Reformation

Wow!  I haven't written anything in quite awhile.  I was sort of dreading having to write something, as if it were a chore.  I worked for hours constructing my previous two posts; each developing exactly as I wished, remaining perfect.  This one will not--cannot, be that.  I want a hot mess.  This is not for the health of the blog, it is for myself.

There is a book I read, one that really deserves its own post.  But since I doubt I'll ever get to that, I'll unload it here:

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

I liked this book more than all of the others.  The others I've read.  For some reason, though, it took me nearly two months to read.  An innocent purchase in a local thrift store because "it's on those lists they make" turned into a life experience.  The first chapter was immediately riveting, mostly because of the elephantized question: Why is [this character] doing this?  It wasn't in an annoyed "look at that dumbass" sense, it was curiosity, as [this character]'s motivations were potentially significant to the human condition.  Each chapter had the potential to stand alone; it was a book of linked short stories.  All of the characters were significant.  McCullers illuminated their thoughts in a way which made them supremely relatable and/or likable, or just real.  Every conversation had a subliminal dimension, one barely accessible to the reader; perhaps it was unstatable, yet recognizable.  Inarticulable, yet present are the words I'm looking for.  In the recent months I've dipped into African-American literature, reading--why I'll list them!

Listed in order of completion
Soul on Ice  :  Eldridge Cleaver
Between the World and Me  :  Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Fire Next Time  :  James Baldwin
Appeal  :  David Walker
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl  :  Harriet Jacobs
Their Eyes Were Watching God  :  Zora Neale Hurston
Invisible Man  :  Ralph Ellison [I'm in the middle of this book]

So, while McCullers is not black, she creates a character--Dr. Copeland--whom embodied my gravitation toward reading about the black condition in America.  I want to hear the black intellectual voice.  As I approached the conclusion of this book, I was intensely aware of the personal significance of this book to me, and began to imagine myself experiencing a sort of transcendent bliss upon reading its last words.  Despite the seemingly unreachably high standards, this essentially happened, which was incredible.

I don't know the nature of my literary canon (because I haven't thought about it enough), but this book is unquestionably in it.

So the movie I watched was Moonrise Kingdom.  It was my second time watching it, but first time getting it.  Although I've only seen three of his films, I feel confident in saying this is Wes Anderson's best.  His style somehow returns the viewer to a sensory experience of a child--of happy and sad, good and bad--yet does not outright dismiss the nihilistic conclusion we've all come upon.  Each shot looks cool.  The writing is funny.  The acting is not entirely human, it's 'Wes Anderson'-human.  A place, certainly not of Earth, created for a true expression of innocence, of honesty.

Please endure.

I imagine my next post will be more focused, more deliberate, and necessarily, less honest syntactically, but perhaps more honest semantically.

Art [incomplete/project]

I am an unwhole man seeking satiation.

My life is a cycle.  Greatness is the goal, art is my path.  I define art in a broad sense.

art: the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination

It is the creation of a thing and the human interaction with that thing.  I align myself with an even broader definition, which 

types of art

• visual  
• physically static: paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture, etc.
• imaginative: literature
• auditory
• oratory: human speech 
• music: sound created to be heard by humans, sometimes mixed with human voice(s)
• visual & auditory
• physically dynamic:  includes film, television

State

It began on the first of the year.  I watched Nymphomaniac: Vol. I with newfound awareness of an experience that would be documented.  Each film I watched bore historical significance.  To finish is to acknowledge.  A film is an emotional experience; it is an escape which necessitates a reflective return.  

A more holistic documentation of my experience in film is necessary.  I will offer a snapshot of my thoughts in a way which describes my experience in the medium.  My thoughts will be organized through parallel hierarchies of films and directors.  

Great

Synecdoche, New York   to live one must acknowledge death--it is everything.  

Lore   the tragedy of adolescence is the most beautiful.

Inland Empire    when art reaches peak subjectivity, maybe it is peak.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night   everything is as it should be, but it is somewhere that cannot be.

–

Noah Baumbach - the light of Frances Ha \ the dark of The Squid and the Whale

Nicholas Winding Refn - style: music, violence, dialogue (lack); the longing

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night

Below Great
Blue is the Warmest Color / I struggle to relegate this film to even here.  During the re-watch, I found myself recognizing an expanse I had not seen before.  This film is about valuing things and acting on those valuations.  How does one balance individual intimacy with societal acceptance?  What price will one pay for societal or individual validation?  

Mulholland Drive / The world is mysterious; we are comfortable.  We feel the accumulation.  But it falls, slowly--all of it.  Just enough remains.

Taxi Driver / The power of the individual, specifically within the individual, is present in this film.  A man is amidst a structure seemingly so pervasive, yet he is not pervaded.  His mind holds him captive.

Apocalypse Now / This is a descent into ignorance.

–

Adam Wingard - awareness of genre; satire; the power of apex

David Lynch - film as dreamstate; surreal

I am satisfied with this result.  It is not comprehensive, but the effort was made.

Gravity

When I watched this in theaters a year ago, my experience was quite ordinary.  I recognized several moments of visual excellence, but didn't find any sort of enlightenment.  I didn't feel obligation to rewatch, despite my incomplete understanding of the plot.

But yesterday I endured again, in the presence of another, and found myself blissful.  The story is so simple, yet of paramount importance.  Will she survive?  It's Ryan's battle with the expansive eternal, both physical and emotional.  I was satisfied with Bullock's performance, which showed her instinctual drive to survive as well as her inner quest for for recovery, for renewal.  Maybe Salma Hayek would've been better, but that's a discussion for another time.  

Cuarón's direction and Lubezki's cinematography seem to identify the ethereal against all odds in a sea of blackness.  The physical gravity looked and felt real, and was always used in tandem with the emotional gravity of Ryan's journey.  

Gravity felt different, almost like it occurred in a galaxy light-years away.  Each moment held leadened profundity; there was meaning in this world.  The planet was beautiful outside the atmosphere, within it, and upon the surface itself.  Ryan's emergence from the water into the yet incorrupt land was a triumph over the indifferent expanse.  

My experience during this film is certainly comparable to 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Allow me to clarify.  Gravity has a much more minimalist feel, despite the grandiose visual ambition.  The story is told with simplicity, because the story is simple.   The visual poetry offers an expanded interpretation with possible philosophical undertones, but such exploration is purely voluntary.  2001,  however,  is an unescapable exploration of humanity and its significance.  Each moment is fully developed for this expressed purpose.  Both films will likely hold significance with me for extended time.