When We Two Parted - Joanne's thoughts

When We Two Parted by Lord Byron is probably one of my favourite poems. I'm not really sure why, but it has stuck with me for years and years and I just think it is so beautiful.

Nowhere in the poem does he mention the weather and yet when I read it, I picture this dark, grey, miserable aching setting. The words that he uses are beautiful. In a few simple lines, he describes the pain of a breakup, of doing something shameful to him, and of holding in a secret.

Even in the first few lines, "When we two parted in silence and tears...", that holds so much weight and description in it. For example, in tears shows that it was difficult for the both of them. In the silence, it shows there was nothing else to say, and alludes to the idea that this burden was a secret and they had to carry it alone.

They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shudder comes o'er me—
Why wert thou so dear

Another brilliant line! "A knell to mine ear". One of the things during our Europe trip was that those old church bells are unnervingly loud... and beautiful but eerie. What a great metaphor he uses to compare her name. Loud, beautiful but eerie. Agh Byron, You get me.

Harrison Bergeron: Joanne's take on it

Let me just start off by saying, I read Tyler's review of the short story, and I also really liked this short story. But I also don't have a clue what he's saying when he makes all those cultural references. Why are you name-dropping so many things that I don't understand the references to. The Trees? Rush? Slaughterhouse 5? Anyways, I'm not entirely sure if we read the story the same way (I wasn't really amazed at anything nor did I see "deep beauty), but I think I echo his sentiments.

I feel like Vonnegut really took on this dry, sarcastic tone when he wrote it and I loved it. For example, you can kind of see this in the description of the setting, where Mom and Dad Bergeron are sitting casually in their living room, watching television - I imagine, sipping tea. There's this irony of the normalcy of this setting despite having their only child literally stripped away from them, and the pure ridiculousness of what this world must have looked like where everyone wore masks and had weighted bags attached to them.

I thought it was also smart of Vonnegut to illustrate that beauty is not only in the physical things, but also in things like art - specifically in this story, dance and music. Again, outlining how ridiculous this is. I'm going to take a slight tangent now. In this new world, who even decides what is average? How does one decide what is considered beautiful? These are things that you can't really define into simple little boxes, So my reaction / takeaway to this theme is really that we need to embrace beauty, embrace individuality.

Anyways, let's go onto the shocking ending and climax of the story, the revolt. I agree with Tyler - the beginning of that story didn't prepare me for that twist at all. (That's one of the things I hate about short stories; another is how they end so abruptly.) But I have to say, when he burst into the room, I got really excited like YES - speak brother! Demand your individuality! I don't know what Tyler's talking about when he speaks about this short but deep love between him and his Empress (you crazy, Tyty). I think Harrison was just at a breaking point in his insanity - an insanity brought upon by being a genius and simply aware of his circumstances, under a repressive state. I feel like he was at a point where he was just so desperate for the full experiences of everything he knew existed but never got to see, such as love, passion, art, beauty, etc. and he knew he had a 15-second window of opportunity and he wanted to seize it.

His death shocked me a little. It was quick and sudden. The end of the story left me feeling sad. Not really because of his death, but more so because of the implications of the government that I think Vonnegut was trying to convey. We as people are so fickle. If we don't take the time to process what is really going on around us, if we let ourselves get distracted by the noises in our ears (lives) or the targeted messages around us, we can as easily become mindless also.

Harrison Bergeron: Or How Reading is Not Always Good for Mental Health

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut is a story set in a future where everyone is exactly equal. It’s sort of the short story equivalent to an Ayn Rand novel. When reading, it also reminded me of The Trees by Rush, a favourite song of my families for long car rides to the cottage. Harrison Bergeron revolves around the theme of strict equality and gives an extreme case of what this can do to a society. I decided to read this story because I’ve wanted to read Slaughterhouse 5 for a while now, but haven’t been able to get around to it. It doesn’t look like it will happen this year either so I decided to just wet my appetite with a short story by Vonnegut instead.

After reading this a couple of times…I’m not quite sure what to make of it. I think I really liked it... I think? I think it caught me by surprise. It seems so simple and ridiculous that it shouldn’t be taken seriously and yet, I couldn’t help but be drawn in by the images of it. I have a very distinct picture in my head about how it would all look.  The images in my head really contrast the normalcy of the Bergeron family in their house with my idea of how bizarre Harrison would look like with all his “handicaps.”

I think I was also surprised by the story because the opening little bit didn’t prepare me for how much I would feel later on. I found that until I came to the part where Harrison appeared on the TV and proclaimed himself Emperor, I wasn’t really engaged with the story. However, as soon as Harrison appeared I was amazed. There is a deep beauty in the simple writing of Vonnegut at this point. Just the divergence from the strange normality of the beginning of the story to the crazy claims of the 14 year old and his short love with his Empress left a deep impression on me.

Then the story became deeply simple…and sad. All it took to destroy the love and beauty was a double barrel shotgun. Both the Emperor and Empress die and the story returns to Mr. and Mrs. Bergeron. The sad routine of their lives carries on without thought of what happened, or what could have happened. When reading, I went from really happy to really sad very quickly. Again, another twist, just as I started getting in the story, really enjoying it then, BOOM! and I’m back to feeling ambivalent about the story, but this time also deeply sad. But then as a final surprise, the last line literally made me laugh out loud…weird story.

As I reflect back on this story now I think I can say that I really do like it. Moreover, I think I like it for all the reasons why I wasn’t sure if I liked it at first. At the very least it was a really well written story as it definitely allowed me to enter the narrative and to feel what was going on, even if those feelings were not happy. Now excuse me while I pour myself a stiff drink and wallow in sadness for a little while.

www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html

My thoughts on Chef: A Response

So Joanne says you can’t hate on a feel good movie. Well let me do my best. First of all, half the movie is food making montages. I think for most of the world that is terribly boring. Sitting and watching people make food that I can’t eat was just awful (made worse but the fact I was pretty hungry while watching the movie). Joanne brought up the point that there were some strange plot gaps that that didn’t really make sense. She claims that we should forget them in order to enjoy the movie. I say no. I can’t enjoy a movie if it doesn’t allow me to suspend my disbelief. I spent a good chunk of this movie going, “mhmm, I don’t see how that could happen.” The best example of this is the ten year old social media guru. Really, a ten year old built your business by using twitter, Commmmeeeeee------ooooonnnnnnn. This movie attempts to be happy at all costs. Why else end the movie with the remarriage of the chef to his ex-wife, whose relationship is never really developed outside of a few lines that they share together. I mean really, it’s not all bad, there are some funny parts and really I promise I didn’t hate it, it was just blaahhh. It was just not all that interesting. A man was lost in his work and in his relationships; the man finds fulfilling work and therefore his relationships get miraculously fixed. It’s really that simple and doesn’t get much deeper than that.

As I write this I realise I sound like a grumpy old man. Which to be fair, deep down inside I think I am. However, recently I was reminded of a poem by Henry Howard in which he wrote of the quiet mind being one of the most desirable things in life. He was likely correct when he wrote that and I suppose with a quiet mind you may be able to overlook the glaring lameness of this movie and really enjoy it as just a happy movie in which everything works out in the end. However, I just don’t find that very interesting. I think HBO ruined me.

My friend, the things that do attain

The happy life be these, I find:

The riches left, not grown with pain;

The fruitful ground; the quiet mind.

           

            Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

My thoughts on: Chef

Hurray, the first post!! Here we go!

So, I finally got the chance to watch Chef and see what the big deal about it was and why it was rated an 88% on Rotton Tomatoes.

In brief, Chef is a movie about a guy with a passion for cooking. After going through the motions as a chef in an establishment, he gets the chance to start his own food truck business where he can cook as he pleases.

My thoughts
I thought it was a good movie. Not 88% percent, but I mean, not bad. It was as it portrays itself - just a really solid feel-good movie. And you can't really hate on a feel-good movie....

One thing I liked about it was that it included different layers of his life and played them all out very evenly. For example, there was that layer on family. We see this awkward struggle of his as a divorced father who is trying to keep the relationship with his son going but doesn't really know how.

Then there's that professional level, and they built out that struggle of working under someone and feeling like you're being held back. I felt for him and his difficulties working, even when you're doing something you love and something you're good at, but not in the way you want to do it. He just wanted to be free. I feel you, brother.

The movie is better if you don't think about how unrealistic some aspects are. Like how he got such a hot and rich ex-wife..... and then got her back so easily, or how easy it was for him to come across the money to start this business. I could keep on going but the point is, don't think about it. Just accept you're supposed to feel good about this!

At the end, he's just such a happy fellow, having reconciled all the loves in his life that you really can't help but also feel happy for him. And if your heart is cold and none of that did it for you, they also incorporate shots of making food - just beautiful, beautiful food.