08 December 2007

Disturbed

Laudably disturbing

Cleverly disconcerting

Repulsive but not exactly (?)

Ian McEwan's The Cement Garden rendered me too incoherent for logical speech. For now, at least. McEwan's style is uncanny. He forges the grotesque into something remotely tolerable depicting it in subdued horror, nonetheless. At one point, he makes you laugh and later in the day when you remember laughing over it, you suddenly feel a nagging guilt of having a sick sense of humor. Just when you thought of finally shedding off its effect on you, the story invades the mind in between REMs. No, the mind doest not attempt to direct a reel to reel plot of the story instead, it shamefully rehashes extracts of your life which you hypocritically deemed innocent. And you wake up profusely sweating, gasping for air and then, curse the poor air-conditioner.

The story also calls to mind an idiosyncratic film director in the Philippines when asked about the movie he dreams of directing, "... a movie that exposes the blackness of the human soul not one that attempts to judge or seek redemption... just the sheer blackness of the human soul."

1 comments:

jon said...

There's no nobility in displaying the blackness of the human soul. We see it horrifically played out on the Jesse Dirkhisings of this world. I think it's one of the travesties of modern entertainment that we're consistently asked to identify with the monster instead of the victim. Do we really have that far to travel to realize that the monster is potentially "us"?

Still, after all that, I love a great sick flick! :D My favorite being "The Audition". beyond creepy for a whole host of reasons.

 
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