Reading Blasted by Sarah Kane
My first impression was, "What the fuck just happened here?"
My second impression... well, we cover a lot here, don't we? Racism, religion, war, rape, vegetarianism, cannibalism... jesus fucking christ. Okay, so a lot of it may just blow over my head because there's so many layers to take in for something relatively short. And let's face it, we're living in a jaded age so some of it may not even have registered. I actually had a conversation earlier about rape versus pedophilia in fiction. People can be so blase about rape, more common of a theme than one would expect, but involve a child and whoa! wait a minute there, that is so WRONG that we can't even discuss it. *rolls eyes*
Anyway, deviating, apologies. Ummm... so where to begin? How about Cate?
Time and again this woman preaches her morals and yet when it comes down to it's all just lies, lies, lies. 1) She absolutely can not eat meat, unless there's nothing else. Same for the gin. 2) She won't make love to a man she no longer has feelings for, but she'll fuck a random stranger until she bleeds when she's desperate for a bite to eat. 2) She talks about having children, but can't take care of one when given the opportunity. 3) The soldier had mentioned that Ian smelled of Cate. "Same cigarettes." You could argue that it's Ian's cigarettes that the soldier smelled on her, but why bother mentioning that if it's the logical conclusion? Were her little lectures on smoking were hypocritical? 4) And my favorite, she took out the bullets before handing the weapon over to an eyeless Ian, and when it fails to blow a hole through his head she tells him it's fate. *laughs* Fantastic. And then the baby dies! God? What God? I couldn't believe (oh yes I could) that she had the audacity to pray after that.
The soldier. Is it wrong to say that I loved the soldier? Why did he ask Ian if he had ever done those awful, monstrous things? I got the impression that he was... well, he didn't just kill Ian because "then I'd be lonely." So maybe he asked because he was looking for someone to connect him with humanity again. He goes on about all these terrible things that soldiers had done to his beloved girlfriend and yet he has done much of the same and continues to do so. So what's the difference between him and those bastards? Maybe that's why he shot himself. He also stuck the rifle up Ian's ass. Why? Was that what happened to Col? Did he want to know how she felt in her final moments? Did he want to know what all of his victims felt? Or was he anticipating his own offing?
"Stay in the dark." And then later sucks out his eyes. *chuckles* I don't think that's how Kane meant it, but it struck me as a bit funny.
For all of his initial gun-toting, Ian couldn't kill another person. Why did he eat the baby instead of the soldier? They were both dead. Did he resent the child because of Cate's "care" for it? Was it easier to eat something that he hadn't spoken to? Hadn't been fucked by? Hugging the corpse for comfort, fucking awesome and so bloody honest.
Alright, sorry, this is all a discombobulated wreck, but yeah. I can't really do better at the moment. I'd say I'll go back over it later to fix it up and make sense of it, but I know I won't.
My second impression... well, we cover a lot here, don't we? Racism, religion, war, rape, vegetarianism, cannibalism... jesus fucking christ. Okay, so a lot of it may just blow over my head because there's so many layers to take in for something relatively short. And let's face it, we're living in a jaded age so some of it may not even have registered. I actually had a conversation earlier about rape versus pedophilia in fiction. People can be so blase about rape, more common of a theme than one would expect, but involve a child and whoa! wait a minute there, that is so WRONG that we can't even discuss it. *rolls eyes*
Anyway, deviating, apologies. Ummm... so where to begin? How about Cate?
Time and again this woman preaches her morals and yet when it comes down to it's all just lies, lies, lies. 1) She absolutely can not eat meat, unless there's nothing else. Same for the gin. 2) She won't make love to a man she no longer has feelings for, but she'll fuck a random stranger until she bleeds when she's desperate for a bite to eat. 2) She talks about having children, but can't take care of one when given the opportunity. 3) The soldier had mentioned that Ian smelled of Cate. "Same cigarettes." You could argue that it's Ian's cigarettes that the soldier smelled on her, but why bother mentioning that if it's the logical conclusion? Were her little lectures on smoking were hypocritical? 4) And my favorite, she took out the bullets before handing the weapon over to an eyeless Ian, and when it fails to blow a hole through his head she tells him it's fate. *laughs* Fantastic. And then the baby dies! God? What God? I couldn't believe (oh yes I could) that she had the audacity to pray after that.
The soldier. Is it wrong to say that I loved the soldier? Why did he ask Ian if he had ever done those awful, monstrous things? I got the impression that he was... well, he didn't just kill Ian because "then I'd be lonely." So maybe he asked because he was looking for someone to connect him with humanity again. He goes on about all these terrible things that soldiers had done to his beloved girlfriend and yet he has done much of the same and continues to do so. So what's the difference between him and those bastards? Maybe that's why he shot himself. He also stuck the rifle up Ian's ass. Why? Was that what happened to Col? Did he want to know how she felt in her final moments? Did he want to know what all of his victims felt? Or was he anticipating his own offing?
"Stay in the dark." And then later sucks out his eyes. *chuckles* I don't think that's how Kane meant it, but it struck me as a bit funny.
For all of his initial gun-toting, Ian couldn't kill another person. Why did he eat the baby instead of the soldier? They were both dead. Did he resent the child because of Cate's "care" for it? Was it easier to eat something that he hadn't spoken to? Hadn't been fucked by? Hugging the corpse for comfort, fucking awesome and so bloody honest.
Alright, sorry, this is all a discombobulated wreck, but yeah. I can't really do better at the moment. I'd say I'll go back over it later to fix it up and make sense of it, but I know I won't.