Tim winton's 'Rising water'

Tim winton's play 'rising water' documents the lives of three div no-hopers trying to exist in solitude, ironically, however, in a somewhat communal fashion. They  live on a bay/marine/pier area thing, it's  Australia day. One is fat, one is old and one is a lesbian, all at their own different levels of inebriation through out the play. Am I certain that what I think about this play is even close to accurate? Of course not. Am I going to pretend that my perceptions hold legitimacy and present them with confidence for the sake of writing what will hopefully amount to some semblance of a half decent review? Of course I am. Much like most of the things we have been exposed to in literature thus far this year, rising water is depressing, and, if one likes to use adjectives generally reserved for describing desert areas*, 'dry and arid'. Seemingly to me, winton has tried to use the metaphor of living on a docked boat to portray these people (the fat one, the old one and the lesbian) as being free (open bodies of water like the one they are docked on draws connotations of 'freedom'), but it is a faux sense of freedom (if you haven't picked up on it so far, THEYRE DOCKED, ie tied down, stuck, etc, etc, etc) as they all have their own baggage (weight, age, and sexual preference being the lease of it.) A drunken, loose, female backpacker flops onto the fat ones boat, long winded, wordy monologues with confusing subject matter (political charge? something about drowning? I don't know) ensue, allegations of paedophilia and maiesiophilia run rampant, John Howard (fat one) succeeds to skull VB like it's 1984, wear a shirt that is an atrocity on my feeble human eyes and be fat. A blonde haired youth paddles along the front of the stage melodramatically (nobody in the history of the world has ever leant forward that much or pushed down that hard when paddling a dingy boat), and his presence is never acknowledged (so avant-garde), and the people in charge of this play forfeit any chance of using the one attractive cast member as a last ditch attempt to capture somebodies attention. Rising water was about as entertaining channel 31's 'sense with dollars' program, it's only saving grace the set, which was kind of ok if you like things that are shit. 



*one does (the one in question here being myself)

Psycho

Psycho is a 1960 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. It revoultionized the slasher/modern horror genre, and made a huge impact on the film industry in general. It went against the grain for movies at the time with the sudden death of the main character, shocking the audience.
A woman steals $40,000 from her boss's client to start a new life. She frantically flees from town, encountering the police, buying a new car, and trying to escape before anyone notices what she has done. Caught in a storm, she stays at a motel for the night.
Monday morning, at the office, everyone notices the main character's absence from work and the missing money. An investigation is then initiated to find the money and the criminal.
I felt as though the storyline to Psycho, while new and exciting when it first came out, has dated terribly. The whole plot comes across as quite dull, as well as being almost comically bad, like it is supposed to be some sort of spoof on horror films. The cinematography, however, is still beautiful, as the shots of the city are exoansive and well lit, and the close ups of the characters are framed so that we can see past their eyes and into the psyche. So while the plot didn't grab me, aesthetically i found Psycho to be very pleasing and well done.

The pleasures of conformity and the importance of trends

American Psycho is one of the most incredible films i have ever seen, and i think Patrick Bateman is a character everyone can relate to, to some degree. The movie and the characters really embody the commercialism, greed and materialistic obsession of wall street and upper class America in the late 80s/early 90s. Patrick is the most concentrated example of this, in early scenes commenting in his internal monologue that he is 'almost in tears' when he doesnt get a good table at a restaurant, as well as breaking out into a sweat over an exceptional business card that seems to give him more pleasure than his fiance. This scene is my absolute favourite from the movie, as its the first time we see Bateman properly lose his control over something. I love that his outburst only lasts a few seconds, and as soon as he's finished he goes back to being quite calm, showing no remorse. As a matter of fact, if one were to only view him from the left, you wouldn't even know that he had just dismembered his work colleague with an axe. I love how the blood is only spattered on one side of his face, almost like its displaying the two sides of a psychopath (the socially acceptable front they develop for public consumption, and the real, disturbing characteristics underneath.) Even the choice of music (Huey Lewis and the news' 'hip to be square') is perfect, such a daggy song paired up with a disturbing scene, edited just so that the chorus comes in when Bateman has finished and is calming down again, taking a moment for a cigar, while Jared Leto lays bleeding at his feet. There is no chance a movie like this would be made today, because all directors and filmmakers have turned into a bunch of sentimental nerds that love preachy movies with ridiculous dialogue and convoluted endings, practically aborting any scene where there is something remotely enjoyable to watch.

Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwicLgOGJOI

They're not your husband

Earl is a seemingly disturbed man, who becomes obsessed with his wife's weight loss and appearance after two men talk about her crudely while she is working. Raymond carver uses the story of the unemployed husband and waitressing wife to paint a realist picture of a failing marriage. Earl has nothing to really live for and so becomes obsessed with the most menial of tasks, getting his wife to lose weight. It completely consumes him so that when she says that people at work are worrying about her, his possessive streak shows and his reply is 'they're not your husband', giving him self an undeserved sense of entitlement. When Earl re enters the place where his wife works, the other wait staff are convinced that he is some creep off the street because his demeanor is less that of a proud husband and more similar to a deprived pervert.

Superman and Paula Brown's new snowsuit

The underlying theme of ‘Paula Brown’s new snowsuit’ is the transition from the innocence of childhood, which is displayed through the change in the girl’s dreams/daydreams. She starts off by having these elaborate fantasies about flying and superman, but after seeing a war movie at the cinema, whenever she closes her eyes all she can see is dead soldiers and horrible war scenes. This transition is most graphically displayed when she throws up the bright coloured cake and ice-cream after seeing the graphic war film, almost as if she is purging herself of her childhood. Another theme is finding out people aren’t always going to tell the truth, because she is blamed for ruining Paula Brown’s new snow suit, even though Paula slipped and ruined it herself. This incident also shows that people aren’t always going to believe you, as even though she is adamant to her mother and uncle that she didn’t push Paula, her mother still says that they will buy Paula a new snowsuit.

Snowdrops

A. The snowdrops represent the frailty of the children ( the narrator especially) and his teacher, as well as being a metaphor for new life as they come out at the end of winter when everything is beginning to come alive again. The gentleness of the snowdrops contrasting with the starkness of winter contrasts innocence with the harsh reality of life.

B. The narrator is, emotionally, very young. He isn’t stupid, but he can’t grasp that people’s intentions may not be as they appear at face value. For example he thinks that his teacher just wants to show them some flowers, but really she wants to see the young deceased man’s funeral procession go by. He is also very observant as he notices his teachers dress on the day of the funeral, but doesn’t come to any conclusions (or even tries to make any) as to why she is dressed that way. He gets intense joy from the bacon in his sandwich, which is not how an older person or child would react to having a bacon sandwich, so he is still young enough to enjoy the very simple things in life. Edmund, however, is much less naive and is not as excited as the narrator by such simplicities. He is more of a trouble maker than the narrator, as he plays a trick on his class mate and plays up in class, he is not fascinated by the snow drops, makes jokes that the narrator has not heard before and is aware of the funeral.

C. Miss Webster was ‘friendly’ with the Meredith boy, but she obviously knew him quite well and had serious feelings for him as she stops mid-way through telling her class a story to make sure that they can go into the yard ( under the guise that they are going to look at the snowdrops) and she can watch the funeral from there. She isn’t a part of the actual funeral and has her own private mourning session, dressed in black, behind the bars of the schoolyard fence

D. The adult world in snow drops seems somber and depressing, with nothing particularly nice happening, everyone is dressed in grey or black and there is a funeral. The adult world has many layers and conflicts, whereas the child’s world seems one dimensional, the children eat and go to school and draw pictures, with no major climax or drama.

E. Overall, the story seemed really dry to me and although there were many layers and metaphors etc, nothing grabbed my attention.

Reading history

1. Brer Rabbit - Enid Blyton
2. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
3. The 9 lives of Chloe King - Celia Thomson
4. The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy - Douglas Adams
5. Chuck Palahniuk novels
6. Kingdom of Fear (Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child In the Final Days of the American Century) - Hunter S Thompson
7. Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer