1y ago

Anon waits at a bus stop

51 comments

I finally read the book and Forrest is not mentally deficient at all in the book.
In the book, he's a very aware, intelligent person who's good at focusing on and solving problems but has a speech impediment.
Maybe the movie tried to do that, but I don't think they tried to do that.
He also goes to space with a chimpanzee.
The book is pretty crazy.
- You're not wrong they literally have a scene talking about his test scores showing his mentally deficiency on a written test.
  In the film he's a diagnosed retard.
  
  I mean he is from alabama.
  
  Which you could charitably read as them not understanding that a speech impediment doesn't translate to lower intelligence, but reading the book is very jarring because it's basically narrated by this almost hyper self-aware character who became famous for being portrayed as unthinking, literally mentally challenged and falling into all of these events.
- Sounds like the movie made a change for the better.
  
  It's been some time since I've read the book, but I always say, Forrest Gump is an example of the movie being better than the book.
  
  How do you mean?
  I found the book much more compelling.
  After I read it, I thought that maybe I would've cared about the movie if he had a scoche of relatability or development.
  Movie gump seemed like a trope rather than a character as soon as the previews were being shown.
  
  I think we read different comments... Space with monkeys?!
- Really makes you think
- It's been a long time since I read the book, but that's not how I remember it at all. He was gifted mathematically, but deficient in general. He caused trouble a number of times by misreading situations and not doing what was expected of him.
  He was smarter than people assumed, but I got the impression he was still impaired overall. Maybe that was the movie affecting my perception of the character.
  
  I think it's the movie, but also the way the book is written as a commentary on what intelligence is.
  Forrest accepts he's an idiot because people tell him he's an idiot, even though on the inside, all of his thoughts are very logical, self-aware and clear, he just has trouble expressing his thoughts.
  "Now I'm slow—I'll grant you that, but I'm probly a lot brighter than folks think, cause what goes on in my mind is a sight different than what folks see. For instance, I can think things pretty good, but when I got to try sayin or writin them, it kinda come out like jello or somethin."
  Over and over throughout the book, he's taken advantage of because he is honest and helpful, but not because he's intellectually deficient.
  He obviously has excellent coordination, he becomes an astronaut, he can learn and do pretty much any task, simple or complicated, often better than anyone else, which I think indicates his actual intelligence, along with his very clear, slef-aware and insightful internal monologues.
  His trouble is with expressing himself and refusing to view the world cynically.
  The rest of the world thinks being open and honest is a sign of low intelligence, but I think that's a commentary on the rest of the world, not on Forrest.
Imagine interacting with strangers beyond "did the bus I need already stop here?".
Signed, the Netherlands.
- I can't imagine interacting with strangers at all under any circumstances (as long as it's on a bus).
  Signed, Sweden
  
  It's so inconsiderate to interact with strangers in an environment they cannot escape.
  Greetings from Norway
  
  I can’t imagine interacting with strangers.
  Signed, me.
  
  Hey, that's not fair. We have a plethora of "ushekta"s to employ in various transit-related scenarios:
  I want to sit here, please jump in/remove your backpack/whatever
  I need to get off here, please allow me to exit my seat
  I bumped into you, sorry about that
  The bus is getting full and you need to move back to make space for more people
  We live in a society after all
  
  I would've thought the bus world be displaying the sorry I'm full sign when there's a passenger on board in those parts of Europe 😜
- This always blows my mind as an American. Considering how our country is... How are we so much more friendly and talkative than the rest of you people?
  
  I read some study about it a few years back… in summary, americans are doing the fake friendliness thing where they ask everyone and their mother how they are doing, if they want to grab coffee sometime, and so on while actually meaning nothing of it. Meanwhile Europeans don’t do that. They are only really friendly to people they are familiar with, and immediately sceptical of the American kind of fake friendliness. Basically, we wouldn’t ask someone how they do unless we are actually interested in that.
  
  We can be friendly and talkative, but not at a bus stop.
  
  Not bothering strangers with inane conversation is more friendly to me. Forcing strangers into conversations is rude. But I live in Vancouver, we have similar transit culture to Europe.
  
  You mean annoying?
- Thats what the digital displays are for. only reason to talk to someone is to bitch about a certain bus always being late, which they then agree with and the conversation ends.
  
  you don't do a puppet show and encourage everyone to sing along?
- This thread is now officially part of the yuropean continent.
- Must be a lonely country
What?
- The movie starts with Forrest introducing himself to a black woman as being named after, and descended from, Nathan Bedford Forrest, slave catcher, Civil War general, and KKK founder. Who, btw, racists keep trying to rehabilitate with revisionism.
  It's kind of brushed off because Forrest is clearly off, mentally, but it gets a little more suspicious considering all of the whitewashing in the movie.

51 comments