Despite it bombing in the pitch, I think this is Draper’s best work. Draper’s pitch for the Royal Hawaiian is maybe his most insightful of all, but it goes over poorly with the client because he's doling out harsh truth rather than readily palatable ideology.
Don goes to Hawaii as a deeply depressed man after emotionally separating from Megan. We don’t even see him speak to Megan the entire time he’s there (interesting detail of that whole sequence).He goes there and feels nothing but the same emptiness and lack of joy he felt at home. He's stuck in limbo, in his head, in his own private prison. Its why the line from the soldier at the bar comparing Vietnam to Honolulu (two jungle climates) resonates with him so strongly and why it's so brilliant: "Didn't anybody notice it's the same place?" And Don totally gets that sentiment because NY and Honolulu feel the same to him. There’s no difference as far as he’s concerned. Depression is about being stuck in your head, your feelings, your perceptions. And that is where Don is firmly situated. He doesn't feel like he's gone anywhere. He's stuck in the same numb, state of misery wherever he is. It’s why he’s fixated on the doorman’s near death experience and why he asks him if he saw a bright light “like hot, tropical sunshine.” Draper understands that you don’t have to go far away to FEEL far away. He understands that you don’t have to actually die to FEEL dead.
>>70698995
>cont.
So the brilliant insight he arrives at, though unknowingly, is that at the core of the idea of a vacation, ANY vacation, is the attempt to get away from it all, to vacate your own life. It’s born out of the same urge as suicide. He realizes that the desire for a vacation is closely linked to the death drive, and he subconsciously plays to this realization in his “the jumping off point” campaign. The client immediately picks up on the morbidity of the premise of a man walking off into the ocean with no foreseeable intentions of returning. Don, however, is unaware of how tangibly his depression is outwardly manifesting itself, but it’s reflected in his poignant, albeit nihilistic worldview.
GOAT writing.
Awesome might give it a second chance, just couldn't quite get into it the first time.
>>70698995
>>70699024
Don't forget the lighter Don is reminded of by the soldier. When Don dropped his army-issued lighter in Korea it ended up killing the real Don Draper and propelling him into his new life. Korea was the jumping off point for his new life.
>>70700326
Hadn't thought of that. Nice catch.
>>70698995
Don realizes his creative output is betraying his inner reality. This parallels Weiner's experience as creator of Mad Men.
>>70699024
>is that at the core of the idea of a vacation, ANY vacation, is the attempt to get away from it all, to vacate your own life. It’s born out of the same urge as suicide.
this is false. most normies love vacation for exoticism, fueling their love of hedonism, thru their love of pleasure and their hate of boredom.
Don the baby does not even know himself that it is suicide. he needs the hippy to tell him this.
The point is that Don's epiphany is that effortless life is happiness and yet he fails to see how to get there, which means that he fails to see the problem. He remains a pure hedonist, he has no disdain for hedonism.
You want a bombshell? Here it is
>>8134013
danger and play is what women are and want [they want play = safe danger] and men want women, but only because women are the ultimate danger and play thing. This is nice, but you can reach a life beyond this.
once you understand that men are not meant to be as good hedonist as women, you first acknowledge the superiority of women at the hedonistic life (which is just called life by men and women) and you see the misery of hedonism, either the direct hedonism of the woman, or the nihilistic fantasy of the delayed hedonism [hedonism of the will] of the man [the one that men advocate for, the one about engaging yourself into challenges after challenges, seeking merit, pursuing your passions, in one word still clinging to entertainment (typically to attract women sooner or later) to better turn away from their impotency at the hedonistic life..] created by men once they get beat by women.
>>70700983
Once you see the game as well as the noneffective masculine life, you lose faith in hedonism. At this point, you either see the solution or not: you strive to do the exact opposite of hedonism (either the masculine one or the feminine one): first you stop being nihilistic, in accepting what you are (it's crucial to be sincere about the starting point], meaning a worm, and in stopping to analyze the past to get a better future (= the strategy of men, which remains inside hedonism (even though they claim that it is not, and in practice is is clearly not), but even more nihilistic than the feminine hedonism, once they are beaten by women] and in stopping to take what you desire, feel and think seriously [=the hedonism of the woman, and the fueling of this hedonism by men].
Women are wrong for having faith in what they desire, in thinking that this is relevant to ones life
they are a bit wrong to let men spend their life trying to serve women.
Men are wrong to try to play with women, which is just serving women
men are wrong, after being defeated, to be resentful towards women
men are wrong to think, after being defeated, that the solution is to be even more nihilistic than women in dwelling in hedonism of the will
The lack of efficacy of the masculine life leads to a narcissism (contrary to men), but without egotism (contrary to women), a more equanimous and benevolent stance towards what is desired, felt and thought. At this point, you stop looking at hedonism of the body [=the feminine hedonism], turn towards hedonism of the soul [what religious call it], spirit, consciousness [what buddhists call it] [=the hedonism of the mild ascetic, the hedonism that most men fail to see and the one that women love to think that they embody (women love to think that they are not as egotistic as they are, that they embody a humanist stance)] and then you understand that even this is doomed to be disappointing, so you refuse it until you stop caring about this one too.
by the way, the shot of Don the baby going into the ocean in california in some early season reminds you of his attempt to communicate this
>>70700983
>>70701005
This reads like the diary excerpts of a serial killer. Not even about Mad Men.
Pretty good look at the pitch man.
One pitch I really like the the playtex pitch, mainly because it shows how Don sees most of his mistresses and wives, a jackie or a marilyn. The interesting part though is that all of his mistresses are a jackie, a motherly character.
>teacher who is motherly to children
>jewish wife across the hall is a mother who cares for her child
>megan who was good with sally
Then the marilyns of his life
>betty, a pretty bad mother
>faye, who wasnt good with childre
>the original mrs. Draper, who had no children
I dont know if this was on purpose, but its still interesting to think about.
>>70700983
>>70701005
Some heady stuff there mane. Its kind of disjointed and lacking a lot of empathy for the average joe (not use friendly wordage) but I get it.
It does seem like you already had this written out and it is an excerpt from something.
>>70701184
The scary thing is I think I sound like this when I write things out sometime.
