crystal's school blog

When I finished the book, I felt like I was left with feelings of hopelessness and that nothing matters, which is what Mr. Kreinbring said every Cormac McCarthy book comes to. What a perfect metaphor for our world today.

“He felt a loneliness he’d not known since he was a child and he felt wholly alien to the world although he loved it still. He thought that in the beauty of the world were hid a secret. He thought the world’s heart beat at some terrible cost and that the world’s pain and its beauty moved in a relationship of diverging equity and that in this headlong deficit the blood of multitudes might ultimately be exacted for the vision of a single flower.”

 There are many parallels between the song Old Town Road (Remix) [feat Billy Ray Cyrus] by Lil Nas X and John Grady Cole’s journey. This connection is stemmed from the juxtaposition-ed song lyrics and backing tracks, as well as the two artists themselves. 

Cole is a teenager going through a lot. His mom left his dad, his dad is gonna die soon, his grandparents just died, and he isn’t fitting in in the world. He feels like an outsider to the industrialized, modern-day America (of the 40s). He yearns for the simpler times, where a man like him could make a living from ranching and living off the land. He has a whole long ass hero’s journey through Mexico, before finding a ranch just like he dreamed of. His utopian world collapses as he and his friend and wrongfully imprisoned, and more or less banished from that part of the country. Cole’s friend Rawlins heads back home North to Texas, and soon after, Cole heads back too, but he it doesn’t feel right being back “home”- in fact, he states he is a “man of no country” and is doomed to just wander the earth forever, never quite fitting into one place. Cole’s view of the two country’s was very one-way. He believed that America was entirely modern and that Mexico was entirely a wild-land. This generalization puts two worlds at heads with each other, the new world vs the old frontier. The song Old Town Road is a song that manages to collide the two worlds almost seamlessly. It is the solution to John Grady Cole’s problem of not being able to be confined to one generalized area. The song itself, the remixed version feat. Billy Ray Cyrus, is a mashup between the old country sound and the potential new direction. It is a perfect combination of guitar, banjo, and rap beats that bridges multiple generations. If John Grady was around today, you know he would’ve been the one horse girl kid who wants to be a cowboy. He wouldn’t understand his friends’ and society’s love for hip hop/rap. However, I’m sure after one listen of this song, John Grady Cole would realize that it is possible for the new and old to coexist and thrive as one. The lyrics themselves also portray a workable combination between the two worlds, and that modern civilization has helped the cowboy. The lyrics “Wrangler on my booty” is referencing a specific jean brand that tailors to western cowboy pant needs. The two artists also represent two different worlds that have come together for a love of horses and country.

The fact this song was originally taken off of Billboard’s country genre can also be related to John Grady: he tried to fit in in Mexico but was jailed because he didn’t understand the customs of the country and its traditions. He broke the “rules” by trying to court Alejandra without permission from her father, etc. However, John Grady Cole doesn’t have a Billy Ray Cyrus to come to the rescue and bring him back to where he got kicked out of.

I was honestly just as shook as the characters were when their utopia was suddenly ended by being arrested without warning or cause by the Mexican authorities. It came out of nowhere and I read the entire prison section in one sitting because I needed to KNOW what the hell just happened. It ended with John Grady literally killing someone who was paid to kill him, IN THE PRISON CAFETERIA. 

the theme of evil is an interesting one in here. while in the big Mexican prison, the gang leader Perez has a meeting with John Grady where he explains that the difference between them has to do with the Mexican way of thinking. An American, when his car wont work, might get mad and hit it with his hammer. Perez says a Mexican would never do such a thing, because he knows that the car can’t be good or evil. The car is green and has a motor. It cannot be tainted. Same goes for money- it can’t be bad or tainted. Perez says that evil exists on its own legs visiting others. This ominous lesson seems to be the reason that this character is included. It also ties in to other religious themes thrown in, like how Americans seem godless to the Mexicans, yet the Americans surely see it the other way around. 

Reading this section was so frustrating because there was nothing Rawlins and John Grady could do and they were just put through a jail and prison with almost no explanation and they were treated so unfairly. The “Captain” doesn’t believe their IDs are real, and doesn’t believe their story. the whole reason they were wanted men in the first place is so stupid to me- because of this boy Blevins, if that’s even his real name (no one ever finds out). They came across him while on their journey to Mexico, and Blevins lost his horse during a storm. The kid is like 13 and the horse is apparently one hell of a horse, but he doesn’t have any papers to prove its his. Someone found the horse and wouldn’t give it back and Blevins stole it back, placing Rawlins and John Grady as accomplices. They parted ways, and went on with their lives. Blevins went back into the town and shot the guy who stole his horse, and was then arrested. John Grady Cole and Rawlins were turned into the police by the owner of the ranch they were working at- ONLY BECAUSE JOHN GRADY WAS FUCKING THE OWNERS DAUGHTER AND HE DIDN’T APPROVE. 

“They sat with their elbows propped on the table and looked out the window south across the plains to the distant mountains lying folded in their shadows under the morning sun.

That’s where we’re headed, said Rawlins”

The rest of the first part is much of the same feeling and I loved reading every word. I wished their journey would never end.

McCarthy’s best known for his imagery, and when describing the scenery, he does not leave one grass blade out. It is not uncommon for a single sentence describing the land to be over half a page long. Now, seeing the land described in words is a lot different than seeing pictures. I was in Arizona when I was about halfway through the book, and I saw art at a gallery that reminded me so strongly of McCarthy’s words that I just had to have it. I bought a bookmark version so I would have a visual reminder while reading! Her art is linked here:

http://birgittalapides.com/landscapes.html     - the headers landscapes and landscapes 2 are examples of what drew me in. 

Finding adult-level fiction with a high amount of scholarly discourse turned out to be a difficult challenge for the type of fiction that I wanted to read. I ended up downloading goodreads (and finding my account from Ms Little’s sixth grade English class). I searched lists upon lists of the two categories I was interested in: Extreme Weather Disasters, and Westerns. Why those two only? Well for one, I’ve always enjoyed books about weather catastrophes, and had just watched seven hours worth of tornado chasing vlogs, and two, honestly I’ve just been on a western kick recently because of the game that me and every white boy was obsessed with for a hot minute this year: Red Dead Redemption II. 

I really wanted to read a book that centered around an intense thunderstorm and tornado, or at least had one as part of the plot, kind of how there is a hurricane in Salvage The Bones, but I couldn’t find any that had scholarly articles about it. So, I turned to Westerns. 

My boyfriend had just read Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, and he had told me about all the gory details it entails such as stringing dead Mexican babies in bushes and shooting puppies floating down a river for fun, and he also told me a majority of the plot, so I didn’t really want to read that one. Kreinbring said I should stick to that author though, so I’m going to read another one of his: All the Pretty Horses. It’s part of a trilogy, but I’m just going to be sticking to the first book of the Border Trilogy for this project.

I watched Donnie Darko for my modern teen rebellion movie. Even though the film has the supernatural elements (which is what makes it original), at its core is the story of a troubled kid who hates his parents trying to make sense of life, which is at the core of every teen movie. The movie has a classic “teen rebellion movie” shot where Donnie is walking into school and 80s pop music is playing and the camera pans the halls in slow motion, showing kids pushing each other and laughing and snorting drugs and general 90s catholic school hallway activities (you can watch it here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsyfGwlf_l0 ) as well as countless other teen rebellion sequences, like hanging out in the woods on trashed chairs and shooting bottles with guns while discussing smurf intercourse logistics.

AnYWaYs

All of the problems Donnie and his friends face (not being understood, general teen angst, not being able to stay still, inability to express feelings, mental health issues, intense family problems) are portrayed very accurately. This movie was made 17 years ago, yet in one of the opening scenes where the Darko family is having dinner and they start screaming f*ck you at each other, I could immediately picture me being in that situation today. It’s relatable and accurate. The scene where Donnie tells his gym teacher to shove the “Fear/Love Line” up her own ass? We’ve all wanted to tell a teacher that at some point. When Donnie speaks out at an assembly and tells a 90’s motivational speaker that his advice is freaking B.S. and that he’s a phony? We all remember how much we hated watching the videos like that in health that were made by people who haven’t experienced the issue personally, and I don’t know how I’d react if I had to witness that in person. Examples of everything Donnie does, from fighting with his parents to sneaking out at night to just ride around on his bike, can be found in what teens do today. At no one part of this movie (excluding the science fiction portions) did I ever think “well, that would never happen.”

Donnie is the most believable mentally ill character I’ve ever seen portrayed. His character is so freaking accurate, especially compared to other teen movies where the teens are portrayed as one dimensional, most often unruly. Donnie is angry and confused and depressed and possibly paranoid schizophrenic but this movie doesn’t try to dramatise that or make his character do nothing but mope like, say, Eeyore’s character from Winnie the Pooh- instead, it focuses on him living his life despite having these issues and what it does to him. There are multiple scenes of Donnie and his therapist, something I think is important to show in a teen rebellion movie, because it shows people that it’s okay to get help, even if you’re rebelling or whatever, you shouldn’t rebel against your mental health. I can’t think of any other teen movie that shows professional mental health in a positive light or maybe even at all.

None of the characters feel fake. From the uptight christian gym teacher to Donnie’s mother who is trying hard to love him even when he hates her, all these characters feel like they’re directly from real life. And the interactions between these characters and Donnie, it feels like you're peering directly in on his life, not watching a movie where all the interactions have been pre-designed with a script.

The audience for Donnie Darko I think would be troubled teenagers looking for something to distract themselves from the horrors of daily life via entering an alternate world where the rules don’t apply.

I think the purpose of this film, besides to provide a challenging psychological puzzle, is to show mental health in a different way than it usually is shown. To show characters still accomplishing things even when they have mental or other problems. Donnie still saves the world even though he has more mental issues than he can count on one hand.

when jim said “idk what to do anymore... except maybe just die” i felt that

Okay seriously though, I believe that it portrayed certain character and certain teens accurately, but not all of them. Perhaps the reasoning for this is that the movie was made almost 70 years ago, and so of course the teens have evolved. However, I believe there are certain “Roles” that teens will always fit into- example of Plato being a social outcast. We still have that social group today, and they act pretty much the same way. The characters probably seemed more believable back when the movie came out. Something I noticed was that certain habits made the characters believable- such as when Judy’s group tried to fit 12 people in one car, or when she and Plato and Jim broke into the mansion and played pretend. I noticed these little behaviors and immediately thought “Wow, that reminds me of my friend ___”  or “Wow, that reminds me of when we _____”. Another aspect that made the characters believable was when it portrayed their home lives- it’s nice to know that through the decades, some things never change. If I can watch this movie 63 years later and still relate to a scene, then the movie is doing its job. That being said, the specific problems of teenagers isn’t the same as it was when the movie was made. No one lies awake in bed worried about defending their honor in a knife fight anymore, but rather a modern day version of this would be lying in bed worried about calling someone out who sub tweeted you, in order to defend your honor. Same concept, different situation. I also feel like the teenagers’ problems were extremely dramatized in this, and I'm not sure if it is specifically the movie doing this or if me and my friends act with this much dramatization, we just don't notice because we’re not looking in from an unbiased POV. 

Rhetorical triangle time

The audience is supposed to be misguided teenagers, specifically I believe those who are looking for meaning in life and feel stuck in one place all the time. The film aims to sooth restlessness. The main purpose of this film though is to insinuate life has meaning beyond petty fighting. The characters all seem to be searching for something, even though they might not know what they’re looking for: a father figure, male attention, a Greater Perhaps? Even though the protagonist is Jim, and it is told by following his character arc, I believe the speaker was Plato. It opens with the first time he meets Jim, and ends with the last-when he dies. The events shown are all important ones to Plato- the first time he sees Jim at school, the first time they talk, becoming friends, Plato seeing Jim almost die, Plato being “betrayed” by Jim. They serve to tell Plato’s story, not Jim's.

On the topic of Plato, I firmly believe he is gay. I picked up on this the moment he looked at Jim. He latched onto him in a way that someone does when they are lost and confused and think they have found the thing they are searching for, even if they know they can’t have it in the way they want. The way Plato acted with Jim, I recognized that in myself with the way I have acted with older girls that I liked but didn’t know how to express my feelings. I looked into it, and apparently the actors of Jim and Plato both knew that Plato was a gay character and tried their hardest to show this in an era when that was completely socially forbidden to show in film, in fact the studio was sent a memo that specifically said to refrain from showing any type of homosexual content between Jim and Plato

I truly believe there is nothing out there quite like Donnie Darko. It’s an independent science fiction film created in 2001 starring Jake Gyllenhaal- it’s where the meme song Mad World comes from. It’s pretty much impossible to understand it fully the first time seeing it. The idea for Frank (creepy ass bunny suit guy) came to the creator in a dream- so that’s pretty original if you ask me.

The movie starts with Donnie being led out of bed by a mysterious voice, and then he meets Frank in the terrifying bunny suit who tells him the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. He wakes up on a golf course and finds out while he was gone at night, a jet engine crashed into his bed room and would have killed him. Donnie continues to see Frank, and his psychotherapist says he is having daylight hallucinations, possibly paranoid schizophrenia. Donnie learns about time travel, and is given a book on it (that was made up for the purpose of this movie; not based on a real book). Frank begins to get Donnie to stark vandalizing things like flooding the school and setting a teacher’s house on fire. Each thing Frank convinces him to do causes a chain reaction of peculiar events that are far past coincidental and keep snowballing until Donnie is carrying his dead girlfriend’s body up a ridge to watch a vortex form over his house that causes a passing plane to get caught and have its jet engine ripped off, throwing it 28 days back in time. The events of the last month unwind, and Donnie laughs as the jet engine falls into his room, killing him. The primary universe is saved, and those who Donnie affected wake up as if from troubled dreams, trying and failing to remember what happened. The manipulated living from the tangent universe, now regular living, feel like they know each other but aren’t sure of where.

This film has a cult-like following that’s worked hard to decipher the movie, and the release of the director’s cut has helped. The Philosophy of Time Travel, the made up book featured in the movie, was written and released with it to help expand on the philosophic and scientific aspects the film explores. The crash of the jet engine created a tangent universe, and the artifact that fell through to create it, the jet engine, chose a living receiver, Donnie, to help prevent the primary universe from ending by setting the tangent one right using time travel. The living receiver is given powers to aid him in this task, such as super strength and fire abilities, which is what is shown by impaling an ax in a water main and setting a house on fire. The living receiver is aided by the manipulated dead (Frank) as well as the manipulated living, who’s predestined paths Donnie can see them following.

On the 1996 Everest disaster, weather played a big part. In whiteout conditions, one step in the wrong direction and you’ll walk right off the mountain (literally- it happened). They really shouldn’t have pushed for the summit in such a small window like that- but Rob Hall and the other guides, whose clients had paid so much money, didn’t want to disappoint. This commercialization of Everest has done so much more harm than good. I remember reading about it via Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and being appalled by how safety didn’t seem to be a priority

https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/123362/truth-of-everest-tragedy-is-even-more-horrifying-than-film-shows/