Jacob's Ladder
"What's wrong, Jake? Forget to take your antidote?"
-- Jezzie character in "Jacob's Ladder" by Bruce Joel Rubin
Finished reading my second screenplay, "Jacob's Ladder", a Vietnam-war scary story starring Tim Robbins. I am kind of manic about screenplays and feel as though I could go on reading them straight until I can no longer read. If I had happened upon this mania in my twenties, it probably would have shaped my dreams of myself. Instead of emptily dreaming about becoming a novelist or a poet, I'd be dreaming about writing screenplays, perhaps seeing myself in the middle of Hollywood deals, debating about casting choices. Of course, these dreams would not have amounted to anything more than any of my other silly adolescent dreams, but that is beside the point.
However, there is one problem. As much as I enjoy reading these movie thingies, I must admit that it feels like bubblegum and cotton candy, like I may as well be reading comic books, or as people like to call then in our dumbed-down culture, graphic novels, and we are not talking about the "Batman" trilogy or the Marvel comic franchise that is all the rage with moviegoers these days. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Jacob's Ladder" are rather heady high-concept movies that carry some philosophical heft, and yet they still leave me feeling as though I have eaten cake and cookies for dinner. I need more beef and potatoes, and it is not as though I am a brainiac intellectual.
What to do about my reading life? How can I make the most of the time I got left in this mean little world?
I think I will regard these screenplays as being on par with pop-fiction novels, like a good detective novel, something rather escapist in nature, more of a guilty pleasure, something to be read more sparingly as a kind of snacky treat.
-- Jezzie character in "Jacob's Ladder" by Bruce Joel Rubin
Finished reading my second screenplay, "Jacob's Ladder", a Vietnam-war scary story starring Tim Robbins. I am kind of manic about screenplays and feel as though I could go on reading them straight until I can no longer read. If I had happened upon this mania in my twenties, it probably would have shaped my dreams of myself. Instead of emptily dreaming about becoming a novelist or a poet, I'd be dreaming about writing screenplays, perhaps seeing myself in the middle of Hollywood deals, debating about casting choices. Of course, these dreams would not have amounted to anything more than any of my other silly adolescent dreams, but that is beside the point.
However, there is one problem. As much as I enjoy reading these movie thingies, I must admit that it feels like bubblegum and cotton candy, like I may as well be reading comic books, or as people like to call then in our dumbed-down culture, graphic novels, and we are not talking about the "Batman" trilogy or the Marvel comic franchise that is all the rage with moviegoers these days. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Jacob's Ladder" are rather heady high-concept movies that carry some philosophical heft, and yet they still leave me feeling as though I have eaten cake and cookies for dinner. I need more beef and potatoes, and it is not as though I am a brainiac intellectual.
What to do about my reading life? How can I make the most of the time I got left in this mean little world?
I think I will regard these screenplays as being on par with pop-fiction novels, like a good detective novel, something rather escapist in nature, more of a guilty pleasure, something to be read more sparingly as a kind of snacky treat.