(no subject)
yes, i'm a lameass with a new yorker subscription. the condescending namedroppping tone drives me nuts, but sometimes amidst all that i do find out about cool new to me people. a few months ago it was hannah arendt (all sortsa political philosophy and seriously never even TOUCHED upon her in college) and today yasmina reza. reading about reza and finally getting around to watching i've loved you so long last night had me thinking about the trip with my mom and thinking maybe i'll take her back there some day and actually appreciate it and not be such a jerk, and just mulling over cross cultural ideas. anyway, i've loved you so long again brought up the issue with memories. like, the main character is dealing with getting out of prison and the death/"murder" of her son, but god, at least she has these strong memories of her childhood with her sister (somehow it just didn't register how much a part of the movie that whole relationship would be, though it is clearly obvious by even a brief outline of the film). boo hoo for me (boy, where was i having a conversation about it being a problem for people to push themselves into stories/movies and take everything personally? ha. funny to have heard it brought up so derisively. i may take a little too much pain/pleasure from reading into things, but that's part of what's so fun and worthwhile.)
anyway. it was really getting me thinking, as apparently i am only able to do (ie not act), about writing some sort of story about the LACK of memory. and maybe this is all over and been done a million times, but it just seems like i don't encounter it very often. and then in the reza piece it mentioned some, i think, short story she wrote that involved "shards of memories," which seemed appropriate. i'm still trying to figure out if i should read it and maybe it'll be more motivating or if it would be distracting.
just finished watching a new bbc adaptation of tess of the d'urbervilles. goddamn i love thomas hardy. also, in both this movie and i've loved you... i'm always captivated by the wide, bucolic exterior shots in places like france and england. to a certain extent i have this idea of europe as positively bursting with people, from coast to coast. there wasn't enough room so they had to emigrate, right?! uh, no.
i never read tess, maybe i should. it's kind of awesome. it was really driving home the thing that i think is really appealing about literature like this (austen, brontes, etc)--the woman is loved for who she is, for being herself. and i think beyond the omg i love you foreverrrrr the real allure is loving the woman herself, and in the case of several of the heroines, her intelligent, self assured, independent self. and hell, even the bottom line with ditzy bridget jones is loving her "just as she is." there was actually an awesome ny mag column about this topic recently. (i have been writing a bit, blogging for work, can't you tell? link o rama!) this isn't exactly news, but the whole loving a strong woman discussion is much more interesting than does that earth moving love exist/should you wait and see.
and, of course, with hardy it's delightfully unhappy. and thinking about the different ways that the men misuse or misinterpret their "love" for her "independence." ah. amazing.
on the strong independent woman note, i think i'm going to take an embroidery class, if the damn fleisher site will renew it's security certificate. there is also a batik class, though i'm still sorta unclear on that. the few writing classes i've taken have been lame. i guess i'll continue to hope that something clicks in my head that says "hey, fiction!" or "hey, you can harass people in order to be a reporter, too!" tick, tock.
anyway. it was really getting me thinking, as apparently i am only able to do (ie not act), about writing some sort of story about the LACK of memory. and maybe this is all over and been done a million times, but it just seems like i don't encounter it very often. and then in the reza piece it mentioned some, i think, short story she wrote that involved "shards of memories," which seemed appropriate. i'm still trying to figure out if i should read it and maybe it'll be more motivating or if it would be distracting.
just finished watching a new bbc adaptation of tess of the d'urbervilles. goddamn i love thomas hardy. also, in both this movie and i've loved you... i'm always captivated by the wide, bucolic exterior shots in places like france and england. to a certain extent i have this idea of europe as positively bursting with people, from coast to coast. there wasn't enough room so they had to emigrate, right?! uh, no.
i never read tess, maybe i should. it's kind of awesome. it was really driving home the thing that i think is really appealing about literature like this (austen, brontes, etc)--the woman is loved for who she is, for being herself. and i think beyond the omg i love you foreverrrrr the real allure is loving the woman herself, and in the case of several of the heroines, her intelligent, self assured, independent self. and hell, even the bottom line with ditzy bridget jones is loving her "just as she is." there was actually an awesome ny mag column about this topic recently. (i have been writing a bit, blogging for work, can't you tell? link o rama!) this isn't exactly news, but the whole loving a strong woman discussion is much more interesting than does that earth moving love exist/should you wait and see.
and, of course, with hardy it's delightfully unhappy. and thinking about the different ways that the men misuse or misinterpret their "love" for her "independence." ah. amazing.
on the strong independent woman note, i think i'm going to take an embroidery class, if the damn fleisher site will renew it's security certificate. there is also a batik class, though i'm still sorta unclear on that. the few writing classes i've taken have been lame. i guess i'll continue to hope that something clicks in my head that says "hey, fiction!" or "hey, you can harass people in order to be a reporter, too!" tick, tock.