Some angst

and "The Virgin Suicides" hate

Apr 12, 2021

One Last Thing and Then I Swear To God I’ll Shut Up About This Forever

Jane here! Lizzy is OOO doing important things. Meanwhile, I am pathologically avoiding doing the growing list of things I need to do.

Is anyone else having terrible social anxiety now that things are opening up? My post- social demeanor includes me staring blankly at the wall or driving in silence while contemplating what has just transpired.

The Virgin Suicides

I just wanted to come on here and talk about how much I hate both the book and the movie. The book was written by Jeffrey Eugenides, and the movie was written and directed by Sofia Coppola. From Wikipedia: The film follows the lives of five adolescent sisters, in an upper-middle-class suburb of Detroit during the late 1970s. After the youngest sister, Cecilia, makes an initial attempt at suicide, all of the girls are put under close scrutiny by their parents, eventually being confined to their home, which leads to their increasingly depressive and isolated behavior. As in the novel, the film is told in first person plural, from the perspective of a group of adolescent boys in the neighbourhood who are fascinated by the girls. PLOT SPOILER all the girls commit suicide at the end.

This is such a bizarre tale that is so dramatic but so understated it is shocking to the system. I like disturbing stories usually because you can empathize with them. You can see yourself in the characters. There is humanity in the details. Here, I don't understand anyone at all. Apparently the story may be partially an allegory of environmental destruction. Here’s an excerpt about the meaning of the book:

“Eugenides expresses how the girls act as figures for the lost experiences of youth and for the type of infatuation that only comes with adolescence, stating, “it’s a lot about voyeurism and memory and the sort of obsessional (sic) love that you have when you’re thirteen or fourteen.”

I don’t like the idea of five girls being so oppressed that they kill themselves being looked upon voyeuristically. The phenomenon of men/society being obsessed with female suffering has been written about extensively. The book Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession has this description on Good Reads

“Bolin illuminates our widespread obsession with women who are abused, killed, and disenfranchised, and whose bodies (dead and alive) are used as props to bolster a man’s story… this collection challenges the narratives we create and tell ourselves, delving into the hazards of toxic masculinity and those of white womanhood. Beginning with the problem of dead women in fiction, it expands to the larger problems of living women—both the persistent injustices they suffer and the oppression that white women help perpetrate.”

In conclusion, this story is not self-aware and adds nothing to the conversation about “longing” and “suffering” that it thinks it does.

ARTICLES WE’RE READING

White Evangelical Resistance Is Obstacle in Vaccination Effort -NYT

How a rock named "Bob" became a symbol of solidarity against anti-Asian hate in Colorado - Denver Post

Moderna vs Pfizer vaccine: why you shouldn't decide which is better based on efficacy - Vox

Opinion | You Can Be a Different Person After the Pandemic - NYT

-Liz (she left these in the Google doc with no words. But we’re grateful for the sign of life)

"Everyone Just Knows He's an Absolute Monster": Scott Rudin's Ex-Staffers Speak Out on Abusive Behavior - Hollywood Reporter

More Hollywood takedown! A little late, but okay!

Addison Rae and the Beauty of 78.5 Million Followers - NYT

-JW

SOCIAL MEDIA