Notes on: The Holdovers
Watch for 1-4-7 Harmonic Triad Themes Here— this is the triad of Idealists. Type 4 notices that the Ideal is missing, Type 7 gets excited and adds to the Ideal Vision, and Type 1 focuses on Working To Enact the Ideal. Watch Paul Giamatti present an arc of development accessible to anyone (directly connected to or) living in Type One.
Opening scenes… One of a *hard-working academic professor* wanting to work but a colleague has cookies for him. A Type-One Theme: Devaluing Pleasure vs Idealizing Work. Student boys are fighting and eating. There is a hard-working kitchen woman who will be a solid force in this story.
————--
Paul Hunham is a teacher who has to “stay back for holiday work” bc colleague Mr Endicott lies and says he must be away for the holidays bc his mother has Lupus. (This is tension from the presence of a Point 7 Rationalization for Freedom and Pleasure). Paul says “Not for ourselves alone. Are we born.” Quoting Cicero when he clearly doesn’t want to do it ((Reaction Formation as the primary defense mechanism of Type Ones: Make A Case For What You Actually Do Not Want— Defend the Ideal, Not Your Gut)). He defends his old-fashioned strict ways to the dean, a former student.
“Our one true purpose is to develop men of great character “ he quotes the founder’s ideals…. Doesn’t want to “sacrifice our integrity on the altar of their entitlement…”. One’s highly value INTEGRITY as a primary value, and can die on the hill for what they think it is.
They disagree about not giving a student a passing grade— on principle.
This is an ethics/standards/do-the-right tight man… all in just the first few scenes. A Type One Tight Upright Rule-Following Standard in the presence of Young Men Mayhem. Ultimately we see that Christmas is about Pleasure (7), but this holiday is being run by a (1) Idealist who wants Work to be done. The boys will have to “work hard”’to overcome all their grade Ds upon return. No rest for the wicked.
MARY is the 4 Grief/Depth/Feeling in this Movie. She won’t leave the campus bc she wouldn’t want the memory of her son who died to think she was abandoning him. ❤️ Angus Tully is disappointed/hurt at being left behind by his mother.
Then the small group feels “punished” by their Christmas vacation schedule…. “Adversity builds character”… Ones and Twos ‘preach’ sometimes to model and teach appropriate behavior.
Mary questions Hunham’s **Resentment (Type 1 Vice)** over the students’ ease of life and privilege. She says “You don’t know that.” She admits her son hated him: “Said you were a real asshole.”
“The foregoing of pleasures for spiritual endeavors…” Paul says he has done, with (Type 2 Wing) Pride. Mary says “You can’t even dream a whole dream can you?” (Type 9 Wing Self Forgetting/Self-Control). He doesn’t think he knows enough to write an entire book, just a Monograph. ONE!!!
Tully *lies* for Hunham to save his job. Hunham says “Barton men don’t do that. Barton men don’t lie.” Pointing to the ethics, but he agrees to it. A great part of a humanizing arc for Type One Characters— it’s not all about following the rules/standards. (I mean— Jesus did heal on The Sabbath, didn’t he?)
What the waitress says about the dean is *joking* about Reaction Formation (Type One Defense Mechanism)— saying overtly the man is a pompous asshole vs a respectable man, and they laugh.
(Mary’s son Curtis Lamb is an example of the one Barton Boy who wasn’t privileged to skip the draft. He is part of Hunham’s *Resentment* at the boys and school— which he attended himself.)
“There’s a Purity (Type 1 Perfectionist) to it… every child is an Artist (Type 4 The Romantic)… it’s just how to remain an artist…”. Niece Elise says in basement at party. Tully doing finger painting: “Am I doing this right?” “There’s no right way, are you trying to look down my shirt?” Yes. No. Here is Type One tension theme: How do I live with what my gut/animal/id wants and does… and the mind/idealists/super-ego says I should want and do?
“I thought I could make a difference…”. Hunham says… the major thing that Type Ones want: TO BE USEFUL.
General Theme that relates to the 891 Triad: DO I MATTER? A theme so pronounced in this film: “You are not who I wanted to be with.” “I am not who you wanted to be with.” “Do I really matter?” Tully wonders if he matters. Hunham wonders if he matters. Mary wonders if she and her son matter. Holdovers. Who matters??? They make themselves matter, assure themselves. He could disappear and “No one will care…” Tully says
The confession about how he left Harvard explains his Resentment of privileged boys and his Idealism for the school. And also a trap-door on righting wrongs— a One trait. They can rationalize poor behavior with reframed standards: shadow side of the type.
Paul comes to see not every “privileged boy” is what he seems, loosens the RESENTMENT felt by so many Ones; Tully and Paul both “lost” parents as kids, and are on Librium. Mary lost her son and is lost too. Maybe this is a story that shows the compassion I see in Ones who are healthy— they drop judgement and realize that everyone has challenges and is trying their best with what they have been given.
EVERYBODY! Listen to the Final Song: LISTEN!!!
The lyrics are grand. “Crying (Type 4) vs Laughing (Type 7) does somebody some Good (Type 1)… Loving, Lying….Why Am I Lying Now?”
Watch for 1-4-7 Harmonic Triad Themes Here— this is the triad of Idealists. Type 4 notices that the Ideal is missing, Type 7 gets excited and adds to the Ideal Vision, and Type 1 focuses on Working To Enact the Ideal. Watch Paul Giamatti present an arc of development accessible to anyone (directly connected to or) living in Type One.
Opening scenes… One of a *hard-working academic professor* wanting to work but a colleague has cookies for him. A Type-One Theme: Devaluing Pleasure vs Idealizing Work. Student boys are fighting and eating. There is a hard-working kitchen woman who will be a solid force in this story.
————--
Paul Hunham is a teacher who has to “stay back for holiday work” bc colleague Mr Endicott lies and says he must be away for the holidays bc his mother has Lupus. (This is tension from the presence of a Point 7 Rationalization for Freedom and Pleasure). Paul says “Not for ourselves alone. Are we born.” Quoting Cicero when he clearly doesn’t want to do it ((Reaction Formation as the primary defense mechanism of Type Ones: Make A Case For What You Actually Do Not Want— Defend the Ideal, Not Your Gut)). He defends his old-fashioned strict ways to the dean, a former student.
“Our one true purpose is to develop men of great character “ he quotes the founder’s ideals…. Doesn’t want to “sacrifice our integrity on the altar of their entitlement…”. One’s highly value INTEGRITY as a primary value, and can die on the hill for what they think it is.
They disagree about not giving a student a passing grade— on principle.
This is an ethics/standards/do-the-right tight man… all in just the first few scenes. A Type One Tight Upright Rule-Following Standard in the presence of Young Men Mayhem. Ultimately we see that Christmas is about Pleasure (7), but this holiday is being run by a (1) Idealist who wants Work to be done. The boys will have to “work hard”’to overcome all their grade Ds upon return. No rest for the wicked.
MARY is the 4 Grief/Depth/Feeling in this Movie. She won’t leave the campus bc she wouldn’t want the memory of her son who died to think she was abandoning him. ❤️ Angus Tully is disappointed/hurt at being left behind by his mother.
Then the small group feels “punished” by their Christmas vacation schedule…. “Adversity builds character”… Ones and Twos ‘preach’ sometimes to model and teach appropriate behavior.
Mary questions Hunham’s **Resentment (Type 1 Vice)** over the students’ ease of life and privilege. She says “You don’t know that.” She admits her son hated him: “Said you were a real asshole.”
“The foregoing of pleasures for spiritual endeavors…” Paul says he has done, with (Type 2 Wing) Pride. Mary says “You can’t even dream a whole dream can you?” (Type 9 Wing Self Forgetting/Self-Control). He doesn’t think he knows enough to write an entire book, just a Monograph. ONE!!!
Tully *lies* for Hunham to save his job. Hunham says “Barton men don’t do that. Barton men don’t lie.” Pointing to the ethics, but he agrees to it. A great part of a humanizing arc for Type One Characters— it’s not all about following the rules/standards. (I mean— Jesus did heal on The Sabbath, didn’t he?)
What the waitress says about the dean is *joking* about Reaction Formation (Type One Defense Mechanism)— saying overtly the man is a pompous asshole vs a respectable man, and they laugh.
(Mary’s son Curtis Lamb is an example of the one Barton Boy who wasn’t privileged to skip the draft. He is part of Hunham’s *Resentment* at the boys and school— which he attended himself.)
“There’s a Purity (Type 1 Perfectionist) to it… every child is an Artist (Type 4 The Romantic)… it’s just how to remain an artist…”. Niece Elise says in basement at party. Tully doing finger painting: “Am I doing this right?” “There’s no right way, are you trying to look down my shirt?” Yes. No. Here is Type One tension theme: How do I live with what my gut/animal/id wants and does… and the mind/idealists/super-ego says I should want and do?
“I thought I could make a difference…”. Hunham says… the major thing that Type Ones want: TO BE USEFUL.
General Theme that relates to the 891 Triad: DO I MATTER? A theme so pronounced in this film: “You are not who I wanted to be with.” “I am not who you wanted to be with.” “Do I really matter?” Tully wonders if he matters. Hunham wonders if he matters. Mary wonders if she and her son matter. Holdovers. Who matters??? They make themselves matter, assure themselves. He could disappear and “No one will care…” Tully says
The confession about how he left Harvard explains his Resentment of privileged boys and his Idealism for the school. And also a trap-door on righting wrongs— a One trait. They can rationalize poor behavior with reframed standards: shadow side of the type.
Paul comes to see not every “privileged boy” is what he seems, loosens the RESENTMENT felt by so many Ones; Tully and Paul both “lost” parents as kids, and are on Librium. Mary lost her son and is lost too. Maybe this is a story that shows the compassion I see in Ones who are healthy— they drop judgement and realize that everyone has challenges and is trying their best with what they have been given.
EVERYBODY! Listen to the Final Song: LISTEN!!!
The lyrics are grand. “Crying (Type 4) vs Laughing (Type 7) does somebody some Good (Type 1)… Loving, Lying….Why Am I Lying Now?”
| wagner_type_one.pdf |
| description_type_1_the_perfectionist.pdf |
To be of use
By Marge Piercy
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
Marge Piercy, "To be of use" from Circles on the Water. Copyright © 1982 by Marge Piercy. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Source: Circles on the Water: Selected Poems of Marge Piercy (Alfred A. Knopf, 1982)
By Marge Piercy
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
Marge Piercy, "To be of use" from Circles on the Water. Copyright © 1982 by Marge Piercy. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Source: Circles on the Water: Selected Poems of Marge Piercy (Alfred A. Knopf, 1982)