Deconstruction (328 hits)
Category: UberMadness! EntryRating: 2 on 3 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Circe <fickle.muse.at.gmail.com> (View user info) at 2006-10-10 10:48:10 EDT
This post was an official UberMadness! entry. Click here to view the original matchup.
Think class. Carefully cultivated, double distilled, deliberately understated class. Think polished mahogany and artful downlighting and gleaming whiskey glasses on the walnut bartop. The only possibly vulgar thing in the room is the large screen TV that takes up one whole wall, and even that, by dint of careful positioning and gleaming timber surrounds, manages not to impose itself too much on the decor.
One of the two old, old men sitting in the leather armchairs points a remote control at the TV and the lights dim as the screen flickers to life. He takes a carefully calculated sip of his whiskey - enough to show evident enjoyment, not so much that he appears boorish or too enthusiastic. His companion nods in mute approval of this perfectly executed display of taste and refinement and follows suit.
"What are we watching tonight, Amos?"
"Something new. I have high hopes of this director - he's said to work in mysterious ways."
"Sounds promising. Have we seen anything by him before?"
"No, he's been working in live productions. He's only recently moved to cinema."
"Intriguing. What's this one called?"
"'Dianne Roberts.'"
____________________
Dianne - Di to her friends, Dianne only to her parents, and Dee to her lovers - was born in a train. This story was told to so many relatives and family friends when she was small that, by the time she was seven, she had a firm picture in her head of being dragged out of a coal scuttle and wrapped in an engineer's blanket. If she'd known the train was just the subway from Highgate she would have been fiercely disappointed. She found out when she was ten, and she was.
Sketch in a normal childhood, color it with pastels and spray the paper with whatever scent takes you back - fresh cut grass, baking bread, your mother's perfume on the rare occasions when she dressed up and you were left with a sitter for the evening. No trauma, not even repressed. No tragedies beyond those of the unfed hamster or the schoolyard taunts - nothing out of the ordinary.
____________________
"Either this director is very, very subtle, or..."
"Or there's no underlying theme whatsoever."
"There seems to be a lot of pink. Perhaps the use of color is significant?"
"I don't think so. I believe pink is a normal color for small girls to surround themselves with."
"Ahhh. The color of innocence and hope... perhaps as the movie progresses the pink will darken as her darker nature reveals itself."
"Perhaps, Jensen."
___________________
Dianne fell in love for the first time when she was twelve, and again at twelve and a half, and again at her thirteenth birthday party. It was the painful, sleepless kind of love that never results in anything so crude as actual conversation with the beloved party, but it was love nonetheless. Of course it's normal but it always feels like it's never happened to anyone before. She grew out of these crushes by fifteen, but always remembered them with the pain of nostalgia; the kind that doesn't actually hurt.
____________________
"What did we miss?"
"What makes you think we missed anything?"
"Well, there has to be trauma. Without trauma there can be no conflict and without conflict, no story."
"That's the formula, sure enough."
"Even conflict with self is something to be treasured, or conflict with surroundings... but this just has nothing."
"Also, much less pink."
"I'd noticed that myself. Do you still think it has significance?"
"I'm beginning to fear that it doesn't."
______________________
School, college, work, travel, marriage, children, divorce.
_______________________
"Aha! Conflict at last!"
"Indeed. But it doesn't seem... I don't know. Linked. He wasn't like her father or anything."
"I know what you mean. It just all seems so frightfully random and unconnected."
"She doesn't even drink too much."
"Alcoholism is always an interesting storyline."
"Perhaps it's coming. She drank a glass of wine four scenes ago. It may have been a foreshadowing."
"Let's hope so."
_______________________
When her youngest child left home, Dianne - Di to her friends and Dee to her lovers, and never Dianne anymore because her parents had passed away in an accident on a driving tour of Scotland - began a familiar, comfortable relationship with an old friend. It wasn't passionate or fiery. It was like wearing a pair of old shoes. It was just what they both wanted.
________________________
"No recollections of childhood abuses on the death of her parents. I find that mightily disappointing."
"As do I, Amos. And this new relationship doesn't appear to be heading anywhere near a sociopathic showdown."
"There's still time."
_______________________
Dianne Roberts passed away at the age of seventy-three, holding her oldest grandchild's hand. Her belongings were divided up between her family in a civilized and respectful manner and her old friend went into a nursing home to outlive her by fifteen years and die in his sleep on Christmas Eve.
_________________________
"That's it?"
"That's it, apparently."
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm frankly appalled. There was no theme at all."
"No. Just apparently random events happening one after another."
"Who did you say the director was?"
"He's just listed as I Am."
"Let's avoid his work from now on. He's got no idea what he's doing."
User Reviews
Submitted by Alter (user info) at 2007-09-26 22:10:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No, Comment.
Submitted by Fey (user info) at 2007-08-04 13:23:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
How did I miss this? I liked it. I've often wondered how to portray the mundane without making it boring.
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2007-06-04 18:46:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I always knew real reality TV wasn't going to be as exciting as scripted drama.