Culture shock

I recently watched the movie The Door in the Floor and came to the conclusion that it's about time I blogged about being a wife of a writer.

I find it interesting that most of the movies about writers depict writers as destructive, unable to control bad habits (especially alcohol), unkempt, overly-paranoid, grueling over typewriters sown with blank pages who rarely use a back-up system (especially those hard-core typewriter sorts) to ensure that their delicately arranged words are never destroyed or misplaced. Hmmm... is this real?

Take a look at some classic films in order to paint a picture of the life of a writer (according to Hollywood and Hollywood screenwriters, I might add):

The Shining - a depiction of the Jack Nicholson we all know and love. This movie is more precise in its shots of the kid on the Bigwheel - remember those? This writer was inclined to spit, torment, lockdown parts of the remote hotel facility so his family could not escape and had a thing for big knives.

Secret Window - Johnny Depp takes on the 'secrets' of the writer. If you didn't know, all writers do is write about their lives but put the fault on the 'fictional' characters they create (who never reflect themself).

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Ahh, another Johnny Depp role. This one I saw near the beginning of Angelo's discovery to become a writer. To be honest, it freaked me out - just a little.

Sylvia - one of the rare moments a woman makes it to the list. Gwynnie doesn't really pull this one off. But the trends Sylvia Plath experiences - as the infamous writer of The Bell Jar - are indicative of several writers, these being suicide, depression, preference for pills, and scattered social skills.

Celebrity - Kenneth Branagh (my favourite role of his) depicts the Woody-Allen type character in Woody Allen's film. This one shows the decline of a marriage, the need for a mid-life crisis with beautiful women, and the way it really bombs (facilitating the next best-selling novel). This writer never uses a zip drive since he prefers typewriters and well... you can see where it goes from there.

Adaptation - Charlie Kaufmann writes about Charlie Kaufmann writing the screen adaptation for the book by Susan Orlean called The Orchid Thief. Nic Cage plays twin brothers, both screenwriters, wonderfully. This caricature of a writer is not too far off the mark - particularly because of the wonderful opening monolouge - though the story is well... you must see it yourself (unexplainable, really).

Wonder Boys - Absolutely fabulous. This may be the most realistic writing movie there is. Although it is important to note that all writers in the movie have some sort of odd, socially-offbeat fetish. Hannah Green never wears any shoes other than her signature, red cowboy boots. Professor Tripp likes to write in a pink robe that his recently-estranged wife left behind, smoke marijuana, writes (on a typewriter) despite the fade of old success, cheats on his wife with his boss's wife, and has strange, dramatic blackouts. James Lear likes to lie, write to Judy Garland records (also, at a typewriter) and ponder his peer reviews in dark classrooms. Q writes and constantly finds success - he's really quite square in the lot of writers as a result of it.

Barfly - the film version of Charles Bukowski's life. Bukowski was the perfect model of a poet - tormented, real, drunk, poet, poor, ugly, and a lousy version of a lover.

As Good as it Gets - Another Jack role, in this case a obsessive-compulsive writer who is very unlovable and rarely redeemable.

Stand By Me - Fantastic! Richard Dreyfuss pulls off one of the best writer pics, who' character is looking back at an adventure in his pre-teens as a result of a recent death of a dear friend. This film is based on the story by Stephen King titled The Body.

Sunset Boulevard - A classic film by Billy Wilder in which William Holden plays a washed up script writer, looking for an out from a big debt and finds himself in an old Hollywood mansion with an aging silent movie star. A fantastic film noir, replete with drinking, dancing, betrayal, murder, romance, cons, and finnicky psychoses.

I could go on, (Girl, Interrupted, Barton Fink, Romancing the Stone, Deconstructing Harry, Bullets Over Broadway, Shakespeare in Love) but you get the idea. According to film, writers are a lot of work, unreliable, and ultimately psychotic. But, I'm sorry to dissapoint you, my writer isn't. As a writer's wife, my daily culture is largely a series of discussions; a constant dissection of movies, books, and television. I also have the privilege of getting sneak peaks of unfinished projects and at times, get to name a character in a story. The only thing that my writer-wife culture does include that, at times, makes it into a movie but merely with a look or a subtle moment is best captured in this quote:

"What no wife of a writer can understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out the window." - Burton Rascoe.