Future Literate Me

  It's hard to know what the future holds, especially while in a state as impermanent as high school, but it is hard to imagine a reality where I ever stop reading. While describing future literary me, it is difficult to get into specifics because at this point I truly have no clue (definitely less of a clue than I should) what the next stage in my life will be, though hopefully I will have more facial hair and be around ten to fifteen pounds heavier. I suspect to continue building relationships, facing problems, and experiencing moments of indescribable joy, and I know that through all of this I will have books as a guide, as something to relate to, something to talk about, and something to pass the time. Literature has always served all of these purposes for me to the point where I can now easily trace back specific times in my life through the books I was reading at the time, because the things experienced in the books become moments in my life as I live them vicariously through the characters, becoming something that may as well have actually happened to me. I am excited to experience the rest of my life and I am excited to see what new books become important to me. Books have always been a very large part of my life and I suspect that they always will be.

Blog #7, The Films of David Lynch

  I will never forget the opening sequence of film director David Lynch's 1986 critically acclaimed masterpiece, Blue Velvet. The movie opens with a series of images that display a seemingly perfect suburban paradise; blue sky's, green lawns, white picket fences, smiles and waves from friendly neighbors. This montage is followed by a  scene in which mans garden hose tangles around a shrub, snapping and propelling itself at his spine leaving him paralyzed from the neck down as the water sprays over the lawn and the camera pans underground uncovering a nest of disgusting insects. The silence is overtaken by a dissonant buzzing as the camera continues to zoom in on the nest more and more until the insects cover the entire frame. This scene is representative of Lynch's catalog as a whole (as sprawling and diverse as his catalog is), because it clearly depicts the major themes that permeate through his work; nothing is truly perfect anywhere, no matter how much people try to cover up the darkness that is inevitably there. Lynch uses suburban America as a backdrop for several of his works, including his short lived but extremely beloved television show Twin Peaks and his mind-bending surrealist noir film Mulholland Drive, because it perfectly juxtaposes with the nightmares he is so great at creating, making them even more terrifying staying with you for weeks after you see them, while proving his point about the purposeful obliviousness of so many people to the horrors that exist right under their noses. Lynch's works have a knowing campyness to them, reminiscent of television shows like Andy of Mayberry, or Leave It to Beaver, creating an exaggerated version of suburbia that works in contrast with very disturbing surreal material, giving the films a very distinct aesthetic. The hyper-stylized atmosphere surprisingly doesn't get in the way of emotional connections with the characters, the plot, or a sense of humor. His movies are challenging and experimental without being pretentious. In my opinion David Lynch is an artist who exists on the level of Picasso because while many of his influences can be traced to specific things, the finished product is indescribable and seems to come from nowhere, and like Picasso his works only increase in value after repeated viewings, and somehow make you feel like you are viewing the work on multiple planes at the same time.