amber can walk

I've been writing poetry for a long time. What's amazing about that is that I was writing it before I could properly define what it was, or what were the constraints necessary to write it. I have studied poetry so I can definitely give you a list of techniques necessary to make a poem and point to the best examples if you wanted to emulate it, but I can't honestly come on here and say that is how I write poetry. That I sit and agonise about form, rhythm and whether or not my work will be culturally significant. Well, I do a small amount but that usually comes in during the editing process. The writing process, for me, feels like an expulsion of emotion, using visceral imagery to create a small story that will gut-punch the reader into experiencing something they've been refusing to feel. Putting these images in just the right order to build tension and making sure that the words you pick are only the essential ones because every line in the poem is itself a poem. It...

This review is not going to contain spoilers but it's going to talk about the film in detail  so if you wanted to watch it and feel like this would spoil it for you, then here is your warning to stop reading and go and watch the film. As of the date I'm posting this, the film is currently available for free on BFI Player . * The Body Beautiful (1990) is an autobiographical film exploring the complex and often adversarial relationship between mothers and daughters, with Ngozi Onwurah juxtaposing her experience as a fashion model with her mother's invisibility, in relation to desirability, because of her age and her mastectomy. There is a struggle throughout for the daughter to see her mother as a complex human being, mirroring how many people feel as they grow into adulthood and are forced to see their parents as more than just the people who raised them, but as those who have desires outside their children. What I found was that the film was attempting to bring the relatio...

This review is going to contain minor spoilers for the two films mentioned so  if you wanted to watch them and feel like this would ruin the experience  for you, then here is your warning to stop reading and go and watch the films.  * It's hard to be an adult when you feel like a very tall child. Moreover, it's hard being an adult who can't seem to relate to much media created for adults. When there is no hope in sight, trust the adult brain to put its characters through hell to express how awful the world is. I think that's why I retreat to "children's media" so often: because that's where hope is. That's where overcoming your problems is both difficult and rewarding.       What I want to explore is when the solutions to these problems aren't as clear cut and how the texts handle that. The characters in My Neighbour Totoro (1988)   and The Neverending Story (1984)   both have real pain to deal with, and they both have fun adventures that fee...

This review is not going to contain spoilers but it is going to discuss the film in detail so  if you wanted to watch it and feel like this would spoil it for you, then here is your warning to stop reading and go and watch the film.  * I'd heard of The SCUM Manifesto long before watching this film; about how the information in it is pseudoscience, how even radical feminists denounce it, and that it was essentially the ramblings of a crazy person. Mary Harron's I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) gives depth to its author, Valerie Solonas, and to her work which had previously been disregarded. It is a traditional biopic in that it relays her life but specifically hones in on the event that made her famous, harassing and eventually shooting the artist, Andy Warhol. We see these events alongside extracts of her book, illustrating the state she was in when this violence happened as well as the society that made her. Source: IMDb Mary Harron introduces us to the antithesis of what many mod...

When I first wrote this post idea in my notebook, I thought I would be writing a guide or doing a challenge: "How To Live More Sustainably" or "How To Be An Ethical Consumer". I was fascinated by that term "ethical consumer" being thrown around because I know what people are attempting to convey. They are branding themselves as someone who is aware of what impact they have on the environment and who is willing to change their lifestyle drastically in order to make sure that the effect they have is small, aiming assist with the fight against climate change. They go vegan, they shop at small, local businesses, they use public transport, they are aware of the horrors of fast fashion and want to do away with excessive spending on things that are going to end up in a landfill. And I thought that this was what I would end up writing about, about how I'm trying to change my life to help the world. But as I came to do research, my fascination with (and underly...