The movie Adaptation blends Charlie Kaufman’s unique writing style (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) with Spike Jonze’s characteristic direction style (Her, Where the Wild Things Are) to give us a pretty impressive finished work.
Loved Adaptation! And the others you mentioned. Seen it several times, though I'm not a big Cage fan. Your story is very familiar. Just recently declared, "F*ck computer programming." I haven't written any code in years, and I don't miss it. Strange, but not really. It's just programming lasted longer than any other passion. Now it's photography, and it feels like familiar ground. :-)
I wanted to say a bunch more, but I had to publish and kind of get out of my own way... but it's really the intersection of two levels of mastery (the way I use the term here) where things get really interesting.
About 25 years ago I had been working with my therapist who was really a great fit for me. We got a lot accomplished over the years. Then one day she let me know that she wanted to do other things with her life. That just blew me away. How does one simply stop doing something they’re so good at? We set a final meeting and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. It was a smooth transition to the next chapter in our lives. So, not quite a “F*ck fish!” moment, but acknowledgement that sometimes it’s time to move on.
I would guess (could be way off base here; maybe you know) that she did something that was a lot more internal-facing after living inside the minds of others for so long. That's really just a guess, though: maybe being inside the minds of others was important to who she was.
I don't think I could ever say "F*** animation", but I am a lot less blind to its flaws as genre and art form than I once was. I used to struggle with writing about it in an objective fashion in order to get attention as a scholar, but that's not much of an issue now.
I just happened to be alive for the period between the 1990s and 2010s when, particularly on television, it was more experimental and vibrant than it might ever be again. Unlike before and after, animators were willing to upend established formulas to achieve their goals, not withstanding objections from their bosses. Now they worry too much about getting fired to do that.
And what they've done to the sound distribution is ridiculous. I can't concentrate on what I need to focus on if they're going to have it movie-theatre loud. But clearly these people know shit about autism (I have it) and don't want to be accommodating.
The media focus too much on trying to bust series creators for #MeToo type things, too. So how can you take a show about a nearly entirely female household seriously, knowing that its creator had a lot of trouble keeping it in his pants at work?
So between making the content virtually inaccessible for someone who doesn't know how streaming system works, creating shitty remakes of things that never should have been remade, sound distribution and behind-the-scenes stuff, I find it hard to look at the new things. And I'm supposed to be some kind of "expert" on animation; what is it like for more casual viewers?
We share a lot here, too. I think the main contributions I've been able to make are at the juncture where technology or culture or whatever is just developed enough to do some wild and interesting things with it, like was the case with animation during the period you describe.
It's not that there weren't innovative minds out there prior to the 90s - it's that it would have taken orders of magnitude more work just to get something to appear on the screen. On the flip side, though, if you have too much ease of use, then all the original and creative stuff has already been done.
I'm exaggerating at both ends, but I definitely feel like my place in the world is this sweet spot in between the rugged pioneer phase and the "polished and predictable" phase.
I was something of an expert in MMA history during the late 90s and early 2000s, but lost complete interest when the UFC was commoditized. I've written (or ranted) a little about this here, but it's not the only place where this has been my experience. I think that niche most closely mirrors your own experience with animation.
Side note here: I enjoyed the story of Pixar, maybe told through the lens of Steve Jobs's life - I ended up diving back in and listening to a book about that history as well, but can't recall any specifics. Animation these days doesn't interest me very much, although I have enjoyed Invincible.
Today is my 101st post, F*ck Fish!
Yes! I need to catch up on my Substack reading this weekend. Wish me luck, and congrats!
Loved Adaptation! And the others you mentioned. Seen it several times, though I'm not a big Cage fan. Your story is very familiar. Just recently declared, "F*ck computer programming." I haven't written any code in years, and I don't miss it. Strange, but not really. It's just programming lasted longer than any other passion. Now it's photography, and it feels like familiar ground. :-)
Awesome! I totally get it.
I wanted to say a bunch more, but I had to publish and kind of get out of my own way... but it's really the intersection of two levels of mastery (the way I use the term here) where things get really interesting.
Rumor has it, he's sleeping with the fishes now.
Some (but not all) of my passions certainly are.
About 25 years ago I had been working with my therapist who was really a great fit for me. We got a lot accomplished over the years. Then one day she let me know that she wanted to do other things with her life. That just blew me away. How does one simply stop doing something they’re so good at? We set a final meeting and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. It was a smooth transition to the next chapter in our lives. So, not quite a “F*ck fish!” moment, but acknowledgement that sometimes it’s time to move on.
I would guess (could be way off base here; maybe you know) that she did something that was a lot more internal-facing after living inside the minds of others for so long. That's really just a guess, though: maybe being inside the minds of others was important to who she was.
She actually travelled to India for a time after we parted.
I could read that as both internal (EG, personal journey type stuff) and also very external. She seems like a really interesting person.
I don't think I could ever say "F*** animation", but I am a lot less blind to its flaws as genre and art form than I once was. I used to struggle with writing about it in an objective fashion in order to get attention as a scholar, but that's not much of an issue now.
I just happened to be alive for the period between the 1990s and 2010s when, particularly on television, it was more experimental and vibrant than it might ever be again. Unlike before and after, animators were willing to upend established formulas to achieve their goals, not withstanding objections from their bosses. Now they worry too much about getting fired to do that.
And what they've done to the sound distribution is ridiculous. I can't concentrate on what I need to focus on if they're going to have it movie-theatre loud. But clearly these people know shit about autism (I have it) and don't want to be accommodating.
The media focus too much on trying to bust series creators for #MeToo type things, too. So how can you take a show about a nearly entirely female household seriously, knowing that its creator had a lot of trouble keeping it in his pants at work?
So between making the content virtually inaccessible for someone who doesn't know how streaming system works, creating shitty remakes of things that never should have been remade, sound distribution and behind-the-scenes stuff, I find it hard to look at the new things. And I'm supposed to be some kind of "expert" on animation; what is it like for more casual viewers?
We share a lot here, too. I think the main contributions I've been able to make are at the juncture where technology or culture or whatever is just developed enough to do some wild and interesting things with it, like was the case with animation during the period you describe.
It's not that there weren't innovative minds out there prior to the 90s - it's that it would have taken orders of magnitude more work just to get something to appear on the screen. On the flip side, though, if you have too much ease of use, then all the original and creative stuff has already been done.
I'm exaggerating at both ends, but I definitely feel like my place in the world is this sweet spot in between the rugged pioneer phase and the "polished and predictable" phase.
I was something of an expert in MMA history during the late 90s and early 2000s, but lost complete interest when the UFC was commoditized. I've written (or ranted) a little about this here, but it's not the only place where this has been my experience. I think that niche most closely mirrors your own experience with animation.
Side note here: I enjoyed the story of Pixar, maybe told through the lens of Steve Jobs's life - I ended up diving back in and listening to a book about that history as well, but can't recall any specifics. Animation these days doesn't interest me very much, although I have enjoyed Invincible.