You can't erase this

[twoweevils]

You know what the weirdest offshoot of 9/11 is for me? I couldn't watch Independence Day, (one of my favourite tune-out-and-veg movies) for a very long time. What gets to me are the scenes near the beginning where people are watching what's happening on tv. They're all disbelieving and scared. And I'm right back in the lobby of the CBC watching with a hundred strangers/co-workers and thinking, This can't really be happening.

Stupid? Probably. I was scared. Who wasn't?

It seems a little silly now, but that day? Nobody knew what else might happen. They threw us out of work early in an overabundance of caution because of our proximity to the CN Tower. I was reminded, absurdly, of the Wicked Witch of the West ducking because Glinda said someone might drop a house on her, too.

I should shut up now, because I don't have anything substantive to contribute. But I woke up this morning thinking about this stuff and thinking about how glad I am that K is here with me now and I don't have to think about which number to find her at if something bad happens.

In other words, I actually feel a little safer now than I did then because I'm no longer 500 miles away from my K-shaped security blanket. And that thought led me to thinking about this song:

Tuesday Morning
Melissa Etheridge
www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=960B7F612B8CD26E (mp3, 1972k)

M.

Comments

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

I couldn't watch Independence Day, (one of my favourite tune-out-and-veg movies) for a very long time.

That makes total sense to me. I still cringe when I see the parts where they destroy New York and the White House, and I used to love those parts. They were creepily cool. Now they are just horrifying.

For years after witnessing a friend hit and killed by a bus, I couldn't watch scenes of people being hit by cars in movies, or really any violence in movies, and I don't think the ending of Mean Girls is funny at all, even though I love that movie.

That should probably teach us something about movie violence and the real world--I think that movie makers and movie watchers can't just be complacent about the effects of their images. Every fake image of violence is an echo of something real that happened. Even the most cartoonish. I need to remember that.

Sorry for dumping all this on your LJ. You just made me think, is all . . .

[twoweevils.livejournal.com]

Every fake image of violence is an echo of something real that happened. Even the most cartoonish. I need to remember that.

Me too. It's too easy to focus on the "that blowed up real good" aspects of movies and become numb to what's going on around you. And don't worry about dumping anything here -- if I didn't want people to think/comment, I'd keep all this stuff to myself.

M.

[tartary-lamb.livejournal.com]

You know what the weirdest offshoot of 9/11 is for me? I couldn't watch Independence Day, (one of my favourite tune-out-and-veg movies) for a very long time.

When my mum woke me up that morning with the news, the first words out of my mouth were, "... but that's just like The Siege." Couldn't watch the movie for years after that. Had my first time post-9/11 about four months ago, actually.

You know, it's funny. For a class (on medieval drama, no less) last year, I was instructed to read an article--well, more of an editorial--from the New Yorker about how people perceive real life events like 9/11 within the... err, context of movies, I suppose. Written so soon after the actual event, it managed to be fascinating and heartbreaking, all at the same time.

[twoweevils.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how movies and books and tv shape our frame of reference and how our experience changes the way we see them. There are movies that I watched when I was a teenager and young adult that I can't bear to watch or even think too hard about now. Not that I've necessarily had personal experience that sensitized me, but I think growing up forces you to shed a lot of the "that can't happen here/to me" insulation you're packed in as a kid.

M.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

I don't have to think about which number to find her at if something bad happens.
That is the scariest thing in the world, not knowing how your family(wife, kids, whatever) is when there is some sort of disaster.
Great dong, BTW>

[twoweevils.livejournal.com]

I think cell phones and IM and email have really increased our need to keep tabs on one another, if only because it's easier to do.

M.