Hi दोस्तों !
Things have wildly changed probably since the last time either Anand or I posted here.
I never thought I'd ever come back here but I suddenly remembered this existed and I decided to give it a peek. I'm highly embarrassed at all the things I have posted here, but oh how great would it be to go back to a world where I posted without a care in the world and with no regard for what people thought of me.
Unrelated to the above exposition of a paragraph, I thought I'd revive the one blog where I actually posted stuff (probably because of peer pressure let's be honest) so that I can actually have some sort of opinion on the internet once again. A lot of people have in the recent past taken to Twitter for these reasons and though it's indeed quite a feat to manage to write an entire story in 140 characters, I'd like to have my own personal freedom from that word limit and be able to express freely. (Though, again, my mind wanders and I realize how insane the pressure must be to write a screenplay say - for a 20 minute TV episode or a 1.5 hour long movie that is being made from a book that was around 600-1000 pages long.)
But I'm not a writer, and as time (and this blog) is testament to this- I never worked on my prose or poetry writing or my story-telling any further. (Story-telling... hmm that is debatable, but hey! I have become a huge fan ((evidently)) of the parenthesis. What an excellent invention.) But who knows maybe in the next 10 years, this could change? Hmm.
One of the things on my mind over the past few days is this post I read about the films that won the Oscars this year. For people living under a rock, the Korean film 'Parasite' won best director and best overall film while the film 'Joker' won best actor. The reason I brought up only these two films is the point of this article.
Recently, a Facebook friend of mine wrote his opinion about these two movies in particular and said he was getting tired of films making him feel hollow inside as he left the movie hall. He was tired of movies not making him root for the main characters, because he had no empathy for them because they were pieces of shit, and that he was hoping they'd die so that the movie would end.
This was kind of a jarring opinion to digest because I personally LOVED the film 'Parasite' and although I haven't seen the film 'Joker', I am an ardent follower of the DC universe and simply love the depth of character afforded to all the villains that share that world. I read and re-read that entire little rant, and was trying to look at it from the perspective of the writer.
I am entirely for the notion of trying to see things from another's perspective. I have tried over and over again over the years to open my mind to a bunch of things that I thought was not my thing- metal music, the cartoonist Crumb, David Lynch films... just to name a few. Over time, David Lynch has slowly inched his way to my list of personal favorite directors (and although I cannot say the same for metal music and the cartoonist Crumb- I know and can appreciate the kind of musical prowess that goes into the making of metal music and the kind of skill that goes into the pornographic imagery of a cartoonist like Crumb.)
The more times I read that rant, the more I understood what he meant by it, for sure. For some people, cinema is a release. People want to go to the movies to forget. The world is a slimy, gross place and some people want to go to the movies to escape it- to be freed from the burden of seeing gritty dark things and to also escape into the life of another likable human being. For many people, this likable human being needs to be someone who they consider above their own selves, someone who can clearly be visible as the better person. However, the moment the time comes for these people to put themselves in the shoes of someone who they consider a 'worse' person than themselves, or a 'less likable' person- it gets harder for them to be empathetic towards them.
And why not? This is actually a regular and almost too human of a thing. This little article from this point on could go in two probable directions. I could talk about the responsibility of films to feed into this feel-good feeling that people need in today's world of dwindling values and happiness, or I could get into the other side of this- the empathy we lack towards the 'lesser human'.
No points for which direction this article is going to go in.
For one, what's the constituency of this 'lesser human' and how can one decide who or what this person is? How can one decide who falls into this bracket of an awful person and who does not?
If we consider the movie 'Parasite'; the movie was pointing a finger of blame at the economy and the rules of society, and was a direct interpretation of the phrase 'society makes a man'. The protagonist family in this film are not the 'good people' because the things they did to get their way were in no ways legal. But then, who were the good people in this film? Clearly it was not the rich family which was blissfully unaware of being duped by the poor family either, as they had their own vices- again a direct consequence of society and its rules. The point of this movie was to make us realise the situations that lead to people being the way they are, and the reasons they cannot escape from their reality, no matter how much they try to.
Are any of these people in any way, lesser human beings? Aren't all people what their situation and environment makes them? Is anyone born evil? Can you not be empathetic towards a criminal? Is it wrong to not want to watch the story of a person driven to crime?
Most of these questions have answers that are firmly based in subjective opinion- because the quality of empathy is entirely subjective. If you think you cannot be empathetic towards a person who has decided on a life of crime, could it be that that particular movie is not for you? Maybe. I watched Sonic The Hedgehog yesterday and one of the things Dr. Robotnik said to James Marsden's character (I already forgot his name, what was it? Tom? Not relevant.) was that he was bullied when he was little and he got his revenge on the bully soon enough. So if he was bullied- you would probably feel bad for him, but he decided to get his revenge and he grew up to be an evil vengeful villain... so is that confusing for all the empaths out there? Are you wondering if you are rooting for the right person?
'Art for Art's Sake' has for long been such a contested little saying but it makes all the difference in the world. Cinema is a reflection of humanity, and if society isn't represented by cinema- is cinema even portraying humanity well at all?
The fun thing about the world of cinema is that there is something for everyone. And maybe, just maybe, that's the beauty of it all.
Things have wildly changed probably since the last time either Anand or I posted here.
I never thought I'd ever come back here but I suddenly remembered this existed and I decided to give it a peek. I'm highly embarrassed at all the things I have posted here, but oh how great would it be to go back to a world where I posted without a care in the world and with no regard for what people thought of me.
Unrelated to the above exposition of a paragraph, I thought I'd revive the one blog where I actually posted stuff (probably because of peer pressure let's be honest) so that I can actually have some sort of opinion on the internet once again. A lot of people have in the recent past taken to Twitter for these reasons and though it's indeed quite a feat to manage to write an entire story in 140 characters, I'd like to have my own personal freedom from that word limit and be able to express freely. (Though, again, my mind wanders and I realize how insane the pressure must be to write a screenplay say - for a 20 minute TV episode or a 1.5 hour long movie that is being made from a book that was around 600-1000 pages long.)
But I'm not a writer, and as time (and this blog) is testament to this- I never worked on my prose or poetry writing or my story-telling any further. (Story-telling... hmm that is debatable, but hey! I have become a huge fan ((evidently)) of the parenthesis. What an excellent invention.) But who knows maybe in the next 10 years, this could change? Hmm.
One of the things on my mind over the past few days is this post I read about the films that won the Oscars this year. For people living under a rock, the Korean film 'Parasite' won best director and best overall film while the film 'Joker' won best actor. The reason I brought up only these two films is the point of this article.
Recently, a Facebook friend of mine wrote his opinion about these two movies in particular and said he was getting tired of films making him feel hollow inside as he left the movie hall. He was tired of movies not making him root for the main characters, because he had no empathy for them because they were pieces of shit, and that he was hoping they'd die so that the movie would end.
This was kind of a jarring opinion to digest because I personally LOVED the film 'Parasite' and although I haven't seen the film 'Joker', I am an ardent follower of the DC universe and simply love the depth of character afforded to all the villains that share that world. I read and re-read that entire little rant, and was trying to look at it from the perspective of the writer.
I am entirely for the notion of trying to see things from another's perspective. I have tried over and over again over the years to open my mind to a bunch of things that I thought was not my thing- metal music, the cartoonist Crumb, David Lynch films... just to name a few. Over time, David Lynch has slowly inched his way to my list of personal favorite directors (and although I cannot say the same for metal music and the cartoonist Crumb- I know and can appreciate the kind of musical prowess that goes into the making of metal music and the kind of skill that goes into the pornographic imagery of a cartoonist like Crumb.)
The more times I read that rant, the more I understood what he meant by it, for sure. For some people, cinema is a release. People want to go to the movies to forget. The world is a slimy, gross place and some people want to go to the movies to escape it- to be freed from the burden of seeing gritty dark things and to also escape into the life of another likable human being. For many people, this likable human being needs to be someone who they consider above their own selves, someone who can clearly be visible as the better person. However, the moment the time comes for these people to put themselves in the shoes of someone who they consider a 'worse' person than themselves, or a 'less likable' person- it gets harder for them to be empathetic towards them.
And why not? This is actually a regular and almost too human of a thing. This little article from this point on could go in two probable directions. I could talk about the responsibility of films to feed into this feel-good feeling that people need in today's world of dwindling values and happiness, or I could get into the other side of this- the empathy we lack towards the 'lesser human'.
No points for which direction this article is going to go in.
For one, what's the constituency of this 'lesser human' and how can one decide who or what this person is? How can one decide who falls into this bracket of an awful person and who does not?
If we consider the movie 'Parasite'; the movie was pointing a finger of blame at the economy and the rules of society, and was a direct interpretation of the phrase 'society makes a man'. The protagonist family in this film are not the 'good people' because the things they did to get their way were in no ways legal. But then, who were the good people in this film? Clearly it was not the rich family which was blissfully unaware of being duped by the poor family either, as they had their own vices- again a direct consequence of society and its rules. The point of this movie was to make us realise the situations that lead to people being the way they are, and the reasons they cannot escape from their reality, no matter how much they try to.
Are any of these people in any way, lesser human beings? Aren't all people what their situation and environment makes them? Is anyone born evil? Can you not be empathetic towards a criminal? Is it wrong to not want to watch the story of a person driven to crime?
Most of these questions have answers that are firmly based in subjective opinion- because the quality of empathy is entirely subjective. If you think you cannot be empathetic towards a person who has decided on a life of crime, could it be that that particular movie is not for you? Maybe. I watched Sonic The Hedgehog yesterday and one of the things Dr. Robotnik said to James Marsden's character (I already forgot his name, what was it? Tom? Not relevant.) was that he was bullied when he was little and he got his revenge on the bully soon enough. So if he was bullied- you would probably feel bad for him, but he decided to get his revenge and he grew up to be an evil vengeful villain... so is that confusing for all the empaths out there? Are you wondering if you are rooting for the right person?
'Art for Art's Sake' has for long been such a contested little saying but it makes all the difference in the world. Cinema is a reflection of humanity, and if society isn't represented by cinema- is cinema even portraying humanity well at all?
The fun thing about the world of cinema is that there is something for everyone. And maybe, just maybe, that's the beauty of it all.
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