The Paperboy

This evening, I watched a film with my dad called 'The Paperboy.' We are huge fans of Matthew McConaughey so we thought it would be a good watch for a Sunday evening. How wrong we were, never in my life have I watched a film and been bored, disgusted and shocked at the same time.

I am a massive fan of films, if you ask my boyfriend what I do with my life his answer would be "sleep and watch films." And I am usually quite easily pleased, I dont prefer a specific genre and dont really have preferences when it comes to films, but this was without a doubt a film that I will put in my "top 5 worst films ever" list (along with Running With Scissors, The Good Girl, What to Expect When You're Expecting and This is the Place.) First of all, in The Paperboy, there was no coherent story line. I genuinely kept asking myself "what the fuck is going on" and if you have to ask yourself that during a film you know its terrible. It was really disjointed and hard to follow. The annoying thing, is that it had the makings of a really good film; it had an interesting storyline, good actors and of course Zac Efron. However, it was almost as though someone had read the book, and thought that it would make a good film so just rustled up a mediocre script and paid absolutely no attention to the detail. It was created with very broad strokes, but you need the detal otherwise its just a huge blob of nothing.

There were huge gaps in the film that no matter how much you focused, just couldn't be filled. When watching a film you expect to understand whats happening, but it just kept provoking questions, and not the kind of questions you want to be asking yourself, why was Ward trying to get Hillary out of jail? This made absolutely no sense to me, because it wasnt explained. And if it was, it was very easily missed.

My first mistake may have been watching this film with my dad. But I thought "Oh its only a 15 how bad can it be." Very bad. Very very bad, is the answer. The sex scenes in this film were unbelievable for a rated 15 film, I actually had to fast forward them because not only were they incredibly graphic (with John Cusack at one point burying his face into Nicole Kindman's you know what) they were also very long, they went on for minutes. I'm sure you only really have to go so far before people can imagine for themselves whats going on.

Some of the images and themes in this film were really dark and quite deeply disturbing. From what I could gather, Matthew McConaughey's character, Ward Johnson, was a homosexual that liked to engage in violent sexual intercourse with black men (taboo at the time in which the film is set) and we are introduced to this fact when he is found in a hotel room, his face completely smashed in and he is tied up. Obviously what your mind first races to is that he has been raped, so the image that they show is really quite disgusting. Not only this, but at the end of the film, Ward is graphically murdered by Hillary, who cuts his throat in front of his brother. I am 18 years old and found this whole film horrible to watch so is it really appropriate for 15 year olds?

In my honest opinion, this film had the potential to be really engaging, interesting and actually quite good. But the entire story is just butchered. Sex, violence and some good actors have just been thrown together in the hope that people will watch the film. If you want to see murder, a 20 year old boy persuing a 40 year old woman and Nicole Kidman pissing on Zac Efron, then by all means buy The Paperboy and waste an hour and a half of your life. But I strongly advise against watching this film, it is absolutely rubbish.

"So peaceful shalt thou end thy blissful days, And steal thyself from life by slow decays." - The Odyssey

Okay so one of the compulsory texts that we were given to read at uni this term was the Robert Fagles translation of Homer's 'Odyssey.' I can safely say without a shadow of a doubt that it is the most pain I have ever experienced whilst reading a book. Like literal mental torture. Now, I may only think this because I absolutely hate greek history and classical civilisation (I took it at AS level, got a U in a mock test and quickly dropped the subject) or am I right in thinking that its just really really difficult to stay attentive to?

Having read 'The Illiad' I'm actually starting to think that its the latter. See, with 'The Illiad' I kind of knew the story of Troy anyway so it was fairly easy to follow - especially when you have the image of Brad Pitt as Achillies firlmly implanted into your head. But I wasnt at all familiar with the story of Odysseus which is why I think it was just a very difficult read.

In the seminar discussions, the topic of "is The Odyssey timeless?" came up, and quite honestly I think that the answer is no. Firstly, the language barrier is going to be a big issue in the first place, everything is just so dramatic that it does get quite exhausting after a while. This does make sense when you think about the fact that originally the text was read orally to people so the narratve has to be dramatic in order to engage listeners. But in reality, who is going to sit down and listen to someone read them 'The Odyssey' in 2013? I fully understand that this poem is a classic and has been passed down through the ages, but these stories simply aren't relevant anymore in the format that they are offered by this book. I can't think of many people that would voluntarily pick up this book and settle down with a glass of wine and a good greek battle.

Call me modern, but I think that changing the format of the story of Odysseus would actually make it more appealing to new generations and younger audiences. Perhaps transferring the main stories in the poem to a modern day setting. Or making a film that would welcome more audiences. If Romeo and Juliette can be turned into a hollywood blockbuster (with none other than the glorious Leo DiCaprio) OR BETTER YET a cartoon amazingly named "Gnomeo and Juliet" then why are there no adaptations of The Odyssey?

 I'm not sitting here saying that this book should be put in the freezers of all who own it and left there forever and book shops should cease to offer this epic poem to the poor sods that will think that its a good read. I am simply saying that on a personal level, it wasn't enjoyable at all and to be on an English Literature degree and studying this is completely baffling to me because this is classics. And I must admit I felt at a bit of a disadvantage. The essay that I wrote on this text was quite literally the worst essay I have ever written in my life and I was quite frankly ashamed to hand it in because I'm rubbish at Greek history, I was expecting Shakespeare galore!

The historical context of this poem is infuriating. The way that women are treated is not comfortable to read in a time where women are no longer just pieces of meat. And the so called "hero" of the poem is rather arrogant and exceptionally violent. Killing a lot of men for eating some of your food and attempting to court your wife becuse they thought you were dead? Okay, a bit of a slap on the wrist maybe but murder? No.
This poem will always be timeless theres no denying, there are elements of it in films such as 'O' Brother Where Art Thou' by the Cohen brothers so the story will always apply. It's just about adaptation and making it a bit more interesting I think.

But maybe I'm just still resentful about my grade U in classical civilisation...

"Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat" - Robert Frost

Okay so, I am studying Creative Writing and English Literature at University and I'm not going to lie, I only applied for it because the UCAS deadline was two days away, I was rejected by London College of Fashion, and I had to quickly choose a University and a course that I wanted to do. So, I thought, I'm good at English this sounds perfect! But alas, here I am, a week into my course, being told that by December I am to write ten pages of a stage-play and thirty lines of poetry. And never in my life have I dreaded something so much! In a mere two weeks, I have realised what an absolute moron I am for not reading the course structure properly and putting myself in a position where I will really struggle with a year thats (in theory) supposed to be really easy! Nice one Paige.

I can deal with the stage-play, because it actually sounds quite fun. Part of the coursework is to go and watch a new play in London and give a presentation on the effectiveness of the writing, which lets face it, sounds fun! Everyone loves a night out at the theatre in London - and I can just use it as an excuse to get really drunk, isn't that what freshers do? But poetry, ah poetry. Now, simply put, I am not good at writing poetry.

If I am given a poem to read, I can take it apart and spend hours trying to withdraw every possible meaning, but trying to gain inspiration to write a poem of my own is proving to be quite difficult. I have come to the very sudden realisation that I am a reader, not a writer. Many will argue that they walk hand in hand, if you have a passion for reading then you must automatically be acquiring the skills that you need in order to write, merely by analysing the works of other writers, but I disagree with this. I think that in order to write well, especially write poetry well, you need to be passionate about life and be able to dissect your surroundings and find beauty in everything which then becomes inspirational. I do not have this skill, and I feel inferior sitting in a class amongst people that clearly have the potential to be amazing writers. Now, I may have the potential to become an amazing reader, with persistance and the development of my analytical skills I will gain a deeper talent for writing analytical essays and evaluating other peoples work. But what good is this in a poetry lesson? Where do I find inspiration? And most importantly, how do I produce a poem when I'm not a poet?

Although, clearly, my poetry class is causing me countless internal battles, I am really enjoying the English Literature side of my course. I have my first lecture on 'The Canon: A Short History of Western Literature,' which sounds really interesting. I received an e-mail a few days ago that instructed me to take out a library book and read an essay called 'Monuments,' which I did, and already I'm reading things that are so thought provoking! The essay basically explored the paradox of a poet being both alive and dead at the same time. Very Schrodinger's cat-ish I know. But it was an interesting thought because it meant that in death, a poet (or any writer, at that) leaves behind a monument, their writing keeps them alive. Using Shakespeare as a specific example, it was his poetry that thrived when he was alive, his plays were very undervalued. Now, if you ask any GCSE or A-Level student, they would be able to name you at least four Shakespeare plays and maybe two of his poems at the most. Three hundred years later and Shakespeare lives on through his work, you can't escape him! He's left, right and centre if you're an English student. As readers, we become Shakespeare's tomb, his monument. It was literally the most interesting essay I have ever read, not that I've read many.

And so, this blog will be an update of my uni life. I will feature some book reviews, film reviews and anything that takes my fancy really! The blog world is my oyster.

xo