Being There

After watching the film several times over the years -- but before reading the book -- I concluded that Being There was a prime candidate for one of the rare instances in which the cinematic version of a story was superior to the literature it was based on. The story is so simple and so much of it is communicated by expressions, gestures, and tone of voice that it seemed unlikely that the written word would be up to the task. Instead, finally reading this thin but ambitious effort showed me again that good writing trumps good cinema almost every time. To be sure, the film is good cinema. And the talented duo of Peter Sellers and Shirley McLean are so convincing in their silver screen roles that it is hard to imagine the characters they portray looking and sounding any different than the way they were played in the film (my effort to disassociate them from the story wasn't helped by the fact that my edition of the book has Mr. Sellers larger than life on its cover). Yet the book takes the story to another level. Chance, the main character, is still a fortunate simpleton, But in the book author Jerzy Kosinski can reveal what is happening in his head, the swirling and disconcerting mystery that even the most obvious events seem to someone like him. These passages add an unexpected depth and darkness to the story, which is without most of the comic relief so prominent in the film. The end result is a book that isn't the wry comedy with precision timing I expected after knowing the film so well but rather a biting and trenchant satire about the culture of modern media, politics, and business, and of the gullible nature of a people far too eager to follow anyone they think may be willing to lead.

BEING THERE is an absolute gem, a book worth reading at least once a decade to take a sounding of the world around you. In the childlike, tabula rasa of a simple-minded gardener named Chance, Kosinski has created a complex character who is both sponge and mirror. Out of "Chance, the gardener" comes Chauncey Gardiner, a man whose entire existence in the home and employment of the Old Man has been framed by what he has seen and absorbed from television and learned from his simple gardening job. Unable to read or write, his every action is refracted through the lens of his television "experience." Yet when Chance is unexpectedly released to the world at large as a result of the Old Man's (arguably his father's) death, he becomes a walking mirror, silenting reflecting back at everyone he meets that which they most want to hear and believe about him, and about themselves. More than Woody Allen's Zelig or Winston Groom's (and Tom Hanks's) Forrest Gump, Chance is the perfect empty vessel, the ultimate "other" whom we can each mold into exactly what we most want him to be. A "chance" coincidence lands an impeccably-dressed Chauncey in the hands of an aging but wealthy and influential financier named Benjamin Rand and his wife, EE, and their social and political connections soon put Chauncey in contact with the President, foreign ambassadors, television and the press. Gardiner's answers to questions draw upon his gardening knowledge, making them sound like profound parables and metaphors with unusually direct aptness and an almost Biblical depth of meaning. His listeners of course hear what they want to hear, and soon Chauncey Gardiner is a national celebrity and rising star in the world of commerce and even politics. Reading BEING THERE today, it seems hard to believe that Jerzy Kosinski wrote this wickedly funny short parable back in 1970. He was remarkably, albeit sadly, prescient. Consider the American situation today: vicarious thrill-seeking (Fear Factor, The Survivor) and ersatz depictions of reality (The Apprentice, The Loser, The Bachelor, The Contender) fill our television screens, we elevate the most brainless, talentless, or shameless people (Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, William Hung, Loreena Bobbit, Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson) to celebrity status, we look to pop cult advisors for guidance in our personal and cultural lives (Dr. Phil, Dr. Ruth, Oprah, Martha Stewart), and we elect (twice!) a President infamous for his intellectual dullness, lack of curiosity, ignorance of facts, disdain for newspapers and reading, and utter incapacity to string three spontaneous sentences together to express a meaningful original thought. If you don't believe BEING THERE remains a dead-on satire of American life and political culture, refer to Ron Suskind's discussion with a senior official in the Bush Administration (New York Times, 10/17/04) who asserted that guys like him (Suskind), opponents of this Administration, live "in what we call the rea

As most folks probably recall, 'Being There' was a Peter Sellers film some twenty years ago with the memorable line "I like to watch". The film was well done, both funny and sad in equal measures. Most folks probably don't realize the film was based on book by the late Jerzy Kosinski, written some ten years earlier. I decided to see how the book compares with the film. I'm delighted to say it fairs very well indeed. 'Being There' is a short novel about an illiterate, dim-witted man who had done literally nothing in life but garden. During his life he has engaged in limited social intercourse, and none of the other sort of intercourse. But his life completely changes when his guardian dies. Thrust into the world, the rich and beautiful people he meet view him as deep thinker ... interpreting his gardening statements as profound metaphores. He becomes an overnight sensation. Taken as a story by itself 'Being There' is just ordinary. The prose is adequate as are the characterizations. But 'Being There' is a scathing satire on how the most undeserving become stars in America. Clearly one can become a celeb without an ounce of intelligence or talent. Bottom line: if you enjoyed the film you'll really enjoy the book.

I first became aware of this book as the basis for the remarkable film starring Peter Sellers and Melvyn Douglas. Kosinski?s book, however, is just as remarkable in its own right. The hero of the book is Chance, a mentally retarded adult who works as the gardener at the home of a wealthy retired New York lawyer. During the whole of his adult life, Chance has never left the house and garden; his only contact with the outside world is through television, which he watches obsessively. His life changes, however, when his employer dies, the house is sold and he is forced to leave. Chance is slightly injured when he is hit by a car belonging to Elizabeth Eve (?EE?), the wife of Benjamin Rand, a rich and influential Wall Street financier and a friend of the President. EE, mishearing ?Chance the gardener? as ?Chauncey Gardiner? and mistakenly believing Chance to be a successful businessman, invites him to stay with her and her husband at their home. A series of misunderstandings leads all concerned to believe that Chance is not only a businessman but also an economic prophet. He is invited to speak on national television where he talks about the only thing he understands, gardening. A series of platitudes about the changing of the seasons in the garden is taken to be an extended metaphor forecasting an upturn in the economy, and his supposed optimism strikes a chord with the viewing public. The book ends with the elderly, terminally ill, Rand about to name Chance as his heir and successor, and the President about to nominate him as his vice-presidential running-mate. The book is short, a novella rather than a novel, of around 100 pages. The style is direct, simple and like a fable. It has been interpreted as a satire on the role of television in the modern age or on the American political system. Those elements are certainly present and were emphasised more in the film than in the book. (In Britain the film was widely taken to be a direct attack on the Reagan administration, even though it was actually made during the Carter years but not released here until after the presidential election). The significance of the book, however, is a deeper one. In the film, Peter Sellers portrayed Chance as a lonely, pitiable character in late middle age, young only by comparison with his aged employer and the ageing Rand. It is an affecting performance, but subtly different from the Chance of Kosinski?s book. Kosinski?s Chance is relatively young, good-looking and emotionally detached from his surroundings. This detachment allows others to treat him as what in German would be called a Wunschbild, that is to say a picture of one?s wishes, a blank canvas onto which one can paint one?s own desires. Each of the other characters sees in the supposed Chauncey Gardiner whatever he or she wishes to see. Rand, who has no children with EE and who is estranged from the children of his first marriage, sees him as a potential successor to his business empire and almost as an adopt

A brilliant and terse novel about the precarious nature of power and influence, and about the folly of mass communication in a plastic culture. The main character is named "Chance," and that says it all: He's a semiretarded gardener who is fortunately graced with terrific grooming habits, a good set of fine clothes, and a careful pattern of speech. He ends up--totally obliviously--as an advisor to the President of the United States and possibly the next candidate! This book is not only intelligent--it's funny. If only it weren't so darn plausible.The movie made from this book (also called "Being There") is as good as the book! It stars Peter Sellers, who is phenomenal.FYI Jerzy Kosinski, the author, also wrote "The Painted Bird," a haunting and violent chronicle of the author's own experience as an accidentally abandoned child during World War Two. It is also noteworthy for its fatalistic emphasis on chance and randomness, on the ultimate meaninglessness and precariousness of personal attachments and identity.