February 12, 2015 Moving On
Quitting, Giving Up, Letting Go and Moving On seems to be the theme this week. But I wonder if they are really all the same or just a little bit different? I ponder these particular points because of The Walking Dead and Girls.
I watched The Walking Dead at 11:30pm. They just killed off Beth in the last episode and then Tyreese died in this week’s episode. His death was different though. He got bitten and begins to hallucinates. He has conversations with The Governor, among others. Eventually, Tyreese gives up. He realizes that the world is too brutal of a place for him. He refuses to give up some of his humanity to survive as Rick and the others do. When faced with losing his humanity or his life, Tyreese chooses to die for his humanity—to lose his life. Some might say he was a coward or a loser, but I thought it was a beautiful thing to do. It really brought theme of The Walking Dead front and center. He is a great juxtaposition for Rick this season. Sometimes survival comes at too great a cost. Killing, death and a general sense of overwhelming loss tends to negate those connections we have with our fellow human beings. When life no longer feels valued, inevitably, our own life is no longer of value even to ourselves.
I watched The Talking Dead afterward, which touched on the subjects above. When that was over, I switched over to HBO to catch with Hannah on Girls. Hannah would never survive a Zombie Apocalypse. She gives up way too easily. People criticized her writing at the Iowa Workshop and she is lost. Instead of trying to improve and move on, she sends a passive-aggressive apology to defend her work. Then when the apology itself is criticized, she quits. Hannah packs up and heads back to New York only to find that her boyfriend Adam has moved on. Luckily, Lena Dunham doesn’t quit quite that easily. Though many feel Hannah defending her work is really Lena trying to defend her TV show Girls.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt the need to defend my writing. But then again, I’ve not achieved enough success to warrant that kind of scrutiny. I’ve been a part of Writer’s Workshops before and found them helpful. It isn’t always easy to hear critiques, but I try to not take it too personally. My grammar is usually the only thing people pick on and there is really no defense for that. I just need to improve and do better at proof reading. No one debates my imagination or talent for descriptive language.
carilynn27 