An Oversimplification of Her Beauty

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Are you recording?

Hmm?

Are you recording?

Maybe.

Yeah, you are.

Pardon my interruption.

What you are about to see

is a short film entitled

How Would You Feel?

Created by one

Terence Nance in 2006.

How Would You Feel? is an educational

film that examines theories

about how humans come to

experience a singular emotion.

In its original form it was

presented as a work of fiction.

We will interrupt the fim How

Would You Feel? from time to time

with a new film entitled An

Oversimplification of Her Beauty.

We will do this in order

to provide the context

necessary to tell

a complete story.

So let's say that one day

you arrive at your home.

It has been a long day,

during which you have wod

no less than

12 consecutive hours.

This is in your case

a typical day.

However, this particulary

a young lady who you know

and a little more than like

has told you that she is coming to

be in your company this evenin.

So as you empty your pocs

and begin to get settled,

you see that she has telephoned you.

Of course you telephone her back.

She answers.

She tells you that she has

just arrived at her own home

and won't be coming

to yours tonight.

At that moment,

given the circumstances,

how would you feel?

Now let's say that this particular

day began at 8:
00 a.m.,

when you woke up too late to arrive

at your place of employment on time.

Your daily commute

is no less than one hour.

Although you arrive on tim,

you are disappointed in your inability

to awake yourself consistently

in situations when

you are in a bed alone.

You are disappointed because this disability

speaks to a lack of self-control.

Self-control that you feel entitled to,

but do not possess.

The evening before

you worked late

and consequently

slept for only three hours.

And let's say that you

have no bed and no money,

and a stubborn yet quixoc

do-it-yourself attitude.

So, you built your bed

in a wood shop

using Japanese wood

joinery techniques

that you learned from a book

you found in the garbage.

You possess no means

of personal transportation,

so you elected

to transport this bed,

piece by piece,

on the train ride home,

rushing yourself

because you expected

to be in the company

of this lady quite soon.

After all, she has told you

she would be in your

company this evening.

So, you empty your

pockets, get settled,

and notice you have missed her call.

You call her back.

She tells you she has just

arrived at her own home

and won't be seeing you tonight.

At that moment,

given the circumstances,

how would you feel?

Now, let's just say that over

the span of four to eight weeks,

this young lady has become a

very good friend of yours.

This friendship is platoni.

Let's say that

you are attracted to her.

You do not know if she,

in the deep recesses of her soul,

harbors any amorous feelings

for you as you do for her.

But when parting from

each other's presence,

she lightly kisses you

on your lips.

Seldom, but with intenti,

and a hint of mischief and

doubt opaque in her pupils.

Let's say you and this

lady friend have slept together

on between four

and 18 occasions.

And by "slept together"

I mean just that, sleeping.

Each occasion occurs in either

one of your full-sized beds.

Each time you share a bed,

you grow closer physically,

until you cannot get any closer.

And let's say that this growth

seems mutually fulfilling.

It is gentle, subtle, but fortunately

it is accelerating in intensit.

Of course, each morning after

and for varying lengths of time

during the days between

these encounters...

...you daydream about

this most enigmatic of connections.

You allow the taste of your time

together to linger in your mouth

and coat your hands.

You think of the food

you cook together

and the way her navel

feels against your fingert.

A sweetness prevails.

Today, during your frustration

with your bed, your income,

and your commute,

you found respite in the fact

that on that particular...

Evening you would have

the opportuniy to be in her company.

You would have been uplifted by just

the thougt of spending this time

with this woman.

The night before you are

to meet this young lady,

you dream a dream

that you remember.

Seldom do you

remember your dreams.

In this dream you ascend

above your existence

and shed among other things a

Western understanding of time.

You meet her in a sky.

She has taken the form of a sun,

but does not emit heat.

You ask for the time.

She refers you to

a moon who unfortunately

does not have the same

gravitational pull as she.

You fall from the sky and

are awakened by your alarm

too late to arrive at yor

place of employment on t.

Let's say that

this frustrates you

because it evidences

a lack of self-control.

You also overslept because in

an exercise in self-discipline,

you worked much

later than usual,

attempting to meet

your daily income quota.

After work you finished the

remaining pieces of your bed.

Incidentally,

the bed did not fit together quite right

because you are not

a very good carpenter,

nor do you read Japanese.

When you brought it home,

you stood on the train platform

and watched

three full trains pass...

...each

more full than the next.

People pushed themselves

against each other.

You imagined a collective amorous

feeling floating in the air,

even though there wasn't enough

room for you and your bed.

Still, you rushed yourself

home, wih this woman in your head.

And as you get settled,

you see that you have missed her call.

Hello.

You call back.

She says that she has just

arrived at her own home

and will not be seeing you tonight.

Now at that moment,

given the circumstances,

how would you feel?

Now, let's say that in life you

are not chronically lonely...

...but the vast majority of

your days and nights are spent alone.

All the same usually,

because you are very busy.

Busy with finishing

your education...

...so that you can

finish knowing who you are,

so that you can finish

with those years in life

during which you have

no clear answer

to the question...

"What do you do?"

Generally speaking,

with a few notable exceptions,

those that desire your company

do not interest you in a

way that would provoke you

to set aside time

to engage them.

Those that do interest y,

those for whom you would manufacture time,

do not live in your vicinity,

or do not seem so interested

in you as you in them.

And let's say that a womn who

you are presently in love with

has decided to enter an

exclusive romantic relationship

with someone

who provides for her

the stability and maturity

that you cannot.

You marvel at the contradiction

between the intensity

of your love for her

and your in ability to accurately

express this same love.

You wonder aloud

when you will grow diffet

and occasionally

allow yourself to wallow

in this gingerly

debilitating self-doubt.

Now, let's say

that at this very moment,

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