Tired of cheerleaders yet, Nicholas? Bet you wish you could fly right about now, huh? Muhahaha!
You saw this coming, didn't you? I bet you did. And you know how I know you saw this coming? Because it's basically the same thing as before with just a minor twist. Repetition. In this day and age of mass media we flock in droves so large that it would make Mecca blush towards the comfort of what we already know. Let's be honest, how else would there be fifteen different cop shows all doing the same plot-lines week after week? Yes, yes, we get it - your plot is a reference to Strangers on a Train. Well, so was nine other cop shows this week. You're not reinventing the wheel, you're just using a muddy replica and bragging about how much it looks like the original. But it's not the original, it's mud. And last time I checked, it doesn't matter how much chocolate you pack into it, it's not going down easy.
The same could be said for horror films, who have made an entire genre out of replication. Saw Ninety-Four, you know the one where there's a game and it turns out that there was another plan going all along. Final Destination Twelve, that one with the shocker where a big event happens in the beginning, and a few people survive before another big shocker happens just before the credits. And of course who can forget the classics like the Friday the 13th series (which would be grossly improved if they would do a cross-genre film with the Friday series)? You know, the one where Jason strolls slowly along before miraculously popping up behind someone just as they turn a corner and are immediately slain (in an appropriately graphic fashion - of course).
Or perhaps it's the onslaught of revenge tales that we endure in the hope (or better said - desire) of violence of the highest order. Really, how many times can the judicial system fail to expedite the process of charging a man who has killed our hero's family member before we get it: "yes, the cops were in on it."
Of course we know you never tire of reading the same ol' rants over and over again (*wink wink*). You know, in all honesty, I'm fine with people wanting a bit of repetition for those things they find most appreciating. Finding something you like without question is rare, especially if you can retain the same adulation even in extreme doses. And it's evidently an aspect people desperately want to embrace. As demonstrated by the many bloggers whose niche writings on particular genre, or counter-genre, films inspires and opens the minds of those less educated, like myself, to films they never would have heard of otherwise. What I'm not open minded with is sole repetition. If you want to spend the next nine hours banging your head over what boils down 'the woman betrayed him' noir tales, I feel you should be equally willing to sneak in a slice of a different flavor every now and then.
Now I know it's sacrilegious to recommend someone seek out some things beyond their comfort zone once in a blue moon. Really, what's the point of the internet if I can't drown myself in only things I care about. Well, for those might I recommend Cocoon? Sure, you may not fit the film's narrative, but for all intensive purposes you've wrapped yourself up in one. Unfortunately for you, when your cocoon breaks and you emerge unto the world it is not a butterfly, whose fluttering wings and majestic colors astound, that those around you see it. It is a cockroach, billowing from the most inner dwellings of the human mind. One so shut off that even the most amicable will suffer to prevent the onslaught of embitterment.
But please remember that your mind is capable of amazing things when you challenge it. Trying something new doesn't mean you have to like it. Nor does it mean you have to abandon the things you find most pleasing. You're not cheating, it' not a question of a tangible, human relationship. It's a recognition of the awe to be had, or the disappointment to be felt, when one seeks out something new. One of our most basic human emotions. And one I feel should be cherished, in both good and bad circumstances.
Here endeth the rant.
2 better thoughts:
...and it was good.
Oh, Univarn. What products come out of two days of Blogger apocalypse.
But what if human imagination really is finite? That, even if something appears new, it's not, as someone else has inevitably thought it out before and never put it into a tangible product? Sure, we might tweak examples, subvert tropes, defy the commonly accepted logic, but can we say any of it is truly original?
Yeah. Cool.
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