I am suddenly having an awful week. For one thing, it is six days long. Russia doesn't do "observed" holidays, so if an important holiday falls on a Thursday or Tuesday, you get the Friday or Monday off. Or, rather, the Friday or Monday is moved to a weekend day.
For example, June 12 (Thursday) is Independence Day (the day Russia adopted its constitution). This year, we get both June 12 and June 13 off, making a four-day weekend. But, to make up for this, everyone has to work on Saturday. I am using the four-day weekend to go to Volgograd (20-24 hours by train, so not really doable on a three-day weekend). I bought the tickets earlier in the week and everything has gone downhill ever since. But the effect of that is that I am happy to be having a mini-holiday soon. So I guess it all works out.
I saw "Enchanted" the other day. I loved the premise. I liked the first half. I began to hate it after I realized where they were going with it. As far as I can understand, the point of the film is that what men actually want is some hot, dumb, inappropriately dressed girl to clean up after them. This is sexist and depressing.
And it's not often that I find a movie sexist. In fact, the only movie I can remember saying that about was "Sin City."* Honestly, I never really found the Disney cartoons to be sexist. My generation's Disney cartoons, in particular, kind of went out of their way not to be. But even the older cartoons just don't seem sexist to me. "Sleeping Beauty," for example, has three male characters, none of whom get much screen time. The rest of the characters, including the good and evil fairies, who drive the story, are all female and all kind of varied, character-wise. Is it kind of silly that "Cinderella" (and most of the other ones, too) ends with her marrying the prince and living happily ever after even though they didn't meet all that long before? Yes, but it's certainly not sexist, since, you know, the prince is doing the exact same thing. "Beauty and the Beast" (my favorite one!) is interesting in that the main character doesn't really gain anything by being beautiful. In fact, it kind of causes more problems than it solves. There are not a lot of movies like that.
So it's kind of funny that "Enchanted" strikes me as way more sexist than the films it was making fun of. Kind of funny. Mostly sad. Definitely not a film I'd take a kid to see.
Anyway, I got tagged for a book meme over a month ago, but got distracted by work, Perm, Eurovision, and work.
The closest book is the same travel book again:
Since they take the most direct route between cities the savings in time can be considerable over slow trains and meandering buses. Typically you will find drivers offering this service outside bus terminals. Someone in your party must speak Russian to negotiate a price with the driver that typically works out to about R5 per kilometre.
I feel less bad about this now because my mother and my brother also had practical-sounding books.
I'd like to also do my mother's version of the same meme, but this is harder because all of my page 123s are so boring (she had a really good one, though I have no idea what it is). I've got two so far.
Too easy:
Speed.
More important than any of those things, however, was one final requirement.
Luck.
This one is funny to me because I'm pretty sure these are the least distinctive three sentences in this book:
Why did you do it, why? But I'll save you. I'll save you.
* And I take that back now. When I saw it, it bothered me that all the female characters were sex workers and/or victims. The more I think about it, though, the more I think that that's totally accurate for the environment of the film.
If I weren't who's to say
14 years ago
4 comments:
My book was The Unbearable Lightness of Being. What are yours?
My feeling about Sin City is that it was so blatantly sexist that it wasn't sexist. And, realistically speaking, in a world where physical strength seems to trump all, the women would have the roles that they had.
Your feelings about Enchanted are interesting because I felt the same way, but not about the two main characters because I felt that the writers gave us enough to see why they would fall in love with each other (and it wasn't because of housework or inappropriate clothing). I was bothered by the other couple, and I remember thinking that we must be way, way into post-feminism for this to not cause an uproar. The lesson there was that what women don't really want is an equal partner, but instead are willing to have someone really dumb as long as they are romantic.
Have fun in Volgograd. Are you going to the Panorama museum (I love you, wikipedia)?
I'm not telling you the first because you've definitely read it and it has a fairly recognizable style. The second is "The Master and Maragarita," which is really better than it sounds from those three lines. It's just that, by law, all Russian novels have to contain those lines and in this case they happened to be on page 123.
I guess we came to the same conclusion about Sin City, then. Great movie, actually, but I don't want to see it again.
As for Enchanted, I was annoyed because the second couple seemed like a lame attempt to appease people who might be bothered by the first couple. I'd complain that that insults my intelligence, but then it worked on most people.
But it's also a fairy tale, so obviously everybody needs to be paired off in the end, compatible or not.
Enchanted just sort of made me think that I'd best start acquiring cats now.
Duh...not only have I read the book, but I have read it recently and I recognized the style. Blame it on the heat. Brain cells dying away.
I just wanted to mention that your line "by law, all Russian novels have to contain those three lines" is one of the funniest things I've read in months and months.
We're looking forward to seeing you in person. My sisters want you to post more about your shoes, in case you needed encouragement. The second-to-the-latest family party included much discussion of your Dia de los Muertos shoes.
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