“If you figure a way to live without serving a master, any master,then let the rest of us know, will you? For you’d be the first in the history of the world.”
-Lancaster Dodd
Freddie Quell is a wanderer, going to and fro across the face of the earth; he’s a “dirty animal”, a “scoundrel” and a “silly boy”, as his would-be master, Lancaster Dodd, labels him. Drinking, brawling, full of lies and lasciviousness is Freddie Quell searching for his way back into the world after the war. He finds someone who seems to have what he wants, a wife and family and, most importantly, a Cause.
Paul Thomas Anderson, director of 2007′s There Will Be Blood, continues his run of films on the development of America in microcosm. There Will Be Blood recapitulated the American origin through the oil revolution taking her up to the second world war. The Master picks up just after the war and continues up to the cusp of the sixties. His next project, Inherent Vice, will bridge the gap between his earlier films Boogie Nights (80s), Magnolia (90s) and Punchdrunk Love (00s). The Master takes up America’s troubled history with cults, but only to tell a far more interesting story on faith, the future and love.
Lancaster Dodd sees his former self in Freddie. Dodd’s cool demeanor cracks throughout the film: angry outbursts, threats, a penchant for boozing; and just as he has “mastered” himself so too he seeks to master Freddie. But more than that he sees something he isn’t in Freddie Quell. He see’s someone free, beholden to none. Contrary to his title, Lancaster Dodd is not the master. His cause is supported by a number of prominent women, who are systematically lost, and who (like his ex-wives) become virulent critics thereafter. Moreso is Dodd mastered by his wife Peggy. She leads the movement’s strategy, drives her husband to write, and manipulates him (in the etymological sense, even).
In Freddie he sees unpredictability and a “new way”. In their first scene together, Freddie disrupts his “processing” by loudly breaking wind and collapses into giggles. Lancaster begrudgingly allows himself a chuckle, adding “Yes, it is good to laugh.” Yet as he spends time with Freddie this approach to life masters him and he later reveals “a new way” that is laughter. As Peggy sees her husband pulled under the influence of Freddie she begins demarcating her territory, first trying to put Freddie beneath her thumb, then, failing that, driving him away. In the penultimate scene, she is the one who closes the door to Freddie rejoining the movement.
The other thing that Freddie has that Dodd doesn’t is sleep. There is no rest for Dodd, he is pulled from one side of the country to the other and back. He is never shown sleeping, neither is he shown lying down, whereas Freddie is constantly sleeping, dissolute and drunken though it is. But even though Freddie sleeps he gets no rest. Cinematically this is echoed in the exercise of Freddie crossing the room, from wall to window, but more subtly in the backwards/ forwards of the opening act and the there and back of not only the geography, but also Freddie’s return to Doris’ home. When Freddie finally breaks away from Dodd it is on a motorcycle. Rather than returning back to the beginning, as Dodd had, Freddie keep driving, finally moving on, moving forward.
In the final scene Freddie is coupled with Winn Manchester (whose name is significant) finally finding rest. Some have taken the final scene as Freddie trying to become a cult leader himself, mimicking the process with Winn, but with the return to the beach, to the sand lady, the tenderness of Freddie signals that he has finally found rest. His anguish had finally been quelled.
4. The Ten Commandments as Teen Movie
3. Marry Poppins as Horror Movie
2. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off as Indie Film
1. The Shining as Romantic Comedy
“A dog would lie and tell you that it has not been petted yet on a given day no matter how many times you were to pet it. This is the way with dogs. They want to be petted, to be joined by their master and let live in his radius. What is a lie to a dog? They do not place things in human places. To a dog, whatever brings his master close by is good, and whatever keeps him away is bad. This is how all morals work.”
-Jesse Ball, from The Way Through Doors, paragraph 1775
Jisas, yu holem hand blong mi
Tekem long blong mi antrane quaia for yu
Hitlas huayebe gusa ki
long lis hala waala conyi kaiai for yu – hee eeh
Jisas, yu canda yira huu-huu-huu
hinte querri hissa huu-huu-huu
Fracissas ni canda hirla huu-huu-huu
hinte querri hissa
Bolwa yu candai quero yu
for sethe santayu for ya-for sis for mi
Wosre yu rere hi for her
rara efisuah en gus rasor
Jisas, yu canda yira huu-huu-huu
hinte querri hissa huu-huu-huu
fracissas ni canda hirla huu-huu-huu
hinte querri hissa
Jesus is watching over me;
Wherever I may go he is right beside me;
Jesus is watching over me;
No matter what I do his love will never cease;
My saviour and my keeper beside me;
All the blessings he has provided me;
He is there to comfort and guide me;
And his love will never cease.
The text contains a semiotic argument, in the form of questions and answers, which explain that it is not a glass of water, but “a full-grown oak tree,” created “without altering the accidents of the glass of water.” The text defines accidents as “The colour, feel, weight, size…”. The text includes the statement “It’s not a symbol. I have changed the physical substance of the glass of water into that of an oak tree. I didn’t change its appearance. The actual oak tree is physically present, but in the form of a glass of water.” and “It would no longer be accurate to call it a glass of water. One could call it anything one wished but that would not alter the fact that it is an oak tree.”
The work makes the same claim as the Roman Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation and the Real Presence.
Anselm Hollo
1934-2013
the way
the blue room
(remembered)
lights up
as you turn to
be held
and to hold me
your
beholder
Adam Kirsch is quite smug and condescending to his subjects in his recent poems, but at least the Revolutionaries, 1929 probably deserved it.
A powerful poem on betrayal by Gwyneth Lewis : Fooled Me for Years with the Wrong Pronouns
Jane Hirshfield : A Chair in Snow
Two poems by Dean Young that are full of treasures : Everyday Escapees and Emerald Spider Between Rose Thorns
I love Twitter jokes and lists and Twitter Joke Lists. Here’s my first compilation and here’s my second:
1.
I asked her to dance. She thanked me and said she was flattered, but she declined. I had to ask her why. She said, This is a grocery store.
— Arjun Basu (@arjunbasu) March 24, 2013
Arjun’s little romantic/unromantic/silly/sad stories get me. Every. single. time.
2.
Doughnuts are like bagels that you can eat.
— Bryan Donaldson (@TheNardvark) April 4, 2013
Truth.
3.
You can sit in a Taco Bell and make your burritos kiss for as long as you want. There’s no rule.
— Nathan Buckley (@duplicitron) April 4, 2013
I love this sort of humor, adulterating childlike activities.
4.
Twenty monkeys using fifteen typewriters only needed a half hour to produce the collected works of Dan Brown.
— Uncle Dynamite(@UncleDynamite) March 30, 2013
I could fill an entire post with Uncle Dynamite. He’s quite a treasure.
5.
I’m here to kick ass and chew bubblegum and I thank you for your patience because I brought a lot of gum. I’ll be over there if you need me.
— Tim Siedell (@badbanana) March 26, 2013
This joke regresses nicely into meekness.
6.
Decent prank: earn a college diploma
— jon(@senderblock23) March 30, 2013
Underplayed to perfection.
7.
“After a while… Eric.” -last line of my alligator/crocodile buddy cop screenplay
— Miah St. Cyr (@MiahSaint) March 24, 2013
First run thru this isn’t that funny, then it’s funny, then it is touching, then I’ve spent a lot of time appreciating something silly.
8.
Well I like dead Pan humor but Wendy won’t stop crying and the lost boys are throwing plates at me
— sweaty five dollars (@iscoff) April 3, 2013
Man, I cannot pick out my favorite part of this tweet…
9.
Movie Idea: A man forced to choose between his two passions: tap dancing and cat burglaring.
— Matt Roller (@rolldiggity) March 25, 2013
Beware, this tweet takes on a life of its own in your head. I’m in the latter half of the third act myself.
10.
Taste the Rimbaud
— Elisa Gabbert (@egabbert) March 29, 2013
I’m glad somebody does something with all those jingles I have in my head.
11.
sorry, but if you want to speak human mouthwords to me you will need to submit a written application at least seven business days in advance
— Keply Pentland (@MmeSurly) April 2, 2013
K. Pentland doesn’t do jokes, she’s just marvelously herself.
12.
Sitting here staring into my purse wishing that someone had accidentally dropped a taco in there earlier.
— Kendra Alvey (@Kendragarden) March 26, 2013
I may have a thing with tacos…
I tweet as @13thieves and you may follow me if you feel any sort of gratitude for this website.
