Sorry for the light posting. Blame the season, but not just the season; I've been trying to get my drawing chops back. Also, my enemies have stopped sending me hate-mail. Their mash notes always spur me into action. (C'mon, guys -- I can't do it without you!)
It has been brought to my attention that Caroline Kennedy has registered surprise and dismay at her own voting record. Although many will make fun of this admission, I will not. I've reached the age at which I re-read some of my own older posts with a genuine sense of discovery.
Hush. Perhaps I should offer pro-forma condemnation of the guy who shot another guy who wouldn't stop talking during a film, but I just can't. Film is hypnosis (literally) and talkers break the trance.
It used to be said that society depends on the general observance of rules which cannot be legislated. The corollary: When those rules are flouted too often, certain individuals will enforce them by means which the law must never sanction. (And before you give me the predictable lecture, let me assure you that the previous sentence was descriptive, not prescriptive. )
I used to think that gabby moviegoers had deluded themselves into thinking that they sat in their living rooms. But why do they gab in their living rooms? I've seen taciturn, moody folks turn into blabbermouths the moment a good movie comes on the tube -- and the better the film, the blabbier the mouth. Why not just lean back into the sofa and watch?
I think the answer has much to do with insecurity. Many people are afraid to lose all sense of themselves, which is what happens when you start to identify with a fictional character. Thus, the viewer feels compelled to reassert his identity -- to shout me me me I I I me me me at the screen.
This principle aplies to other forms of entertainment. A few people have asked me if they need to learn how to read music before appreciating a symphony by Mahler or Beethoven. Of course not. To appreciate a great work of music, you need to accomplish only one task: Do not exist.
Lose yourself. Turn off the me me me I I I me me me.
Many people find this process difficult. At pop concerts, every lowbrow in the audience spends the entire time shouting me me me I I I me me me at the performers. Thus, the engineers raise the volume to ear-splitting levels, in order to give the me me me of the performers a chance to overpower the me me me of their thuggish listeners.
Abominable. Are we all now so insecure that we cannot be passive for a mere two hours?
7 comments:
Two hours, maybe, but Benjamin Buttons drags on for 159 minutes!!! If we don't watch out it's going to be the SHOAH massacre of 1985 all over again.
If you can, leave it at 90 minutes, and if you have to, then 120 min tops.
...and as for people who insist on singing at the top of their lungs at rock concerts, unless they pay for my ticket, they have no right to pollute the air with their interpretation of the song duetting with guys i paid to watch perform on stage. There ought to be KBR internment camps for such misfits!
Shooting someone who talks during a movie is a crime?
It ought to be considered a public service.
I think it's an extension of people who cannot be off their mobile phones for even a minute. Y'know, your friends who call while driving down the freeway or waiting in line at the grocery store - not that they have anything to say. The point is not that they have anything to communicate because more often than not, they ask you what YOU are doing and try to build the conversation from there. Then you have to stand there holding listening to their conversation with the clerk. The point is that we've created the means by which certain people never give themselves the time to process what is happening to them. I have a wealthy friend, who has a therapist on retainer, and she calls the therapist whenever she waits in line or otherwise, has no one to talk to. I have no idea when she pauses to process her life. They talk until 3 in the morning and then she calls her while taking the kids to school - rather than talking to the kids. The barbaric yalp takes precedence over any real, substantive communication.
My television is stuck on The Wedding Planner. My god, what a horrible movie.
If you read the original account, the man was talking to his son. It doesn't say how old the son was, but if you go to movies during the holiday, you have to expect overly crowded theaters and lots of children, who sometimes need things explained to them. So personally I think it's the shooter's fault for choosing a holiday film. I've occasionally gone to theaters during opening night or on school holidays, but then I know what to expect.
I used to go to late showings on odd nights, like Tuesdays, but more than once I've been the only one in the theater, and as a woman I find empty theaters in the middle of the night too disconcerting to give way to the desired trance film experience.
But overall I agree with Lori on the inability of shutting oneself off being part of the mobile phone mentality. Even worse than the yakkers are the texters, who think it's a-ok to flash their screens during performances, films, you name it. Once some brats in front of me kept texting throughout a movie so I plopped my feet over the seat right next to the texter's head. When he complained to the manager I said, "Oh, I was just putting my knees up to block out his cell phone light because he's been texting the entire time." So the manager told him to put his cell phone away.
Not that all the mobile phone maniacs are kids...just the other day in a store an older woman had her friend on *speaker* mode and we could all hear how her friend tried but failed to dye her hair at home! Unbelievable.
Sound engineers increase the volume because loud noises increase autonomic arousal (heart rate, blood pressure). That leads people to misinterpret their own body responses and believe they are having a better time than they are. All self-report ratings of enjoyment are higher with higher volume. It can seriously damage hearing over time but people go away saying "wasn't that a great concert!" so everyone is happy. They do it at the movies too. The noise also exacerbates negative emotions, making someone who feels angry feel angrier.
I spent the Christmas holiday watching the complete "Firefly" series. In the episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds" the Shepherd tells Captain Reynolds that if he takes advantage of his sexually inexperienced wife "you're going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater."
The talking is bad enough, but how about the people who come to the movies DRUNK or even drink alcohol during the film? This has happened to us more than a few times.
The texting is even worse because your view is drawn to that little blue light no matter where it is; it's nearly blinding in your peripheral vision too.
My question: why did the dude have a gun with him at a movie during the holidays in the first place?
FembotsForObama
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