lesbiassparrow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lesbiassparrow) wrote2007-10-16 10:09 pm
lesbiassparrow) wrote2007-10-16 10:09 pm
Last of the Mohicans
Well, I think I was right to be suspicious of the 'Last of' element in this film. I enjoyed it thoroughly but it made me melancholy.
It has a terribly sad ending doesn't it? Not just because of Uncas and the sister dying but because it's really about the end of everything for many of these peoples. I don't know the book at all so I have no idea if it's that melancholic or not.
But in any case it started me thinking about how I don't know that much modern fiction is melancholic any more. You get sad, angsty fiction, to be sure, but that pervading sense of sadness where everything gained is paid for with tremendous loss, loss that is so great that you're not sure that the gain is worth it is something that I don't see as a common modern narrative. If you get loss I usually find it's of the apocalyptic sort.
And something absolutely unrelated: I've seen recently a couple of episodes of Stargate: Atlantis and one was the one on the world where they'd found a drug that could kill the wraith but would kill 50% of the population. And I can't help but think that the crew were wankers about the whole thing: I mean, these people had voted on it and had decided rather than the wraith eating them all up they'd rather take a few with them. They knew what they were doing and they would rather have a chance than no chance. And all the Atlantis people were all snooty and judgey about it all and refusing to ever come back because these people didn't listen to them and wait around to be eaten. Are they usually such wankers?
It has a terribly sad ending doesn't it? Not just because of Uncas and the sister dying but because it's really about the end of everything for many of these peoples. I don't know the book at all so I have no idea if it's that melancholic or not.
But in any case it started me thinking about how I don't know that much modern fiction is melancholic any more. You get sad, angsty fiction, to be sure, but that pervading sense of sadness where everything gained is paid for with tremendous loss, loss that is so great that you're not sure that the gain is worth it is something that I don't see as a common modern narrative. If you get loss I usually find it's of the apocalyptic sort.
And something absolutely unrelated: I've seen recently a couple of episodes of Stargate: Atlantis and one was the one on the world where they'd found a drug that could kill the wraith but would kill 50% of the population. And I can't help but think that the crew were wankers about the whole thing: I mean, these people had voted on it and had decided rather than the wraith eating them all up they'd rather take a few with them. They knew what they were doing and they would rather have a chance than no chance. And all the Atlantis people were all snooty and judgey about it all and refusing to ever come back because these people didn't listen to them and wait around to be eaten. Are they usually such wankers?
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And I have to say, my favorite scene with Alice is when she goes over the edge. It's the most proactive thing she does the whole film! At least Cora is awesome and grabs a pistol after the first time they're ambushed!
Also, Uncas and Natty are HOT. And that cheers me up every time, melancholic end be damned! :D
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I can imagine I wouldn't really enjoy the book though I'm curious to read one of Cooper's books as I haven't read that much American literature from that period.
no subject
And I do kind of like that time period in American lit, just because there's so much bravado and insecurity turning into jingoism...