Okay, first of all—I maintain that the baby is cute. I don’t find “Spike,” as the baby is (aptly?) nicknamed by the actor who plays Henry, disturbing at all. I sort of want to pet him, which is strange seeing as I tend to not be an admirer of babies in the first place. He just needs love (like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree) and a bit more care and attention than a humidifier (also, like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree). Does humidity help measles? I wouldn’t think so.
Anyway- the thing that stuck out most to me was the great number of juxtapositions within the film. Lots of characters and images seem to have a counterpart. The one that came immediately to mind was the inside Mary’s house during the dinner scene: there is a bitch with a large litter of chubby pups feeding from her then juxtaposed with the admission of the existence of an unhealthy baby that they cannot feed easily (at all?).
Other juxtapositions:
-The plain wife Mary with the oversexed neighbor wearing half a shirt, with the chipmunk-cheeked woman in the radiator.
-The passive Henry with the workman in charge of the levers who seems much more together.
-The father’s arm that cannot feel with the shrunken chicken that can feel.
-The cheery father and aggressive mother.
-The absence of middle lighting- either dark or highly lit, or that could just be the film quality of our TV.
I’m not quite sure just yet how this has to do with the PoMo concept of juxtaposition, but it definitely brings up the whole idea of binaries. I just don’t see these juxtapositions being deconstructed as of yet, but it’s only the first half so far.
2 comments:
I agree with the baby being cute, and even when Mary seems to be turning in to a creature similar to the baby, I couldn't help but find it amusing.
I was also looking at a few of the juxtapositions. You have them pretty much covered so far. Even the sounds of the puppies (hard to miss) are similar to the sounds made by the baby.
I was looking at the similarities between Mary and the child and why she might turn into something like the baby. Right now, all I can think of is that Mary, feeling the lack of love from her mother is like the unwanted baby. Still unsure about where I'll end up at the end of the film.
I might just have a mind that is only capable of poor train of thought, but my initial reaction to the scene made me think of the glorious miracle of childbirth. Well, not really in the traditional way.
First off, those snakes instantly reminded me of just incredibly close up and terrifyingly detailed sperm cells. Secondly, when we get to the scene where the chipmunk cheeked girl is dancing around them, I started to associate her with the ovum. I feel like she is the half of the child that doesn't want to be born, or shouldn't be born. She dances around the sperm and eventually squishes them in such a way that looked to me like she was avoiding them.
Like I said, my mind is working in very strange ways.
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