Lizbeth Finn-Arnold

Lyme, the Brain Terrorist

33...that's how many pages I completed on the new script I'm writing. And it only took me 9 days. Not bad considering I had a migraine for 5 of those days, 2 of which were so debilitating I could barely get out of bed. And I also had an endoscopic procedure thrown in for good measure. It's been a "typical" week for a Lymie.

33...maybe not a lot to writers who are prolific and grinding out pages daily, but I have barely written anything (other than an essay here and there)since November 2013 when I took part in NaNoWriMo. My brain, thanks to Lyme Disease, has been MIA. So progress, no matter how big or small, is CELEBRATED.

As a writer, the loss of creative and cognitive ability has at times been more devastating than all the bone-crushing pain and soul-crushing fatigue I've experienced for three long years now.

Raising Boys...

Read this article, Understanding the Vulnerability of Men.

Moms always agree it's difficult to raise girls, with their raw emotions on display, but I would say it's equally hard to raise boys in a society that has so many rules regarding what it means to be manly. Our culture dictates our sons be strong, silent, disconnected from their emotions and vulnerability...and I don't think all these gadgets are helping things. There's so many ways to escape when what is perhaps really needed is more ways to express what's inside without stuffing it down.

Suffering from Netflix Malaise...

Suffering from Netflix/Hulu Malaise...it's a very common illness that comes over you when you've spent the last couple of weeks binge-watching 65 plus episodes of tv series only to come to the end of said series and be left with that anti-climatic feeling of "Now what the hell am I supposed to do with my life?"

For the next couple of aimless days you are left trolling Netflix/Hulu/Amazon for your next big binge. But it's not easy. Everything seems lame in comparison.

Texting and Walking Zombies

In NJ, they are proposing a bill to make texting and walking illegal.

I think fining the "walk-and-texters" is a great idea because they drive me nuts, and it is actually dangerous. I cannot comprehend why people can't live without their phones for even one second. I see kids getting off buses, staring like zombies at their phones, unaware of the world around them. Cars whizzing by? They don't even register it. They literally can't wait two minutes to get inside their homes before they answer a text?

Also I hate shopping in stores, because people on their phones continuously walk into me (and then look at me like I'm an alien). I see people walking around in cities completely clueless to the world beyond their phones. Whatever happened to being street smart and aware of your environment? And why does every message need to be returned instantaneously?

 

Everything is Copy

I was lucky to see a sneak peek of this doc about Nora Ephron last night. It's written and directed by her son, Jake Bernstein, and it is pretty fantastic. However, that being said, I still have mixed feelings about Nora. She was a tremendously accomplished female screenwriter and director (not to mention journalist, essayist, playwright) in a time when few women have been able to make great strides in these fields. To many she is a feminist icon. I have much respect for her.

However, while she has been praised for her brutal honesty and scathing wit, I have often felt it was not completely authentic. Yes, it was all mentally and intellectually spot on, but I felt there was something missing emotionally and spiritually in her writing. Her essays sometimes felt shallow and false (just like many of her romantic comedies). It's like maybe she shined a spotlight on something funny (her own flaws and those of others), to take the spotlight off of other things, perhaps too emotionally painful to express?

The Sexy Goddess Trope in Films and Why It Makes Me Cringe

There is something worse than the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Trope. Saw a french film last week called MY GOLDEN DAYS, which all the critics of course love. But to me it was dreadfully pretentious. Instead of the manic pixie, we have the french version -- the Needy Pouty Alluring Sex Goddess. She's the beautiful adolescent girl who oozes sex appeal and experience, and has the young male protagonist under her tantalizing spell. He's mesmerized (as are all the boys), and literally cannot function without her.

Sexy Goddess is a fantasy, a obsession, a fetish, an object for male pleasure. However, underneath her seemingly confident exterior she's a needy, fragile child with the emotional and mental capabilities of a five year old. She doesn't have dreams/goals of her own (other than mesmerizing boys) and she has no story arc. She exists merely so the young man in this coming of age tale can act out his fantasies and dispose of her when it's time to grow up and become a man.