Profound Things

[Daft]

As I mentioned in the book thread, I finished Of Mice and Men the other day. It flawed me. The ending is beautiful and tragic in the truest senses - but also, the whole book was so masterfully constructed that by the end it was utterly symphonic and fell into place in ways that I'm still processing. It is the perfect book, in my eyes (if anything could be labelled as such).

 

So, I ask you, what piece(s) of media - be it book, television show, comic or film - has had a real impact on you? Maybe changed you, taught you or simply resonated long after you left it behind?

[arab_freak]

On Identity by Amin Maalouf.

 

It helped me understand why people act the way they do through a mix of psychology, sociology, and philosophy. It helped me understand myself, by extension.

[Rummy]

Of Mice and Men? Reminds me of school, was forced to read it for GCSE. I guess that in large part took the impact/interest off the book for me, but I do still remember it; there's something about it that had a lasting impact. I should really read it again tbh, but it's just been utterly destroyed for me by being an exam textbook essentially that I find it hard to. What was it that you liked so much about it, @Daft? What even led to you reading it?

[jayseven]

I watched Waking Life at an impressionable, and very stoner-philosopher, part of my life and it really helped to expand my perspective on things, and was fairly relentless in its profundity.

 

The bands mewithoutYou and Brand New, for gems such as "what use is one glove without the other?" and just generally showing me that it's ok to be angry!

 

I'm wishing I had written down the profound moments as they happened as I know I've experienced it more than a few times.

[The Bard]

The Great Gatsby. It taught me about class distinctions, social identity, and served as my main reference point when I went to university and started reading Marx and Gramsci. More than anything, it taught me how to write; how to balance analysis with an expressive beauty.

[pratty]

The Matrix, incredibly deep and rich in philosophy.

[Cube]

My Step Dad came home from work one day with a TV series on DVD, one of his co-workers had recommended it to him. I'd never heard of it and my Step Dad never got round to watching it, so I watched it instead. I was totally unprepared for the amazement. It was fourteen episodes of perfection. The setting was extremely interesting, I loved all the characters (and the actors, too), the music was brilliant, the sets were incredibly detailed. It was also completely different from anything I had watched previously.

 

That show was, of course, Firefly. I still feel the emotion from it to this day. It had affected the way I am, too, but I'm not so good at explaining that side of things.

[Yvonne]

House Of Leaves - really amazing book. Creepy and layered.

[ReZourceman]

Stand By Me

 

A beautiful...amazing movie that....ugh. So good. The way it talks about friendship and growing up/coming of age/whats important/adventure/everything.

[MoogleViper]

Catcher in the Rye

 

Made me want to kill myself.

 

Although ideally, I would have gone back in time, and killed myself before I ever read that book.

[Ashley]

If we're going by

or simply resonated long after you left it behind?

 

Then Capturing the Friedmans. I can't really remember the doc itself, but just the experience has resonated with me since I saw it the best part of 10 years ago.

 

Also, it's lame but the line "want to know how I lost my virginity? So do I". It's the moment that really sold the show for me and perfectly encapsulates the character.

[Ganepark32]

An Unquiet Mind is very much lodged within my memory.

 

Read it at college (with my 'friends' looking on at me wondering why I was reading a book rather than the copy of the Daily Star/The Sun they'd bring in every morning) and it, particularly the opening bit of the book with the jet narrowly missing the school and the pilot dying, has stuck with me ever since. Was the initial catalyst for me changing from wanting to study architecture at uni to psychology.

[Daft]

Of Mice and Men? Reminds me of school, was forced to read it for GCSE. I guess that in large part took the impact/interest off the book for me, but I do still remember it; there's something about it that had a lasting impact. I should really read it again tbh, but it's just been utterly destroyed for me by being an exam textbook essentially that I find it hard to. What was it that you liked so much about it, @Daft? What even led to you reading it?

 

It's beautifully written, almost like a fable. And the ending is sublime; it's a real testament to Steinbeck's skills as a writer that even though it is foreshadowed throughout the book, when the ending - that you knew was coming - finally plays out, it loses no impact. Possibly the opposite, in fact.

 

To me it was about the difference between being able to trust people and depend on people. I've realised recently that trust really isn't and issue, there are plenty of people I trust, but someone who you can depend on when you really need it? That's rare.

 

Why I read it? I read Cannery Row in school and remembered enjoying it (although annoyingly I can't actually remember much of the book) and I'd always meant to read Of Mice and Men. I bought a Kindle recently and I find it so conducive to reading; the spacing, larger font size - even the fact that I don't have to turn a page means I lose track of how much I've read and tend to read for longer or am more prone in shorter bursts. I pick up more books on a whim, too. I've read four books in the last two weeks, I'm half way through a fifth and I've already picked my next book.

[Paj!]

A lot of stuff is 'of a context/time'. Like, it resonated at the time.

 

To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Came at a time when rememberance/time/death/meaning/life was playing on my mind a lot. I felt lanced.

 

Exprss Yrslf Dn't Rprss Yrslf

 

You gave me back the paradise

That I thought I lost for good

You helped me find the reasons why

It took me by surprise that you understood

You knew all along

What I never wanted to say

Until I learned to love myself

I was never ever lovin' anybody else

- "

", Madonna, Bedtime Stories (1994)

 

Just a pop song, but as cliche as it is, Madonna is my most beloved, and perhaps only, DIVA I worship. Obviously with a sense of objectivity, but she is the only person I feel that vague obsessiveness with, as I know many gay men do. I first got a lot of her albums when I was about 13/14, when I got my first iPod and my dad gave me all his music collection. From that I discovered a lot of her stuff (I already had some of her more recent-at-the-time hits, I liked her) - but as a gay boy going through puberty, although I didn't know it at the time, this/she would have a huge effect on me. The lines above as well as the line "Happiness lies in your own hand" rung around my head for years until I realised they (to me) were referencing being gay. I think the song might actually be about that (her lover confessing he's gay), though it's intentionally obscure. I reckon it is. And the fact is, I didn't love myself - not all of myself. For a long time. Not to say I was particularly angsty, but I just didn't accept my own sexuality for a long time. (Well I did in that I knew I was gay, but in the world knowing and it being a real thing, no)

 

"I have a tale to tell

Sometimes it gets so hard to hide it well

I was not ready for the fall

Too blind to see the writing on the wall

 

A man can tell a thousand lies

I learned my lesson well

Hope I live to tell the secret I have learned

Till then it will burn inside of me"

-

, True Blue (1986)

 

I love a lot more stunningly written and composed music, Madonna isn't the be all and end all of music, but as far as POP MUSIC goes, she has always hit me like none other. I'm not highlighting her lyrics as "OMG!" like I would Joni Mitchell - but these are lines in pop songs designed to strike hard and fast (generally speaking), listened to by a 13 year old boy discovering his sexuality. She is still the artist behind Material Girl, I know! :p But she has a sway over many gay men, a power and influence, so her words hit home.

She was there for part 1 of my 'sexual awakening' I suppose. She told everyone that anything goes and to never be sorry for that. It took me a while to take that on board and turn it into action (years in fact...) but no matter what I or others will think of her personality or music nowadays, she and her music had that impact on me, subtley over many years. I mean, I was listening to Human Nature and Erotica at 13...but it wasn't innapropriate or damaging, cause she isn't innapropriate or damaging. It's not a shock tactic. There's a difference between the superficial, aesthetic 'deviant sexuality' in lots of pop music nowadays and how she did it. I learned a lot. As someone whose sexuality would always lean on the side of what is considered by the majority of the world 'deviant' itself, this obviously spoke to me.

 

"I made a vow that I would never need

Another person ever

Turned my heart into a cage

A victim of a kind of rage"

-

, American Life, (2003)

 

It took it's time, but it doing so my acceptance of sexuality wasn't reactionary, it wasn't angry. I had no one in my personal life to be angry at/rebel against, because no one was angry at me. Thank god. Many gay people come from horrific homes. And I don't just mean being kicked out/beaten/whatever...just to know you are living in a home with a family who love you in SPITE of a part of you, not because of a part of you. As it should be.

 

She is, to me, an inspirational figure for many reasons. She takes so much ridiculous shit from the press/peers/competitors, and it doesn't shake her. She stuck to her guns and carved her own career, under the influence of no one else, never swayed by what she was being told was the better option for sales or marketing. She is an exhausting performer, flawless even at 54, whose tours (regardless of what you think of her music) are the gold standard of big budget pop shows, incorporating themes and issues, the setlist reflecting the story she tries to tell on stage. She is a relentless supporter of the oppressed masses etc et but she is human too! Even i question the whole adoption business and stuff...I'm not blind. But she represents a whole lot to me and she will always be/have been an important part of my life, as for many gay men I'm sure.

 

Now I can see things for what they really are,

I guess I'm not that far,

I'm at the point of no return

I can't actually breathe re: this, btw ^

 

Lady Gaga, for the "..."-ness I feel of her as a popstar (she really is the internet/tumblr-generation version of Madonna, endless 'reinventions' while remaining exactly the same, in an effort to acheive...what? Art? It feels like when I keep changing my Fbook cover photo, as though it means anything, as though suddenly I will have transcended into something...fame? glory? Maybe that's what she trying to do. Meh..) - she is having this effect on many many young gay people around the world, which can only be a good thing.

 

I've neither spell-checked nor read this back. It kinda went a little off tangent maybe just somewhat.

 

And THAT'S why I love Madonna.

Edited August 26, 2012 by Paj!

[EEVILMURRAY]

The ending of An Inspector Calls was always something which fascinated me. Probably one of the only things they made me read at school which I enjoyed.

 

I've neither spell-checked nor read this back. It kinda went a little off tangent maybe just somewhat.

No worries dude, we know that when you mention Madonna the words just keep coming. It's an adorable quirk

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

I'm heading off to bed soon, but I'm going to give that a proper read later.

[Diageo]

I was forced to read Of Mice and Men as well. It was so good it made me cry. All the study I did on that book means I remember a lot of it still now. A film that also stayed with me was Prayers for Bobby.

 

In general though, statements and quotes that are meant to be profound that are plastered around facebook and get thousands of likes, I don't get how people like those.