How To Disappear Completely

I felt bolnoy, my droogies

Yes, I'm the social loser who is on the internet Friday nights. I can't even pick out good movies from the local public library to while away the evening. I tried watching The Blue and the Grey, but decided after an hour and a half of agony that no one could be that desperate for something to do. I don't care if Abraham Lincoln was played by Gregory Peck. His brief cameo appearance had all the nostalgia-ridden, postcard historicism that makes that particular president a monument and not a real person. And Peck was the good actor of the lot. I could feel in my bones that a primative 19th-century no-anesthesia-but-a-silver-bullet amputation scene would be inevitable, and so I ended it all.

I've also found a movie that's put me off "The William Tell Overture" forever, I'm afraid. Not that much impetus was needed: I'd almost decided to give up Rossini for Lent and this minor event just confirmed the matter. Watching Clockwork Orange, on the whole, made me sick. I believe that it was not in fact Alex "they" were trying to cure but me, and "they" succeeded quite beautifully. I will never be attracted to sex and violence again, thank you very much. Alex is Burgess' 20th-century answer to Raskolnikov. Stories of social distopia and existential ubermensch always center around young, white, middle/working class, male protagonists: I feel so close to understanding the angst and yet realize I am peering inside a mind I'll never quite get. Resonance hovers like a bellhop waiting for a tip, but true empathy eludes like a tech services representative at Dell.

On the bright side, because of this wretched viewing experience, I had a wonderful example for explaining to a student how diegetic film music can be used to produce musical irony: "You remember the scene where Alex is beating the old man and raping the wife? You remember what he was singing while he was doing it?" The upbeat, cheerful, innocent character of the song "Singing in the Rain" strongly clashed with the social implications of Alex's action.

Anyway, I think I will undergo a little recovery therapy by watching Much Ado About Nothing for the remainder of the night.