I am a wuss.
One time my brother Tim said to me, "I feel things twice as much as anyone else." That has always struck me as such an arrogant statement. How does he know what anyone else feels? I probably would have blown it off had he been a teenager, you know sometimes we tend to be a bit dramatic at that age. He was about 40 at the time.
I try pretty hard to keep myself on an even keel, emotionally. I don't ever go to scary movies. I was dragged by some friends to see "Carrie" a few hundred years ago, and it took me a week to recover. I walked out of Bambi when i was 6 during the fire scene.
I avoid reading books that will make me sad, because i will stay sad for a long time. A few blogs i look at have recommended a book called "The Time Traveler's Wife" saying it made them cry. I'm afraid it would make me cry too. I don't want to cry. Sometimes i'll put a book down during an emotional part, and wait a few weeks until i am detached from the story before i can pick it back up.
I walked out of the room during the 6 Feet Under episode where David gets carjacked. I just couldn't take it. I actually stopped watching the show at that point. I never did see the rest of that episode. I wasn't able to watch any of the rest of the episodes until a friend told me what happened in them, so i could prepare myself.
Now that i am thinking about it, i see that i need some time to recover from whatever i am feeling, and for me that involves being alone. (Intovert alert.) Not something i can do after every TV show, movie or book that moves me.
I'm telling you this, because i am curious about you. I want to know how this works for you.
14 comments:
- Scary movies....never!
- Sad movies...sometimes. I saw Brokeback Mountain for the first time last week and cried at the end, and felt sad for a good 48 hours afterward.
- Sad books...ok. Not like watching sad movies.
- Anything where any animals get hurt...NEVER! I do not recover for a week from reading or watching.
If you're a wuss, I think I'm a wuss too!
Once again I feel like I am looking in a mirror. I cannot watch scary movies. Its a big joke between Hubby and me. When I read sad books or ones that incite anger in me, well the mood tends to stay for days and days. I abhor gratuitous violence because it makes me physically ill - I actually threw up watching Fargo because it affected me so much. How's all that for wussy?
On a side note, I've noticed this seems to be more of an issue with me since I've had children.
Scary movies? Love 'em.
Marriage falling apart, found out hubby was in love with someone else through my entire pregnancy? Went to see "Saving Private Ryan" Everyone thought I was crazy. But I wanted some insight into what war was like then. I got it. It was amazing.
I figure occasional pain is good. Sometimes it provokes releasing something that needs to come out.
I'm with you - I see movies and read books that entertain me and make me feel better, not worse. Don't ever see scary movies, also turned off the TV with 6 Feet Under before the carjacking scene and didn't watch the next few epsisodes. Scenes with kids and drugs really freak me out, so that one episode where the high school kid is high on acid on the roof...? Horrible. I don't really like the intros at all, so I do close my eyes during many of them.
My husband netflixes around my issues, or previews potential bad ones for me.
That said, The Time Traveler's Wife was wonderful, I really liked it. The sad stuff had to do with loss, on several different levels, but for me, it wasn't "put down" sad. In fact, it's one of the few books I've read that resonated with me for days and weeks after I finished it. I just couldn't stop thinking about it.
I like scary movies, sad books, and when I see footage from NYC on 9/11 and Katrina, I get very upset and cry. I do get upset by many things and some things can really affect me for a long time. But I tend to appreciate that I CAN be affected and try to channel those feelings into constructive things. Sometimes I feel that it's the very least I can do-watch or read about people's pain, not out of voyeurism, but to try and gain some understanding about others, at least a little bit anyway.
That said, I haven't been able to bring myself to see World Trade Center yet.
Here is a male point of view. I lost my wife of many years to death 13 months ago and that has been the hardest thing I have ever had to live with. Things felt unreal at first. It seemed to me like the world had come to an end, yet everyone around me continued on as if there had been no change. Loosing a child would also be very hard. The pain will never go away, but as time passes it does become easier to live with.
I guess when it comes to movies, my favorites tend more to things like the Peter Sellars "Pink Panther" series. There are plenty real life troubles on the daily news without looking for more when I want entertainment. But, I do like a good mystery story or movie. I don't watch a lot of TV, am more into reading books.
Thanks for your visits & comments on my blog. Bocci ball is a great game, so portable and easy for new players to understand. I am surprised that it is not more popular. Buy your hubby a set.
Whoa...I'm the same way. No scary movies or books. No TV that is violent or depressing. I do not watch the news. I call it "intentional ignorance." Living with joy...hell, even finding the joy some days is hard work. I don't need to expose myself to images and news that is going to drag me down. And I often wonder how an introvert like myself ended up with 4 kids?
I want to answer you all individually, but that seems too cumbersome.
Looks like i am not alone, but the braver of you have a point for me too. I need to push myself out of my emotional comfort box sometimes. Horror movies are out of the question, because i can't go without sleep. But maybe some more emotional depth in my reading is called for.
Thanks for your comments, what an interesting (and good-looking) group you are.
I don't really care for sad things, either. If a book looks like it might end up sadly, I skim through the last few pages to see how bad it will be. I don't like sad movies, I want happy endings; I get enough reality here at home, there's no call to go out and ask for more.
I love scary movies. But, not sad ones. As a teenager I read, "Little Women" my family was on a car trip and in the back of the car I was weeping uncontrollably for an hour. After that I decided that it just isn't worth it for me to read books that are sad. I saw the movie, "Steel Magnolias" in my late teens and cried really loud and horribly in the theater and then decided no more sad movies. I like movies and books that are good happy escapes from reality and not books and movies about people going through horrible tradgeties, yuck. But, for some reason horror movies seem so far removed from reality to me that they are actually fun and a goofy sort of escape.
Ditto on the ix-nay-ing of scary movies!!
I watch cheesy comedies all the time (esp. Friends, Seinfeld, Will & Grace, etc.) not because they are all necessarily fantastic episodes, but because I can count on them being uplifting. And mindless. When I need to be uplifted. And un-think-y. Which is pretty much most nights.
That's why I adore Jane Austen novels. They are not dumb, she is articulate and deals with sadness and pain, but she also can be counted on for humor throughout, and to tie things up with a pretty bow, at the end. And I love pretty bows.
That 6 Feet Under episode haunted me for weeks, I would wake up at night and think about it, and then get up to make sure the front door was locked.
It depends. I'm really sensitive, and contrary to popular belief, very introverted, but... it depends on my mood. I often just things that move me as being successful... tv... movies... songs. On the other hand, I went to see a Mr. Bean movie once while I was stressed and by the end my knuckles were white from the anxiety that he put me through with all his shinanigans.
I can't do scary movies at all. (Nightmares + sleepwalking out the door and down the street = not safe) Sad movies/books I can do, but I have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy a good cry...otherwise, it becomes a sob-fest. My whole family cries easily--Christmas at my Dad's house is probably pretty funny to an outsider, as one person will give a sentimental gift (like a photo collage of us as children given to a parent) and suddenly, five adults (three of whom are grown men) are sobbing.
My biggest problem is with embarrassing stuff. I can't watch I Love Lucy and similar shows, because the more potentially embarrassing the situation becomes, the more my stomach hurts!
Post a Comment