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Reader comments on Grizzly Man
Response to this comment:
What was wrong with Timothy?
I watched the documentary Grizzly Man with the same sort of fascination that you study a car accident at the side of the road. Granted, there was footage he had taken that was nothing short of masterful and I do believe that anyone who journals an animal subject is bound to make observations that can help science.
What fascinated me, however, was that it was clear from the beginning that thgis was a seriously disturbed person, probably bipolar, who was self-medicating himself with the implaccable magic fantasyland of a child. He didn't understand bears, and Herzog is absolutely correct when he says he didn't understand nbature. How could he? He didn't - - as he himself says often enough - - understand himself. This was an individual who needed treatment at an early age and a sad testimony to the choices brilliant humans make when their illness is allowed to progress. Harzog's film even includes a classic episode of decompensation as Treadwell's paranoia and fear becomes full blown in an interminable diatribe agains the NPS during which he declares himself the only human protector of bears, beloved by the bears - - between the continuous beeps that appeared to be editing the word "fuck." The bears were his friends. Well, reality is that animals don't have "friends." They have mater, they have members of their pack, and they have prey. Although Treadwell professed he knew the danger, in fact, he thought he knew the bears well enough to trust them and on his last night apparently left his tent to "talk" a bear into leaving.
When I was 5, a friend of mine who's father worked at the zoo took me to see a panther. The panther rolled over, puurred, rubbed against the cage near where I stood. It was just a big kitty, so IO stuck my hand in. To this day, I cannot forget the flash of movement as the panther pounced on me. He caught my sleeve, thank God, and was pulled from it by his keepers. And I learned the lesson that Treadwell apparently never learned, Some animals can be socialised and some can't. Bears can't. A part of me agrees with the guy in the documentary who said he got what he was asking for ... and he got what he deserved. What right did he have to proclaim himself "king of the bears." That's a delusion folks, and he needed help. It's his girlfriend I can't figure out.
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Comment index:
sad from michael, Feb 6, 2006
grizzly from Paulina Jick, Feb 16, 2006
HEY from Paulina jick, Feb 2, 2008
» Re: What was wrong with Timothy? « from kevin, Sep 8, 2006
timy from jayro, Mar 5, 2006
idk from idk, Feb 5, 2007
idk from idk, Feb 8, 2007
sad from michael, Feb 6, 2006
grizzly from Paulina Jick, Feb 16, 2006
HEY from Paulina jick, Feb 2, 2008
» Re: What was wrong with Timothy? « from kevin, Sep 8, 2006
timy from jayro, Mar 5, 2006
idk from idk, Feb 5, 2007
idk from idk, Feb 8, 2007
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