As usual, it's 2:32 am, and I am awake, probably because I pretty much slept all day, and when I wasn't asleep I was watching that "Clerks" cartoon online and writing journal entries about 24 for English 414 [hey, it's homework!] I reached some pretty good conclusions about 24, mostly that Jack can't deal with emotional converstations. However, the more I write and read about film and media the more I feel like it's something I would like to pursue.
See, I always thought I would make a good music writer, but it has come to my attention [thanks to mostly guys] that I don't know very much about music, or at least I don't have very discerning taste,[come on, we all know Colva listens to bands like Cradle of Filth, and "bad charlotte", and worries about Britney.] I like what sounds good to me, I don't care about very much else. [This stems from a whole other theory which dictates almost every move in my life, basically - if you have to try and do something, be someone, like something, let it go, it's not natural. This could either be a raging adoration for the organic, or a raging laziness - you choose.]
Anyway, since taking English 332 I have realised that I am rather gifted at watching movies, and analyzing them. I can understand film media with the same ease that I understand poetry. [Which is saying something, because poetry analysis for me is equivilent to fishing with dynamite.] Anyway, films and tv shows say a lot about our culture, and I quite fancy studying culture. Specifically American culture - also film opens up a whole can of worms where Monster Theory isn't crazy - it's an elaborate fucking metaphor. Maybe one day I'll write about my vampire-human interaction metaphor theory - in the meantime read Nina Auerbach. But yes, I can see media studies being a significant part of my future, maybe be a film writer. [If you think this is a fucking horrible idea, I don't care, nor do I want to hear about it if you hate my film reviews. Fuck off.]
I find I reach conclusions about 24 a lot, I saw some of a rerun on A&E today where Jack chopped off someone's hand. I really enjoy it any time a hand gets chopped off, ["Titus", "Idle Hands", that one great moment in "The Departed".] Though, I feel like my life has changed quite a lot since starting to watch 24, maybe because I've never been invested in a tv show before, maybe because Matt once informed be that Jack is an "American Hero" and he seems universeally idolized by a lot of guys I know, and I sometimes feel like I've illegally entered an inner-sanctum of American-Maleism by watching 24, but then, truthfully, Rodriguez and Tarentino films also make me feel this way - like I'm not supposed to see these things, and I'm not supposed to like this violence, women in this culture watch romantic comedies, and I have no problems with those, but I like violent movies more - violent movies, rap and hardcore pornography, it makes me media-ally a man in this culture.
24 is a good indicator of the perception of American males of the ideal man, that would be Jack Bauer. We have all these ideas about men and emotion, and in America - everyone and emotion. [I would like to inform you people that everywhere else in the world people show their emotions, and they aren't emo, they're human.] but in America displays of emotion, positive or negative is incredibly socially frowned upon, it's a barried I face here. But what is interesting about Jack Bauer is that he is an emotional character - the snippet of re-run I watched today involved Jack crying in his SUV. Crying. Now, how is it possible that Jack Bauer is the "American Hero" when he cries? It's interesting, it shows that the goal for lack of emotion is not universal amoung young American males, it tells us that Jack is allowed to feel, to suffer, to cry but he should do it in the privacy of his car. He should not cry in CTU, he should not cry on Bill's shoulder. I'm really fascinated by this. I remember the first episode of 24 I watched, it was the fifth hour of the 6th season, and Jack shot someone he usually works with, and then leant against a tree, and cried a little, and said he couldn't take it. I was pretty put-off by this, "excuse me, guys? this is your American Hero? for real?" but apparently this is what is important about 24, it's a show which allows men, powerful kick-ass men to feel things [it doesn't account for the fact that Marilyn telling Jack (in not so many words) that she's done been in love with him induced the response of "no", whatever.] and it also allows them to display elements of nationalism, something which is still wildly important to the American Identity without being uneducated, these people are profoundly patriotic, and basically cops - but not in the way we understand cops - this isn't "Law and Order".
Fuck. This lost cohesion - but you now know what I think about. I think about 24 and that's what happens when you watch a good show for class. Lots of thinking.