February, month of despair,
with a skewered heart in the center.
Those are two lines buried in the middle of Margaret Atwood's poem February, and they aptly summed up my mood today. I'm not going to elaborate why and how and how long, and the skies here really are that blue and it's seventy degrees and no, there's no snow or ice, but it's still February and I hate winter, the dead of it. It didn't help, either, that I sat through part of a dreadful movie today called Kingsman, so slick and violent and soul-less that I got up and walked out, much as I did about this time (or earlier?) twenty years ago when I saw Pulp Fiction, another dreadful, slick and soul-less concoction of the glitterati. I'm going to chalk it up to February then, and winter, even when the skies are that blue and the palms that elegant and the air that gentle.
I believe the soul knows that it is winter, no matter what it looks like outside.
ReplyDeleteMs. Moon -- The soul and muscles for sure.
DeleteI hated Pulp Fiction too. I can never understand why it is so hyped. February is hard. Such a slog. One foot in front of the other, my friend. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
ReplyDelete37paddington -- I was pregnant with Sophie when I went to see Pulp Fiction in a theater near Croton-on-the-Hudson. About halfway through, I told my husband that I'd wait for him in the lobby. I remember sitting there, eating Twizzlers, profoundly relieved to be out of that movie. I haven't seen a Quentin Tarantino movie since!
DeleteI don't understand how anyone could have liked Pulp Fiction. Why do people delight in such terrible things?
ReplyDeleteI don't mind February because that is when my son was born. He was born just after my birthday and made the best present ever. Also, for some reason the weather here improves a little in February. It will turn ugly again in March but February keeps me believing in spring. That all said, I al looking forward to the long and sunny days of summer.
Birdie -- I have no idea, but I think there's a cool factor in those movies, and it's always eluded me.
Delete"February, month of despair".....how about September, October, November, December, January AND February ? Don't mean to be negative Nelly here, but it's been a hard slog out here for awhile, and I ain't just talkin' weather.
ReplyDeleteDid see the movie Imagination. Very good. Homophobia is sadly depicted and one of the most egregious things that the British Nation has to be ashamed of, not that I don't like British people, I do, but they really fucked up on this one. However, to his credit Benedict Comberbatch has started a campaign to recognize and officially apologize to the more than 49,000 men and women who were imprisoned or castrated and shamed for their homosexual "choices" in the first half of the 20th century...as well as before and beyond.
It's the best thing out there that I've been able to find....made these tiring and heavy months seem slightly less imbued with shallow and empty words...and worlds.
liv - I'm sorry to hear of your "hard slog." Sometimes it's just too much, right? I haven't seen the Benedict Cumberbatch movie although I've head good things. I'm just not up to anything intense these days -- I feel almost weak.
Deleteliv - I'm sorry to hear of your "hard slog." Sometimes it's just too much, right? I haven't seen the Benedict Cumberbatch movie although I've head good things. I'm just not up to anything intense these days -- I feel almost weak.
DeleteI'm not a fan of February or Pulp Fiction either. Not a fan of violence really, although there are certain people I wouldn't mind hitting over the head with a shovel. I believe in non-violence but there's only so much stupid a person can take and then something snaps inside my head. To quote a very wise woman, Anyhoooo.
ReplyDeletelily cedar -- This comment is awesome and cracks me up. Especially the shovel part.
DeleteI was born in February in upstate NY and what a dreadful month. Dirty snow, cold, cold, cold and seemingly never ending. Right now Seattle has daffodils! and the cherry trees are blooming!! WTF. I've grown to appreciate the slough of despond that late winter is and these flowers blooming too early creeps me out. Weird, I know.
ReplyDeleteAs for Pulp Fiction-yech. I remember a dinner party where we were all arguing about it's 'artisitic' merits. I was alone in my distain. I saw Kingsmen last night. Also horrid. Even with Colin Firth. The B Cumberbach movie is called The Imitation Game and for the record there are several serious inaccuracies in it. (see the NYT 2/15 article "Why Movie 'Facts' Prevail). But I liked the acting and the story, however fictional. The homophobia is real. I never know about making reparations about what is already lost.
The movie I walked out on when I was pregnant was the Godfather. Sat in the lobby and waited. I also walked out on The Living Dead when I was 20. We instinctively know when we are being harmed by violent images. Although I was glued to the TV when Black folks were being firehosed...That was important.
XXX Beth
beth coyote -- Well, February isn't all dreadful if it included you! And I love that you appreciate "the slough of despond" -- that's truly a great phrase.
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