“I tried to argue that Ophelia resonated because Shakespeare had made an extraordinary discovery in writing her, though I had trouble articulating the nature of that discovery. I didn’t want to admit that it could be something as simple as recognizing that emotionally unstable teenage girls are human beings. … When Ophelia appears onstage in Act IV, scene V, singing little songs and handing out imaginary flowers, she temporarily upsets the entire power dynamic of the Elsinore court. When I picture that scene, I always imagine Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, and Horatio sharing a stunned look, all of them thinking the same thing: “We fucked up. We fucked up bad.” It might be the only moment of group self-awareness in the whole play. Not even the grossest old Victorian dinosaur of a critic tries to pretend that Ophelia is making a big deal out of nothing. Her madness and death is plainly the direct result of the alternating tyranny and neglect of the men in her life. She’s proof that adolescent girls don’t just go out of their minds for the fun of it. They’re driven there by people in their lives who should have known better.”
why DO teenage girls go through a witch/occult phase? I had tarot cards and a spellbook and I knew a group of girls who messed with ouija boards and another who had ghost hunting equipment. “oh yeah Cindy’s just going through that girly phase where she tries to raise the dead.”
theory – we want power and know our culture doesn’t want to give us any?
Addendum: witches are one of the few cultural figures of female empowerment that don’t derive their power from their relationship to a man.
College isn’t high school where everyone is expected to be on the same level and in the same age group. There’s going to be retirees that are older than the professors, people who took a year off to backpack through Italy or whatever, people doing parttime and others taking a full load. Nothing matters except getting that education and not being a flake in group projects. Some people have more school experience and some have more work experience and it’s both valid.
Rewatched “Sprit: Stallion of the Cimarron” for the hundredth time and, like, why don’t people talk about this movie more??? Like it came out only a year after Shrek and that movie has a shit ton of sequels and yet no one ever talks about Spirit??? Like,
(1) It doesn’t glorify or romanticize colonialism. It is some real-ass shit.
(2) It has amazing art.
(3) The main human character is Native American.
(4) It doesn’t stereotype or generalize or dehumanize Native Americans.
(5) It’s about horses!!!!
If you haven’t seen or even heard of this movie, drop everything right the fuck now and go watch. NOW. GO. GO. GO. It’s just an all-around good movie that will give you so many feels.
Not forgetting the top amazing songs all brought to live by the amaing BRYAN ADAMS. The OSTs are gorgeous. And the end of the story always get me teary.
Some AMAZING animation by James Baxter in this movie. Seriously he is THE MAN
foolish-identity 