Promiseland

[Fetian]

McKellar wrote the script so audiences would see the world through the eyes of the protagonist, the doctor's wife. He sought to have them question the humanity of how she observes but does not act in various situations, including a rape scene. He consulted Saramago about why the wife took so long to act. McKellar noted, "He said she became aware of the responsibility that comes with seeing gradually, first to herself, then to her husband, then to her small family, then her ward, and finally to the world where she has to create a new civilization."

Wow this does not come through to me at all

[Fetian]

The cast and crew included 700 extras who had to be trained to simulate blindness. Actor Christian Duurvoort from Meirelles' City of God led a series of workshops to coach the cast members. Duurvoort had researched the mannerisms of blind people to understand how they perceive the world and how they make their way through space. Duurvoort not only taught the extras mannerisms, but also to convey the emotional and psychological states of blind people.

I feel like there was an easier way to do this but I can't quite put my finger on it

[Fetian]

A. O. Scott of The New York Times stated that, although it "is not a great film, ... it is, nonetheless, full of examples of what good filmmaking looks like."

Ha

[Fetian]

I do see a lot of interpretations of the story that take the blindness epidemic as being allegorical for humanity being "blind" to atrocities -- which is an obvious, kneejerk takeaway that doesn't actually seem to bear true in the actual story itself, in my opinion. Like, you hear the summary of the book and a very reasonable assumption is that the blindness is, that. But as I keep saying, there's little cruelty or atrocity actually present, outside the ways the ill are treated and the ways they treat each other while starving (I know, I know, "it's not there except for the parts it is there"); and post-asylum it's just, not in evidence in the way it would need to be for me to take that interpretation at face value. I suppose you could take things as, after the asylum and societal collapse, people stop being cruel and so are subsequently cured of the blindness, but this seems weak to me. Characters who go blind have not committed any atrocities, nor ignored any in the narrative; it's strange for the people suffering from the metaphor to be the ones treated poorly (and therefore anything but blind to it), for the people committing atrocities to be unaffected by it (until they are, off-screen). It just doesn't work for me. If you want your parable to be about people being willfully ignorant of an atrocity then you've got to include an atrocity for them to be ignorant of, first -- before they become literally blind.

It just doesn't work, and is one of the reasons I think the movie ends up so weak. The director and writer are trying to highlight something that just isn't there.

Anyway, death of the author. I have decided the manifestation of the illness is tangential to the meaning, they could all have had their legs fall off and it would have had the same result for me.

[Fetian]

Today the cat woke me up at 5 (not intentionally, she just decided to do a loud thing), then she woke me up at 9 (this time it was intentional), whereupon I ate breakfast, dooted around on the internet, and then read for about an hour (I've started The Mouse and His Child) and tried to be awake for real. I fed the cat, went into the office to record that final Arcadia bit, did some trip planning logistics with ash (we're overnighting in San Francisco for our anniversary in February), and then decided to give up on awake and went back to sleep for a few hours

I'm now awake again and have changed the litter in Oz's litterbox, am going to doot around some more until ash gets home, and then we'll see how things progress from there

[Fetian]

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I'm so fucking tired of this. To say nothing of all the air in the tube itself.

[Fetian]

It was a real damn headache, but I've successfully set up a subdomain on hedgebound. Not 100% sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but something!

[Fetian]

Tried a bunch of different pillow configurations last night and none of them really helped at all.

[Fetian]

Kitten!

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I like to let fate decide these sorts of things, so my plan was that I would go on craigslist and the top listing that met my qualifications would be the one I'd try to adopt -- this boy did not meet all my qualifications (he is 12 weeks old (ish), I'd have preferred younger) but he is adorable and after I went skimming through some other listings I came back to him and decided to (have ash) reach out to the seller. And long story short there is that he's here, and currently locked in the bathroom while I spend a little time with Oz. We are very slowly and carefully trying to get them used to each other. Oz is Not Happy but hasn't attacked anyone yet, the kitten does not care.

In a bit I'll let him out again and spend time with him, and repeat that general sort of pattern until bed when I'll lock him in for the night and let Oz sleep with me alone. Tomorrow ash is going to hang out in here and help me keep the kitten occupied while we continue the slowest introduction in the world.

No name for the kitten yet, but he is ridiculously sweet and affectionate, has so far zero interest in play, just pets and some exploration.

[Fetian]

He's napped most of the evening and now has found a toy he likes and has been playing with it, and his reflection, while Oz watches from atop her cat tree