Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2003-02-18 08:27 am
azurelunatic) wrote2003-02-18 08:27 am
Rant On: Movie Recommendations (and people who should just be smacked)
I conducted a poll on the movie 8mm to see if people thought that I really ought to be watching it.
Unfortunately for good results, no one who is familiar with my taste in entertainment (except for me) answered the survey, as seen in figure 2, which explains the mixed bag of reasons for me to watch/not watch the movie.
Way-back background: I come from what turns out to have been one of the most conservative Conservative Quaker households you can come from where the Head of Household isn't a Luddite. So, while we never lacked for simple material comforts (warm and practical clothing, homemade food), entertainment was similarly stripped-down. Narcissa and I got dolls every Christmas, almost any electronic gadget we desired (and some we hadn't even thought of considering, such as wireless headphones), books (by the age of 16, I had over 200 Star Trek books alone, and those comprised less than a fifth of my collection), beads, yarn, fabric... but we had no TV, no VCR, we never went to the movies, and video games were unheard-of. We listened to NPR.
By the time I did start watching TV and movies, I found the earworm moment in The Wrath of Khan to be extremely squickful and disgusting, and Spock's death caused much covert sniffling and sobbing. The most violence I'd ever been exposed to had been either science fictional, or in Mercedes Lackey.
On the other hand, my exposure to Real Life Weird Shit was over and beyond most normal kids'. "Miss you guys, doing great" messages from dead friends? Sure. Spooky coincidences? Yeah. Unfortunately, I was lacking someone to grab me by the hand and show me what was safe to touch, and what I should stay the hell away from, so while all my senses were coming On, I hadn't the foggiest what to do with them...
My ex-fiance knew about all of this. He'd seen me walk out of What Lies Beneath halfway through for the excessive realism. I didn't have much of a choice in seeing Weird Shit happen. I could handle it in person. I did not have to put up with it on film. And violence? The less of that, the better. I was never inured to casual violence with cop shows and cartoons.
So we were picking out movies for the weekend. Rather, he was, and I was being the happy housewife/person with car. "Hey honey, let's rent this one!" And so we watched 8mm. Late at night. When I was sleep-deprived. When I was half-dehydrated. When Real Life was already speeding up around me to a point I almost couldn't take.
Oh, and when your girlfriend is huddled on the floor wrapped up in a blanket shivering and unable to tear her eyes from the screen, it really helps to comment darkly, at a line about snuff movies being Not At All Real And Just An Urban Legend, something to the effect of "No, they're not, and I know better," implying some form of Inside Knowledge. Truly it does.
In summary: If it has violence that you might hesitate about sharing with someone's sensitive and shy mother, DON'T SHOW IT TO ME.
I'm realizing more and more why my friends are desireous of kicking BJ's ass. His excuse? "Oh, I didn't know what the movie was about. I just saw Nicholas Cage and thought it would be a comedy."
Unfortunately for good results, no one who is familiar with my taste in entertainment (except for me) answered the survey, as seen in figure 2, which explains the mixed bag of reasons for me to watch/not watch the movie.
Way-back background: I come from what turns out to have been one of the most conservative Conservative Quaker households you can come from where the Head of Household isn't a Luddite. So, while we never lacked for simple material comforts (warm and practical clothing, homemade food), entertainment was similarly stripped-down. Narcissa and I got dolls every Christmas, almost any electronic gadget we desired (and some we hadn't even thought of considering, such as wireless headphones), books (by the age of 16, I had over 200 Star Trek books alone, and those comprised less than a fifth of my collection), beads, yarn, fabric... but we had no TV, no VCR, we never went to the movies, and video games were unheard-of. We listened to NPR.
By the time I did start watching TV and movies, I found the earworm moment in The Wrath of Khan to be extremely squickful and disgusting, and Spock's death caused much covert sniffling and sobbing. The most violence I'd ever been exposed to had been either science fictional, or in Mercedes Lackey.
On the other hand, my exposure to Real Life Weird Shit was over and beyond most normal kids'. "Miss you guys, doing great" messages from dead friends? Sure. Spooky coincidences? Yeah. Unfortunately, I was lacking someone to grab me by the hand and show me what was safe to touch, and what I should stay the hell away from, so while all my senses were coming On, I hadn't the foggiest what to do with them...
My ex-fiance knew about all of this. He'd seen me walk out of What Lies Beneath halfway through for the excessive realism. I didn't have much of a choice in seeing Weird Shit happen. I could handle it in person. I did not have to put up with it on film. And violence? The less of that, the better. I was never inured to casual violence with cop shows and cartoons.
So we were picking out movies for the weekend. Rather, he was, and I was being the happy housewife/person with car. "Hey honey, let's rent this one!" And so we watched 8mm. Late at night. When I was sleep-deprived. When I was half-dehydrated. When Real Life was already speeding up around me to a point I almost couldn't take.
Oh, and when your girlfriend is huddled on the floor wrapped up in a blanket shivering and unable to tear her eyes from the screen, it really helps to comment darkly, at a line about snuff movies being Not At All Real And Just An Urban Legend, something to the effect of "No, they're not, and I know better," implying some form of Inside Knowledge. Truly it does.
In summary: If it has violence that you might hesitate about sharing with someone's sensitive and shy mother, DON'T SHOW IT TO ME.
I'm realizing more and more why my friends are desireous of kicking BJ's ass. His excuse? "Oh, I didn't know what the movie was about. I just saw Nicholas Cage and thought it would be a comedy."
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When *anyone* is huddled on the floor shivering and freaking out, everything should be STOPPED and person should be TENDED to. I don't care whether it's your calling or not. Any decent human being should and normally would do this. Which means that BJ was not a decent human being, you see. THIS is why your friends are desirous of kicking his ass.
"I just saw Nicholas Cage and thought it would be a comedy."
He was lying when he said that, by the way. Completely and utterly. He rented it with the *intention* of freaking you out, knowing ahead of time what your reaction would be.
::tilting head, eyes closed::
Even the part about "No, they're not, and I know better," implying some form of Inside Knowledge was calculated to cause reaction, it feels like. I have no idea *why* he was trying to freak you out. He wanted you out of control.
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Shawn, though he can be a pain and inconsiderate and hurtful and self-centered and rude, I don't think ever intended to leave me bleeding as he did. He has a chance of self-improvement.
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Which would explain the power play things.
He claimed to be a complete submissive, by the way.
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I was, you see, the crazy one. So I would go nuts. And it was normal. I was just insane.
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DC would have if she'd been there.
Shawn never knew what to do.
BJ *tried* to help, at some points... I liked him better when he was a Satanist.
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*growl*
*hackles going up, Ro going into protective Mama-wolf stance*
You are not, and never HAVE BEEN insane.
*voice dripping with loathing and disdain*
You have differing coping mechanisms than most of society, designed to keep you sane and they do an admirable job, considering the stressors you have been put under.
The dictionary definition of insanity specifies that the word is no longer in scientific use, so we will go with the legal definition, which is:
Law
a. Unsoundness of mind sufficient in the judgment of a civil court to render a person unfit to maintain a contractual or other legal relationship or to warrant commitment to a mental health facility.
b. In most criminal jurisdictions, a degree of mental malfunctioning sufficient to relieve the accused of legal responsibility for the act committed.
Since a legal definition is usually too large to fit in a *dictionary* (the legal definition of insanity is probably several pages long in most districts, with several precedent cases in each), we can't reproduce it here, but they generally deal with connection-to-reality, and ability to distinguish fact from fiction, consensus-reality from nonconsensus-reality.
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BJ nearly drove me insane.
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That definition would require clarification, for me. Did teacher mean difference between a) morally right and wrong, b) correct and incorrect, or c) true and false? Because SANE people can't always tell ANY of those. I stand by my original statement that consensus definition of the term is the ability to tell the difference between reality and fiction. (And for the purposes of convincing Mundane psychiatric professionals of one's sanity, one needs the ability to differentiate between consensus reality and nonconsensus reality, as well.)
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*snicker* My law degree will have to come after my psychiatric one...
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I was very usually sharply aware of the differences between reality and unreality, and the fact that I knew things about how people thought that did not always jive with what they were saying disturbed me greatly.
For example: Shawn never wanted to sleep with me. He never wanted any kind of a relationship other than friendship. He had no attraction whatsoever to me. He wanted me to fall out of love and bugger off, but still be friends.
That was what he was saying. That was what everybody else concluded he meant.
Surprise surprise, he winds up sleeping with me.
Currently: Darkside does not want a relationship with me, and only thinks of me as a friend. He is not attracted to me.
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this BJ is on crack right?
I mean, they would have to be for that comment to come out of their mouth..
maybe I don't want to know, it might be safer that way.. :)
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