#never underestimate my ability to turn anything into an english lesson <3

[timelesslords]

your response reminds me of the time i went to a talk from maggie stiefvater (she's a great author if you don't know her) and i asked if she aimed to make her readers suffer and she said that when she read the time travellers wife she was ugly sobbing. like snot bubble ugly sobbing. and said that her goal was to do to someone what time travellers wife did to her.

so my question is: what broke you?

the way carrie asked me basically the same question when she was beta-ing this lol 😭 the god's honest truth is just life in general but that's not really what you're asking lmfao

Honestly there isn't like a piece of media that "broke me" per say, I don't really cry a lot at books and movies and stuff. But when I started writing this I was rereading chapter 9 of Wuthering Heights (as I am prone to do) and I figured if I could get this fic to make people feel the same gut punch as reading the paragraph I chose as the epigraph, I would've succeeded:

I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself.

I feel like it just perfectly captures the feeling of desperation and helplessness that comes with watching someone you love have to go through something and being powerless to stop it. In this part of the book Cathy is coming to terms with the fact that the only way to help Heathcliff is to emotionally devastate them both. All she wants to do is take away his pain and all she can do is cause more of it, because they love each other and they're tied together and causing pain to one of them causes pain to both, and they're trapped in this endless dysfunctional cycle of hurting each other even as they desperately try to do the opposite.

Anyway, Emily Brontë is obviously brilliant and did what I tried to do in 15,000 words in about 60 but yeah, that paragraph is what "broke me" that I wanted to inflict onto you all lol. There's heavy influences from all of chapter 9 of WH in this will end but the epigraph is the biggest one

[istelagiya-blog]

Blog 3- Whiplash (2014)

How far are you willing to push yourself to succeed? How far are you willing to push someone else to force them on the path to success? "Whiplash" is as breathless as a drum solo, rising and falling just as the hopes and dreams of its protagonist climb and crash.

A young man named Andrew Neyman is practicing late at night at his New York music school, one of the best in the country, when his drumming catches the ear of the infamous Mr. Fletcher, the most important teacher at the school and the conductor for its most important jazz band. Fletcher pauses, listens, barks a few orders at the young man, and moves on, seemingly dissatisfied with what he heard. Andrew had his chance, that one brief moment many of us have to impress the people who can change our lives, and he didn't cut it. He goes back to his routine class band, telling his dad (a wonderfully genuine Paul Reiser) that his opportunity to move up probably passed him by. Of course, Fletcher's dismissal of Andrew in that first scene is just the first of many examples of what could politely be called his "teaching style." Fletcher likes to tell the apocryphal story of how Jo Jones threw a cymbal at Charlie Parker's head one night when he messed up, thereby pushing him to the breaking point at which he became Bird. Without that cymbal, would music history be the same? Would Charlie Parker have gone home, refined, practiced and driven himself without the threat of not just failure but physical violence? Fletcher uses that kind of barbarous technique on his students: throwing furniture, calling Andrew names, playing mind games and physically torturing him with repetitive drum solos until he bleeds on the kit. But that blood feeds his musical passion. And Andrew blossoms, asking out the cute girl he's been afraid to talk to before, and taking first chair in the most important band at the most important music school in the country. Miles Teller, so great in breakthrough roles in “Rabbit Hole” and “The Spectacular Now,” does the best work of his young career here as Andrew, finding the perfect blend of insecurity and confidence that comes entangled in the core of a young talent. Andrew is naturally apprehensive, but he also knows he has a drive, a passion, a skill that is unique. Teller walks that line, never faltering by making Andrew too confident while also carefully letting viewers see the spark within that Fletcher fuels. As for Simmons, Fletcher could have been such a caricature in the wrong actor’s hands. An over-the-top, abusive teacher is a part riddled with pitfalls. Simmons falls into none of them. He walks such a line that, even after the kind of inhumane mind games and physical abuse that should produce legal charges has unfolded on screen, we find ourselves drawn to Fletcher. He’s not 100% wrong when he says that the most dangerous two words in the English language are “good job.” Whether you think it's the right approach or not, we’re in an era of praise, where encouragement is the teaching tool and every kid gets a medal for participation. Have true talents been left to wither because they were over-watered? Simmons perfectly captures the drive of a man who believes his abusive degree of pressure is the only way to produce a diamond. While “Whiplash” would be a notable film purely for Teller and Simmons’ performances, it reaches a different level when one considers the execution of its tempo. Editor Tom Cross and cinematographer Sharone Meir often put us right on stage with Andrew and Fletcher, cutting and panning in rhythm with the beat of the drum. It is captivating, to say the least, particularly in a climax that produces more tension than any action film or thriller this year. The title refers to a song played multiple times throughout Chazelle’s film. It could also refer to that sense of wowed exhaustion you’ll feel when it’s over.

Guide questions:

1) What life lessons can be learned from movie?

- Never give up. Encouragement is not always by your side in life. The tough days at school, work, or home could be very discouraging, and adding the abusive words of your teacher or classmates or, in this case, Neiman's instructor, Fletcher could drive someone into a corner and break them down. But that isn't the case with Neiman. His will to be great overpowers the failures and the discouragement. So turn any negative vibes from life into positive energy just like Neiman.

Tough love works where someone is constantly nudged by another who believes in their ability, but shows it in an uncomfortable way, hence the constant yelling by Fletcher to his students.

A "balancer" is needed to be great. To get straight to the point, don't cut people from your life unless you're sure they don't belong in it.

Parents are irreplaceable.

Follow your dream, no matter what. I think this lesson is probably the most obvious from the film as Neiman constantly grabs his drumsticks to reach his goal of becoming one of the greats. The road is tough as it is with anything in life, but you have to go after it and fight every inch to reach your dream. Neiman didn't stop. Why should you?

2) What part of the story told by the movie was the most powerful? why?

- For me, the most powerful part is that when they underestimated the skill of mr. Neiman and didn't believe in his works but mr. Neiman didn't gave up and still reach out who he wanted to be.

3) Who was your favorite character in the movie? Why?

- My favorite character is mr. Neiman because eventhough he'd been doen, he still manage to stand up and show to the world what he might do.

4) Did anything that happened in the movie that remind you of something that has occured in your own life or that you have seen occur to other?

- Something happened in the movie that has reminded me of something that occured in ny life. Thats when they underestimated my potential and that gave me discouragement and not to continue anymore the skill I started.

5) If you had chance to ask a character in this movie a question, what would it be?

- If I had the chance, I would ask mr. Neiman what is the best way to fight all cirmcumstances in a positive way.