relationship and forced it to remain in existance for almost
a year while all along knowing that the Virgin Mary didn't actually like him.
So I guess the only difference I can point to is in the endings; TM broke
up with the Virgin Mary while Lloyd got back together with Diane. Still, I
can't accept that that could be the only difference; there's no way that TM
is as great as Lloyd.
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