Roger Ebert: The Essential Man

Edwin Unzalu

Creative Writing

Blog 2

Roger Ebert: The Essential Man

Chris Jones

I was extremely moved by this profile. Now you may think that my reaction comes from the harsh trials Mr.Ebert seems to continue to withstand but it isn’t. If my emotional response came from pity I would be no different than the people that linger when they speak to him, speak slowly to him and even worse the lady who wrote in his pad to communicate. My emotion came about because this profile truly portrays the power of words. Not from a stance of pity, superiority or sadness or even blind admiration. Jones captures the truth of Ebert’s life, its struggles and triumphs, in a narrative that seamlessly merges his observations with the wisdom dispensed from countless Post-it notes, ripped pieces of paper and generic computerized voices. Jones captured me with his unbiased poeticism. When he is describing Ebert’s use of music to cope with his hospital stays and when the final artery burst in Ebert’s jaw right before he leaves; of this Jones writes “ Had he made it out of his hospital room and been on his way home—had his artery waited just a few more songs to burst—Ebert would have bled to death on Lake Shore Drive.

Jones also has an interesting way of showing us the sequence of Ebert’s life in which he takes his last drink, eats his last meal and says his last words to his wife. It propels the reader to think about the last times they did these things. I think this technique of making the reader think of their own life while reading about someone else’s was most striking to me. When Jones does this I am able to empathize not just sympathize. Sympathy means pity, sympathy looks, sometimes superficially, for a silver lining. But when the author builds your perspective from the most basic to the most complex while continuing time and time again to highlight the wisdom and passion and humanity within his subject we as the reader begin to empathize which unlike sympathy, empathy looks to feel with the person-- understand-- and never pity. Empathy leaves room for admiration and true appreciation. Empathy encourages amazement not only of the fact that Ebert is a survivor and the first film critic to win the Pulitzer or a tv staple, but also for the fact that he smiles with his eyes, he makes it to events, he continues to write and continues to reach new levels of writing with his online journal and continued print work.

He is much more than a list of misfortunes who can inevitably smile through it all. He is someone who reminisces sometimes, pretends like everything's as it once was sometimes, panics about internet connection and can also get angry at the thought of a lost memory of a lost friend. He continues to be human at a level that we may possibly never understand but through the merger of his voice with Jones’ I would like to believe I’m a bit closer to understanding his wisdom. Like when he says of death: I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear.