Thoughts
Watched 300 (again) with my friends. Guys love 300. It's one of my dad's favorite movies. But what makes it an interesting film, frankly, is that it aggresively adopts every tenet of traditional reactionary thought. Rather than disguising a commitment to hegemonic beliefs beneath a veneer of nuance and modern sensibilities, like other blockbusters, 300 shows us its truth. The other is the enemy, difference is grotesque, and acceptance of the "weak" is the ultimate evil. It is the disfigured and banished Ephialtes who betrays the Spartans, in favor of the Persians with whom he is accepted. The depictions of Xerxes' army and court, comprised of divergent bodies is contrasted with Spartan uniformity, wherein every soldier beneath their helmet is notably identical. 300 is often relegated to the status of an unthinking B movie, whose sole purpose is to satiate a masculinist desire for violence with grand spectacles of spear-throwing and sword-rattling, but, in actuality, I think it's a brilliant case study precisely because it doesn't question its own ideology. The audience is exposed to the extremity of their implicit beliefs, which become nothing more than pulpy fictions as the characters march in front of a computer generated background. Though valid criticisms are certainly owed in regards to the ableism of 300, I don't know if I've ever seen another film which so extensively recreates the dominant ideologies of society. Speaking to my friends after watching, we have a heightened awareness of the artificial and even mythical makeup of our thinking. We laugh, I think with some introspection, when my Greek friend says, "I'm definitely an Ephialtes type of Greek."
Neil Young has left Spotify. Many have limited his decision to a generalized political division, but in many ways it's more personal. Young's nickname "Shakey," supposedly comes from the film technqiue of his home videos, but suggests, naturally, another meaning for fans who know of the singer's experience of epileptic fits as a young man. He also had polio in the 1950s before polio vaccines were available and lost the ability to walk as a child. Because of his experiences, and those of his son Ben, affected by cerebral palsy, he's organized several concerts to raise money to support disabled individuals. It has also influenced his music, as much of his modern work is aimed towards communicating emotions with his son. I think this aspect of Neil Young has largely been forgotten/ignored.
In another English class, we were shown a picture of an older James Joyce writing with the aid of a magnifying glass. Like Milton, Joyce's vision deteriorated throughout his life, nearly becoming blind by the time of his death in 1941. An interesting connection between two prolific authors nearly centureies apart.
I've learned how to create captions (that look like captions) for my images. Given the subject of this project I obviously wanted to include image descriptions. I've realized how challenging it can be to write descriptions which accurately reveal the contents of an image, which further goes to show how much is taken for granted when using the senses.
According to the DOJ, persons suffering from Opiod Use Disorder are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Whether or not addiction should be properly labelled a disability is fairly unimportant. All people have a right to medical care and protection from discrimination. It is interesting, nonetheless, that these rights should be guaranteed under the ADA. Despite the potential similarities in the experiences of disability and addiction, as well as their positive correlation with each other, they are understood differently in the American public consciousness. In a general sense, Americans are much more hesitant to support policies which assist persons experiencing difficulties with sustained drug use because they view addiction as the result of an active decision, which delegitimizes claims of victimhood. This attitude ultimately hinders support for persons with disabilities because it relocates the rhetorical impetus of legislative change into the realm of public sympathy, away from its appropriate position as a question of civil rights already belonging to people by virtue of their personhood, though not necessarily guaranteed by their government.
A friend whose father had huntington's disease described an early memory of his father driving, before he lost his ability to do so. He was in the back seat when they were pulled over by a police officer who suspected his father had been intoxicated due to the movements of the car. It was a result of his relative lack of manual dexterity and difficulty in moving his legs. Huntington's disease is a rare neurodegenerative disease which affects about 30,000 people in the United States, developing normally around the age in middle age.
I've regularly noticed for the first time non-accessible spaces across Baltimore and in my home in Pennsylvania. There were no elevators in my elementary school, a small parochial school, about an hour away from Philadelhia. I've realized that it would simply be impossible to attend my school for children with physical impairments who could not climb stairs. My high school was technically wheelchair accessible in the sense that all classrooms could be accessed, but certainly not with ease. At least one floor could be accessed without stairs by going outside. Of course there are functional limitations, espescially with buildings that were constructed well before accessibility became a priority, but that is rather the point. So many spaces constructed just a few decades ago, and even those built after, simply did not include consideration of persons with physical disabilities. Once you begin to look, it can be seen everywhere.
I think the poem is very funny. Ultimately the disabled man and the woman are in the same boat. They feel they do not have total autonomy in their embodiment. The joke, pretending to be the mention of breast implants, is actually the theoretical slap, when bodily autonomy would be literally violated. Though the poem could be read as a simple criticism of hypocrisy, I think it actually has more to say. It dramatizes the fundamental division of the body as something intensely personal, but that is also the site in which we engage in our social lives. Bodily autonomy can only truly be shared together, or else it ceases to exist in a meaningful way.
"Body horror" seems to be en vogue these days with intellectual types. It feels like everyday I'm hearing people rave in a video essay about a new arthouse film which so boldy dares to present horror as "high culture." Gone are the days of the human centipede; now the gored bodies are aesthetic and symbolic of "trauma" or something like that. Admittedly, I've never liked scary movies, but I find this new genre has traded in what at least could be considered a campy charm for pretentious self-importance. If it is not clear the type of film I'm discussing, see the A24 film "Lamb" or the most recent Palme d'Or winner "Titane." Both films function around fantastical bodily difference, which is allegorical in nature. I would not say these films are exploitative. There are no lamb-children to exploit. But I find the exploration of embodiment in these films, and films like them, to be painfully one-dimensional. I think the reason why these films do not "work" for me is because they exist in utter contrast to films which express embodiment just as powerfully in everyday behavior.
An interesting discussion of disability and its conjunction with poverty in Baltimore today during one of my classes. One statistic showed that over twenty percent of working age Baltimoreans with a disability are in poverty. People with disabilities are often left behind when discussions of economic uplift involve only access to work and not development and funding of necessary social programs.
The rate of mental illness has dramatically increased during and after the COVID pandemic. Supposedly the mental health center is used by more students now than it ever has been. I sense it myself. I'm sure the isolation and stress of the pandemic exarcerbated existent mental health issues for many. One wonders whether this increase will result in a changing attitude toward mental illness. I certainly feel that there has been a shift in the dialogue on mental illness as it is recognized increasingly as an undercurrent of all issues of public health.
"Cinema Paradiso" may be my favorite film. I'm surprised I had not made the connection with disability as of yet, but as I watch it for the umteenth time it is clear. If you are not aware, "Cinema Paradiso" is a beautiful Italian film about a child who is obsessed with going to the movies at his local theatre. The child, Salvatore, befriends Alfredo, the projectionist at the theatre. [[Spoiler]] After a fire caused by the projector leaves Alfredo blind, Salvatore must help him to continue showing films. Alfredo's blindness obviously changes his life, but it does not suddenly redefine his character, nor does it render him useless. Obviously, I am biased in favorite of my favorite movie, and like so many movies, it does not utilize an actor with the actual disability presented, but I think that it is still does a wonderful job of portraying disability.