tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30321121.post4112324314375266580..comments2024-03-18T21:52:53.357+05:30Comments on Cuckoo's call: Where The Wild Things Are (Not)ramahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07762427741454619332noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30321121.post-80915112882641083482010-11-07T08:42:21.696+05:302010-11-07T08:42:21.696+05:30Haven't read the book..maybe that is why I fou...Haven't read the book..maybe that is why I found the movie quite impressive. All the characters in Max's imagination were probably different shades of himself. And I felt the movie embodied a child's psyche very well- from its need for a parallel world, Max's destructiveness('danpitey chele'in Bangali), surprising lack of empathy at times contrasting with the intense longing and affection. Very similar to the portrayal of Apu's son.Vaswarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30321121.post-19577042268537898842010-11-06T18:03:23.550+05:302010-11-06T18:03:23.550+05:30Nice on Vince! Yes, one's experiences in child...Nice on Vince! Yes, one's experiences in childhood tend to have a defining impact. But in my reading, the child's anger and wild rumpus and desire for maternal warmth need not be mutually exclusive. And yes, like Lou Reed enjoined, we must all "... take a walk on the wild side".ramahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07762427741454619332noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30321121.post-86099820453009846962010-11-06T16:36:15.871+05:302010-11-06T16:36:15.871+05:30You have my heartfelt sympathies, Rama, in this ma...You have my heartfelt sympathies, Rama, in this matter of being pre-empted in your creative ideas. It seems to me that <i>Life is Beautiful</i> didn’t exhaust the possibilities of a film on the topic of such nobility in the holocaust, and your idea of a musical still seems valid. <br /><br />As for the new film called <i>Where the Wild Things Are</i>, I hadn’t till now heard of it, and I take your word for it being a travesty of the book. Again, your idea of a stage production for schoolchildren still seems valid.<br /><br />Actually I read the book in 1970 to my four-year-old son. I didn’t think much about it one way or another. It is only recently (hearing a radio programme about it, and recalling the story and pictures) that I discovered a definite antipathy to the story, and remembered a ghost of that reaction when I first read it.<br /><br />I find myself on the side of the child’s rebellion, and the world of imagination which he enters. The denouement is a tame surrender: “Max has a tantrum and in a flight of fancy visits his wild side, but he is pulled back by a belief in parental love to a supper 'still hot,' balancing the seesaw of fear and comfort.” (from Wikipedia, which also points out the psychoanalytical theory behind it). I find this family stuff stifling, probably because I didn’t get such parental love, and my refuge in fantasy was something to abide in long-term: more sustaining than one hot supper.<br /><br />So though the book may be a world-wide favourite, it doesn’t suit a boy who kept the wolf-suit on all his life and grew up to become like Herman Hesse’s <i>Steppenwolf</i>, till he met his Hermine.Vincenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18297306807695767580noreply@blogger.com