The sequel to Before Sunrise was almost the same as the first. Both Celine and Jesse are infatuated with each other and this is glaringly obvious. I don't believe what they feel for each other is love or anything else but an intense, romantic lust. This is made apparent by the way that they have moved on with other people. Jesse, even, is married with a son. Even though this isn't a happy marriage, I believe that if he was really in love with Celine half as much as he claims he is, he would've waited until a time that he thought they could be together again.
What this movie says about love is that it's a fleeting feeling. Celine and Jesse both feel the same way, but they've only met twice. Both claim that they're in love, but they both live their own separate lives outside of each other and can go years and years without actually being around. This idea contradicts almost everything we've talked about in regards to love and changes it to ultimately be a feeling instead of a state of mind.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
Sex and Writing
If there's anything I hate, it's popular romance novels. Not to out any authors (Nicholas Sparks, Stephenie Meyer, and Nora Roberts...) but love, sex, all of that is never like it is in those novels. Anymore, it's so hard to find a relationship how it actually is, confusing, messy and a little uneasy, to be honest. No wonder high school girls just entering relationships, growing up with The Notebook, Twilight and Lifetime movies, have unrealistically high ideals and standards for falling in love with--and eventually having sex with--another human being that's just as confused, messed up and uneasy as them.
Steve Almond's work is more something that I tend to look for in novels if they so happen to focus around a relationship. Instead of seeing your significant other through rose-tinted glasses, you should be with them for who they are, much like we've talked about all semester. The idea of sex and sexuality that was present in Almond's work was surprising, but only in that it was real. It wasn't all flowers and romance, candlelight and rose petals because sex is never like that.
At the same time, it's never meaningless, no matter how many people try to say otherwise. Raw and vulnerable, it's mental and emotional way more than it could ever be physical. For a story to portray the darkest parts of characters and not just the lovely parts of them during an intimate scene, we see the whole relationship for what it really is: whole, passionate and maybe a tad awkward.
Steve Almond's work is more something that I tend to look for in novels if they so happen to focus around a relationship. Instead of seeing your significant other through rose-tinted glasses, you should be with them for who they are, much like we've talked about all semester. The idea of sex and sexuality that was present in Almond's work was surprising, but only in that it was real. It wasn't all flowers and romance, candlelight and rose petals because sex is never like that.
At the same time, it's never meaningless, no matter how many people try to say otherwise. Raw and vulnerable, it's mental and emotional way more than it could ever be physical. For a story to portray the darkest parts of characters and not just the lovely parts of them during an intimate scene, we see the whole relationship for what it really is: whole, passionate and maybe a tad awkward.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
"Halfaouine", The Police State and Sexuality
Watching the movie Halfaouine didn't sit well with me at certain parts. The story, centered around an adolescent boy and his budding sexuality as a metaphor for the changing Tunisian country, was very much patriarchal. While this makes sense as most of the world is indeed patriarchal, the way that women's bodies were objectified were a little bit too much.
This theme pops up a lot, in movies, television shows, books. A man's "coming-of-age" story, much like Halfaouine, revolves around his sexuality and often, the loss of virginity. For a woman, however, their "coming-of-age" story is more about heartbreak and loss and moving on from that, or worse, about the first time a man finds them sexually desirable. Women, it seems, have no say in their own sexuality and just patiently wait around for a man to tell them when it's time, with her consent or not. Towards the end of the movie, we see this happening. Noura convinces the girl he deems attractive to strip naked, with only a sheet or a blanket to cover her. He then attempts to pull this down, even though she's saying "No, stop, don't do that."
It's clear that the objectification of women was a plot device to show the connection between Noura and Tunisia being the Police State, but it seems that it could imply more than that. Instead, that patriarchy is something that will most likely never change, since that's the one thing that's constant from a boy's life and then to a nation.
This theme pops up a lot, in movies, television shows, books. A man's "coming-of-age" story, much like Halfaouine, revolves around his sexuality and often, the loss of virginity. For a woman, however, their "coming-of-age" story is more about heartbreak and loss and moving on from that, or worse, about the first time a man finds them sexually desirable. Women, it seems, have no say in their own sexuality and just patiently wait around for a man to tell them when it's time, with her consent or not. Towards the end of the movie, we see this happening. Noura convinces the girl he deems attractive to strip naked, with only a sheet or a blanket to cover her. He then attempts to pull this down, even though she's saying "No, stop, don't do that."
It's clear that the objectification of women was a plot device to show the connection between Noura and Tunisia being the Police State, but it seems that it could imply more than that. Instead, that patriarchy is something that will most likely never change, since that's the one thing that's constant from a boy's life and then to a nation.
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