dualities throughout the film

Here are a few thoughts of mine on Old Joy. It seemed to me like the film brought up the idea of the dual nature of things a couple of times. The most obvious to me was difference between Mark and Kurt's characters and lifestyles. Other posters have said how at times both characters obviously envied the other's life. But it was very easy for me to identify with both Kurt and Mark so that I see them not really as individuals but as possibilities. For me, Kurt and Mark sum up the only two real alternatives for most people of their generation (myself included).

Secondly, the distinction between town and country. The city is the reality of everyday, a place of necessity, whereas the woods are escape and a place for the soul. Where truths are told. But Kurt also says that they are actually just the same "trees in the city and junk in the woods".

At the hot springs, where Kurt recounts his dream, he tells Mark that "sorrow is just worn out joy". This implies a reciprocal relationship between sorrow and joy, so that they are really just two different states of the same thing.

Ok... this one is a bit of a stretch but Kurt also mentions taking physics classes. Well, quantum physics contains one of the greatest and most well known of all natural dualities, namely the 'wave-particle duality' where how we perceive the physical world depends on how we choose to look at it.

So, I don't know if this makes any sense to anyone, but it seemed like quite a recurring theme to me or perhaps I'm just obsessed with dualities ;-)