Funerals and Classes

[davetheanalyzer]

 My mother’s oldest brother passed away. He had been in a care-home and recently transferred to hospice when it happened. It had been suspected he would linger for some months but it came around a week later, on my birthday even. I met him in visits to our house and maybe one or two times in the care home but I saw him far less in his last years, so I didn’t feel much of a punch when he went. Mom helped him more and was sadder but was happy his suffering is over and he went back to god. I decided I might as well be part of the funeral, accepting being a pall bearer since we don’t have the money to hire them. It was alright; I felt like I didn’t carry much of the weight. The wake was a bit odd, in that it was mostly friends and relatives chatting amongst themselves while mostly ignoring the body in the room. We did a church service and it was nostalgic from when I went to church. I can see why people do it; the tenants and the promise of a good afterlife can be comforting. It took me a while to realize the singing parts might be recorded. The ceremony at the cemetery was cold and I could feel it through my dress shoes. The funeral guy confirmed to me he did this in storm and all sort of inclement weather, which is incredible. I wouldn’t be able to do his job. I was glad we could go back to our warm vehicles and to the restaurant. It was a long but I did it for my mother and any experiences might be useful for my writings in the future.

I started classes near the middle of the month. It was a slow start. It was mostly introducing each other in one class and doing reading and writing for a forum in another, which didn’t have to be posted until this week at the very latest. Both classes have three other students each, which is strange but on the bright side would mean less interactions on the forum assignments. With how this will effect Writing Portfolio, the professor discussed the option of doing writing prompts for flash fiction and since most of us weren’t interested, he made that optional. I don’t know if this will mean we will revise our original draft this semester three times total or we can submit another work but it’s an interesting conundrum. For The Literary Market, so far the focus in our in-person talk was on methods of publishing and what is best to publish. We discussed trends a bit, but only insofar as to be aware of them. The professor emphasized you don’t need to chase trends or compromise yourself in order to get by. I read ahead on the syllabus and some of the material is intimidating, but it would be useful in learning how to navigate the publishing world to get yourself published.

In terms of movies, I saw If Beale Street Could Talk. I didn’t read the James Baldwin novel but from how it was shot and the nonlinear structure, I could tell it was a different movie. It communicated well the love story at the center and its endurance through racism and the injustice of the court system. Tish is a sweet girl but that doesn’t prevent her from asserting herself and doing what she can to free her love. Fonny is just as devoted, doing all he can to find the best place they could live together and being considerate to her when they start getting intimate. When he gets arrested from being framed of rape by an officer, Tish and her family (and Fonny’s father) do all they can to get him free, doing a good job showing, with the neighborhood’s economic deprivation and racist hiring practices, why the fathers go into shady businesses to pay for the legal fees and the coming grandchild.

With the rape victim, Victoria Roger, the writers were careful not to villainize her. They made her desire not revisit that traumatic moment and Sharon pleading for her to recant understandable, and why that would lead to conflict between them. The film shows the great struggles of going against a racist system, past and present, and how unlikely it can be to win innocence. With that huge deck stacked against him, Fonny takes a plea deal and decides he and Tish could make it work somehow. I read the director didn’t want the ending to be yet another downer for black characters, so he had that scene where Fonny says they could make it work and the ending scene years later where Tish and their son visit Fonny in prison and them being a bit hopeful. It fits with the theme of their love surviving the odds. It was a good film, showing the effects of anti-black racism in the micro while never steering far from the personal of two young people in love and their journeys.

I also saw Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. With it getting near-unanimous praise and even getting nominated for awards, I decided to check it out. It was good. The art style was very different from other CGI animated movies, with comic inspired styles and sequences like scenes being shown through comic panels or words being displayed on the screen. It was very artistic. This time, Miles Morales gets to be the main character and it is well-earned. He is a friendly, clumsy boy with an artistic streak, but feels alienated from his boarding school enough that he tries to fail out, even though he is very smart. He is naturally scared when he contracts spider powers and deals with danger but he has an initiative that plays in when pressuring the alternate universe Peter Parker to mentor him. He feels a duty for the Peter Parker who died in his universe who saved him and wasn’t going to back down.

They don’t get along at first but come to help each other. That seems to be the theme of the movie, the AU spider-people helping each other through their own issues. AU Peter Parker experiences a mid-life crises with his Aunt May’s death and separating from MJ over not wanting children but Miles helps him warm up to the mentoring role and push Peter to have some self-worth again and reconcile with MJ. Gwen Stacey is friendly, if a bit snarky, and focused on the task but she is afraid of making friends after her friend Peter Parker died. Miles offering to be her friend seems to touch her and might allow her to make other friends again. The other spider-people try to help Miles in his journey to be a superhero and when he loses Uncle Aaron, with the normally jokey, Looney Tunes style Spider-Ham showing some vulnerability when sharing that not everyone can be saved (Apparently, there was a joke here but the staff were right to cut it). Even his family demonstrate this, with his mother allowing him to come back home when he should be at school, his father’s teasing affection and pushing him to do better, and Uncle Aaron giving him space to be himself and to be close to his. Even with the spider-people’s unique experiences, they aren’t alone, even if they are separated by universes. With all of that, Miles is ready to become a hero with that leap of faith and him being able to take on and defeat Kingpin on his own. Even with the crossover shenanigans, this is still his film and he takes ownership of it.

Other Matters: I liked Peni Parker and her SP//dr suit, and that was partners with her spider. It appealed to my Mon tastes. When SP//dr shutdown in the finale, I was confused she was upset since her spider seemed okay but then I read around and realized SP//dr was a living AI and he(?) apparently died, and the suit was handed down from her late father. Fortunately, it seems to be hinted the AI survived at the end. Spiderman Noir was an amusing noir 1930s parody and I did like his fascination with this color world and rubik’s cube, and that he fought Nazis (I am a bit uncomfortable he’s played by Nicholas Cage, since there’s reports he’s been accused of domestic abuse). Judging from the ending and reports of sequels and spinoffs, this wouldn’t be the last we see of the characters and their multiverse hopping adventures. I would look forward to this since I like the film. For the sequel, though, I hope Miles’ bond with his mother gets more focus.

That’s all for now. I’m typing at night after it has snowed the night before, as is befitting of this time of year. Until February’s end, see you!