You instantly know why he bought this piece of pie and what the overall situation is This is one of his endless cascade of rejections This is after he lost a gig he'd been really pinning his hopes on, and rather than go home he told himself he'd get some pie to "treat himself"
-
Show this thread
-
To an outside observer viewing it with "context" it's sad as fuck, everything about the memory surrounding this piece of pie is pitiful and painful Joe, in the moment, clearly was not enjoying himself In his Hall of You this moment just got buried in the twenty years of failure
1 reply 0 retweets 41 likesShow this thread -
And yet no matter how much your brain tries to hurt you, your body has a way of fighting back As 22 learned when she briefly inhabited it The real Joe obviously thinks of his relationship with food as weakness but 22 doesn't care because it all tastes so damn good
1 reply 0 retweets 45 likesShow this thread -
However many years have passed since that audition, however much that lost gig has blurred into all the other memories of failures past, that piece of pie is still there The look of it, the smell, the taste more real than anything else from that day
1 reply 0 retweets 36 likesShow this thread -
And think, if he'd never gone out for that audition and he'd never failed at it he'd never have bought himself that pie And maybe if he hadn't been hurting so bad and looking for something to take his mind off it he wouldn't have savored it so deeply, remembered every bite
1 reply 0 retweets 43 likesShow this thread -
(One of the best meals I remember ever eating was a direct result of a frustrated, tearful "Fuck it, I drove all the way out to fucking Columbus, I'm getting something nice before I go back")
1 reply 0 retweets 53 likesShow this thread -
Does the piece of pie actually "redeem" the years of failure? Is all that struggle and pain worth it for a slice of pie that cost like $4.59? I dunno The point seems to be that moments don't redeem or give context to or provide meaning for other moments They just happen
2 replies 2 retweets 57 likesShow this thread -
A human perspective would say that the idea that treating yourself with a piece of pie makes up for years of humiliation is pathetic But the one night you get a standing ovation on opening night absolutely *should* redeem those years and saying it doesn't is ungrateful
1 reply 0 retweets 44 likesShow this thread -
The problem is the soul doesn't get sparked according to the rules we set It follows its own rules The spark of that little self-indulgence that one lonely night kept Joe living The *lack* of any spark after his standing ovation almost made Joe give up on life
1 reply 0 retweets 47 likesShow this thread -
So the point of the ending seems to me to be that it's okay whatever he does It's okay if he closes the door on the opportunity of a lifetime and gets the steady paycheck and the simple life It's also okay if he goes for it, fails, and stays a sad striver until the day he dies
2 replies 1 retweet 41 likesShow this thread
It's even okay if he goes for it *and gets it* and finds out even after all your dreams come true life is still the same bullshit it always was and even as a famous celebrity the stuff that's annoying and shitty about performing is still there and the void never really fills
-
-
(Discovering that if you fundamentally weren't okay before, millions of dollars and a Grammy Award and crowds of shrieking fans will not make you okay is why we find so many famous people ODing in their bathtubs)
1 reply 0 retweets 43 likesShow this thread -
Whichever path he takes, whatever his spark for the next ten years turns out to be, is fine As long as he's being kind to himself and the people around him Poor is okay, rich is okay, famous is okay, obscure is okay, loser is okay, winner is okay There'll always be more pie
3 replies 1 retweet 62 likesShow this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.