Angst

So I've been putting off blogging for several reasons...which could all be summed up in the fact that I really have nothing good to say or talk about as of late.

However, thanks to the only class which I consider worth my hefty investments (Intro to Professional Writing) I do have a topic of interest for those of you kind (or bored) enough to actually read this...spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't seen "No Country For Old Men"

Toward the end of class today, after Mel had discussed the essential elements of scenes in fiction, the question was raised about resolution-less endings in stories - namely the ending of No Country For Old Men. Mel expressed his intense dissatisfaction with the film's ending (despite its otherwise being magnificent), and I, being the devil's advocate that I am, expressed my counter-active appreciation for it.

No Country For Old Men presents the iconic clash of good and evil; there is the psychotic (and very creepy) villain, and a handful of hopeful heroes who attempt to thwart his drug trafficking, serial killing rampage through South Texas. In the end, everyone is dead, the last standing hero is disillusioned and retires, and our villain escapes with the money, but is also (in my opinion) stripped of his own twisted romantic view of himself. Mel hated this, mainly because the hero we're all rooting for recognizes the futility of the fight and quits his quest to bring a very evil, dangerous man to justice. By a mere twist of fate, the villain is badly hurt (but not killed) in a car accident in one of the last scenes, so in some way he gets to suffer, but hardly in proportion to the horror he has wreaked.

I argued for this ending because I am, almost without exception, a pessimist. I liked this ending because it seemed so true to life - ultimately, breaking even is the best you can hope for in my opinion. Good doesn't always make a smashingly triumphant exit, and Evil often doesn't get what it deserves. Sure, the ending to No Country was something that made me recoil and feel pretty bummed. But at the same time it made me believe everything I'd seen, because more often than not, that's how the story really ends.

People often argue against movies and stories that are too truthfully depressing, saying that we use these and similar media as an escape from that reality we are painfully conscious of. I agree completely - total victory of good morals and noble aspirations has universal appeal; it's what everyone wants to see. Not only that, but we want to see it win against all odds and escape highly dangerous situations with lots of dramatic explosions and perhaps some clever dialogue.

Everyone dying or despairing in the end? That's way too realistic....for most. Mel said (and I'm paraphrasing here) that the younger generation can afford to be pessimistic because they've lived long enough to expect not-so-great, but haven't lived long enough to actually experience it. Those who HAVE experienced their fair share of injustice need the hero and his/her ultimate victory in their stories. It preserves the hope that all that injustice will one day be served its dues.

I agree to an extent. When/if I ever have kids, I will certainly not read them stories where everybody dies in the end, they'll figure that out on their own. But will I give them the false impression that good people always get rewarded for being good? Probably not...mostly because I don't want them to wind up as jaded as I am.

Speechless

So apparently my wanton blog advertisements on facebook have harvested more readers than I ever predicted.

As I sat down to write this, I mulled over a topic or 4 to write about and, after some deliberation, scrapped them all on account of the potential toe-stomping each would likely instigate...I suppose it's in poor taste to discuss my complaints about various social or work circumstances when those involved might possibly be reading them ;)

But this consideration did get me thinking about how ignorant writers, musicians, artists in general are to the repercussions of their work.  While writing is probably the most explicit form of expression, it can still be interpreted (almost) as variably as, say, a painting or sculpture. Just look at court rulings based on written law...or the heated debates over texts from the Bible.

But this is true even on as small a scale as a blog, or even facebook photo captions.  The few strings of words a person chooses to describe their picture or even their current state show such a special, succint aspect of their personality which, I think, can only be appreciated by an outside observer.

For example, my parents have been happily married for 23 years. Experienced all sorts of life's ups and downs together, and, by all accounts, know each others' ways through and through. Yet my mother is as tickled by my dad's off-hand witticisms on facebook as if she'd just met him. Not because she doesn't know him well (obviously), but because a person's writings show a special aspect of them which is otherwise inaccessible...even if you've been married to them for 2 decades.

It's the reason people resort to written words when they've got something very important or difficult to say. It's the reason many people (myself included) never throw letters or greeting cards away. Perhaps it's the reason texting and twitter have enjoyed such wild popularity. What a person chooses to write (even in fragmented, sporadic blurts) speaks volumes both in terms of what they're communicating and how they're unconsciously reflected and interpretted.

It's enough to make even a compulsive writer like myself stop and think about what will meet your eyes and more importantly, your thoughts. And therein...hopefully...put my best word forward.