Books and Films that 'wounded' me
I got this on email:
"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us... We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."
Franz Kafka
And now the question: Which book(s) was your "axe"?
My two favourite books, 'The God of Small Things' by Arundhati Roy and 'The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon' by Tom Spanbauer definitely had a huge impact on me. But it was probably parts of 'The Time Traveler's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger that "grieved me deeply" and made me cry harder than any other book I've ever read. I know this was because of how I related to it on a personal level and not everyone would have the same reaction.
I had that same deeply personal reaction to the film 'The Village' (M. Night Shyamalan). Two other films that cut deep into my heart (ironically both about gay men) were 'Beautiful Thing' and 'Brokeback Mountain'.
Of course, my favourite film 'Naked' (Mike Leigh) also needs a mention... and I have some sort of forgotten childhood trauma from a movie about an otter that I can't remember. All I know is that if I see otters I want to cry really hard!
So what are yours?
posted by dori at 11:34 am
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