The Importance of Continuity
Continuity is not something we can always depend on in real life. Since no one knows what the future holds, one cannot hear, "I want to be an astronaut" from a five year old and assume that that is set in stone. It might happen, it might not. Just because one has a job at this present moment does not mean it will be the same in five years. Many factors threaten our peaceful existence and the continuation of that existence, and we've accepted that.
In fiction, we can count on it a bit more. We can accept that the level of water in a glass in a movie won't change between shots. That is the job of the script supervisor. Foreshadowing is a type of continuity. A common example of foreshadowing is that if there is a gun in the first chapter then it will be used by the tenth chapter. If a gun was introduced but later completely forgotten, one would wonder why it was even there in the first place, except to throw the audience off.
Rarely foreshadowing happen in real life. Rarely does something fit so perfectly as a precursor to another without being planned. But there are some times, in history and perhaps in your own life, that make you wonder if we're all living in a big story, and some things have been a bit dramatized for the audience's enjoyment.
From 1872-1890 (much more so in the last ten years), Vincent Van Gogh and his brother Theo exchanged hundreds of letters. Theo was Vincent's emotional and financial support and, being an art dealer, was able to offer advice to the painter. Both brothers suffered from mental issues throughout their lives.
Theo, always being the more organized one, saved every letter that he received from his brother throughout the years and, because of that, we're able to have an astoundingly accurate and personal record of the life of the tortured artist. However, being the notable mess that he was, Vincent never saved any of Theo's letters. Therefore, we only have half the conversation, and have a lot more personalization of Vincent than Theo.
This brings me to my real point. In a very early letter, Vincent advised his brother to "smoke a pipe if he felt downcast, an idea that he had taken from Dickens, who recommended tobacco as a remedy for suicide." (The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh, page 4). Van Gogh believed in many different, and sometimes questionable, ailments to his troubles. He famously tried to eat yellow paint to get the happiness inside him (he talked a lot of how much he loved yellow. "It stands for the sun"). So, it is no doubt that he believed this would help him with his depression.
Vincent Van Gogh shot himself on July 27, 1890. Paul Gachet, who'd treated Van Gogh in the past, arrived first, and did not believe things to be as bad as they were. He sent a note to Theo, nonetheless, who was in Paris. Theo arrived as soon as he could, and watched his brother die in the early hours of July 29, 1890.
Why did Gachet believe things weren't so bad, despite the bullet hole in the artist's stomach? Well, Van Gogh looked to be holding his own, sitting in bed, smoking a pipe.
The very same thing he'd recommended as a remedy for suicide more than fifteen years earlier.
Vincent Van Gogh had breakdowns throughout his life. He cut off his ear, he ate yellow paint, he got in a fight with his dad when he wouldn't let him date his cousin. Though recovery was often difficult, he usually came to terms quite quickly. Is it possible that he had a breakdown in the fields that day, and, when he realized what he'd done, hopelessly tried to remedy it the only way he knew how?
Perhaps we'll never know, but for the time being, we can revel in the magnificent coincidence of continuity, of real life foreshadowing, that appeared in the beginning and end of the famed artist's career.
(Photos by me; definition from Google Dictionary; info/ quotes from The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh, Penguin Classics 1997)
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