Review: Awful Normal

[pktechgirlbackup]

I've been very sick for days, and like I always do when I'm that sick for that long, I run out of emotional cope and old wounds reopen. So what do I decide to watch? A documentary about two women confronting the man who molested them as children.

The plan went not as badly as you might think. The metatheme of the movie isn't child molestation, it's the need to make things normal. But sexual abuse is only the worst of many things you can't make normal, and the damage done in trying... I can't say is worse than the initial assault because we'll never know, but it's certainly more insidious. It's also fascinating to watch them desperately try to force normal when it's not there, but then casually mention something really horribly not normal that they clearly think is.

I'm still running a fever so that's all I got right now.

Comments

[scythe-of-time.livejournal.com]

Argh, I'm so sorry you're sick! I've been thinking of calling you recently and now I know I probably should have.

Regarding people "forcing normal" and thinking horrible, abnormal things are normal: I've always assumed that thought process takes place because they're trying to wrap their heads around this awful thing which happened to them. If this genuinely bad thing happens to other people frequently enough, then it can't be that bad, and there's no reason to freak out, right? ...Right? We can get back to the way it was before, right?

That's what I've been known to do, anyway!