Yesterday at lunch, I finally got caught up on the first episode from this new season of Lost. Across the way from my cubicle is a set of six abandoned cubes, and I rolled my chair over to the back ones and set up the laptop on the desk. On the way over, my boss asked me what I was doing. I told him about Lost, and he was disappointed. He had thought I was moving Jeff's cube. That is, taking all of his stuff from a guy's cube to another and setting it all up exactly the same way. You know, as a prank. They did that to my supervisor a couple of times, like, took pictures and everything to make it looked exactly the same. I told my boss that I don't pull pranks , but he didn't believe me. But it's true. Unlike pretty much everyone else here, I'm not a big fan of pranks. Maybe it comes from not liking them played on me. I dunno. Never been a prankster.
Anyway, I really enjoyed Lost, back there in my private cube. Just put my feet up and watched it in HD. For week two, I've downloaded the super HD version, which I'll watch at lunch here in a few minutes. The picture is gorgeous, I checked this morning.
I really really enjoyed sitting back there, watching a new chapter one of my favorite stories. It got my heart rate up, and I started speculating on various motives and possibilities, and teared up when they talked about Charlie. And in the midst of all that, I finally realized why I tend to not like to watch movies as a group activity, even though I really, really like movies. It's because I like books so much.
I've been a crazy reader most of my life. One time, I lost out on the prime job hunting days in Emporia because I was reading the first four books of Harry Potter. In third grade, I got a pink slip (i.e., office referral) for continually reading when I was supposed to be cleaning out my desk. I've put off writing important papers because I had a novel I was in the middle of. I've stayed up past three the night before a test to finish a book. I've skipped church. I like to refer to books as my personal crack. When I read, I do nothing else. Oh, and woe to the person that tries to get my attention when I'm reading. I get snippy.
It's because when I'm reading a well-written book, I space out and start reading automatically, the words creating pictures in my head. It's like dreaming, relaxing and delightful I imagine it's like what women feel when they eat chocolate. Endorphins firing like crazy.
So, take my long history of book reading into account, and my aversion to watching movies in a group makes total sense. To me, stories are personal, a private pleasure.
My summer before (and during) my first year of college, I was working at Big Bubba's Bar-B-Q, and I got a membership card to Movie Gallery. Yeah, even back then, I didn't care for Blockbuster. I always thought it was stuck up or something. Someplace the cool kids went. Besides, Movie gallery was cheaper. And I'd stop by on the way home from work, and get, like, three or four movies at a time, sometimes watching two a night. One time I got home from school at 10:30, watched Dark City, and then went to the AMC 30 and saw the Matrix for the first time. I cannot recommend this to anyone who does not want to believe that they can fly only with the power of their mind.
But now, I rarely watch a movie unless it's something that I really want to see. Or when my desire to see a story, and share it with someone else, overcomes my selfish hedonism. Couple all this with my extroversion, and maybe this is also part why I like the movies I like. They're movies whose stories are such that I want to share them.
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3 comments:
Well, that makes a whole lot more sense then.
My take: Whereas I'm with you on the book-drug-hedonism bit, I do believe that even some books are better in a group situation, read aloud. I like watching movies, but generally I tend to prefer watching them with others around, because it makes for a better discussion of the plot, characterization, acting, points of interest and so forth (mostly after the movie, but at times during as well).
I think the story line and being wrapped therein is an important part of any story, be it book, film, song, opera, what-have-you; however, I think that part of the story line in most movies tends to draw on group emotion and group reaction, whereas in books, for the most part, it would draw on individual emotions and reactions.
I think the main part is found in whether you prefer to discuss the story line as it happens, or afterwards, or both. Or, perchance, not at all.
This is totally off topic, but thought I'd share it anyway. Here is my brother-in-law's (Matthew who played TI with us) blog. He also is a writer and poet. Thought you might find it interesting.
http://silverpenpub.net/mos/Frontpage/Itemid,1/
Sorry Jeremy, he kind of took offense to your book. :-)
one can get timothy to watch movies with one if one is especially insistent for a long time, maybe add some whiny tone, maybe swap a game playing and it helps if one is especially cute.
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