Skip to main content

Movies -- "Spa Night"

I like business.  The table is arranged, or I hear dishes being scrubbed.  The camera moves in to the wall so the light can breathe.  In the background also they inhale and exhale; towels scrape their skin. "Pan over all the traffic on the street; see the grass and hear the shuffle of shoes over cement."  -- Right now it could be the rhythm of fingers and keys, the key-hole in the coffee-can, two pill bottles that just happen to be where they are, the stapler, above, I never use, a tube of cream in front of it, lying on its side, the air conditioner's remote control.  Lists of objects and a catalog of their relationships has an appeal.  The more details, the closer I get to what's real.  So a TV screen is just a window, a wandering eye.  It looks at us from a distance, but consistently, with due attention.  It is close enough so that we can hear each other speak, but far enough away to keep us from speaking to anyone but ourselves.  Everything can be represented, but what's represented should endure.  Most of all, it should be itself, and it receives no help from instruments.  A boy who is distressed scrapes himself with the sponge until his skin is raw.  A boy who is ashamed and angry shoves the owner's keys back at him on the desk.  Everything is recorded and presented without comment.  I'm drawn in because I want to see, and that I see is all of the request.  No one understands what has been faithfully recorded, but the anatomy of it is laid bare for all to inspect.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sample Essay On Shakespeare's Fifth Sonnet (For My Students)

The theme of Shakespeare’s 5 th Sonnet is saving time. In the poem, Shakespeare talks about how time makes beautiful things ugly. He compares growing old to the way that summer changes into winter. Though in the summer there are many beautiful flowers, in the winter all of these beautiful flowers are gone and there is “bareness every where” (8). The winter is so empty that we could almost forget there had ever been flowers at all – if we didn’t “distil” (13) the beauty of summer to make perfume. What Shakespeare means is that we need to find a way to remember being young (the summer) so that when we are older (in winter) we will still be able to remember being happy. We could do this by having children, who will look like us and make us remember who we were when we were young. I just explained the theme of Shakespeare’s poem and summarized the poem. Now I will talk about how he communicates his theme. First, Shakespeare uses metonymy to help us understand how beautiful we ar...
Post a Comment
Read more

To Witness That Such Things As Monuments Are Possible (Saying "Hello")

It's been such a long time since I've written anything.  That phrase ought never to be used in the first line of a composition -- as a matter both of ethics and of style.  But if I'm to begin again at all, I have to begin with the first thought that strikes me, and given what I am beginning, the first thought that strikes me is that. I am clearing my throat before I speak or testing out my voice.  It was much the same thing to say to myself again and again "Hello" when I was young -- just to assure myself that I could speak.  It is honesty, anyway, and it is a true record.  But wouldn't it be odd to come across the memorial of a man, each of whose entries began, "It has been such a long time since I have remembered...?"  This is meditation in the way that I know it -- repeatedly catching oneself.  This awareness comes and goes in waves -- in waves, perhaps, it builds into something deeper.  Or else it just subsides and reappears.  But that is...
Post a Comment
Read more

On Teaching

A bit frustrated recently applying for jobs back in the US.  I could be applying to more jobs and following up more vigorously, but the rejections wear you down after awhile. It's a crash course in Stoicism. Here are some of the questions I've had to field as I've applied for teaching jobs: Why do you want to teach in a Catholic school? How would you address a wide range of skills in the classroom? What do you think causes students to fall behind academically? What helps them succeed? How would you address the diverse set of student and family needs that you are likely to face? How have you demonstrated a commitment to urban education? How would you communicate a sense of urgency in your classroom? Describe a time when you demonstrated a "whatever it takes" mindset. They're reasonable enough questions in themselves, I'll admit. But I constantly have the feeling of having to jump through hoops. I know that people have in mind a certain ideal; I ...
Post a Comment
Read more