Lost Curiosity

I'm currently reading Charles Dickens' "The Pickwick Papers" and loving it for several reasons.

1) All the characters have epic names.  Take Misters Snodgrass, Winkle, Slumkey, and Count Smorltork, for example.  These names play homage to Dickens' charming wittiness and sense of literary humor.

2) It reads like a play.  Some of the lines are so amusing and imaginable that when you read them, you can hear them being spoken in your head.  For example:

Here a lady (Mrs. Hunt)  is introducing Mr. Pickwick to Count Smorltork, a foreigner:

"Count Smorltork, Mr. Pickwick."
"What you say, Mrs. Hunt?  Pig Vig or Big Vig--what you call--Lawyer--eh?  I see--that is it.  Big Vig."
"No, no, Count, Pick-wick."
"Ah, ah I see," replied the Count.  "Peek--Christian name; Weeks--surname; good, ver good.  Peek Weeks.  How you do Weeks?"

Google tells me that the book was made into a 1952 movie and 1985 TV series, but I think it's high time for a remake.  Here would be my casting:

Mr. Pickwick, an insatiably curious and somewhat naive intellectual: Robin Williams
Mr. Winkle, a lanky sportsman: Owen Wilson
Mr. Tupman, a very fat romantic: Kevin James
Mr. Snodgrass, an emotional poet: Johnny Depp
Count Smorltork, a ridiculous foreigner: Sasha Baron Cohen

There.  Now that should incite some comments!

3) The premise of the book is pure intellectual curiosity, which I find tragically absent from the 21st Century.  Mr. Pickwick runs a sort of intellectual/philosophical club, where a group of men gather to talk about life.  They decide to send the delegation of Pickwick, Winkle, Snodgrass, and Tupman off galavanting around England, simply to meet people and hear their stories.

That sounds amazing to me.  Why doesn't anyone do that anymore?  By "that" I mean travel without an itinerary, talk to strangers, and just be generally curious enough to be willing to leave their home, family, and friends.  Granted, many of us don't have the wealth or time to undertake such an adventure. Then again, maybe our priorities are just wrong.  Maybe we just need to say, "Forget society.  Forget retirement funds.  I just need to get out of here and do something, anything, maybe even nothing."

I think it would serve us all well to be a little more Pickwickian.  Spontaneity, curiosity, and adventure are undervalued in the 21st Century.  Let's bring them back.

Curiously,

Amy