Mostly they say stuff like, "See you around. Maybe."

[halfshellvenus]

Got some feedback on the Anonymous Writing Meme, and it's so hard not to be discouraged by the negative. One person finds my porn "clinical," which is the kiss of death, and has comments worth considering but seems to dislike my writing enough that I wonder if there's a mismatch in stylistic "goals," so to speak. A few others complain about the

Comments

[halfshellvenus]

...is it horrible that I don't remember what happens to the human character? I just remember the dogs dying. :(
Nobody seems to remember the human except me! Axe to the stomach and bleeding to death all over the ground-- accidental, but just as sickening and gory. :(

That's the part that really disturbed me. The rest was bad enough, but that part was too much.

Birdwing LOOKED interesting, but I have no firm opinion yet. The main character is painfully immature, and has a level of petulance to rival Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars movie. So far, he hasn't smartened up much. :0

The idea of "Wendy And Lucy" interests me, so I'll probably see it on DVD. It sounds like a PG-13 movie (drug-use tips it for me), but perhaps they're worried about teen suicides stemming from the hopelessness?? IDK.

I'm more of an "expose over time" parent. I worry less about "violence" for Lauren than for Christopher, and I worry about other influences (I vetoed "The Devil Wears Prada" at a friend's house because of the messages about body-image, because at barely-11 I didn't think she had the judgmet to separate the ridiculous from the sensible in that regard. I'm sure I lean toward overprotective rather than the opposite! Try not to overdue it, but you never know.

For instance, I wouldn't think of keeping Christopher from reading WTRFG. I just wish the school hadn't made the timing decision for me.

[resounding_echo]

Oh yeah, yeah--he falls on the axe, correct? I just remember that afterward the boy finds his dog whimpering in the bush, with thorns and debris littering his intestines in the stomach wound. Oh, I cried so hard.

Re: The Devil Wears Prada

GOOD CALL! See I find that MUCH more concerning than the violent and grim realities of life; this movie and its ilk both romanticize and normalize this fetishization with the body, appearance, shopping, capitalism, etc.

Glad to hear I saved my 2.50 over Birdwing. :/

Wendy and Lucy is definitely worth the viewing and is currently on netflix. However, I wouldn't recommend it if you are 1) having economic hardship 2) in the midst of upheaval and drastic change in your life or 3) have a co-dependant relationship with your pet. As I qualify for all three, I was wrecked for about 14 hours after the viewing. :sigh:

The drug use is really subtle in Wendy and Lucy. Like, I wouldn't have even remembered it if the reviewer hadn't pointed it out. I think maybe I thought it was a cigarette? At any rate, in the beginning of the film Wendy meets a bunch of transients/train-hoppers who discuss where to find the best work and I think they are sitting around a fire lighting it up? Maybe? But, yeah, definitely not a movie to show your new graduate, though I fear they'll find out how hard it is to get a job soon enough.

[halfshellvenus]

GOOD CALL! See I find that MUCH more concerning than the violent and grim realities of life;
Ah, but see-- that's because you're female, and for women this is where the issues lie.

The concern with boys is violence, particularly sensationalizing and desensitizing violence. With girls, it's sex/body-image/jadedness. My sister used to go on about how they "didn't allow toy guns in their house" and I kept thinking, "With two girls, that's a non-issue. Even if one of them's a tomboy, you'll never run into the kill-kill-kill problem people have with boys."

OTOH, we started getting asked repeatedly if it was OK for Lauren to see such-and-such PG-13 movie that my sister's girls were watching while we stayed with them. The oldest was 13, so she was letting the just-11 daughter watch them too (which I couldn't disagree with more). "Legally Blonde"-- with someone "earning her grades on her knees" and other blowjob references. Lots of movies with sexual references and body-issues (the same mother who wouldn't let her girls have Barbies until age-5 because of the "body-image" problems).

It's a constant battle. Our kids can watch the PG-13 Harry Potter and LOTR movies. But regular violence/sex stuff? No way. Especially not movies that we haven't seen ourselves. :0

[resounding_echo]

Did you ever see This Film Is Not Rated? It's a good documentary, even if it tends toward trying to amuse too much some of the time (a la Michael Moore, but not nearly as bad). One of the most interesting parts was the interview with Kevin Smith where he said that he thinks the rating system towards violence is completely backwards. A movie gets a PG-13 rating if there's gun fire but no blood, even if it's rapid fire gunning of multiple people. However movies like Saving Private Ryan get adult ratings because of the graphic violence, when he thinks it should be the opposite; adults should only be allowed to view fictionalized and stylized violence as they are mature enough to understand how unrealistic it is, while younger folks should be exposed to realistic portrayals of violence, ones that do not glorify and are certain to show all the grim consequences of violence.

Not an argument a lot of people would agree with, but an interesting one to say the least.