4.19.2004
on the subway
a few posts back, i mentioned how one of my favorite scenes from harmony korine's gummo involves a little girl jumping up and down on a bed, repeating "i wanna moustache, dammit!!"
an incident from the subway the other day can help me explain what is so striking about such a scene...
i sat behind a woman with two rowdy little girls. the girls were pushing and playing and entertaining themselves, until the younger of the two noticed the older one had a piece of gum, and she didn't. the little girl became upset, and began shouting, "mom, i want gum... mom i want gum!!!" over and over. the child's mother playfully covered the girl's mouth to prevent her from shouting, but she kept going. the mother, aware of the child's mischief, decided to play along with her, and began covering and removing her hand from the girl's mouth as she repeated the exclaimation. this produced an effect akin to the familiar childhood memory of talking into an electric fan-- the words chopping up, etc. i assume people other than me and my sisters did that, right???
everyone seemed generally amused, including me.
and what i like about this is that a declaration transforms into an utterance. after several repeats, it was pretty clear that the kid had lost interest in the gum, and was instead enjoying the demand itself. it was one of those pleasant instances where language abandons its logic, and the simple pleasure of noise-making takes its place.
kids are very in tune to this, and i think one of korine's greatest strengths--in gummo as well as julien donkey boy-- is his sensitivity to this noise-making aspect of everyday life. it's a substantial aspect, i would argue, and one often ignored.
**i wonder how this "pleasure of repeated utterance" is working in the recent bush press conference??? does "stay our course," after repeated declarations, trigger some mantra-like neo-con soma??? or is it a zombified battle cry, like the "one of us" of tod browning's freaks????**
an incident from the subway the other day can help me explain what is so striking about such a scene...
i sat behind a woman with two rowdy little girls. the girls were pushing and playing and entertaining themselves, until the younger of the two noticed the older one had a piece of gum, and she didn't. the little girl became upset, and began shouting, "mom, i want gum... mom i want gum!!!" over and over. the child's mother playfully covered the girl's mouth to prevent her from shouting, but she kept going. the mother, aware of the child's mischief, decided to play along with her, and began covering and removing her hand from the girl's mouth as she repeated the exclaimation. this produced an effect akin to the familiar childhood memory of talking into an electric fan-- the words chopping up, etc. i assume people other than me and my sisters did that, right???
everyone seemed generally amused, including me.
and what i like about this is that a declaration transforms into an utterance. after several repeats, it was pretty clear that the kid had lost interest in the gum, and was instead enjoying the demand itself. it was one of those pleasant instances where language abandons its logic, and the simple pleasure of noise-making takes its place.
kids are very in tune to this, and i think one of korine's greatest strengths--in gummo as well as julien donkey boy-- is his sensitivity to this noise-making aspect of everyday life. it's a substantial aspect, i would argue, and one often ignored.
**i wonder how this "pleasure of repeated utterance" is working in the recent bush press conference??? does "stay our course," after repeated declarations, trigger some mantra-like neo-con soma??? or is it a zombified battle cry, like the "one of us" of tod browning's freaks????**
