The Decadent Romantic
As a consistent writer and performer of love songs and poetry, I happen to have a somewhat experienced understanding of them. Love songs/poems are conglomerates of a singular type of emotion. They are monopolies on love. Powerful concentrations of affection. This vein of art is akin to Cupid drawing back his bow and attacking you with ruthless precision and without mercy — arrow after bloody arrow. The final breath you release into the world is the song or poem. You see I am what some may call, a decadent romantic.
A Regretful Rebellion
One of my biggest regrets is not breaking enough rules as a growing young person. For an intelligent youth, an act of rebellion is a way of ‘coming into your own’, of asserting one’s personal character, and of setting boundaries for one’s sense of dignity and self respect. The ability to say, “No. I am not going to do this because I do not agree with it,” is a vital and all-important one that should later be utilized in adult life. Authority is in fact arbitrary and subjective and ought to always be open to questioning. The earlier a person recognizes this, the far better for their sense of will! Rebellion is our salvation in a world of oppression — and a reluctant obedience is repression.
Horror Films as Motivation for Life
The best time to watch a horror film is not late at night with all the lights put out. It is best in the early morning, preferably when the birds are tweeting and twittering sweetly and the sun is just on the rise. Before you have gone out of the house to see your day’s errands through, put in a good scary movie. Any old classic will do. John Carpenter’s Halloween, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, etc. take your pick. This way, once you’ve been witness to the extreme horror of all sorts of murder and monstrosity, the rest of your day is bound to be far easier to endure — you’ve witnessed the worst already. You are alive, and the people in the film you’ve just watcher are not. Now you may let out a sigh of relief, smile, relax, and go on with your day is a peaceable and free manner.
Such as it is observing young people coming out of the cinema after watching a bloody slasher film. Horror is a roller coaster ride– full of thrills and chills. An excitable mixture of danger and security. As they come out of the movie, notice how they are not afraid or terrified so much as they are joyful and relieved. They are smiling, laughing even. Walking out of a comedy film is bound to be more so disappointing. How can life ever be as hilarious as the hour and a half non-stop joke fest they’ve just put themselves through?
A Soundtrack for Daily Life
If I happened to find myself in the predicament of being in an elected position of power, my first move would be to mandate that the soundtrack to the 1956 film, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” be played on loudspeakers in the streets for the duration of at least one hour during each and every day. This perhaps seems like a strange and arbitrary idea, but I assure you it isn’t unjustified…
My fellow citizens ought to be more aware of the inherent strangeness and absurdity that is parcel to our everyday humanly existence! So, as our fellow men run their business errands and pretend to enjoy the largely unconscious insect activity that their day jobs have prescribed them, upon hearing the ominous music to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, they will have an immediate notion that reality is in fact, a surreality. Life is such an absurd phantasmagoria, and how few are those moments wherein we clearly understand it as such! Now, go and cash that check, do your shopping, gather your week’s worth of groceries, fill up your gas tank, and get back to work!…And the music plays on.
Tylor James 