something like a life

I just saw David Lynch's Inland Empire and it confirmed for me why I'd been avoiding good movies. They make me not want to return to my life. I really liked this movie but I really don't like my life. After it was over I had to ride the same subway home and go to the dimly lit grocery store then back to my apartment with my roommates whom I find either stupid or disrespectful or both. I feel that there's a serious lack of happiness in my life and it's all because I saw a good movie! See what they do? Stay away. (But if you are interested in Inland Empire I recommend seeing it in the theater. This film needs to be watched in the dark and you need to be committed to watching it.) Although it obviously had an effect on me, it still had flaws. It's not my favorite David Lynch movie but Laura Dern is awesome in it. She/it actually made me cry at one point. Of course, I immediately stopped crying at the very next scene because I thought it was stupid. So yes, some flaws.

While watching the film I began thinking about my experience of watching it. And about how I experience other forms of art. I regularly like to let half my brain have an experience while the other half analyzes that experience while it's happening. I began thinking about one of my favorite books The House of Leaves. This book gave me nightmares. More eerie than frightening but nightmares nonetheless. I loaned the book to a married friend of mine and it did not have the same impact on him. I mostly read it late at night, right before I went to bed. I doubt I would have had the same experience if my loving wife had been sitting next to me. I'm sure I wouldn't have sympathized with the loneliness and fright experienced by the main character. It's not that I already felt that way but that the book was able to make me think I did. Does that make sense? I think the point I'm trying to make is that not all art is for everyone, no matter how much I want it to be or how good I think it is. That's a lesson that I keep having to relearn, I don't know if it will ever truly sink in.