Tuesday 25 March 2008

Can u c me?

After watching some American chat show on my break at work and reading Clive Barker's novel about Hollywood -

We all crave recognition in one way or the other but up till recently people were working hard to get it, developing their natural talents, learning new skills, trying to achieve something that would impress other people in a positive way. Today all you need is enough cheek to make a mobile phone clip of yourself beating up a defenceless drunk on a bus stop and putting it on youtube, being insensitive enough to destroy your relationship in front of laughing crowds by claiming you don't know how to use condoms, manipulative enough to use people who wish you well as ladder steps to being someone everyone made you believe you want to be. Not only people performing these acts get what they want, however fleeting such fame is, but also there are hundreds of people whose acceptance of such performances encourages other to try the same way. Is this the sign of the world going wrongly mad or just cruel human nature surfacing in the times when many people have too much time on their hands and so they become attention seekers/passive admirers of the dark side of the soul?

Celebrities and talk shows make me laugh a twisted little laughter of superiority. Then I go back to my blathering blog. No escape from human nature after all...

 

Friday 14 March 2008

They can't take away our freedom!

After watching 'The Other Boleyne Girl'. What a drab life they had back then. Parents in control, choosing your husband or wife when you're still a kid, based on social and economic profits for the family. Most people born, living and dying in their respective social classes with no chance to get out of them. Women expected to marry and have as many kids as they can, as fast as they can. King above them all, ordering people around on a whim. Not like now when you choose your own path, anything's possible if you really want it, no mad tyrant will kill you because you were too ambitious... freedom! Right. So you can go and choose wrong having no experience of the world, end up being with somebody random you met through your parents friends cause you're too scared to be alone any longer, get stuck in a job you don't want where a boss orders you around on a whim, in a life you never wanted to live. Hows this better? It's not even much different.

I'm not saying I'd like to live in yonder times in a dirty cottage or playing deadly pretending game at king's court, happy in a way people who have no choice and know that may be. I'd rather struggle and fail and get all confused and sometimes get my small success. My point is, freedom keeps some people alive. But its lack of structure means so many people get lost in their lives these days, or give it up without even realising, it's kind of sad.

So, you are free. What are you gonna do with your life...?

Sunday 9 March 2008

We all live in Stepford

I've just put down 'Stepford Wives' book and feeling too lazy to get up from the couch (long weekend yey!) leafed through 'Tesco magazine'. How to create a perfect bedroom. Hmm, isn't bedroom just a room with a bed where you crash after staying up net-surfing/partying for too long? Four easy steps to astonishingly clean house. Thanks, as long as mine is not astonishingly dirty I have better things to do on my days off than vacuuming curtains and polishing stainless steel with baby oil. Thirty-odd pages of easy cooking recipes... Whoa. Leafing back. Not a word about the importance of social life, no '20 tips how to combine full time job and full time studying', as to books - go for 'quick reads' what are these like, edited versions...? After a quick research on a magazine shelf the day after the conclusion is sad - women are still supposed to polish the house, take care of the kids, cook and smile and the less they think the better. Housework is hardly thought inspiring after all. Maybe a simple crossword puzzle at the end of the day or a quick read book. And hey, I realise that a real world is a bit more complicated than the picture combined from headlines on 'Good Housekeeping' cover, but the magazines are aimed at someone and someones must buy them and read them and want more of this perfect housewife stuff. Is it just the effect of the book I read or is it real and slightly worrying that we all live in Stepford...?