The Anxiety of Positive Thinking

Why is it so hard to imagine things will turn out well?

I've been thinking a lot this week about the film Barcelona by Whit Stillman (1994). This isn't so strange. It's one of my favorite movies by one of my favorite directors so I think about it a lot.

It is about two Americans in Barcelona, Fred (Chris Eigeman) and Ted (Taylor Nichols) who starred together in Stillman's first film, Metropolitan. In this film, Fred is a naval officer who comes to Spain to crash with Ted, his cousin, who is living abroad and working in sales.

They're a classic Odd Couple: Fred is rude and impulsive, while Ted is meek and self-conscious. Much of the story revolves around Fred trying to get Ted to be more confident in his romantic life, and to sleep with more sexually liberated European women. (Think Swingers, but Ivy League and in Europe.)

Anyway, Fred tends to mock Ted's hyper-focus on business and sales, particularly Ted's penchant for reading lots of

Fred: “Every day, in every way, I’m becoming a better and better lieutenant junior grade. Every day...”

Ted:

“What you are referring to is autosuggestion, popularized by Coué during the twenties, but totally unserious. What I’m talking about has nothing to do with that.”

Hubris always wins in the end. The Greeks taught us that.

go outside, turn around three times and spit. What the hell's the matter with you?