moony

Narcissism and Identity in Lightningface

 Lightningface is a short film written and directed by Brian Petsos and starring Oscar Isaac as the main character, Basil Stitt. It focuses on one week in Basil’s life after he has just experienced an injury by lightning. The event itself happens quickly and he has little time to prepare other than to watch a flock of ominous birds fly away and blatantly say “The fuck?” The film begins with a shot of space, expressing the expansive, external quality of the world. Then, it cuts to a shot of Basil looking at his reflection in the mirror with both admiration and dissatisfaction. That shift from external to internal, from space to a single human, shows the narcissistic nature of humanity and particularly on the part of the film’s main character.

Basil wakes up outside and touches the damaged part of his face. He runs into his apartment and stares in the mirror with utter pity and disgust. Instead of having the tone be serious and heartbreaking here, the music and Basil’s dramatic actions turn it into a great moment of comedy. He wails out a series of “No!!!” as if he is mourning the death of a loved one. He wrecks his apartment to relinquish his frustration and perhaps to simply destroy something since he feels his appearance is destroyed. Basil’s reaction to his scar is quite telling of what is most significant to him. He is mourning the ruin of his physical appearance and since it is approached with so much comedy, the film seems to be largely mimicking the narcissistic nature inherent within us all.

Instead of going to the hospital or contacting a friend, Basil decides to stay inside his apartment where no one else can see him and where he does not have to see disgust being reflected back at him. He pushes himself into a state of isolation with music, movies and one large order of pizza and soda. His desire to stay hidden from the rest of the world, though a bit extreme, is similar to our own desires to stay concealed when something bad happens. It’s a way for us to cope and protect ourselves from judgment and from any other bad thing that may occur because life is unpredictable. Music, food, and movies are ways to escape from our reality and slow down time. By staying inside he has more control over the unpredictability of life. The way that the film is split up into days with very little happening in his life, explores this static nature of being isolated.

Basil also calls his job and tells them he doesn’t know when he’ll come in again if ever, he tells his parents he won’t be able to see them soon and he ends a near three years relationship with his girlfriend. The last one seems to affect him the most to the point of tears. His voice gets stuck on the word “face,” which implies such a strong sense of identity being tied to his physical appearance. It further highlights his narcissism as well because even as he is ending his relationship with her, he is focused on himself.

Disclaimer: All of the medical information below is merely from the Internet so it maybe false information. I am not absolutely certain about what I found. I might edit this post when I have collected more necessary information.

Heavily inspired by this post by @tortolette

From what I gather, Dazai and Fyodor were injecting poison at 72-90 degree-angle, which might be subcutaneous or intramuscular injections and not intradermal injections or intravenous injections. To quote from Drugs.com:

Intramuscular (IM) injections. IM injections are given deep into a muscle where the medication is then absorbed quickly by surrounding blood vessels.

Subcutaneous (SC) injections. SC injections are injected into the innermost layer of the skin called the subcutis or hypodermis, which is made up of a network of fat and collagen cells. SC injections are also known as ‘subcut’ or ‘SQ’ injections. These injections work more slowly than an IV or IM injection because the area does not have such a rich blood supply.

"Intravenous (IV) injections. An IV injection is the fastest way to inject a medication and involves using a syringe to inject a medication directly into a vein. When people talk about receiving medication via IV, however, they are usually talking about an IV infusion or drip, which involves using a pump or gravity to infuse the medication into a vein, rather than a syringe. IV infusions allow a set amount of medication to be administered in a controlled manner over a period of time.

Intradermal (ID) injections. ID injections are given directly into the middle layer of the skin called the dermis. This type of injection is absorbed more slowly again than IV, IM or SC injections."

"Muscle", "Subcutaneous tissue", "Vein", "Dermis", "Epidermis"

According to Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters, "the most common areas for subcutaneous injections are:

the upper outer area of the arm

the front and outer sides of the thighs

the abdomen, except for a 2 inch area around the navel

the upper outer area of the buttocks

the upper hip

because these are away from joints, nerves and large blood vessels."

According to Healthline, "intramuscular injections are absorbed faster than subcutaneous injections... Common intramuscular injection sites are:

Deltoid muscle of the arm. The deltoid muscle is the site most typically used for vaccines.

Vastus lateralis muscle of the thigh.

Ventrogluteal muscle of the hip.

Dorsogluteal muscles of the buttocks."

In short, here is the difference between the two:

However, in this panel, Dazai and Fyodor did not inject the poison in the mentioned sites:

Let’s say Dazai and Fyodor intentionally gave IM injections angularly instead of a 90 degree in the wrong sites, this is what’s meant to happen according to Jesse Kesler from Quora+:

He said: "You may reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine." I guess Dazai and Fyodor did that so they can lengthen the amount of time they have before the poison takes effect.

Also, I wondered why they had chose the 90-degree angle instead of the others, and I found this: According to Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, there is “no difference in pain between 45- and 90-degree angles of injection, but that the energy required to inject was lower with insertion at 90 degrees. Lower injection energy may lead to less tissue distension and thus less pain. In addition, 90-degree angle insertion may result in less direct transection of nerve endings than 45-degree angle insertion.”

As I don't know whether they chose intramuscular injections (which allows the poison to be absorbed quickly) or subcutaneous injections (which works more slowly than an IV or IM injections), I cannot reach a conclusion whether they chose less pain over more time to survive.

There are three more analyses that I know, I will put the links here if you want to continue reading about this subject.

1. This one by @tortolette

2. This one by @infjsnightmare

3. This one (about the poison) by @overtainted

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