Quote of the day

[iambiguous]

The Silence of the Lambs

Lecter: Tell me, Senator: did you nurse Catherine yourself?
Senator Martin: What?
Lecter: Did you breast-feed her?
Krendler: Now wait a minute…
Senator Martin: Yes, I did.
Lecter: Toughened your nipples, didn’t it?
Krendler: You son of a bitch!
Lecter: Amputate a man’s leg and he can still feel it tickling. Tell me, mum, when your little girl is on the slab, where will it tickle you?
Senator Martin: Take this…thing back to Baltimore!
Lecter: Five foot ten, strongly built, about a hundred and eighty pounds; hair blonde, eyes pale blue. He’d be about thirty-five now. He said he lived in Philadelphia, but he may have lied. That’s all I can remember, mum, but if I think of any more, I will let you know…Oh, and Senator, just one more thing: love your suit!

Of course, he's not in Baltimore anymore. To the best of my knowledge.

Lector: Anthrax lsland. That was an especially nice touch, Clarice. Yours?
Starling: Yes.
Lector: Yeah. That was good. Pity about poor Catherine, though. Ticktock, ticktock, ticktock.

Not to mention Miggs.

Lecter: First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?
Starling: He kills women…
Lecter: No. That is incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does? What needs does he serve by killing?
Starling: Anger, um, social acceptance, and, huh, sexual frustrations, sir…
Lecter: No! He covets. That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.
Starling: No. We just…
Lecter: No. We begin by coveting what we see every day. Don’t you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice? And don’t your eyes seek out the things you want?

Of course, nowadays he'd send her here: https://knowthyself.forumotion.net/

Lector: What became of your lamb, Clarice?
Starling: They killed him.
Lector: You still wake up sometimes, don’t you? Wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs?
Starling: Yes.
Lector: And you think, if you save poor Catherine, you could make them stop, don’t you? You think if Catherine lives, you won’t wake up in the dark ever again to that awful screaming of the lambs.

And then [for some] it's psychobabble all the way down.

Starling [after learning Lecter has escaped]: He won’t come after me.
Mapp: Oh really?
Starling: He won’t. I can’t explain it…He - he would consider that rude.

If only theoretically?

Starling: What did Lecter say about First principles"?
Mapp: Simplicity…
Starling: What does this guy do, he “covets”. How do we first start to covet?
Mapp: “We covet what we see...”
Starling: "...every day."
Mapp: Hot damn, Clarice.
Starling: He knew her.

If not in a Biblical sense?

Gumb: YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT PAIN IS!

His own lambs, perhaps?

Martin: I’m down here!
Starling: Catherine Martin?
Martin: Yes!
Starling: FBl. You’re safe.
Martin: Safe, shit! Get me outta here!

Next up: night vision.

Lector [on telephone]: Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?
Starling [on telephone]: Where are you, Dr Lecter?
Lector: I have no plans to call on you, Clarice. The world’s more interesting with you in it. So you take care now to extend me the same courtesy.
Starling: You know I can’t make that promise.
Lector: I do wish we could chat longer, but I’m having an old friend for dinner.

I wonder what he means by that?

[iambiguous]

Sarah Perry from The Essex Serpent

To cleave to something is to cling to it with all your heart, he said, but to cleave something apart is to break it up.

English!

Just as the desperate, terminally ill cancer patient often turns to expensive placebos for an imaginary chance at more life, the desperate, terminally alive sad people turn to expensive placebos for a chance to imagine a decent life.

You first, okay?

I believe for most of us - for me, certainly - what's below the skin is more worth looking at than what's outside it. Turn me inside out and I'd be quite a handsome man!

Cue the Mantle brothers.

Sometimes I think I sold my soul, so that I can live as I must. Oh, I don't mean without morals or conscience- I only mean with freedom to think the thoughts that come, to send them where I want them to go, not to let them run along tracks someone else set, leading only this way or that...

How much did you get for yours?

felt his faith deeply, and above all out of doors, where the vaulted sky was his cathedral nave and the oaks its transept pillars: when faith failed, as it sometimes did, he saw the heavens declare the glory of God and heard the stones cry out.” Sarah Perry

He wondered if that would ever work for him...

“I’ve freed myself from the obligation to try and be beautiful,” said Cora: “And I was never more happy. I can’t remember when I last looked in the mirror... ”
“Yesterday,” said Martha. “You were admiring your nose.”

Among other things no doubt.

[iambiguous]

As with Saving Face above this film revolves in part around the experiences of a young woman exploring her sexuality. But in other respects the vantage points could not be farther removed. And this sometimes makes all the difference in the world with respect to narratives. And with respect to identity.

In one way though the two worlds perfectly overlap: being about the personal without exploring in depth the manner in which the political intervenes in the day to day lives we live. Class, gender, race, sexual orientation. You can never regard the personal fully here unless you are willing to regard more fully the political. Everything basically revolves around “me” here.

At the same time it shows just how open American culture can be for those who wish to go off the beaten path. But there are in fact opposition political forces out there that truly do want to change that. And they are organizing. And not just the MAGA morons.

One thing for sure: Gay or straight, sustaining relationships is hard. And then there’s the part about disintegrating families.


Pariah

Titlecard: “Wherever the bird with no feet flew, she found trees with no limbs.” Audre Lorde

Let's all try to imagine that together.

Mika: Yeah I like girls. But I LOVE boys.

Then those who like boys, but LOVE girls.

Laura: Well, first of all it’s not supposed to be strapped on over your underwear like that.

Kids?

Arthur [Alike’s Dad]: She’s got a boyfriend.
Audrey: A boyfriend?
Authur: Just give her some space.
Audry: Space? She’s never around as it is. And you’re just like her!

Family!

Audrey [Alike’s Mom]: I know God doesn’t make mistakes. I know that.

Of course, that can work both ways.

Arthur: Look, I talked to Alike. Everything’s fine.
Audrey: But did you ask her?
Arthur: No, because I don’t have to. Besides, I would know, okay? I know my daughter better than anyone else.

Or, sure, maybe he doesn't.

Sharonda [Alike’s sister]: Just wanted you to know it doesn’t matter to me.
Alike: I know.

And now we know.

Audrey: Your daughter is turning into a damn man right before your eyes and you can’t even see it!

Blind as a bat, in fact.

Audrey: Tell him, Alike! Tell him where you hang out. Tell him about your butch-ass girlfriend!
Alike: Laura is not my girlfriend!
Audrey: Tell him! Tell him! Tell him you’re a nasty ass dyke!
Arthur: No! No! No! Alike, tell your mother that’s not true. Baby, tell her!
[Alike says nothing]
Aufrey: You see! You see!
Arthur: Tell her. Tell your mother it’s not true.
Alike: Dad. You already know.
Arthur: No. You tell your mother it’s just a phase.
Alike: It’s not a phase! I’m gay!
[her mother grabs her by the throat and pins her to the wall]
Audrey: Say it again! Say it again!
Alike: I’m a lesbian! Yeah, I’m a dyke!
[Audrey slaps her to the floor]

Of course there are those who despise black people as much as they despise gay people.

Alike: Dad, I’m not runnin, I’m choosin. I’m not comin back home. And you can tell Mom she was right. God doesn’t make mistakes.

Of course, that’s the point both sides make.

Alike: I love you, Mom.
[Mom says nothing]
Alike: I said I love you.
Audrey [preparing to leave]: I’ll be praying for you.

If there is a God and this God happens to be her God?

Alike [reading a poem aloud in class]: "Heartbreak opens onto the sunrise for even breaking is opening and I am broken, I am open. Broken into the new life without pushing in, open to the possibilities within, pushing out. See the love shine in through my cracks? See the light shine out through me? I am broken, I am open, I am broken open. See the love light shining through me, shining through my cracks, through the gaps. My spirit takes journey, my spirit takes flight, could not have risen otherwise and I am not running, I am choosing. Running is not a choice from the breaking. Breaking is freeing, broken is freedom. I am not broken, I am free."

A good way to put it?

[iambiguous]

Shit: A film set in a working-class community somewhere in the UK. No subtitles and you can scarcely grasp what the fuck they are saying sometimes. The accents being almost as thick as their brains. So not as many quotes below. But once you grasp the basic plot it’s rather easy to imagine what is probably being said.

And here’s the basic plot: A disaffected soldier returns to his hometown to get even with the thugs who brutalized his mentally challenged brother years ago.

I am always drawn to films in which the protagonist seeks revenge against the thugs and the bullies that once tormented someone he loves. I detest thugs and bullies. Always have. The sky is the limit then when it comes down to payback.

I only wish I could be him. But almost none of us are. The payback is almost always vicarious.


Dead Man's Shoes

Richard [narrating]: God will forgive them. He’ll forgive them and allow them into Heaven. I can’t live with that.

Unless, of course, God doesn't forgive them. But why take chances?

Herbie: Can I help you, mate?
Richard [shrugs]: Sorry?
Herbie [aggressively]: What the fuck are you looking at?
Richard [shouting]: YOU, YA ****!

It's starting...

Herbie: You know who I think it is. I’ve been wracking my brains. I think that it’s Anthony’s brother. It’s Anthony’s brother, man.

The whole room goes quiet.

Anthony: They all tried to hold your hand. I didn’t.
Richard: No, you didn’t.
Anthony: Don’t need to, do I?

In other words, don't fuck with him. And if you do...?

Soz: Can I go home?
Richard: Oh, you’re going. You're going.

They all are.

Sonny: Hey man, how you doin’? Rich…
[offers a handshake but Richard refuses it]
Sonny: You ok?
Richard: Mmh
Sonny: You know the lads had this ridiculous idea that…
Richard [interrupting him before he can finish]: Yeah, it was me.
Sonny: Oh it was? Thought so. What are you up to?
Richard: Moochin’ about.
Sonny: Moochin’ about? In my house?
Richard: Mmh
Sonny: Do you always paint men? Like women?.. What are you doin’ lad?
Richard: That’s my concern.
Sonny: Not with being in my house. Where are you staying?
Richard: Motson’s farm. Gonna come see me are ya?
Sonny: Maybe I will. You’re not afraid of me are ya?
[Richard smiles & shakes head]
Tuff from the car]: Why doesn’t he just chin him?
Big Al: He’s weighing him up, he’s weighing him up, shut up.
Sonny: You’re making me very nervous, Richard.
Richard: Well you should be. If I were you, I’d get in that fuckin’ car and I’d get out of here man. I’d gather them goonies and get whatever you’ve got comin’ mate…‘cause I’m gonna fucking hit you all.
Sonny: I don’t like being threatened, Rich’.
Richard: I’m not threatening you mate. It’s beyond fucking words. I watched over you when you were asleep and I looked at your fucking neck and I was that far away from slicing it.
[Richard opens up his hand right hand and points towards his palm]
Richard: You’re fucking there mate!
[Richard clenches his hand]
Richard: So get in that car… and FUCK OFF!

Cool as a scripted cucumber.

Written on the wall in blood next to a corpse: ONE DOWN.

And more to go.

Mark: He wasn’t a spastic.
Richard: He fucking was a spastic.
[makes silly noises, as if mocking a retarded person]
Richard: He was a fucking banana.

Among other things, let's say.

Richard: I asked what did you do? Not the rest of them cunts.
Mark: I didn’t stop it. I didn’t stop it…
Richard: Well, I wish you had.

In other words, Anthony is already dead.

Richard [to Mark]: Stick that knife in me.

The end.

[iambiguous]

Always be careful whose identity you steal.

A film about identity and alienation. And the unintended consequences that unfold when a man seeks to escape both. In the end you see there is really only one way to be absolutely sure.

In the interim the man sets out to acquire the necessary experiences to flesh out his new identity. But this new identity is integrated into a “larger world” he is only more or less able to cobble together as he goes along. Here it is the postcolonial world of Africa.

What is crucial is how one comes to understand the manner in which you have acquired an identity. In other words, how much of that is prefabricated—variables wholly or in large part beyond your understanding or your control. You can’t become someone entirely new of course but if you put yourself in contexts you have never been in before the new experiences can help to refabricate your take on yourself out in the world.

Or maybe you come to just not give a damn about who you or who anyone else thinks you are.


The Passenger

Robertson’s voice on tape recorder: Airports, taxi, hotel. They’re all the same in the end.
David: I don’t agree. It’s us who remain the same. We translate every situation, every experience into the same old codes. We just condition ourselves.

See, didn't I tell you?

Voice on tape recorder: It’s like this, Mr. Locke. You work with words, images, fragile things. I come with merchandise, concrete things.

“Concrete things” can have different meanings though. Especially if you are an arms dealer.

Mr. Achebe [after looking through photographs of weapons]: I have heard a lot about you, Mr. Robertson. I realize that you are not like the others…that you believe in our fight. This will be of great assistance to our people.

Now they're sucked into this new "reality".

Rachel: They asked if I knew someone called Robertson. Evidently he stayed at the same hotel as David did.

Evidently, she's now sucked into it too.

David: My name is Robertson. I’ve been waiting for someone who hasn’t arrived.
Man With Cane: Ninos. I’ve seen so many of them grow up. Other people look at the children and they all imagine a new world. But me, when I watch them, I just see the same old tragedy begin all over again.

For some, nothing skips a generation.

The Girl: Who are you?
David: I used to be someone else, but I traded him in. Uh, what about you?
The Girl: Well, I’m in Barcelona. I’m talking with someone who might be somebody else.

Remember when she used to be Jeanne?

[henry quirk]

After all, the great Libertarian henry quirk would actually permit the buying and selling of weapons of mass destruction!

Permit? I encourage & celebrate it!

and, yeah, I am pretty great

[promethean75]

Hypothetical scenario for Henry Q.

You're a middle aged father who's had two kids killed in two seperate school shootings, has lost his wife to a gang related shooting, and was shot in the foot while being robbed in an alley.

If u actively engaged in pushing for gun reform and tighter restrictions and stuff, would that be a 'reasonable' thing for u to do... and at what point would your efforts become unreasonable and be counted as violating other people's gun ownership rights?

[henry quirk]

In other words: my world is shattered, I'm maddened with grief and I wanna get my revenge on every-one and -thing.

If I do such a thing, please: stop me. I'm insane (temporarily, at least).

[promethean75]

No Henry Q. I'm maddened with grief and i wanna do everything i possibly can to prevent that from ever happening to anyone without infringing on anyone's rights in the process. I'm not the least bit 'angry' at anyone and don't want any revenge. But there are people who call me a fascist because i don't want them to own bazookas (which were the weapons my boys, my old lady and my foot was shot with, btw).

Now what can i do without being called a communist in my quest to lessen the chances of gun violence by advocating for [insert policy]?

[henry quirk]

Uh, I don't give a flip what you would do.

You asked about me, in a specific circumstance. I answered, for me.

You? Pffft! Go lobby, get laws passed.

I'll break those too.

[iambiguous]

The Passenger

The Girl: People disappear every day.
David: Every time they leave the room.

Some more than others, of course.

The Girl: Can I ask you just one question now?
David: One you can, yes.
The Girl: Only one, always the same. What are you running away from?

He tells her to turn around and face in the opposite direction.

David: Now I think I’m going to be a waiter in Gibraltar.
The Girl: Too obvious.
David: Maybe a novelist in Cairo.
The Girl: Too romantic.
David: How about a gunrunner?
The Girl: Too unlikely.
David: As a matter of fact, I think I am one.
The Girl: Then it depends on which side you’re on.
David: Yes.

On the other hand, which side ought he to be on?

David: I just sold 5000 hand grenades, 900 rifles and a great deal of ammunition to some people fighting a secret war in an obscure part of the world.

On paper?

David: Yesterday when we filmed you at the village I understood that you were brought up to be a witch doctor. Isn’t it unusual for someone like you to have spent several years in France and Yugoslavia? Has that changed your attitude toward certain tribal customs? Don’t they strike you as false now and wrong, perhaps, for the tribe?
Witch Doctor: Mr. Locke, there are perfectly satisfactory answers to all your questions. But I don’t think you understand how little you can learn from them. Your questions are much more revealing about yourself than my answer would be about me.
David: I meant them quite sincerely.
Witch Doctor: Mr. Locke, we can have a conversation but only if it’s not just what you think is sincere but also what I believe to be honest.
[the witch doctor then takes the camera and aims it at Locke]
Witch Doctor: Now we can have an interview. You can ask me the same questions as before.

Conflicting goods, no doubt.

[Rachel turns on tape recorder]
David [voice on tape recorder]: Wouldn’t it be better if we could just forget old places? Forget everything that happens and just throw it all away, day by day?
Robertson [voice on tape recorder]: Unfortunately, the world doesn’t work that way.
David [voice on tape recorder]: Well, it doesn’t work the other way either. That’s the problem. What’s on the other side of that window? People will believe what I write. And why? Because it conforms to their expectations…and to mine as well, which is worse.

Rachel being David's wife.

David: What the fuck are you doing here with me?
The Girl: Which me?

Exactly.

The Girl: Wouldn’t it be terrible to be blind?
David: I know a man who was blind. When he was nearly 40 years old he had an operation and regained his sight. At first he was elated…really high. Faces, colors, landscapes. But then everything began to change. The world was much poorer than he imagined. No one had ever told him how much dirt there was. How much ugliness. He noticed ugliness everywhere. When he was blind he used to cross the street alone with a stick. After he regained his sight he became afraid. He began to live in darkness. He never left his room. After three years he killed himself.

What took him so long?

[iambiguous]

William Golding from Lord of the Flies

Maybe there is a beast…maybe it's only us.

Or, sure, it's always them.

Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.

Unless, of course, you had to be there.

We did everything adults would do. What went wrong?

More to the point, perhaps, what didn't go wrong?

I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior [to men] and always have been.

My guess: not all of them.

Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?

Next up: the Beast here.

If faces were different when lit from above or below -- what was a face? What was anything?

Anyway, it's probably not important.

[iambiguous]

A tiny film about a tiny person in a great big world. But this tiny person is clearly an iconoclast and I always find myself drawn to them at the movies. Especially one able to convince someone from “up there” to come down and join him. And there is a twist here that manages to be particularly intriguing. And particularly heartbreaking.

He's got a secret...

No getting around that what this guy does is despicable. Just as there’s no getting around how it changes both of them for the better in the end.

But there’s the end and then there’s the end. And you can’t help but think that maybe he was better off before.

This is a really good film. Well, for a “teen flick”.


Keith

Keith: I’ve been thinking about what you said, about that concrete goal.
Alan: And?
Keith: I think I’ve nailed it. I feel really good about this one, Al.
Alan: Lay it on me.
Keith: It’s a girl.
Alan: Cool. What’s she like?
Keith: You know. Smart, beautiful, popular. A classic TGFY. Too Good For You, Al.
Alan: But not for you?
Keith: Well, I’m sorta outside the whole high school food chain at this point, wouldn’t you say?
Alan: So, are you gonna ask her out?
Keith: Ask her out? No, bad idea, no. I mean, where’s the theraputic value in that?
Alan: So, what’s the plan?
Keith: Simple, I’m gonna have fun with her.
Alan: Fun? What do you mean by fun?

Well, let's just say it starts out that way.

Natalie: In case you haven’t heard: picnics - they usually take place outdoors.
Keith: Oh, is that what it says in the official picnic rulebook?

Guess where their picnic was.

Natalie [opening a cardboard box]: What is this thing?
Raff [reading what is written on a box inside]: A carburetor tune-up kit.

My guess: from Keith.

Natalie: You know I thought you were different. But you’re not different. You’re just another immature little boy. You’re right, I am wasting my time here.

Well, at least he's not another...Raff?

Keith: It’s just funny, Natalie, really funny that you chose this road.

Wink, wink.

Natalie: So that’s The Brick. I’ve never been on this side.
Keith: And I’ve never been on that side.

I'll never go there myself. Except to save my soul, of course.

[iambiguous]

Meaning

“I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here. I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell.” Richard P. Feynman

Again, sure, if that works for you, take it with you all the way to the grave.

“It might be possible that the world itself is without meaning.” Virginia Woolf

And, come on, get real...what are the odds that it is yours?

“Was everyone else really as alive as she was?... If the answer was yes, then the world, the social world, was unbearably complicated, with two billion voices, and everyone’s thoughts striving in equal importance and everyone’s claim on life as intense, and everyone thinking they were unique, when no one was. One could drown in irrelevance.” Ian McEwan

I may actually be unique though.

“Perhaps it’s true that things can change in a day. That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house—the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture—must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for. Little events, ordinary things, smashed and reconstituted. Imbued with new meaning. Suddenly they become the bleached bones of a story.” Arundhati Roy

Still, we post them anyway.

“I do not forget any good deed done to me and I do not carry a grudge for a bad one.” Viktor E. Frankl

Ah, so the Nazis are off the hook?

“The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.” Somerset Maugham

But even then, only "here and now".

[iambiguous]

Keith

Keith: Could have told you what?
Natalie: That you have a problem?
Keith: You don’t know the half of it.

None of us do really.

Natalie: Keith. I don’t…I don’t care where you’re gonna be next year. I don’t care if you’re crazy. God, I just know I wanna be with you. I don’t understand what you’re doing. It seems so pointless, I mean everything…It just seems pointless but when I’m with you it’s different. I don’t know why.

Now what, Keith?

Natalie: Fuck you.
Keith: You just did, partner.

Though not at the Brick.

Natalie: How did Keith know him?
Alan: They were in chemo together.

Keith's secret begins to unravel.

Natalie: Why didn’t you tell me?
Keith: Everybody bites it sooner or later. I’m just in the AP class, ahead of the game.
Natalie: Always the joke.
Keith: Al says it’s a phase. It’ll stop soon, but hey, at least it wasn’t about the sympathy for the sick kid.
Natalie: That’s not fair.
Keith: Is Duke fair? Is Europe fair? At this rate I won’t even make it to London, Ontario. Is that fair? Bowling, that’s what I get. Bowling.

And not even that, really. Unless you count the balls.

Natalie: You know, Raff, I only hope good things for you…cause really bad shit happens to people. I hope to God it never happens to you.

Eventually, of course, it happens to all of us.

Keith: Don’t you see what happened here? You had a beautiful life and I had shit. I hated your guts. I wanted to take you down. I wanted to make you as miserable as I was. And that is exactly what I did. Now, how’s that for goodbye? I screwed you. I screwed you big time.
Natalie: So, you screwed you. But I made love to you.

Actually, that is finally starting to really sink in.

Keith: I had it all figured out, so I cut out a little early? Who cares? It’s probably a good thing. Life sucks, anyway. Then I met you, and it got weird. And you were so amazing. And I…
Natalie: What? What?
Keith: I just wanted a little more time. So all in all, I’d say you’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. Goodbye, partner.

No, really, think about that.

Natalie: I’m staying with you until you leave. I don’t care how long we have. Get that through your thick skull.

Again, though, making the time he does have left all that much more excruciating to lose.