Where does Walter fit in?

[greatspiritmonk]

You can have your cake and eat it too.  Think of it as some sort of dialectical sort of thing.  Dude is the thesis.  Walter is the anti-thesis. 

Still, I must confess to having no idea what the synthesis is.  But as Hegel said, "The owl of Minerva spreads it's wings only with the falling of the dusk."

That's it, Dudeism needs a Third Way.  But I have no idea who will serve as our Buddha. 

The Dudely Lama?

[forumdude]

Ha ha. I wish I was anywhere near as awesome as the Dude or Walter.

I think there doesn't need to be a synthesis because, like the yin yang itself, the two sort of bleed into each other. the Dude sometimes becomes like Walter, and Walter sometimes out dudes the dude. This is also true of another great story: Don Quixote. Quixote and Sancho Panza sort of influence each other in the course of the book. See: https://www.h-net.org/~cervantes/csa/articw88/pope.htm

The Hegelian model (thesis, antithesis, synthesis - i.e. linear or perhaps a spiral) and the Yin Yang model (rise and fall of yin and yang - i.e. largely circular) are just models used to illustrate patterns. I don't think they are always congruent and perhaps apply to different types of abstractions.

Then again, you could say that the synthesis is the Tao, the path we walk through life, sometimes Dude, sometimes Walter - and maybe sometimes Donnie, sometimes Maude, sometimes Jackie, etc. Maybe the Dudeist yin yang has more than two sides? In other words, the synthesis between the Dude and Walter is the movement of history, the emergence of novelty, and the blathering of good stories.

All this being said, I'd hate to see people trying to cultivate their inner Walter. This isn't Sobchakism! Someone else can put that religion together. The world needs all kinds, but we're trying to make sure it doesn't run out of the Dude side of things. I'm sure the military industrial complex can keep us well stocked in Walters.

[greatspiritmonk]

If we could be able to think in more than three dimensions probably Tao would have more too. That's interesting.
"The world needs all kinds, but we're trying to make sure it doesn't run out of the Dude side of things."
This is pretty good, I dig your style man. 
And Sobchakism, that's great! At least it's an ethos, and much better than Nihilism.

Anihow I still vote for the Dudely Lama as our Dudely Buddha.  Or the Dudely Tzu. Or whathaveyou.

[DigitalBuddha]

Some people have labeled the Dude and Walter as "co-dependent." Personally I think "co-dependent" is bullshit psycho-babble crap out of the 80's.

I prefer to look at in a more positive light; that is to say that the Dude and Walter derived strength from each other throughout the movie. Problem is I'm not sure where Donny fit into the Dude and Walter. Donny always seems like a side line player in the whole scheme of things.

[greatspiritmonk]

I think they make a good Tao together.  Donny is, well, he was a surfer, but maybe he was too much Yin?

[Bartender]

Some people have labeled the Dude and Walter as "co-dependent." Personally I think "co-dependent" is bullshit psycho-babble crap out of the 80's.

I prefer to look at in a more positive light; that is to say that the Dude and Walter derived strength from each other throughout the movie. Problem is I'm not sure where Donny fit into the Dude and Walter. Donny always seems like a side line player in the whole scheme of things.

Donny was a good bowler.  They needed 3 bowlers to make a team and Donny, by his relaxed surfer nature, was able to get along with both Walter and the Dude, despite their polar opposite personalities.  He was the walrus.

[not_exactly_a_lightweight]

Thats the part I will never understand, there are 2 on a bowling team, 3 on a holy religious triumvirate.  So Liam and Jesus were kind of playing against a stacked deck, no chance in, um, well my opinion.

Dude Donny and Walter could rewrite the book on teamwork. Or scorecard, am I wrong? In general, Donny doesn't get the credit he deserves for pulling the plot together, you know, by not being there. Or meeting his maker, the ulimate nihilist, at the right time, before Arthur Digby Sellers. There is an unspoken message here.

[meekon5]

So are we saying our holy trinity is:

The Dude, Walter, and Donny?

[Bartender]

Thats the part I will never understand, there are 2 on a bowling team, 3 on a holy religious triumvirate.  So Liam and Jesus were kind of playing against a stacked deck, no chance in, um, well my opinion.

There are definitely three on each team, not two.  When Donny points at Smokey's team and says "You guys are dead in the water." you can clearly see three pacifists on the team.  

Same with Jesus and Liam, you can clearly see another pederast sitting behind and to the left of Liam just after Jesus throws his strike and points to them.

All the teams are trinities, just some are more holy than others, I'd say.

[Caesar dude]

Donny tied the whole film together.

Donny gets a strike everytime he bowls 'cept just before his heart attack.

Donny says profound things throughout the movie but is misheard, or not heard or ignored throughout.

Donny was a surfer in his youth...therefore by my experience of surfers, a chilled out guy always riding high on Adrenaline, asking profound Koans like "Where is the next wave?" 

Donny was a dude. He is never undude in the whole TBL experience. Even the Dude acts undude at some points.

But hey that's just like my opinion dudes.

[Caesar dude]

Donny tied the whole film together.

Donny gets a strike everytime he bowls 'cept just before his heart attack.

Donny says profound things throughout the movie but is misheard, or not heard, or ignored throughout.

Donny was a surfer in his youth...therefore by my experience of surfers, a chilled out guy always riding high on Adrenaline, asking profound Koans like "Where is the next wave?" 

Donny was a dude. He is never undude in the whole TBL experience. Even the Dude acts undude at some points.

But hey that's just like my opinion dudes.

[Caesar dude]

Sorry guys it posted twice...apologies....n caucasians all round...hey man I just got paid...spread the wealth

[Bartender]

Donny says profound things throughout the movie...

I agree... profound things like "Whatta need that for, Dude?" and "How come you don't bowl on Saturday Walter?".

These are important lines that really tie the movie together.

Donny is the only one who is never stressed throughout.  And the one time he encounters stress, he is so unaccustomed he experiences a heart attack and dies.

Truly, Donny is a victim of the Dude becoming very undude by being influenced by Walter and his desire to retrieve his valued possession.

I shall now quote Lao Tse in a proverb that I believe ties the whole story together...

"There is no greater curse than the lack of contentment;  
No greater sin than the desire for possession"
                          - Lao Tse

Donny dies for the sin of the Dude's lack of contentment and his desire for a possession, the rug.

[Caesar dude]

Hey Bartender,

Yeah and Donny also as a very limited backstory, we hear of Donny's past only in the heartfelt eulogy of Walter. Yet we can infer many things about Walter and the Dudes past throughout the movie.

Walter is a very underestimated but hugely powerful character.

But hey that's just my opinion man.

[Caesar dude]

Damn, clearly I lost my train of thought in that last post...I obviously meant Donny is underestimted but powerful....

Sheesh!