weijiangling

[weijiangling]

[weijiangling]

I’ve often wondered what goes on in the minds of people who show up in creative classes. There’s a lot of gatekeeping - the only “valid” forms of literature are ones that fit a certain profile that academia has deemed of value (the irony here is that the collectively-created narrative of Goncharov probably would fit said profile, with its deep exploration of themes applying to real-world scenarios.) This entire phenomenon is fascinating, not just from a story-telling angle, but a psychological/sociological one as well. This is all the principles of improvisational story telling happening spontaneously on a grand scale. It’s not a waste of time. It’s not just one person writing some weird fanfiction (which also, I point out, is not a waste of time if that person and their readers get something out of it). It’s an entire social media platform banding together without any overarching organization to create a relatively coherent something out of an extremely nonsensical nothing, purely by collective agreement. And that is *amazing.* Who cares what the literary elitists think.

Today, I attended my university’s Acts of Storytelling Class, and I asked my classmates (who are all mostly my age and very familiar with the Internet) if they were following the Goncharov stuff on Tumblr. While a couple of them knew what I meant, most were still unaware. I briefly explained what Goncharov was, and how it grew from its origins as a knockoff shoe label to a whole fictional movie made through the unrequested creative efforts of a whole social media platform. “Isn’t it interesting?” I asked. “Isn’t it cool?”

I was surprised to hear a collective response of sighs and scoffs.

“Please explain how this is interesting,” said my teacher.

“I don’t know how some people find the time to make stuff like this,” said one of my classmates.

“Yeah, of all the things they could be doing,” said another.

I immediately responded by saying that the people making Goncharov content aren’t all flippantly devoting “valuable free time” to something that previously didn’t exist. They’re participating in a group act of creation, making a story out of nothing. People are making high quality gif and photosets, movie posters and VHS/DVD box art. There are named characters and debates about if the two lesbian characters are good representation or not, or if that even matters. Just today, I heard music that someone composed from the “soundtrack.” This was all made relatively unprompted, just for the love of creation, and all from a knockoff shoe label.

“You’ve got to wonder what else is going on in a person’s life if they’re making music for a movie that doesn’t exist,” replied one of my classmates.

I didn’t reply after this. I didn’t know how. I was too baffled by how my classmates, in a class devoted to the Acts of Storytelling, could look down on this miraculous and fun act of storytelling that was happening as we spoke, just a few clicks and keyboard taps away. How they could all dismiss this as a waste of time.

Aside from the fact that Tumblr has a multitude of people and published authors (or their equivalents in other mediums) usually work alone, how is this any different from reading or watching a story that someone poured their heart into, a story created out of random wisps of inspiration, and saying “How could someone find the time to make this?” with an equal amount of disdain?

[weijiangling]

The funniest thing about the original Goncharov post is that I have seen people do exhaustive amounts of research in order to discern that it's a misspelling/mistranslation of Martin Scorcese's "Gomorrah" and then go "well this explains everything" while never once questioning why it's on shoes

[weijiangling]

Bless this weird knockoff version of what apparently was an actual movie

looked into it and i think This poster ended up being the basis for the Goncharov shoes

[weijiangling]

I can’t believe this shoe was the start of everything. What a ride we’ve all been on.

the goncharov stuff was on my dash, have no idea what it is (still dont) and i just started reblogging with the mindset of “i’m sure i’ll figure out what it is in a bit”

goncharov context

[weijiangling]

Goncharov (1973) dir. Martin Scorsese

“The greatest mafia movie (n)ever made.”

[weijiangling]

So everyone’s talking about the Goncharov main theme, but how about the music from the farewell scene?

[weijiangling]

with credit to a certain someone

[weijiangling]

Can’t get enough of this soundtrack, y’all, keep it coming.

OKAY GUYS SO someone already beat me to the main theme but they must have had another source because in my torrented zip file i also found the FUCKING CLOCK THEME omg

i uploaded it to my youtube channel so everyone can listen

[weijiangling]

And then MAKE THE MOVIE, we all hope!

When director Sorcese inevitably hears about Goncharov, he will not ask "why did they make this" but will instead crave to know "...what is it about?"

[weijiangling]

Love this art

OUT OF TIME

[weijiangling]

A lot of credit has gone to the main theme but can we talk about how ICONIC the fucking CLOCKTOWER track is?

[weijiangling]

Please also add in a note about the upcoming remake film: https://www.tumblr.com/weijiangling/701576817457479680/dusting-off-my-abandoned-tumblr-just-to-make-sure?source=share Starring Adam Driver as Goncharov, Florence Pugh as Katya, Misha Collins as Andrei. Set to come out in 2023 to coincide with the 50th anniversary.

started cleaning up the wikipedia article for goncharov because it is in extremely bad shape especially given how notable the movie is... going on 50 years old and a cult classic... unfortunately i haven't rewatched it yet and the plot description they have here doesn't make any sense, not to mention i am not super well versed in the releases or anything and i feel like i'm missing credits too??? but it was basically nothing when i started, almost like the movie didn't even exist

anyway please help me edit it or it's going to drive me nuts

[weijiangling]

You’re in luck, the remake stars Adam Driver.

my favorite thing about goncharov is that it feels like a movie it feels like a real like you know go to the theater film movie

[weijiangling]

Oh man, that link is truly enlightening. I had no idea!

Yeah sure everyone’s finally talking about Goncharov but it’s really disheartening to see everyone ignoring that it had been considered lost media till 2006 due to the actual mafia tracking the distribution to make sure almost every reel got destroyed. Please consider looking into the absolutely batshit history behind that, and then tell me that’s not just as interesting as the actual cyclical ending of the film! 

[weijiangling]

since goncharov (1973) is now having a rennaisance on tumblr for some reason, i would love to share a fun fact about the inspiration for this film. even though its set in the 20th century, the inspiration for the story actually comes from a 19th century theatre play written by none other than the most famous czech playwright Jára Cimrman! Even though there is some discourse about this in the level of connection between these two works of art, there is no doubt that the struggle and emotional journey of Goncharov really reflects the one of the titular character of the play, Hloupý Honza. Therefore it's quite clear where the idea for the film comes from. I would even say that the transformation into a new medium and time setting really bring out a more subtle themes of the play to light. If you are interested, the play is actually free on youtube with english subtitles

[weijiangling]

Twitter: currently literally burning to the ground

Tumblr: currently collectively hallucinating a 1970s mafia film with heavy homoerotic undertones