An Absalomic Poem and Random Bitterness

Digging through old files on my computer, attempting to mine some documents saved previously with information relevant to my seminar term paper for Film & Doc Theory (MTA 469), I stumbled upon a poem written on a whim last year.

Late night

Alive with manic pulses

Two halcyon weddings

Thrice removed

Sit we here in Absalom

A family bereft of new

One dead

Three more to come

In the light so faint

A moon

What exactly was running through my mind eludes memory. I only vaguely remember impulsively writing it in the wee hours, when I should have been rewriting a screenplay, evidenced by the first two lines. Makes sense, traditional screenwriting is a bastardized form of logos, sucked dry of creativity by an overabundance of conventions, strict formatting, and narrative formulae. Certainly, there exists numerous talented artists who got their start writing for the screen, i.e. Charlie Kaufman, but the majority of "great film scripts" seem to be generated by people who first gain autonomy as a filmmaker. Once you're P.T. Anderson, you're able to exert a lot of creative control over your own writing, but this isn't so for John Q. Screenwriter. Selling a "spec script" as an unknown usually requires strict adherence to the bastardized form mentioned above or it'll be thrown out by a studio's script reader. Of course, there exists solid, tried and true reasons for this - following those "formulae" helps create a tightly constructed, active story that can be easily read and analyzed quickly by prospective producers. A story that comfortably operates within our mainstream mythos. And, very important to note, despite many commonalities and an abundance of intertext, film and literature are two considerably different beasts, with distinctively separate strengths and weaknesses. So, my assessment of screenwriting from a literary standpoint is somewhat unfair.

Wow, I've gone way off tangent. Fallen off the cliff. Missed the original target completely. I guess the memory of writing that poem dredged up my loss of romance with the previously sacred "film script." Coincidentally, my experiences with film often cause me to feel like Absalom in the painting above, routed and strung up by my hair. At least I checked myself by the end of it. No more disillusioned rants, I promise.

Anyways. Before this class, I was vaguely aware of Absalom, in other words I assumed I knew his story. I'm not sure what the "two halcyon weddings" reference, or what I assumed they were referencing. At least "A family bereft of new / One dead" coincides with the murder of Amnon (for raping Tamar) and David's later grief following Absalom's death at his own command.