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Discussion
Leah Saulnier The Painting Maniac
9 Years Ago
I started this painting yesterday "The Last Man In The World" and am still working on it, but it got me thinking, how scary a thought it is if one was the only one left in the world! If you were the only one left ,what would you do or your thoughts? Who would you talk to if no one could hear you? It's so crazy to think about what madness it could be even for the most introverted of people out there. I should be done with this piece at the end of the week ,not sure I like my sky color along with the ground color. My model for this was "The Thinker" by Rodin since it fit the image in my mind so well, but I made some changes to it.
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9 Years Ago
Try reading Robinson Crusoe who was a castaway spending years alone on a remote tropical island near Trinidad.
9 Years Ago
I always get that feeling when going on a long backpacking trip - what if we came back and everyone was gone?
Leah Saulnier The Painting Maniac
9 Years Ago
not sure Melissa, haven't been there but scary thought, Thanks Jeffrey you are sweet, and Edward exactly, I bet some have come across that thought when backpacking hiking etc., But can you imagine one would have to learn how to brew their own beer on their own so sad :), or maybe that could be their new hobby lol
9 Years Ago
ummm, not sure I like dwelling on that train of thought! Who's gonna make my taco bell order, lol!
Leah Saulnier The Painting Maniac
9 Years Ago
actually Melissa on second thought, I was thinking about putting a bird on the rock near him like he is thinking about eating it lol, or just looking at it for vegetarians lol, what do you think?
9 Years Ago
I would run around naked and put my butt on things... (Yes, kinda like the Tom Green song: "My Bum Is On The Cheese.")
No judgement, no shame! :-D
9 Years Ago
An interesting hypothetical but I'd never realize I was the only one left... I'm too upbeat and realistic to believe I was the only one.I'd be hunting down others!
9 Years Ago
Leah, The saying that came to mind reading your op title question is "No Man Is an Island" and then I stumbled onto this poem, I am only posting part of it, the rest makes reference to God so I am just including the link for anyone that cares to read the rest of it.
“The man who fears to be alone will never be anything but lonely, no matter how much he may surround himself with people. But the man who learns, in solitude and recollection, to be at peace with his own loneliness, and to prefer its reality to the illusion of merely natural companionship, comes to know..........................................................................https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/169157-no-man-is-an-island
― Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
BTW, interesting concept for a painting!
9 Years Ago
I can hear Marlene now, "I know you are out there!!! You got matches? Send me smoke signals or something!"
9 Years Ago
Ha! Sydne, you know me...I just could never believe I'd be the last man standing!
There was a great Twilight Zone starring Burgess Meredith about this topic...only he wanted everyone to go away.....He loved to read and just wanted to spend the rest of his life alone, reading.
Well, the end of the world happened and he was, indeed, left alone..and on the steps of the city library with stacks of books he had organzied to read, one pile toppled over and shattered his coke bottle thick eyeglasses.
Be careful what you wish for!!
9 Years Ago
Would there still be animals? Cause that would be mental... animals would take over. Zero population control!
I'd probably just hop in a car - keep car and boat hopping and see what there is to see when people, boarders and red tape don't get in the way.
9 Years Ago
It's been years and years ago now - before I was married. I got up one Saturday morning and drove into the small town where I was living - it was perhaps 8:30. I drove for about 4 miles - there was not another car on the road nor did I see any person, nothing was moving on a beautiful day. It was spooky.
Very hopefully - it won't be me.
9 Years Ago
I saw that twilight zone episode.
Leah, I'm not sure about the bird, may be one with a word bubble that says "now look what you've done", magpie, crow, raven...with some others circling in the sky OR a big vulture!!! sitting across from the man with his head cocked....waiting...for 'his' dinner!
9 Years Ago
I would want some survivors to be my servants. Especially big strong men that could crack coconuts with their bare hands. And of course a great chef to prepare my fois gras and sushi. And at least one good pilot that could take me anywhere I wanted to go first class. (No more layover nightmares). Of course I would want at least one dentist...nothing worse than having to pull your own tooth. Oh, but wait...you said the last person. No way.
9 Years Ago
Alone... How Sweet it could be...
After seven years of wandering and trying to find another soul on my shortwave radio, i accepted the fact that i was the only person on Earth. The Last Man In The World so to speak. Now, in the middle of the night fifteen years later, there is a knocking at my door and i'm not sure i want to answer...
9 Years Ago
Well, if one were the only person left on earth, then nothing would matter. I like the spareness of this painting.
9 Years Ago
Hahahaa... Melissa, yeah i think that would make all your nerve endings stand at attention...
9 Years Ago
that and your heart beat out of your chest.....man, go write that twilight zone episode Ed!
9 Years Ago
There was a sci-fi yarn about that - in the end, the last person in the world, maddened by loneliness, jumped off a skyscraper. And then heard a phone ringing just before he hit the ground.
I guess we should spare a thought for Lonesome George http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonesome_George
9 Years Ago
If I was the only one left.... I'd probably go fishing!
Yeah, I'd probably still talk even though no one was around. I constantly talk to myself now...and to many of the fish I catch. :)
9 Years Ago
Even tho I love my solitude, like Marlene, eventually I would hunt down others cause could never believe I was the only one out there. Hee, hee!
9 Years Ago
I am going to hang around and make Ally THINK she is the last one left.
With or without that hat Amy!? lol
Leah Saulnier The Painting Maniac
9 Years Ago
Intense thoughts, very haunting Ed. It's interesting and fun to just imagine what if... I like Johns thought of going through Fedex and UPS trucks for fun, for some reason I think this piece would be cool on a Pink Floyd Album, I am thinking about showing Roger W and see if he likes the piece, it reminds me of another piece he owns of mine
9 Years Ago
I hope to God that I wouldn't talk to a volleyball painted with my handprint and name him Wilson or talk to mannequins like the guy did in Legend...I'm pretty sure I would do actually that though. Are you thinking there isn't any animals either?
9 Years Ago
We sort of have that problem now - there are folks that might as well be the 'last person' on earth in regards to anybody noticing them or their condition. Family don't care, 'friends' don't care, community don't care.
9 Years Ago
Jeff Kolker said he would pick a direction and start walking, which reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's, 'The Road:' The Man tries to protect the Boy from zombie-like marauders as they make their way east to the coast of what once was the US. But what was it that led to the sixth planetary extinction?
And that's my point, here. There has to be a reason for your unfortunate peril; you, being the lone survivor on Planet Earth. Into my mind come questions that temper all other thoughts: What happened to this world, and why am I the only survivor? What makes me so special?
Speaking of great stories, Bob Zemeckis,' Castaway, is one of those near-perfect examples of the ideal premise that every film should strive to convey: identity.
9 Years Ago
For a while I think I would live in Buckingham Palace.
Then once the caviar ran out I think I would probably take up residence in Harrods.
9 Years Ago
Possibly Put Abramovich's yacht on autopilot and run it aground on a sandy beach where I could jump ashore and see what living in the White House is like.
9 Years Ago
Wear the best designer cloths
Even when kicking in the doors of McDonald's to get a Coke.
9 Years Ago
I would walk along the beach hoping to be as lucky as major Nelson and maybe find a bottle with Barbra Eden inside.
Leah Saulnier The Painting Maniac
9 Years Ago
Fun thoughts everyone :)
9 Years Ago
Quite a depressing thought.
I hate being in crowds where every time I turn I run into someone and want to head for the hills but this guy wants it back at this point.
He needs HOPE.
An alien craft in the sky coming. Good or Bad?
Leah Saulnier The Painting Maniac
9 Years Ago
Depends on what they are serving for dinner Jim, they could be just tourist's lol, here I will go get one of my paintings as an example
9 Years Ago
I would find all the vision care shops and stock up on my contact lens prescription...wouldn't want to miss seeing something....particularly if it's KNOCKING ON MY DOOR ED!!!! lol ;o)
9 Years Ago
The theme of being the only person left in the world has been well contemplated in movies and books. One of the more recent was the movie, "I Am Legend" which is a 2007 British-American post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. It is the third feature film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same name, following 1964's The Last Man on Earth and 1971's The Omega Man.
One of my favorites however is the Twilight Zone episode, "Time Enough At Last!" starring Burgess Meridith as a book worm with coke bottle lens glasses who could never find enough time for his reading.
Storyline
Henry Bemis loves to read. The only problem is that he can find neither the time nor the place to enjoy his pastime. At work, his boss has let him know in no uncertain terms that he is not to read during working hours. At home, his shrewish wife won't even let him read a newspaper, let alone a book. One day, he sneaks down to the vault in the bank's basement to read a bit and suddenly, there is a huge explosion above. He emerges to find the world destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. He does find books from the library and he sees a great deal of reading time ahead of him. Except for one small unintended event.