2002-08-05
Signs, sings, everywhere are signs, posted at 5:09 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Just a quick note to say that I saw M. Night Shymalan's Signs and it was one of the greatest movies I've seen in months. It's a well-crafted parable on the loss of faith, and that's a topic that I connect with probably greater than any other theme in literature. I really like Shymalan's style, reall connect with it - how all the details are so important, how everything eventually makes sense. His are the types of movies that are wonderful to see again and see again. I can't wait to see this one again. I want to try to guess all the clues before he talkes about them on the DVD. One of my favorites from the film occurred early. When you see it, make note of the following exchange:"Daddy, I don't think the dog is feeling well."
"I'll call Dr. Palmer."
"But Dr. Palmer isn't a vet."
"He'll do."
It all makes sense at the end. I love how Shymalan sets up his scripts like this.
Something I said in that first paragraph is striking a chord with me now. What are my favorite themes in literature. What a dorky, English major sort of question. But I'll give it a stab. Well, I definitely connect with the loss of faith and the feeling of redemption. That was in Signs and A Lesson Before Dying, which I just finished reading. I can definitely relate with the emotional paralysis that Holden experienced in The Catcher in the Rye, and the self-realization that he (hopefully) gets at the end. A better self-realization piece might be The Color Purple. The themes running through John Mayer's lyrics - a longing for romance, for direction, for truth - are something I deeply connect with as well. Frank Bascombe, one of my favorite literary characters and narrator of Richard Ford's Independence Day and The Sportwriter, has a sort of emotional detachment and confined passion that I really can (unfortunately?) relate to. Some diaries also seem to have a theme, and that's probably what keeps me readign some of them. For example,Barani's is one I can relate to a lot - with his sense of longing to find his spot in the world, with his reflection on what he did to get where he is, and what he needs to do to get where he wants to go.
This is an interesting question, but my brain is a little too mushy right now.