What we all have in common.....

Strangely enough, I went to the pictures last night.. not that there is anything really strange about that, you understand, but watching the film (Hancock, with Will Smith...) I realised somethingh that to be honest I should have realised long ago... without giving away teh answer straight away, I'll just give a few examples.. sorry.... not exactly a digression.. but I digress... my favourite book by far is PeterBeagle's The Last Unicorn. my favourite anime is Evangelion, or possibly Noir.... I enjoy watching the Sweeney... and so on.. now, I'm a great believer that the main reason people enjoy plays, books, etc is that they can relate to the characters within.. which is why I detest Friends, and Sex and the City, but love Ally McBeal.... of which more later.... and it was while watching Hancock taht I realised why all these things appeal to me... from Ally herself, through regan and Carter, Schmendrick, Molly Grue, King Haggard, the Unicorn, Shinji, Rei, Asuka, Gendo Ikari, Mireille, Kirika... even Kaouru the final angel, all have one thing in common with both Hancock and me... and that, for those who have not encountered these people.. (and you should!) is not that they and I are fictional characters, but the simple human attribute of loneliness.... all are totally, irretrievably lonely.. with the possible exception of Molly and Schmendrick and Mireille and Kirika....and even then i doubt it.. Hancock, for those of you who have yet to encounter him, is a superhero. without giving away any of the plot, he is lonely.. not just alone, but lonely.... and here's the rub.. alone and lonely are not the same.. teh Unicorn is alone... but does not realise that she is lonely until she knows she is the last.. Hancock is alone.. but rei, Shinji and Asuka are not alone.. yet lonely they are, even after they all merge together with the rest of humanity during Instrumentality..... and here is where I relate to them.. I cannot recall, in my entire life, a single day when i did not feel lonely.. I was married, have a lovely son.. who is a joy to spend time with, most of the time... and spend time with scouts and cubs, and Beavers, and Guides and Leaders... I had two short relationships after divorce (although some would say there was only one.. of which more later...) and I but although I am not alone, I have always been lonely... and I'm sure it is the same for many others.... not that I've been unhappy, I hasten to add...well.. not always... well.. occasionally... for me, loneliness seems to be the default setting..... and I wonder how many others are the same.. as a herd animal we seem to be mortally afraid of loneliness.... peopel go to any lengths to avoid it.. I know I did... they get married to unsuitable people, clutch at the first person who shows them any affection, get into bad crowds... clubs seem especially good at preying on this fear, attracting you with the promise of seeing hundreds of others, and possinbly meeting someone who will assuage your loneliness, only to play loud music that is deilberately designed to isolate you from your fellow man, and increase your loneliness in order to persuade you to go again and again..... drumming into you that it is something wrong inside you that keeps you lonely, for how else could you be lonely with all these other people around..... but now I'm beginning to sound obsessed... perhaps its the loneliness.... I must admit that I'm not expecting to ever be cured of this malady.. the most i hope for are relationships with others that don't serve to increase the isolation.... for me that's good enough.... but for now, all I'll add is don't worry about loneliness.... there are too many people around for us not to be lonely.... until we all realise that lonely is not a threat, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!

As Promised Earlier....

So, I did say more of Sex and the city later... and as a beard always keeps his word, here we are... now some of you out there are big fans of the Sarah Jessica Parker vehicle, and what I'd like to know is .. why? Why can otherwise intelligent, discerning women not see what a dreadful programme it is??? I mean, far from being this wonderful, liberating treatise on the empowerment of women, it seems to me to be merely a crassly commercial paean to commercialism and consumerism, full of the worst kind of cynical product placement.. and can someone please explain why we are supposed to find the characters attractive?? I mean, Kim Catrall has had her moments (Two Golden Balls springs to mind...) but SJP??? She has that craggy prune like skin usually only seen in Australians of a certain age... now looks aren't everything, hear you cry.. and I agree.. but the SITC girls al seem shallow, grasping bitches.. if this is what women are supposed to aspire to being, I think I'll turn gay.... and what of this preoccupation with the search for Mr Big in his suit and with his good salary.. surely an unrealistic aim, considering what most rich attractive guys in this country are like... I was unfortunately accused of liking SITC yesterday, a comment which almost resulted in a semi-well-known editor and poet taking a tumble from the Wrekin.... but I digress.... he apologised, realising himself that he was confusing it with Ally McBeal, a truly empowering show, of which I am unashamedly a fan.. despite the dancing babbies and huge tongues, Ally is firmly rooted in realism.... where the SITC girls are all well off, successful and just need to find the perfect man to gain eteernal happiness, the lesson being that if you're a wealthy columnist you'll do it easily, Ally shows us a different side to success.. that money isn't everything.. not fro nothing was the original tagline Single, Successful and Falling Apart... Ally gets many chances for happiness, all ruined by her SITC-like insistence on waiting for the perfect man, who unfortunately is an idealised version of her childhood sweetheart who is now marrieed to someone else, and isn't the guy Ally wants him to be anyway.. she flits from relationship to relationship, and we the viewer can see, as outsiders, that she could be perfectly happy with the Dr, or the Plumber, or even the man who wants to fly... but as they are not ur-Billy, she can't.... her own search for an artificial happiness is what keeps her from happiness.. and who says the yanks don't do irony! No happy endings for Miss McBeal.. none of her affairs are enriching or trouble free... plus, despite the main cast being lawyers, the characters, unlike those in SITC, are recognisable.. and they are not even all well off... Elaine the receptionist is probably one of the most important characters in the show.. the least well paid, the lowest on the social ladder, she has dreams and happiness... having decided to aim for the stars yet be contented with her lot... she gains pleasure from the simple things in life... such as gossip, easy sex, and her face bra... Its a truly empowering program.. without being too obvious it allows us to see ourselves, and helps us avoid making the same mistakes of Miss McBeal and her friends... its genuinely funny, moving and poignant, reaching genuine depths... and I think Emmeline Pankhurst would have loved its portrayal of a woman in a responsible job but who is still a woman, struggling not against men's arrogance but her own feelings as a woman, struggling to be what she has been conned into believing she should be... despite realising that it is a con.. the opposite in fact to the SITc girls, who have fallen for the con hook line and sinker, and are now seeking to perpetuate it to a new generation.. is SITC really a male supremacist ploy to undermine years of womens lib?? Who knows.. but please please please, stop the endless repeats of SITC and lets have some more Ally...and until we can all be The Biscuit, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!