(no subject)
thinking about changing comps topic to a Foucault+Dark Knight case study for a critique of our society and media. I think I could use foucault to explain how dark knight's plot functions to maintain status quo in the film and in the real world. Mixed in is the idea of media operating as the tower in the panopticon, always staring back at it's subjects, who are left to wonder what is going on behind the venetian shades, feeling pressured (though in our modern society, pressured in a pleasurable "brave new world" manner) to correspond to the values of those inside the tower, so as to be let outside the solitary cell and into society at large; uninhibited so long as the ideology of those "free" is not at odds with the mechanisms of/in power.------
When I watch movies or read books and cry, it is akin to a shortcut to a computer folder being opened. Within that folder are multiple issues or concerns that might worry me. In the case of Jimmy Corrigan (book) and the films the Diving Bell and the Butterfly, or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, it is the reminder of time and opportunity that, once instanced, have move beyond retrieval. I fear the future, when my memory and mobility will restrict my ability to act, exist, and interact with myself (memory and thought) and others. I fear that looking back on the present the same way that I look to my years as a little boy, my years in middle and highschool, leading up to the present. Too restrained by fear of immediate reprisal or the undermining of future opportunities or desires to either act out and fully enjoy life, or push it to some meaningful purpose. I feel that I have been constantly setting the stage for something important. Just as I penny pinch and worry about spending half of what I make on a paycheck, I will wake up tomorrow at the age of 80 with a life well maintained, having waited for a day to live that never pushed itself onto my worried limbs.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
-Flashbacks of Joel's, relatively carefree youth make me nostalgic for times when I was encumbered by nothing other than self gratification (in it's immediate and more nuanced forms, such as acting in ways to get others to like me).
*Why didn't I use that time better, or appreciate it more?
Ikiru
-On the verge of death, a man seeks creating a meaning for his life. He spent 30 years doing routines that maintained status quo, rather than improve the world or please himself. When will I get that awakening? I know I shouldn't procrastinate, similarly, I know I should have that approach life with that attitude. Despite knowing better, I'm not acting on it. Why not?
Jimmy Corrigan:
-Wasting life away by completing only meaningless, daily routines without grander scheme or importance than self preservation or earning the admiration and love of others. The hope of something good or important being done lies with the homogenized individual's future generations, though that hope is sometimes displaced, the burden being moved further down the genealogy when the most recent offspring disappoints. Families move from owning property and having aspirationg to borrowing living units (apartments) and making due with their situations.