Conversations With Myself: New Blag Format to Keep It Fun (For Me, Not You)

Sup blag.

(Sup.)

Good to see you again. Boy, do I have a doozie for you today. I got to watch a lady be hanged.

(Sounds terrible.)

Oh yeah, I openly wept and hid under the covers for like 45 minutes. Don't tell anyone.

(Secret is safe here, chief.)

Thanks buddy. Wanna hear about it?

(Not really, but I'm going wager that you'll tell me about it anyway.)

Bingo. You just get me, blag.

I Can't See S*@t: Dancer in the Dark, Blindness and Alienation

I'll be honest, I've read a lot of Marx. No, it is not because I'm a communist revolutionary. More out of curiousity. Growing up under possibly the most Republican (they're calling themselves Libertarians now, get with the times) parents to ever exist, one begins to wonder why everything they dislike is "Communist", "Socialist" or "Marxist." So I'll preface this with saying, I was pumped to do some stuff on Marx. Also, Bjork has always topped out my weird-o-meter. (Like that time she wore a swan as a dress?) Exactly like that. Dancer in the Dark did not disappoint on the weird scale. The whole film is about the alienation of Bjork's character. (Didn't Bjork alienate herself by being weird and from a part of the world that no one cares about? What even is a fjord?) No, alienated in the way Marx spoke about in his writing. The alienation of the worker, of labor. (You're gonna make me ask it, aren't you?) Absolutely, that is why I keep you around.

(In what ways was Bjork's character Selma alienated and how does it parallel Marx?)

The most obvious answer to this of course is her place in the world. She was a worker doing manual labor in a plant, living on someone else's land in their trailer. This is just in content alone. How does the director represent her alienation? Her blindness of course. This is the most obvious symbol in the entire film. (Not obvious to the point of being lazy I hope.) Nope, it is well executed. Her blindness is representative of her alienation. (You keep saying Marx's alienation, just assuming I know what it is. You always do this. This is why you have no friends.) Fine, I'll explain it, quickly and simply. (If you did it any other way, I'd stop listening.)

"Labor produces not only commodities: it produces itself and the worker as a commodity." (What in the heck does that mean?) By making labor something that can be bought, something that has value, the worker is "objectificated." (That's not a word.) Yes it is. (Then why is there a red line below it.) Stop, just let me finish. "The more objects the worker produces the fewer he can possess and the more he falls under the dominion of his product, capital." Essentially, the worker eventually becomes nothing more than his product. The worker finds him or herself in the product. These workers live to work. They are no longer human. They are alienated and most importantly, they have no idea this is happening. They are blind to this process. Blind to the power over them. (Oh I get it. So she is blind to her dependence on the product.) I just said that. (No you didn't.) Whatever. It is a bit deeper than that. The worker eventually realizes their work is not theirs but belongs to someone else. That is where the alienation stems.

(Got it) No you don't. (But if I say I do, you'll move on to the important stuff.) True. So now that we're talking about Selma again, that is her blindness: her alienation and dehumanization. The most important part of the blindness: it is genetic and will be passed on to her son. (Oh sad.) Her work all goes to her saving for her son to recieve surgery to avoid the blindness. This is the same as a worker spending 60 hours a week in a factory trying to keep from perpetually having their offspring be int he same place, alienated.

(So I guess my next question is: did the film itself alienate the audience? because this film sounds pretty brutal.)

That is actually a point of contention in my class. (A simple yes or no would've been better.) It isn't that simple though. (It never is.) The audience never actually connects with the character of Selma. She is too awkward and strange. (Just like Bjork. Bjork as Bjork, brilliant!) The argument is made that since the audience is estranged from Selma, we are estranged from the situation. Always the contrarian, I say this is not the case. (You would.) The film does a couple things that actually make the audience more connected to the situation, even though they are disconnected from Selma. (Oh God, a list...) 1. The handy-cam filming makes one feel as though they are baring witness to the events. The camera is not intended to be a view from any particular character, but it does give the feel that you are standing there when she is hanged, when she walks home on the tracks, when she day dreams int eh factory. 2. The candid moments. The moments when Selma does not think anyone is watching her. For example, when she walks home, kicking the tracks to know where they are. Or when she places her finger in her water glass to know when it is almost full. Little things like these bring the audience closer to the events and give them a sort of authenticity. (No three?) No three. I said a couple. (I always forget, a couple is two, a few is three or four and many...oh I'll never get your ambiguous crap.)

So, wrapping it up (finally!), the blindness plays a key role in not only demonstrating Marx's Alienation, but also in bringing the audience closer to the situation, even if this distances ourselves from Selma. (WOO!)