Written Yesterday: Health and Film Musing

I spent today resting- this cold decided to do the dizzy thing to me, and in the morning it was threatening to burst into a lousy headache and no ability to breathe too. So after I had the morning’s delivery checked in, I helped clean under a few counters, (because we figured the board of health would be coming again after a camper dying, even if for all everyone could tell, it had nothing to do with camp), I spoke to the other folks in the kitchen and went home to sleep. I’m slowly getting better, I think, but it was a quiet day- slept, read a book (Stardance, by Spider & Jeanne Robinson, that I got yesterday with my parents- how could I resist a book with one author that I like quite a bit, And about dancing in space?) , crocheted, and watched Phantom of the Opera again.

I’m finding something very captivating about that show right now- my roommate and I watched it Wednesday night, and it has very much been stuck in my mind ever since. Part of it is just that I knew much of the music beforehand, and finally seeing how it fits was exciting. But also, from an artistic perspective, the way the same tunes are reused without you Quite realizing it at first really caught me- after we finished watching, all the different bits that use the same tune started to melt together just a little, making for a very weird sense of dialogue between characters that never talked- that sort of thing.

But there’s something both fascinating and troubling about the plot, and the relationships between the characters that get woven in the details. At first I thought that it was just the haunting nature of any story where there is no way for everyone to come away happy without breaking a social norm that is much harder to break than physical laws of nature in stories like this. (It’s easier to believe that the Phantom really is a magician of some sort, that taking off his mask also changed his hair color, any of that sort of thing, than it is to allow Christine to choose to love both the Phantom and Raoul, and for them both to accept it. On the other hand, when I described the ending to my mom, her response was- “do yu think she ended up living a double life?”)

I think that there’s something very odd woven into the details that the film puts at the beginning and end of the movie though- that a mourning elderly widower would go to purchase a piece of artwork made by his old rival for his wife’s affections, whom he saw as an insane manipulator, in order to put that at her grave? And then to close with the rose with a black ribbon and the ring that was originally their secret engagement ring that she leaves with the Phantom around it also at the grave- It first gives this sense that this whole tragic triumvirate never faded from their minds- like the Phantom was not only supposed to never have gotten over Christine, but that he was supposed to be some sort of silent third party to her marriage.

But there’s also this very odd use of sexuality that I found troubling- the way it was done, Christine seemed to be unable to resist either man until the very end, one out of “pure” love and the other out of something that seemed to combine manipulation and art and lust. The way her interactions with Raoul play out, it’s very romantic, and very pure, even when they’re kissing. Whereas with the Phantom they play the seduction card very obviously, even though he’s also supposed to have this history as her long-time mentor and teacher. But there was something about the way they then play the ending that feels like it’s almost trying to make that (in my mind noxious) argument that anyone you have any physical interaction with then pollutes and dilutes your sexual life with your spouse. And that just feels very, very odd, coming from this sort of film.

Or maybe it’s just the tragedy of having to choose, and to choose between the clear right choice and the romantic tortured artist- between the man who will make you happy, and the man whose whole life you think you can change, that is getting to me.

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Today, I made it through the morning at work just fine, and partway through lunch I started wilting and couldn't keep my eyes open. So, after protesting that I felt like a bum for leaving partway through teh day, I went home and went to sleep for nearly 4 hours. And I'm getting tired again now- I think it'll be an early night to bed, even after the mega-nap. But I am slowly feeling better, sort of in a slow upward zig-zag. But it was a pretty quiet day.

Written Yesterday: Health and Film Musing

I spent today resting- this cold decided to do the dizzy thing to me, and in the morning it was threatening to burst into a lousy headache and no ability to breathe too. So after I had the morning’s delivery checked in, I helped clean under a few counters, (because we figured the board of health would be coming again after a camper dying, even if for all everyone could tell, it had nothing to do with camp), I spoke to the other folks in the kitchen and went home to sleep. I’m slowly getting better, I think, but it was a quiet day- slept, read a book (Stardance, by Spider & Jeanne Robinson, that I got yesterday with my parents- how could I resist a book with one author that I like quite a bit, And about dancing in space?) , crocheted, and watched Phantom of the Opera again.

I’m finding something very captivating about that show right now- my roommate and I watched it Wednesday night, and it has very much been stuck in my mind ever since. Part of it is just that I knew much of the music beforehand, and finally seeing how it fits was exciting. But also, from an artistic perspective, the way the same tunes are reused without you Quite realizing it at first really caught me- after we finished watching, all the different bits that use the same tune started to melt together just a little, making for a very weird sense of dialogue between characters that never talked- that sort of thing.

But there’s something both fascinating and troubling about the plot, and the relationships between the characters that get woven in the details. At first I thought that it was just the haunting nature of any story where there is no way for everyone to come away happy without breaking a social norm that is much harder to break than physical laws of nature in stories like this. (It’s easier to believe that the Phantom really is a magician of some sort, that taking off his mask also changed his hair color, any of that sort of thing, than it is to allow Christine to choose to love both the Phantom and Raoul, and for them both to accept it. On the other hand, when I described the ending to my mom, her response was- “do yu think she ended up living a double life?”)

I think that there’s something very odd woven into the details that the film puts at the beginning and end of the movie though- that a mourning elderly widower would go to purchase a piece of artwork made by his old rival for his wife’s affections, whom he saw as an insane manipulator, in order to put that at her grave? And then to close with the rose with a black ribbon and the ring that was originally their secret engagement ring that she leaves with the Phantom around it also at the grave- It first gives this sense that this whole tragic triumvirate never faded from their minds- like the Phantom was not only supposed to never have gotten over Christine, but that he was supposed to be some sort of silent third party to her marriage.

But there’s also this very odd use of sexuality that I found troubling- the way it was done, Christine seemed to be unable to resist either man until the very end, one out of “pure” love and the other out of something that seemed to combine manipulation and art and lust. The way her interactions with Raoul play out, it’s very romantic, and very pure, even when they’re kissing. Whereas with the Phantom they play the seduction card very obviously, even though he’s also supposed to have this history as her long-time mentor and teacher. But there was something about the way they then play the ending that feels like it’s almost trying to make that (in my mind noxious) argument that anyone you have any physical interaction with then pollutes and dilutes your sexual life with your spouse. And that just feels very, very odd, coming from this sort of film.

Or maybe it’s just the tragedy of having to choose, and to choose between the clear right choice and the romantic tortured artist- between the man who will make you happy, and the man whose whole life you think you can change, that is getting to me.

---------
Today, I made it through the morning at work just fine, and partway through lunch I started wilting and couldn't keep my eyes open. So, after protesting that I felt like a bum for leaving partway through teh day, I went home and went to sleep for nearly 4 hours. And I'm getting tired again now- I think it'll be an early night to bed, even after the mega-nap. But I am slowly feeling better, sort of in a slow upward zig-zag. But it was a pretty quiet day.