The Film I Didn’t Watch: I Spit On Your Grave

My wife being a fan of (preferably bad) horror movies, she is working her way, this holiday season, though lists of scary movies; first the list from our local paper, then random movies (I guess) that she’s stumbled over on the web.

So she ended up streaming “I Spit On Your Grave.”  This was the original 1978 film, not the 2010 remake.

I don’t share her tastes so I’m not watching any of these films.

But I do stick my head into the room from time to time.  Every time I looked in on “I Spit On Your Grave,” the young blonde protagonist was being raped by a different man in the gang that had been following her.  Much later, the protagonist was finishing off one of the men by tying him to the outboard motor on her motor boat, and turning on the engine.

I now discover this film has a history.  Graphically violent, it has been attacked for being misogynist and praised for being a feminist revenge film.  I just thought it was (in the scenes I saw) disgusting.

Curiously, though, I once held the idea that art should be graphic.  If you are dealing with a disgusting topic, “show, don’t tell.”  Show them how disgusting it is!

I’ve grown more subtle (and compassionate?) over the years.  I no longer feel the need to nauseate.

NaNoWriMo Did Me In?

I attempted National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for the first time this year.  Last year, I just did random writing every day I could manage, but this year I actually wrote the draft of a novel—50,000 words plus.  And I started from scratch (I had previously written about 400 words on the idea, but I didn’t use them) – I had an idea, that’s all.
 

Three weeks in, I had to stop to work on some financial reports I do as treasurer of our writing group—lost four or five days of writing; but I made that up.

Still, the month rather “did me in.”  I have not been here.  I missed you, blog!  And I missed the sense of sharing something with my friends.  But I’m back, with new ideas—just in time for the holidays!

Meanwhile, I have been reading:  Finished Felice Picano’s book Ambidextrous.  Now I’m rereading The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath; and a biography of Plath to learn more about her.

Both books quite interesting—and I’ll be saying more about them!  Also watched the film A Good Year, with Russell Crowe, Marion Cotillard, and Albert Finney.

Also saw Kill Your Darlings, in the theater.  This experience was reminiscent of a year ago when I saw (finally!) the film of On The Road.  But more of these later.

Listening to music, as always; mostly, the four-CD collection “Bebop Spoken Here.”  But then, for some reason, I decided it was time to catch up on Rock—so grabbed “Bon Jovi’s Greatest Hits” at the Sunnyvale library.  Not to abandon Jazz, though—I picked up “Tommy Dorsey’s Greatest Hits” at the same time.  Now I’m back on Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.  It’s been an incredibly busy December—nine meetings/events in eighteen days! 

But now, some peace and quiet, hopefully:  I’m taking time off work.  Today is my last work day until Monday, January 6, 2014!