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
5 Comments:
OH! I know the otter movie, but can't remember its name. They show it here occasionally on TV.
Films that touched me: Shawshank Redemption, Sweet November, Pay It Forward
Books: Tuesdays With Morrie and a few others...
12:43 pm
I know exactly what you mean about both The Time Traveller's Wife and Brokeback Mountain. My mind completely obsessed over both of them for absolute ages after. At the end of the TTW, I could not stop sobbing. I was a complete wreck for days.
3:32 pm
Excellent choices as always.
I have to go with the English Patient, Breaking the waves and Dogville for films that 'grieved me deeply' whilst Jeanette Wintersons' 'Written on the body' and 'The Passion' were the books.
4:07 pm
Two more films to add - an old one and one I just watched...
'The Safety of Objects' (SO much better and more moving than the book) and 'The Door in the Floor'.
9:10 am
The book that blew the back of my head off, and wasted boxes and boxes of tissues was THE LAST OF THE JUST, by Andre Schwarz-Bart.
It's a holocaust novel about a Jewish myth that the world is kept going by a number of 'just men' hand-picked by god to take on the suffering of all humanity.
The book is the story of the last of those just men, and it's harrowing and brilliant, and a must-read.
The other book that opened the waterworks: HOMECOMING by John Bradshaw.
This is a non-fiction book, and it helps the reader overcome childhood trauma and abuse. I worked through it on a holiday in Cape Town many years ago, and didsn't stop crying for an entire three days. I tore muscles I was crying so hard.
A film that nailed me was KORCZAK. It's about a Polish doctor who decided that he would not allow his Jewish patients to enter the concentration camps alone. He chose to die in the holocaust rather than sit back and watch as a gentile.
I've recently started working on the fact that I came from an abusive family. And I only very recently worked out why the holocaust is such a major source of pain for me.
My father lost most of his family to the holocaust. He was born in Latvia, and was on the last ship containing Jews to be allowed out of Europe.
I realise that the holocaust was ever-present in my house as I grew up, and that it was probably used -- inadvertantly or even intentionally (I don't have memories of it) -- as a tool of abuse.
Another film that really touches me, and which continues to touch me, is BETTY BLUE. It's one of the most authentic explorations -- for me -- about being an artist.
Blue skies
love
Roy
3:23 pm
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