Chapter 2: How narrative serves the character to escape.
“Metaphysical can of worms”, which is mentioned by Craig in Being John Malkovich can be justified with psychological analysis, however there is a more of a parapsychological introduction for the inciting incident which has being used by Charlie Kaufman in both of analysed films.
Figure 2, Personal drawing
Parapsychology roots are coming from phenomena of “paranormal” studies. And it refers to events which are beyond our understanding, in terms of current scientific knowledge. This, places paranormal experiences outside of orthodox science.
Both Craig and Michael according to my findings in the first chapter of this essay are characters with certain psychological issues which prevents them to feel accomplished in their love-life. Their subconscious rebellious behaviour forces them to fall in love with the subject of their sexual affection. If we break down the structure of the first act for both films, inciting incident happens when characters are meeting the women of their fantasies.
If we look at specific accidents which had happened previously to the inciting incident it can be proved that Michael was motivated by lust. Upon his arrival to the hotel he catches a guy in the window across the street masturbating. Later, he gets turned down for sex by the woman who was once special to him. The following scene is him mistaking a toy shop with a sex shop and being stunned by the beauty of a Japanese sex-doll. The doll has a unique voice, as does Lisa, the girl who he hears after the moment his sanity unravels. A lot of parapsychological signs have been introduced by Kaufman. As well as the unique voice, Lisa has the same scar above her eyebrow as the Japanese doll. At the end of the film we find out that Lisa happened to have a Japanese dictionary. All these facts could be reinterpreted as Michael hallucinated about meeting Lisa and him creating a surreal paranormal world where in reality he had sex with a doll but not with Lisa. However, this theory is not valid if we take into consideration one of the last scenes of the film. The scene where for the first time Michael is not present, which in my opinion is an indication of Lisa being real. As well as this, Lisa has a unique voice again. Michael’s character can be described as anything from a merely narcissistic womanizer all the way to a damaged, lonely, desperate, self-destructive man whose behavior is reflective of having spent his life chasing something that he's beginning to realise never existed at all. The moment when he loses part of his face, he subconsciously takes off the mask and reveals his “true” self to the world and gains the ability to love again.
Figure 3, Scene from Anomalisa
Dr. Walter Von Lucadou5 in his presentation - “Parapsychology – a Challenge for Science”, mentions the experiment which has been scientifically conducted and indicates that power of thought occurs on an everyday basis and can be considered as “real”. Figure 2 (p.6) demonstrates that the parallel universe created by Kaufman was causes by parapsychological influence of Craig himself. As well as Michael, Craig rejects his environment. His abilities were questioned by Lotte, who asks him about his work. After his inner ego was doubted he rebels against her and finds affection for Maxine, who is the complete opposite of his wife. According to the first act break-down (fig. 2) we see that both characters are facing the parapsychological abnormality after they meet the subjects of their fantasies. Caused by lack of love or sexual satisfaction they project their thoughts to the universe, which later challenges their beliefs and behavior. Of course, it can be argued that the climax happens per parapsychological accident and not their psychological unconsciousness.
Nevertheless, sexual affection outside marriage as well as parapsychology is considered sinful. By the accident or not the writer uses forbidden actions to present an abnormal climax which leads to the character’s moral development or punishment.