Antigone, Fathers & Sons, 50 First Dates

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been super busy and ultra-depressed: please keep sharp objects away from me (not kidding).

Part of the problem is how flat the surf has been lately. I’ve got to paddle out tomorrow, even if it's flat, or I’ll go completely crazy.

So . . . I won’t bother trying to catch you up . . . let’s start fresh with today.

I was busy working all day, but I feel like I got so little done. After getting the kids to school I spent about an hour and half checking my email, then brainstorming/researching what I should be working on this week. I’ve got to make contact with Young & Rubicam about getting a job there . . . advertising is not exactly my dream job, but I have to find a way to make living that doesn’t involve my working 90 hours/week. I figure if I could get a full-time ad job I’d at least be working with people I like, and I’d be doing something creative, and I’d be (hopefully) making real money, and I could still work on writing short stories, screenplays, and that elusive novel in my spare time. I’d planned to shoot off some calls to some contacts I have at Y&R during my office hours, but surprise, surprise, some students actually came to my office hours, so I spent the entire time discussing their essays with them.

They’re supposed to be writing on “the father-son relationship in Antigone.” Teaching writing is hard. I find myself wanting to take over their projects and just write them myself, but that wouldn’t be teaching, would it? I think I talked way too much, giving way too much advice, but I can’t help myself. I'm supposed to be more "Socratic," make them struggle more, but I keep jumping in with my ideas/suggestions. I had planned on spending about 25 minutes going over student theses in class today, and then dive into “King Lear,” but in both my sections I ended up spending the entire time working on their theses and then two more hours in my office tossing ideas around.

So, in a nutshell, I spent from 1-5 p.m. today discussing the relationship between Creon and Haemon. I couldn’t help but reflect on my own relationship with my father. He still goes to “Basic Youth Conflicts” seminars. BSY is an ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christian group that emphasizes patriarchy as God’s solution for every problem in the world. They teach that a man is the head of his household until he dies. In other words, I should still be checking in with my father about every decision I make. Conveniently his father his dead, so he doesn’t have to check in with him. All my failures seem to just underscore for my dad that my life is so fucked up because I have “removed myself from God’s protection” over my life, namely my father’s rule. Like Creon, any disagreement with my father has always been seen by him as a sign of pure disloyalty, ingratitude, and impiety. I'm sure he’s not surprised that I’m such a loser.

However, if I were writing on the “father-son” relationship in Antigone I wouldn’t write on this kind of conflict; I would focus on Eros. The chorus has a really long speech in which they suggest that it is Eros that has ruined the relationship between Haemon and Creon. I think that’s right. Haemon loves (erow) Antigone, and even though Creon says his son can “find another field to plow,” Haemon’s passion for Antigone leads him to confront his father, and ultimately to kill himself. Eros is so dangerous, but without it would life be worth living? I think Plato was right: our only converse with God is through Eros.

What else did I do today? Well, I babysat the girls and we, at least Elly and I, watched “Fifty First Dates”—a film I rented by mistake; I meant to get “Coffee and Cigarettes,”—which turned out to be pretty good. Some of the individual scenes were really lame, but the overall idea—high concept all the way—worked really well, showing the power of love (agape & Eros) to change our world, to make it better by forcing to see, and be with, each other.

Oh, and I also went to a Humanities Core Lecture on “King Lear” (given by A. Van Sant). She had a pretty interesting thesis that fit really well with Antigone. She argued that the play “dramatizes” the way old, hierarchical modes of social organization—modes based on deference (and duty?)—can’t hold social organizations together.

Oh, and I spent some time reading Roorbach and thinking about characterization in memoir.

Oh, and I read a really challenging article by Jeff Gordon (on Project Greenlight Website). He pointed out that most screenplays fail because the Big Idea is no good. The writer needs to really know what is entertaining about their script and how this script “contributes in a fresh way to the movie-going experience.” I’m going to try to take this as a much needed kick-in-the-ass as I go through another rewrite of “Used Books,” but maybe I need to work more on another concept. I feel like the way I tell the story is “high concept,” but I rely too much on humorous dialogue to amp up the entertainment value, and you can’t show that entertainment in a logline.

Oh, and I bought “(Rock) Superstar” by Cypress Hill off I-Tunes today. Is it shallow that I love that song? I’ve listened to it like eight times today.

Finally, had Humanities Core Staff meeting today: nothing memorable.