#laura died and took the braincell with her

[audreyvolodia]

'Til the Curtains Fall

*BOJACK HORSEMAN SPOILERS*

The Sarah Lynn archetype never ceases to draw me in. The child star exemplifies the consequences of wholly sacrificing the self to Hollywood and in turn, being replaced by a brand. A brand accompanied by hollowing depravistic tendencies, dependent on how long the fleeting so-called 'IT' girl can tread the fluids of her fans' gluttony, lust and greed, before being encapsulated by the thick, gloopy mess that is the culture under discussion.

Philosophical discourse arises in a game of 'Best Part, Worst Part.' A game indulged in by those who died most affectually throughout Bojack's existence. For instance, Jeremy Benthem's utilitarian 'Pain v. Pleasure' approach was first dissected through a more individualistic lens. Corduroy, Bojack's ex- co-worker on the set of Secretariat denounces this argument. He learnt that seeking maximum pleasure for one's self leads to ends to be likened with his own pathetic death. On the plate in front of Corduroy sits the lemon he used as a gag, representing the sour taste of dying young, restless and unsatisfied.

Topics of gernerosity and sacrifice are briefly thawed out before Sarah Lynn interrupts to defensively exclaim that she was the one to perform the ultimate sacrifice in giving everything of herself to the entertainment industry. The tonality of her speech comes across panicky and desperate as she comes to the realisation of her wasted pain and insignificance.On her silver platter sits a boxed fast food meal. A quick, commercialised and under-nourishing fix. Bojack's mother ridicules and undermines Sarah Lynn's claims to selflessness, which of course is predictable of her character. However, the group was arguing for the act of maximising pleasure and minimising pain, through generosity and sacrifice. A key factor that distinguishes Benthem's approach when interpreted on the grandest scale (in contrast to Corduroy's narrative) is that its not the amount of overall pleasure to be measured by the amount of people effected. The pleasure's nature in itself is therefore irrelevant. On more than one occasion, it is acknowledged that Sarah Lynn is far more famous than Bojack, or at least holds more influence over the public. So if it does not matter how shallow or fabricated one's pleasure may be and maximising the pleasure of the bulk of humanity was the key to fulfillment, then Sarah Lynn lived 'the good life.' A better life than the rest of those at the dinner table, indulging in one another's morbidity. So, if Benthem uses the terms 'pleasure' and 'happiness' interchangeably, as though synonymous, then shouldn't Sarah Lynn be the happiest person Bojack knows? In a world dotted with countless Sarah Lynns, Amy Winehouses, Marylin Monroes Britney Spearses and even Laura Palmers, then why would celebrities so thoroughly immersed in this culture submit themselves to suicide, like Bojack and Secretariat did?

And speaking of Bojack, the dreamer of this entire scene who towers over Sarah Lynn and his mother at the head of this table. He is perched in front of a pile of multi-coloured pills that he has possibly already consumed before his big 'swim' in real life. Prepositioned under the drip-drip-dripping of consuming death that he has thrown himself into, sits the shell of what was once a home to the horse-man, before he took the first steps of what was known in hollywood as 'The Bojack Dance.' In retracing his steps, as the late Joan Didion warned us may happen in her essay on self-respect: 'finds no one home.'

Like the walls of the dingy hall that separates strip club from crack den (presented in the last version of the Bojack Horseman intro),the words, Bojack Kills are graffitied onto the walls of Bojack's mind. The overarching mentality impurifies the braincells in its sickly green colour, framed in poisonous fumes. No matter how hard Bojack tries to scrub his psyche clean of the stubborn, looming phrase, his inner vandaliser always seems to return in the darkness to execute an additional coat of paint.

#bojack horseman #sarah lynn #utilitarianism #the view from halfway down #epicureanism