2012 has started
A 40degree day. Visiting a friend who hasn't left her flat all day, due to the weather. A taxi arrives downstairs and she implores me to check out her neighbour, but I'm too late. All I can spot is a dark haired man, wearing a tshirt that I assume to be by Mambo, driving off in the front seat. She tells me he has loud sex on an infrequent basis, seemingly with different females, all of whom leave in the middle of the night. She voices the new question: "Is he having sex with prostitutes?" (Or is he extremely successful at picking up women who want to sleep with him, but don't want to sleep in his bed all night?). She tells me he doesn't drive, keeps his blinds closed all the time and wonders if he's been banned from driving and is a drug addict. I tell her he's probably just addicted to the internet (porn, gambling) and doesn't want his screen view affected by the reflection....
Finished 2011 by reading VERONICA by Mary Gaitskill, who also wrote Secretary, which was made into the film with James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhal. I really like that film, it's smartly made and creates a very insular specific cultural world for it's characters. VERONICA is well written, recalls the 80s New York world well and has a sophisticated and successful time shift between the present time and the past, to provide both a mood piece as well as a plot. There were pieces of prose I wanted to underline and re-read, similar to the next book that I bought, which I am midway through, also set in New York but the late 50s, in tenement buildings. Name of book and author are forgotten, but a nice pairing of fiction.
Thinking back again to my friend.. we've known each other since school days, with a decade gap where we had very little to do with each other. She sighed when thinking of school, of all the energy she wasted making her friends still liked her, instead of relaxing and being herself. I never picked up in this tension at the time, thought she was happily immersed in the world of private school boarders and their signs of social status (pearl earrings, country road attire, boots, references to beach shacks and show days and boys from certain families). But it appears not, and all that time she was never able to relax and see if she would still be accepted if she was just herself. Fortunately I didn't have that feeling so much, at that time, having changed schools and already experienced that psyche stage where I realised that it was easier to "be yourself" and deal with the social consequences, than twist yourself to fit in. So whilst I may recall school days a little wistfully, in regards to the slimness of my social experiences, it's easily compared with the greater depth of experiences I shared with intellectual and social equals during university years. She mentioned this too, how social status mattered more than values or personal integrity.
I said my advice to my younger self, would be not to believe the hype. Everyone was so insecure, but some people were better at bluffing and I believed the spin.
Finished 2011 by reading VERONICA by Mary Gaitskill, who also wrote Secretary, which was made into the film with James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhal. I really like that film, it's smartly made and creates a very insular specific cultural world for it's characters. VERONICA is well written, recalls the 80s New York world well and has a sophisticated and successful time shift between the present time and the past, to provide both a mood piece as well as a plot. There were pieces of prose I wanted to underline and re-read, similar to the next book that I bought, which I am midway through, also set in New York but the late 50s, in tenement buildings. Name of book and author are forgotten, but a nice pairing of fiction.
Thinking back again to my friend.. we've known each other since school days, with a decade gap where we had very little to do with each other. She sighed when thinking of school, of all the energy she wasted making her friends still liked her, instead of relaxing and being herself. I never picked up in this tension at the time, thought she was happily immersed in the world of private school boarders and their signs of social status (pearl earrings, country road attire, boots, references to beach shacks and show days and boys from certain families). But it appears not, and all that time she was never able to relax and see if she would still be accepted if she was just herself. Fortunately I didn't have that feeling so much, at that time, having changed schools and already experienced that psyche stage where I realised that it was easier to "be yourself" and deal with the social consequences, than twist yourself to fit in. So whilst I may recall school days a little wistfully, in regards to the slimness of my social experiences, it's easily compared with the greater depth of experiences I shared with intellectual and social equals during university years. She mentioned this too, how social status mattered more than values or personal integrity.
I said my advice to my younger self, would be not to believe the hype. Everyone was so insecure, but some people were better at bluffing and I believed the spin.
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