The Pillowman

I was truly mesmerized by this play. I can honestly say this is now up there as one of my favorite books to read, which is surprising because most of my top picks are either by James Patterson, Tom Clancy, or Stephen King. I think one reason I loved this play was for the sole fact I can relate to it. Katurian was like the spitting image of me in my eyes. I put my heart & soul into writing & I rather see my pieces of art live on opposed to myself. I guess for me it's an ego thing. I rather people remember me for what I did than who I was. He seemed to have been the same way. Like, he was a righteous person for taking the heat for his brother even if he did "Pillowman" him by killing Michal before he would befall an even more tragic fate. It would be sweeter to have a loved one take your life opposed to some people who knew that you were misunderstood.

His matyrdom, sacricing himself for his beliefs, was what made me feel shitty at the end of the play. When I read that he got shot in the head & his last dying remarks were making another story just really hit home. Even on his last dying breath he did what he did best; storytell. It reminded me of when Plato wrote about Socrates & his deathbed. Socrates was with his two friends & all he did while waiting for the hemlock to arrive was philosophize, which was what he was sent to death for. Katurian & Socrates were one & the same & if I were put in his shoes, I could easily see myself doing the same exact thing.

I love the delicious twist of irony at the end, though, how the novels were set ablaze just like the ending of the actual story Pillowman. For the Pillowman, it was a release & even with Katurian, it was a cleansing process as well. As his writings died, so did he, & was sent to a better place, just like the Pillowchild had done for the Pillowman.

As a tangent, though, I think it would have been quite bad ass if they had each story mentioned in the play [Pillowman, The Little Jesus, The Green Pig, etc.] could have been written in the back of the book so if people were interested in reading the whole novel by Katurian, it could be an option to further understand how Michal believed it was meant to be a reason to kill outside of the obvious facts they told us.

*wants to buy Katurian's novels if they were real*

First & foremost *yells at top of lungs* Just wrong this HUGE blog entry just for it to get deleted. Uberly lame. But back to the topic at hand!

I love this play.. It officially has become a favorite of mine due to the eccentric mini-stories that Katurian tells or we discover as it goes on. The Little Jesus was quite bad ass if I do say so myself. But, what really makes me love this play is who their antagonist is. Michal as the anti hero is flippin' sweet because of who he is as an individual. If he was of sound mind or body, it would not be cool mimicing stories & such. The point that he is so naive & so innocent due to his mental stability makes it wicked cool. When I read this, it just made me think of John Krammer, also known as "Jigsaw", from the movie Saw. He was this guy in #1 who was in a hospital bed, dying, of cancer. In #2, he's invalid & only able to get around via wheelchair due to the progressive state of his cancer. In #3, he is stuck in his bed & then is inevitably killed! But, loe & behold, he still is the antagonist doing all of this crap. Michal is the same. To a sense, he is sick & still doing these demented things with the assistance of another. I hate when the murderer/serial killer is so lackluster without good enough motive. With him, he thought he was helping the individual kids from living horrible lives like the Pillowman, but thought he was the "nice" version opposed to the bad.

I apologize for lack of length, but I put my heart into the previous post & it betrayed me so...
*sighs in disbelief that all that work went to poo*

Pillow Fight!

"Kat: A man comes into a room, says 'Your mother's dead, yeah?
Mich: I know my mother's dead.
Kat: No, I know, but in a story. A man comes into a room, says to another man, 'Your mother's dead.' What do we know? Do we know that the second man's mother is dead?
Mich: Yes
Kat: No, we dont.
Mich: No, we dont.
Kat: All we know is that a man has come into a room and said to another man, 'Your mother is dead.' That is all we know. First rule of storytelling. 'Dont believe everything you read in the papers.'"

I read that & it distinctly made me think of Brother Ed's class last semester. It was Epic's in poetry & film when we began to read The Road by Cormac McCarthy & as always, we got on this magical tangent about the Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn. This is going to be me paraphrasing an older blog, but I find it ironic how in multiple novels/plays/etc. they tell us to not trust what is being said... So if we DONT trust what is said, how can we trust the statement you just said?! *pulls hair out*

It truly is an interesting read. I've read similar novels, not plays, in the past, but nothing like this. I like how each twist & turn of evidence has you wondering "Hrm.. If Kat & Mich really telling the truth or are the Detectives really just being assholes trying to convict them for something they didnt do?" Right now, I cant wait to finish reading it. *gets back to the book*

Hollywood, We're Never Going Down

This weekend was a nice mix of emotions & such. After many things, doing poorly on a midterm I know I aced, my pregnant cousin being admitted to the hospital for several ailments, & my grandfather being declared with dementia, I decided to just slip away into my own realm of thought. I popped on several favored videos & then some that weren't just because I hadn't seen them yet.

The first I saw was 300, then the Boondock Saints, which was lastly followed by Batman Begins *vomits a slight bit due to the fact it's a DC movie*. As I watched each one, it reminded me of some war movies. A lot of these films they seem to have a purpose for doing what they do. 300, Leonidas fights to defend his Spartan people & achieve that "perfect kill" in which they die for their country in a glorious bang. In Boondock, Connor & Murph have a calling by God to remove the "bad" in the world, or at least where they live. In Batman, he basically feels the same way; that he needs to keep Gotham safe & well.

In a lot of these stories, none of the characters really have a good motive to fight or do what they're doing. It's more or less "I signed up & Im here." How can you raise arms against another if you dont even really know why you're doing it? In all of the previously mentioned, there is reason to defend oneself & launch an attack. With Swoff & the multiple Scottish guys in Black Watch, they dont really have anything forcing them or motivating them to react. One typically has reason to fight.. Not just does. It confuses me on several levels & want to look further into this to see if there has ever been a protagonist/antagonist/vigilante who has ever done something just for the Hell of it.

After further adue..

Man it has been a while since I did one of these. Almost two weeks. Sheesh. Life has been exceptionally hectic. School, work, fraternal business, PERSONAL business, & everything else in between has just swamped my life that I couldn't even log in to write about all of it! It makes me think, though. We have all of those people at war today whose lives all just stop to do something for our country. Most of the men out there had girlfriends, wives, kids, jobs. Whatever. They all had something to do & it all got scooped away when they recruited.

Only reason this comes to mind now is because one of my close friends, almost like a little brother to me, Marty, is recruiting himself & is getting sent off around November 21st. He sees this as a once in a lifetime experience to go around & do amazing things, yet most of us are thinking, "Buddy, there are a hell of a lot of amazing things you can experience here without the possibility of a fatality."

Just makes me think of the prior stories we've read & how everything falls into play for a reason. Maybe great things will come to him. Maybe they wont. It's just very unnerving to see a close friend go at something as permanent as joining the army...

War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing?

"Granty: You've fucked her three ways.
Rossco: Every hole in her body.
Granty: And you're saying dinnay ken her that well.
Granty: That's fucking bad news like...
... Cammy: You fucking user cunt.
Granty: Are you gonnay use us?
Rossco: You are ay?
Writer: No.
Granty: Cos I dinnay mind like.
Writer: You dont?
Granty: So long as I get access tay birds like that researcher lassie you're shagging."[22-23]

Some people go to war to be more patriotic & others do so because they got drafted.. But when you enlist yourself, what exactly are your intentions? Some because their family members did it & are following a legacy. Others to get out of going to school or work... But why in this situation?

"Lord Elgin: What more do you want? Three square meals a day, games of football way your mates, guns...
Rossco: We get guns?
LE: Big fucking guns.
Rossco: Guns are fucking magic.
LE: Guns & football & drink & exotic poontang & that.
Shoot a few Germans.
You'll have a fucking hoot.
Cammy: What about glory?
LE: Glory?
Cammy: Aye?
LE: Oh aye... aye... the glory."

Why do they fight? It seems like they're in it for the almost vacation part of it even though in the end, it probably wont be any of that. It's rather upsetting how they all got easily drafted due to a simple bit of persuasion & a choice selection of words.

Boondock Soldiers

Reading the first few pages of this play, it reminded so much of the movie Boondock Saints. Sure in the movie we have two religious twin brothers, Connor & Murphy, who were Irish as could be, but just reading the dialect & such brings back such awesome flashbacks. The vulgarities of war are both similar & even this one specific section makes me think they are close in comparison; "Fraz: Is it like the film?
Cammy: What?
Fraz: The book? Is it like the film? Ay Lawrence ay Arabia?
Cammy: Is it fuck.
Fraz: I bet it's nowhere near as good as the fucking film.
Cammy: No.
Fraz: Never is, is it?
Cammy: Never"

Reading that section is almost mirrored to the scene when they go in on the hit for the russian mob boss. After they make the nine man kill, Connor & Murphy joke about how it's not like the movies. How in the cinema, usually the fight scenes last for twenty minutes & people are jumping over couches & such. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5W46NPGkhE].

It's ironic how in almost every novel/play read thus far, they, the soldiers, take death & dying to such a lax degree & almost make a joke of it to make it easier on themselves & others.

Shooting War

Im a big fan of graphic novels. Typically Im very bias when it comes to anything outside of the Marvel world due to my utmost love & respect for the genius Stan Lee. Even though this was more or less political based storyline, I found it intriguing & very comical. The fact that Lappe & Goldman integrated both real photos with the drawn was a surprising twist on the reading.

One thing I did love was how both Shooting & Jarhead both mentioned the warping of the individual's being. Jimmy & Swoff both had vivid dreams that bothered their sleep & shows the deteriorating of the human soul & how it really does have a negative effect of these men & women who go to war.