Sure, it seems obvious. But does the fact that you can boil Romeo & Juliet down to "man, teenagers go off the deep end" detract from the tragedy? :)
Maybe the problem -- for me, and with the execution of the movie -- is it is NOT clear that she is attempting to atone by writing. As I mentioned in my first rant, she has the peculiar entitlement of a writer's solipsistic view of the universe.
Is this tragic? No. Does it have tragic consequences? Yes. But arguably at their worse for those who are unfortunate enough to be in her conscious view.
I think there's a difference between the tragedy you endure and the tragedy you cause in your wilful and selfish ignorance, which is why the themes here are perhaps not as strong for me as they might be for others. I did not dislike her in her youth or in her growth, but she was attached to the tragic only through the malice of her actions -- and while this is probably realistic, it takes an enormous narrative and character drive to make me sympathize with it.
The shock and contempt I felt at her equation of her writing with the happiness of two people she destroyed... was not it.
I understand why writing is an obsession. I understand the uneasy "please die I said so I can write about" that writers always have. I understand the ways in which the universes are ours before we release them into the wild.
But I don't privilege it in a way that would make the exploration of this particular personality work -- for me for the reasons stated above re: tragedy.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-07-22 04:32 am (UTC)Maybe the problem -- for me, and with the execution of the movie -- is it is NOT clear that she is attempting to atone by writing. As I mentioned in my first rant, she has the peculiar entitlement of a writer's solipsistic view of the universe.
Is this tragic? No. Does it have tragic consequences? Yes. But arguably at their worse for those who are unfortunate enough to be in her conscious view.
I think there's a difference between the tragedy you endure and the tragedy you cause in your wilful and selfish ignorance, which is why the themes here are perhaps not as strong for me as they might be for others. I did not dislike her in her youth or in her growth, but she was attached to the tragic only through the malice of her actions -- and while this is probably realistic, it takes an enormous narrative and character drive to make me sympathize with it.
The shock and contempt I felt at her equation of her writing with the happiness of two people she destroyed... was not it.
I understand why writing is an obsession. I understand the uneasy "please die I said so I can write about" that writers always have. I understand the ways in which the universes are ours before we release them into the wild.
But I don't privilege it in a way that would make the exploration of this particular personality work -- for me for the reasons stated above re: tragedy.