This land has got some shallow graves with deep divides and subtle shades

[sovay]

I really want to live in the kind of economy where I could afford vacations.

I would also like to live in the kind of economy where Diane Duane doesn't need to crowdfund in order not to be evicted and homeless, but here we are, so follow the link. [edit] She has now successfully done so, and along with her husband sends profound thanks to everyone who purchased or donated, but I still do not find it reasonable that she had to.

Last night I watched Winter's Bone (2010), directed by Debra Granik. It looked essential to women in noir, its cast included John Hawkes, I had been meaning to see it for years. It is the kind of film I will have trouble talking about even when I get the time for it, because of how much I loved it: a spare murder ballad of a movie, neither condescending nor romantic, and further proof that neo-noir doesn't need to be defined by a retro style in order to qualify for the genre; it cracks its protagonist's world open, sets her hunting for truth like the title, the cold, intimate, irreducible common denominator beneath debatable flesh and blood. It's about what can and can't be said, by individuals, by families, what can and can't be known. It's not sociological, but it is political in the way that being alive in a society is political. It's beautifully shot. I'd much rather have seen it win Best Picture than The King's Speech, a film I liked very much. The fact that Granik was nominated for co-adapting the screenplay but not for directing the picture demonstrates the depth to which the Academy must have had its head up its ass that year. Looking at Jennifer Lawrence's filmography, I'm not sure anyone has ever again asked her to play as tough and ordinary and original a part as the protagonist of this film; I understand how The Hunger Games happened, but she could have gone from Ree Dolly to Antigone. You can think of Winter's Bone as Sophokles for twenty-first-century America, honestly, and not pretentiously at all. What can you know and live with? What's forgivable and how far should a family carry the weight of what's not? What will you risk your life to see done for the ones you love? The film suggests answers, but it's noir: asking the questions is more important. They change the shape of the world, even when holding it together is all you have ever set out to do.

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

oh look, there's a few things of Duane's I haven't bought yet . . .

[kore]

I have the book, but I haven't read it yet. I haven't seen the movie either, but I've wanted to for a while.

[surpassingly]

Thank you for posting about Diane Duane, I had no idea that was happening. Her Young Wizards books helped me get through some of the most harrowing weeks of my life, so I just went and got the box set and the cat wizards books.

[thisbluespirit]

It is the kind of film I will have trouble talking about even when I get the time for it, because of how much I loved it: a spare murder ballad of a movie, neither condescending nor romantic, and further proof that neo-noir doesn't need to be defined by a retro style in order to qualify for the genre

Your (full) paragraph seems like an excellent write up in itself! Obviously, I hope you get to write as full a review as you wish, but this is more than sufficient to interest and intrigue as it is.

[asakiyume]

I am so glad you've seen it and loved it. It absolutely blew my socks off; it's one of my favorite films ever. And yeah, nothing Jennifer Lawrence has been in has remotely touched it (though it's hard to call because this *film* was so good--it's hard to judge, for me anyway, a person is doing when the material they're given is lesser).

I loved every detail in it. The sister bouncing on the trampoline on the toy horse. The recruitment poster in the school. How Jennifer Lawrence looked in her jeans. Everything.

[larryhammer]

You can think of Winter's Bone as Sophokles for twenty-first-century America

That was one of my thoughts after seeing it. Good, good movie. I want Lawrence to do more roles as meaty as that one.

[vandrendehare]

Vacations...

[tree_and_leaf]

Winter's Bone is such a great film.

I'm taking a look at Duane's eBooksdirect page and will buy something. What the heck, economy....?

[choco_frosh]

I would also like to live in the kind of economy where Diane Duane doesn't need to crowdfund in order not to be evicted and homeless,

What The Fuck

(I looked at the link, and apparently all of her innumerable other fans sent copious amounts of cash/book orders, wiping out her cashflow problem; but still, wtf.)

[labingi]

I really want to live in the kind of economy where I could afford vacations.

I would also like to live in the kind of economy where Diane Duane doesn't need to crowdfund in order not to be evicted and homeless, but here we are...

I'm glad she got successfully funded. And I hear you!

I'm so tired of living in a world where increasingly everything and everyone is viewed as a disposable resource for the short-term gain of a few super wealthy oligarchs. I feel it on every level, from terror about my own material future to grief over the dying of my homeland from climate change to just general indignation at the injustice I see others suffer far worse than I do (for now at least).

How to find a happy note... if we could switch the economy toward one concerned with mitigating climate change, we'd have to reduce air travel, which means vacation would have to be longer--because otherwise no one could get across America to see their relatives by train, for example. This would slow everything down, which would give us more rest, more health, and less growth--which might cause initial convulsions to our system based on growth but would ultimately mitigate the environmental destruction. Once we can get pointed in the right direction, things will cascade for the good as they presently are for the bad.