This post won't exactly be about writing, although I believe I said in the very first post that this blog would be about my journey as a writer. Or, something to that effect.
Just over 4 1/2 hours ago, I awakened in the wee hours of the morning, (if you're over fifty, you know what I mean by that) and was unable to return to sleep. Sinuses were stuffed up and running and then the room was too hot. After kicking off the covers, the a/c kicked on and then it was too cold. I lay in bed for an hour, clearing my mind to sleep and found that I was not in the least tired. Or sleepy. I finally arose and slipped into a pair of sweats and a t-shirt and repaired to the living room. After desultorily gathering that the early morning news was no different than the late night news, I settled on watching Mallrats from beginning to end. Always before, I had watched it in disjointed fashion, not understanding some of the references because the context and continuity had been lost by only watching portions of it.
I decided that the appeal of the movie is that it seeks to shock by showing young adults doing and saying things that even the previous generation would hesitate to say and do. At least as cavalierly as was portrayed on the screen. Having grown up during the fifties and sixties, I was no stranger to shocking behavior and questionable decisions that horrified my parents. While young adults and teens in the mid-nineties believed that the movie was the next best thing to sliced bread, there really were few redeeming qualities to be found in the movie and I believe that was the point; that a movie didn't need to have any redeeming qualities. Yes. The movie depended on shock value to draw attention to nothing at all and the humor was sophomoric. So, to sum up; this movie, and pretty much every movie by this film-maker seems to be intended as a portrait of a generation and no more. It goes overboard to evoke a humorous response from the audience and judging by all of this film-maker's other movies, he seems to be a comedian with a one joke repertoire. This movie may have been fresh and funny near the beginning of his career, but he has not trotted out anything new to say in the later ones. And, that's a pity.
Now to address the title of this post. I wanted to write so badly early this morning and knew that if I did, I would get nothing else done today, and I have many time-consuming things that I need to do. The need to write burned my soul and spurred me on as though the monkey on my back was digging the spurs in to no avail. However, one might surmise that I didn't like the movie I watched and they would be wrong. The humor, marginal and simple-minded as it was, soothed me to the extent that I was able to forget my need to write, which was exactly what I needed at that time.
I don't often suffer from insomnia and I must admit that today was the first time I was able to deal with it sensibly and come out of it feeling refreshed and without frustration. On another note, before I began writing this post, I checked my horoscope. Yes, I am one of those, though I am not a slave to it. You can imagine my mild surprise to read that something momentous in the heavens was supposed to occur at exactly the time I awakened. Just another in the long line of coincidences that have filled my life. Someday I must write them down. I have used a few of them as inspiration for a few of my stories and have not been disappointed in the finished product.
Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of The Empty Heart: A Collection, Gulf of the Plains and others.
Available on Kindle
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