|
December 16, 2003Last night I finished The Crying of Lot 49. 2 things:1. A sweet ass ending. 2. Never mind "Oedipa Maas," but "Genghis Cohen?" Jesus! haha. (Jews!!) Exploring Pynchon-related things on the web, I found lists of movie references and tv references to the author. Among the list of tv references is an episode of the Simpsons entitled Little Girl in the Big Ten from Season 13 AND two episodes of Futurama. Williams, didn't we speculate at some point that Wax would really enjoy The Simpsons if he just sat his ass down one weekday evening and let the references pour all over him? Further investigation revealed a surprise that might interest Dempsey, Hippo, and Rodin, too. According to the Globe and an interview with Al Jean, a Simpsons show runner and writer, Pynchon will be a guest on a Simpsons episode set to air Jan 25, 2004. Jan 25 man. This is your chance Wax. This very Wax spouted about Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow a while back. I might try that out over Xmas break, that and Lois Lowry's The Giver. A couple weeks ago I spent hours Googling "the Gifter." Then, one night, I went off to Rodin about "this book I read years ago about a kid chosen every generation who gives people the ability to see color in a colorblind society." "Oh, you mean The Giver," said he. Yes. haha. Good but distant memories of that book. Lowry wrote an interesting essay, The Beginning of Sadness, which she read at the Ohio Library Educational Media Association Annual Convention in Nov 2001. The essay mentions The Giver and several letters that Lowry received after the book came out. An excerpt from a letter written by a woman from Bethesda, Murrliand: "In your story, each human must confront the needs for creative disobedience, sexuality, and self-reliance, as well as the knowledge of mortality. This is a theme which I don't recall often encountering in fiction: namely, the conflict and suffering felt by a parent having to introduce a child to the concept of pain and death. By implication, this extends even to the decision to have a child in the first place, since the parent knows that she must take responsibility for bringing the child into the world, and that once the child is born, the child's suffering and death -- and the knowledge thereof -- are inevitable. I can only recall two literary sources touching on this universal experience. One is the legend concerning the childhood of Prince Gautama, who became the Buddha. The other is the screenplay for Ingmar Bergman's 'Wild Strawberries.'" (Makes me want to check out this Wild Strawberries deal. Who's up for a serious Swedish film from 1957? Williams?? In other movie news, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is indeed out on DVD. Can all the boys I know who haven't seen this movie watch it together so there is no chance I will get sucked into a 110min vortex of what might be one of the more dismal projects Sean Connery has ever participated in? More on comic-books-turned-movies later.) An excerpt from Lowry's reply: "Five years ago, one of my own children was killed in a hideous accident. Among the many, many letters I received in the aftermath of that tragedy was one from the writer Lois Duncan, whose own daughter had been murdered not long before. She said, 'From the moment a woman decides to bear a child, her heart goes walking around outside her body.' " In recent years, during particularly emotional conversations or the small but serious talk my mother and I share at the kitchen table late at night, my mother has tried to explain this very idea to me. Both she and I understand that I can't possibly understand what it's like to have my heart wrenched out of my body like that, but I think she continues to share her experience so that even if I'm not prepared for it, I can at least say, "My mother was right." ha. All this reminds me of the recent news at MIT about a missing student. I took Expository Writing with this kid my freshman year... Also turns my thoughts to a friend who killed himself during my senior year in HS. At his wake, his mother consoled ME as I got snot all over her outfit. I think the moments in which I come closest to feeling like a mother involve defending, worrying about, and generally feeling protective of my brother. Luckily, I am not responsible for him haha. Thanks dude! How bout the inverse situation: when children start worrying about their parents. A few weeks ago, my writing professor and I emailed briefly about this. Here's what he had to say: "About your statement about thinking of your own parents aging: it's fruitless, no way to prepare for it; a little like choreographing a dance in your head--very different when the performers actually take to the stage." He is right on. Dancers always manage to fuck up the choreographer's vision haha. More about choreography later. |
|
