Spending my last ten dollars on a movie was probably not the best idea, but it felt good. I'd been holding onto that last ten-dollar bill for weeks now, my last harness holding me from the abyss. I promised myself I wouldn't spend it until I had gotten a job, or somehow gotten my hands on some money.
It was a bad movie, but I enjoyed it. I didn't think about the empty refrigerator, that my rent was passed due, or that I owed money far and wide. I didn't think about all the time I had to get an after school job, or that I never even applied. I didn't think of all the money I wasted with my friends. I didn't think about what'd feel like to beg my penniless, acrimonious parents for money, or what my roommates would say when it became obvious I was the one eating all their food. I just enjoyed sitting in the dark by myself.
-Jonathan Nelson
Very different, interesting response. The last sentence is the most striking, as the image of sitting in the dark stayed with me after I finished reading. It made me ask questions to why he is content sitting in the dark. He's broke, creating tension with those around him, yet he sits in the dark with pleasure.
ReplyDeletei really enjoyed this, probably because i work at a little one screen theatre and can relate directly to this imagery. a lot of the people that come in to see a movie are just trying to escape and just sit in the dark completely separate from the outside city.
ReplyDeleteI like where you are going here. If you expanded, maybe you could ride around on a popcorn bucket.
ReplyDeleteVery cool. I have done this, many times I think. I'm still curious though, as to what the bad movie was. I think it would add some element of irony if the narrator described the movie. Since we already know that the hammer is about to fall right on his face, that his life is about to completely implode, it'd be funny if we knew he was watching some shitty Disney movie about a talking lobster with a heart of gold.
ReplyDeleteI dig. The last line did it for me. There's a double meaning I see: the obvious one is being alone at a movie in the dark by yourself, but the other implied meaning is being broke in a drab apartment sitting alone in the dark because pg&e turned off the lights and all the narrator's roommated skipped out because they were being mooched off of.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that you chose to emphasize how the neighbor ran out of money of his own accord. In The Bucket Rider, I just felt like the narrator had fallen on hard times in general.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this because I feel that, as college students, a lot of us have probably been in that same situation. There are moments when I hold a twenty in my hand and KNOW that I should not spend it, but then, a good movie or a good book comes along, and I just have to do it, knowing that my next pay check doesn't come in for the next 5 days.
ReplyDelete