by Lysander » Sat Aug 28, 2004 10:56 pm
Exactly. Well, it'd be like that if I was completely new at Chess--that is to say, if I didn't even know how to play the game. I'm rying to get as much out of the movie itself as I can without asking anyone else to interprit for me. I wanna work all this out for myself, you see. Anyway, I'm all done now.
Okay, Pinner. Since it's obvious that no one else is interested in talking about Magnolia, I will do this with you, in this very thread. It's abou the content, Pinback. It's about the content.
So. Movie impressions.
This is, most deffinetly, on my top list of movies. it's a moving work of art and a just excellent overall, a vivid example of how things can go so horribly, horribly wrong in today's society. Furthermore, I would go so far as saying that the movie pulls off what Sarandipity was trying to do, only in this case Magnolia succeeds with it far better than that movie did, for a morass of reasons I will get into if desired.
However. I really can't say that it affected me personally that much at all. For one reason it's because I just couldn't quite get into the"zone" where you are looking for symbolism with your own life when I was watching Magnolia, probably because I don't resemble, like, anyone in the movie, but also because--well, that's it exactly, I just touched upon it again. I don't have any of the problems that anyone else does in the movie. I think I've never cheated on anyonee, I don't have cancer and I don't take drugs. That's basically it. Those are the three big problems that everyone except for the nurse and Jim (as far as we can tell) have. But even those two characters are not much like me at all. Jim's somewhat thick-heraded, especially for an LA cop. And the nurse is a gigantic pulsating vagina. I understand that it has immense personal value for you, and that's fine. But screeching endlessly for months because other people don't have the same emotional experience while you watch the movie is kind of, I don't know, immature. I mean, that's what the word means, personal. It works for you. You can't expect taht anyone who watches the movie will have a profound experience watching the movie, because every person is different. People have different problems, diferent passions, different oppinions. And while I agree that anyone who thinks Magnolia is crap is watching the movie with his eyes scotch-taped shut, that doesn't mean that everyone--or, even, anyone--that you ask about it will have had a "moment" about it, because to some people it just doesn't apply.
Here, I'll take an example from my own life, since talking about personal experiences kind of demands that you get personal. Adam Cadre's Ready, Okay. I know that a whole bunch of people claim to be the main character of books they read, but to me, Alan Mockery *is* *me*. I had Echo for a sister, too, although in truth it would be Echo's number-multiplying trick fused into the head of Peggy Kailan. I have a stepdad like Bobbo. Nearly everyone I know in high school has at least characteristics that are dead ringers for those from other characters in RO. (Yes, even Sarah and Carver Fringie. Unfortunately.) So RO interacts with me on a very personal level, and it is that reason why I have, just the way you have with Magnolia, only read it three times so as o not spoil the effect of the book. And yet, even though I( have only read it three times, I have already committed to memory entire swaths of it. If I started quoting the book I probably wouldn't stop until page 50 or so. I've handed the book around to various friends of mine (one of whom, a frighteningly intelligent girl who is frightening because even though she is so intelligent she is still a Carver Fringie victem, has had the book for five months and refuses to give it back because she loves it so much) and they all enjoy it a whole hell of a lot, and they draw the paralels between the book and their own lives just as easily as I do. But I wouldn't go giving this book to just anyone and expecting them to be personally effected by it. I mean, I'd ask people what they thought, but I wouldn't expect them to have a catharsass about it. That's because it doesn't speak to *them* the way it does to me. Magnolia speaks to you, Ben. And that is excellent. Finding things that can move you so deeply is one of the great treasures of life, after all. But you shouldn't expect other people to feel the same way just because the movie is awesome.
Exactly. Well, it'd be like that if I was completely new at Chess--that is to say, if I didn't even know how to play the game. I'm rying to get as much out of the movie itself as I can without asking anyone else to interprit for me. I wanna work all this out for myself, you see. Anyway, I'm all done now.
Okay, Pinner. Since it's obvious that no one else is interested in talking about Magnolia, I will do this with you, in this very thread. It's abou the content, Pinback. It's about the content.
So. Movie impressions.
This is, most deffinetly, on my top list of movies. it's a moving work of art and a just excellent overall, a vivid example of how things can go so horribly, horribly wrong in today's society. Furthermore, I would go so far as saying that the movie pulls off what Sarandipity was trying to do, only in this case Magnolia succeeds with it far better than that movie did, for a morass of reasons I will get into if desired.
However. I really can't say that it affected me personally that much at all. For one reason it's because I just couldn't quite get into the"zone" where you are looking for symbolism with your own life when I was watching Magnolia, probably because I don't resemble, like, anyone in the movie, but also because--well, that's it exactly, I just touched upon it again. I don't have any of the problems that anyone else does in the movie. I think I've never cheated on anyonee, I don't have cancer and I don't take drugs. That's basically it. Those are the three big problems that everyone except for the nurse and Jim (as far as we can tell) have. But even those two characters are not much like me at all. Jim's somewhat thick-heraded, especially for an LA cop. And the nurse is a gigantic pulsating vagina. I understand that it has immense personal value for you, and that's fine. But screeching endlessly for months because other people don't have the same emotional experience while you watch the movie is kind of, I don't know, immature. I mean, that's what the word means, personal. It works for you. You can't expect taht anyone who watches the movie will have a profound experience watching the movie, because every person is different. People have different problems, diferent passions, different oppinions. And while I agree that anyone who thinks Magnolia is crap is watching the movie with his eyes scotch-taped shut, that doesn't mean that everyone--or, even, anyone--that you ask about it will have had a "moment" about it, because to some people it just doesn't apply.
Here, I'll take an example from my own life, since talking about personal experiences kind of demands that you get personal. Adam Cadre's Ready, Okay. I know that a whole bunch of people claim to be the main character of books they read, but to me, Alan Mockery *is* *me*. I had Echo for a sister, too, although in truth it would be Echo's number-multiplying trick fused into the head of Peggy Kailan. I have a stepdad like Bobbo. Nearly everyone I know in high school has at least characteristics that are dead ringers for those from other characters in RO. (Yes, even Sarah and Carver Fringie. Unfortunately.) So RO interacts with me on a very personal level, and it is that reason why I have, just the way you have with Magnolia, only read it three times so as o not spoil the effect of the book. And yet, even though I( have only read it three times, I have already committed to memory entire swaths of it. If I started quoting the book I probably wouldn't stop until page 50 or so. I've handed the book around to various friends of mine (one of whom, a frighteningly intelligent girl who is frightening because even though she is so intelligent she is still a Carver Fringie victem, has had the book for five months and refuses to give it back because she loves it so much) and they all enjoy it a whole hell of a lot, and they draw the paralels between the book and their own lives just as easily as I do. But I wouldn't go giving this book to just anyone and expecting them to be personally effected by it. I mean, I'd ask people what they thought, but I wouldn't expect them to have a catharsass about it. That's because it doesn't speak to *them* the way it does to me. Magnolia speaks to you, Ben. And that is excellent. Finding things that can move you so deeply is one of the great treasures of life, after all. But you shouldn't expect other people to feel the same way just because the movie is awesome.