Exploration of co-existence of free will and determinism through fantasy lives in media
Spoiler alert: This essay will discuss the plot of "The Midnight Library" and "Everything Everywhere All at Once."
In this essay, Jane Harness, D.O., explores the philosophical idea of “compatibilism” - the co-existence of determinism and free will – and how this is represented in media.
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Media creators have explored the idea of fantasy lives to work through curiosity about the purpose of enduring through suffering. This leads to wondering whether our life’s course of events are determined from the beginning or whether we have free will. In taking the best of both philosophies, one may accept what has happened and believe in the personal agency to change what could be. Taking on a “compatibilist” philosophy (the belief in the co-existence of determinism and free will) could bolster protective factors for suicide by helping an individual to acknowledge the specialness of their presence in time and space while also helping them to believe in their personal power to pursue their idea of a life worth living.
The song “As” by Stevie Wonder shares a message of unending, unconditional love in any interpretation that brings the listener comfort. The stanza:
“We all know sometimes life's hates and troubles
Can make you wish you were born in another time and space
But you can bet your life times that and twice its double
That God knew exactly where he wanted you to be placed.”
stands out in particular as compatibilist. The free-will part of this stanza “wish you were born in another time and space” invites the listener to envision an imagined other life: one with less pain. Asking a person to envision their existence in another time or space allows them to pick and choose what they like about this life that they would take with them to their new fantasy life (and in doing so bolstering their reasons for living in this life). They might imagine a life where they are not depressed or anxious, for which a health professional can instill hope for improvement with treatment. Imagining a life worth living can present an individual with actionable goals to work towards and instill a sense of agency about changing their life course which is the potentially suicide-protective part of the free-will philosophy.
The next lyric, “That God knew exactly where he wanted you to be placed,” is more deterministic. It may be helpful to accept the aspects of determinism that are comforting and give us purpose. The introduction of “God” in this lyric as a benevolent paradigm may be helpful to some, but determinism as a philosophy can be separate from theism. Finding meaning in hardship and suffering is not new to the field of psychiatry as it is the basis of logotherapy, described by Viktor Frankl, author of “Man’s Search for Meaning.” Logotherapy is difficult to grasp when applied to cases of extreme suffering, however Frankl gives an example that when someone survives their partner, their partner is spared the heartache of losing them.
These themes also appear in books and movies. In The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, the main character attempts suicide, and finds herself in a library in which she can pick from an infinite number of lives representing different pathways she could have taken. She experiences life as an Olympic swimmer, a rockstar, a life where her cat is alive, a life where she marries an ex, etc. The moment she experiences any disappointment with these lives, she is brought back to the library to choose a new life. The last life she tries out is a life with a man who showed her simple kindness in her root life. In this life, her will to live is fortified, and she makes it back to her root life where she realizes the positive impact that her life had on others. Determinism is evident in the reader’s observation of the specialness and “supposed-to-be-ness” of her existence. Free will is demonstrated in that she ultimately wants to live and takes action to make her life better. A determinist would believe that all events were “written in the stars” and a compatibilist would add: up until the present moment.
The book The Midnight Library makes a number of references to “building a life worth living” which is a pillar of DBT and the name of its founder, Marsha Linehan’s, book. However, asking if someone wished that they existed in another time or space is different from asking about what a life worth living would look like because it involves an individual’s whole life (past, present and future) rather than just looking at the future. In doing so, we combine the free will of moving towards a life worth living, and also the determinism that their historical existence and place in the world is special. Asking someone if they wished they existed in another time or space could initiate problem solving toward change (free will) and finding purpose in and/or acceptance of their past (determinism).
“Everything Everywhere All At Once” also demonstrates compatibilism as it explores the idea of all possible worlds. Infinite worlds are conceivable when infinite personal choices could create infinite simultaneous possible worlds. This idea is pushed to the extreme when “verse jumping” involves doing any number of statistically improbable actions such as chewing Chapstick or putting hand sanitizer in one’s eyes. Those are unlikely choices for people to make, but possible choices nonetheless, with their own associated worlds. The movie explores the idea that there are infinite worlds, and in each world, the main characters have a story and a developed skill-set based on the combination of variables that came together to make that world. The existence of these infinite, but pre-determined worlds is more consistent with determinism. However, because of the existence of time (that things happen in sequence- one after another) we also appreciate free-will. This is best exemplified when the mother and daughter reconcile and demonstrate that their love for one another exists even when they are in a world where they are both rocks. In the end, a singular story of reunion plays out in the true timeline. Our consciousness allows for one consecutive series of events in time as we decide the next event (free-will) rather than every possible world existing simultaneously (determinism), however there was one possible world that existed up until this point (compatibilism).
The transcendental existence of love is also demonstrated in “As” by Stevie Wonder. He sings, “That I'll be loving you always…Until the dolphin flies and parrots live at sea…Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream…Until the day that you are me and I am you.” One could interpret the same meaning from this song: as we approximate the impossible through an infinite number of increasingly improbable worlds, love still exists. In other words, love exists forever. In “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” the main characters discuss something feeling “off” because of Jobu Tupaki’s interference with the multiverse. Evelyn wonders aloud, “how can we get back?” Maybe we are looking for a place (“home”) or time (“get back”) which are the words we end up using to mean love? Our human minds are searching for something that in its infinity is location-less and time-less (love), but we end up using the words for places and times. We might wish we were in another time or space because those are the words we have to describe both the memory and the promise of love. Determinism allows us to value the special-ness of our most beautiful memories and free will allows us to imagine that it could happen again.
