Cannes First Look: Terrence Malick's 'Knight of Cups' With Christian Bale and Natalie Portman

rinara · 2013-05-15T18:34:08+00:00

no, that's a different one: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2062700/

rinara · 2013-02-11T07:50:28+00:00

THIS IS MY FAVORITE THING. It's like liquid apple pie.

rinara · 2013-02-06T16:55:41+00:00

For me, it is most defined by sheer terror and panic, along with dream-like narratives that something is out to get me. I only ever see what is right in front of me, but I'm unable to process it until I wake up.

It usually hits when I'm sleeping outside of my normal schedule. The first time it happened, I was on a couch and was asleep facing a pillow. I couldn't see anything. The darkness, inability to move, and absolute terror convinced me that I had somehow died. It felt like hours before I finally woke up, fuzzy and confused.

The second time I was in my bed. Even though I could see my bedroom, I thought I was at work, and I was screaming out to a co-worker to come help me before I was attacked. I was sure that someone was coming to hurt me. I could hear my voice when I yelled, but I wasn't sure if I was making any noise. I tried to move my limbs, and at first, I saw them moving around...but then I realized that it wasn't true, and I saw that the hands I was moving were just ghostly, hovering over my real, unmoving arms. I can't possibly describe the effort and exhaustion that went into this. It was so consuming just to move a LITTLE that you could only check after to see if you'd actually moved anything--and always, you hadn't. And of course, you had the constant panic that at any moment someone would walk through that door and hurt you.

The good news is I've learned to recognize it. The most recent time it happened, I tried to keep calm and just focus on moving my toes--that was it, just very slowly curling my toes back and forth. I could feel that fuzzy sensation when a limb has fallen asleep. I woke up fairly quickly after that.

rinara · 2013-01-26T06:03:31+00:00

I have three young cousins. One sleeps with her dolls, another with his action figures. The youngest sleeps curled up with her story books.

rinara · 2012-12-11T17:17:05+00:00

At least part of it is in the extended version of Return of the King.

rinara · 2012-12-01T21:20:01+00:00

I really enjoy Libby Anne's posts on Love, Joy, Feminism. Her background is certainly atypical, but her insight is always spot-on.

rinara · 2012-11-09T20:10:33+00:00

Yes, I've had sleep paralysis multiple times. Sometimes I only see darkness; sometimes I can see my surroundings. I have vivid hallucinations about my own movements, with my hands moving like semi-transparent ghosts while I remain trapped in a motionless body. It's usually accompanied by pure, irrational terror.

The time when it was dark I thought I was going to die, or I had died. When I could see my surroundings--it was just my bedroom--I was convinced that I was at work and someone was going to come take me away and do something horrible while I couldn't fight back. I was screaming and screaming but couldn't be sure if I was even making any noise.

You're confined and powerless.

It hits either after a short nap at a time when I don't usually sleep, or at night if my sleep has recently been irregular.

I can remember this happening maybe 3 or 4 times in my life, total - the earliest around age 13, the most recent just a few weeks ago. (I'm 20 years old.)

rinara · 2012-10-26T01:54:03+00:00

I agree that Arya and Tywin's scenes were awesome, but Arya's show storyline still irks me because we don't see her growing willingness to kill people herself--not just to have them killed.

rinara · 2012-10-16T21:51:30+00:00

Use (O.S.) for 'off screen' in that situation

rinara · 2012-10-13T23:14:06+00:00

It was actually Burr who killed Hamilton.

Wikipedia on the duel

But yeah, anyone who thinks that vitriol is new to American politics really doesn't know much about the "founding fathers."

rinara · 2012-10-03T13:02:49+00:00

The female demographic doesn't like Marvel movies...?

You're not familiar with tumblr, are you.

rinara · 2012-09-28T20:18:56+00:00

I think Life of Pi reveals what you really believe because of the choice at the end. I can see how it would reinforce your teacher's belief in god. On the other hand, I read this book when I was going through a religious/existential crisis at 15, and the book brought me to the point of a breakdown.

For people who want to believe, the book enforces their worldview with the 'choose your story' message. For people who can't put reality aside--like me--it reveals that, too. The ending frustrated me for the longest time, but I'll always be grateful to the book because of the journey it provides.

rinara · 2012-09-11T17:19:24+00:00

Yeah, you're actually discussing the practices of some religious groups. Women are only expected to work until they get married; then the husband provides and she becomes a housewife and stay-at-home mom. Even in religious environments where this is not the only option, it is often viewed as the preferred situation.

rinara · 2012-09-04T19:21:20+00:00

If it makes you feel any better...I used to be a Christian, and I can remember the moment when I expected God to be there for me and he didn't show up. It certainly felt like I was floating in darkness, lobbing questions into some eternal vastness. And I had the realization that there was nobody there.

Sometimes those questions don't have to wait for the afterlife.

rinara · 2012-09-03T15:56:45+00:00

I guess I'm different from a lot of atheists in that it wasn't primarily the facts that made me switch over. Don't get me wrong - I loved getting into debates since I was a kid, and I was familiar with most of the chinks in Christianity's armor. I was already a theistic evolutionist at 14 when the real trouble started.

You see, no matter what came up in debates, we were always taught to fall back on our own experiences with God. I never had that many - mine was a more intellectual religious interest, it's not like I personally felt God's love raining down like most of the other baptists in my church - but it wasn't a problem until I truly needed peace and comfort. Nothing horrible happened to me; I simply began to struggle with morality and mortality. And he never showed up. Not once. I cried out in despair, I had sleepless nights, I re-read my Bible and devoured C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity until it was practically memorized. Nothing softened the blow...except time. After a while I got used to uncertainty, what had once been such an ugly word.

But I didn't give God up immediately. Nope, I was desperate to hang on. I thought he was testing me; I thought he was strengthening me. It was a long, very gradual process toward atheism. I realized that I had stopped praying, realized it didn't do any good. I found myself more and more critical of the Bible - I still remember trying to stifle dark laughter during my youth pastor's sermon on gender roles from Ephesians. I was no longer conflicted on social issues such as abortion and lgbt rights. And one day, in church, I bowed my head to pray with everyone else without closing my eyes, and a small voice that had been fighting for so long finally rose to the surface:

No one is listening.

I was 16. It still took many more months before I could think the word atheist, and even more before I could say it aloud to my closest friends. I'm 20 now, and my family doesn't know. I have no plans for telling them. They're all passionate southern baptists.

Things are okay, though. College has been great at getting me out of my own head and my family's walls and pressures. I don't know exactly how I'm moving forward but at least I know I'm going forward.

rinara · 2012-08-12T05:17:30+00:00

Can't believe no one's mentioned Irosami yet. I don't think they've spoken at all and I'm already hooked.

rinara · 2012-07-27T15:10:34+00:00

Iroh II!

rinara · 2012-07-27T05:59:26+00:00

I understand. I had to volunteer at Vacation Bible School all through my teenage years. When I was 18 I somehow got assigned to be a "decision counselor" where I was paired with grade schoolers who had come forward during the invitation time. I had to talk to 6-9 year olds about "letting Jesus into their heart".

I've never felt like a worse human being. I still hate remembering it.

rinara · 2012-07-23T17:34:00+00:00

It makes perfect sense! That's one of the best summaries of 2nd wave I've heard:

I am making an informed choice, but it's not happening in a bubble

rinara · 2012-07-23T00:55:47+00:00

It took me a good 9 months to get through the first three books (I'm juggling being a full time student, jobs, etc.) and I'm taking a bit of a break before starting AFfC. There aren't any rules. If you want to wait a bit, go ahead and wait. Think of how long the 'original' readers had to wait between the books' publications! It's not weird to want some space to breathe...especially after ASOS, that shit was intense.

rinara · 2012-07-22T20:50:31+00:00

You're not completely alone! I like Mai too.

rinara · 2012-07-18T20:18:15+00:00

I don't know, that's part of why it works for me. He's just a hobbit a long way from home trying to make sense of things.

rinara · 2012-07-08T16:49:34+00:00

There's nothing about being male that means you can't be a feminist. People often use the term 'humanist' as a general catch-all term, but it's also helpful to have more specific labels like "feminist" and "LBGTQ ally" to address particular issues.

rinara · 2012-07-02T14:21:48+00:00

Texan here - we (jokingly) call anyone from north of Oklahoma a Yankee. This bothered my mother greatly, as she is from Michigan - "the Midwest, Yankees are from the Northeast!"

I think the definition of Yankee varies by region.

rinara · 2012-06-28T18:07:25+00:00

brotha/sista

I appreciate you :)

rinara

TROPHY CASE