What to Expect When Your Expectations Are Too High

Is it just me, or do society's expectations of us seem a little steep?

We were talking in class about an article our teacher had us read that was in Vanity Fair (That's college learning for you--we read magazines in class.) Somehow we got on the topic of society's sad interest in meaningless movies and books, like the Hunger Games. I am an unapologetic fan of The Hunger Games. Why not be? And who says it has to be anything more than an interesting story? I've thought about this topic a lot, so I have more to say, but for now, I'll leave you with the article I had to write that mimics the article (from Vanity Fair) we had to read. Later, I may or may not add more. But this pretty much says what I wanted it to (with a bit bigger words), so maybe I'll just leave you all with this.

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It is when the illuminated screen of a cell phone intrudes on a wholly pulchritudinous evening at the theater when one appreciates one has truly “made it.” It isn’t the lethargy required to attend more to a four inch screen of pixels mingled to produce an image that is indubitably more attractive than the one on the seventy-six foot screen in front of them than the movie they’ve forked over ten dollars to see, or the irreverence shown by those cell junkies while the glossy glow from their device lights up the room and  effectively shatters the dimmed shut off atmosphere, or even the unhindered disrespect of those cinema abusers leaving the warm cocoon one made for them to enjoy one’s magnum opus, disparaging the state of the movies these days, and discouraging friends and family and acquaintances that what they really should do is forgo this particular movie experience and instead, check out the small artsy theatre, showing faux 20’s styled movies for far less money. It is the free publicity that one acquires from these rants, after which those who are in a search for proper diversion will pony up another ten dollars to see one’s movie, and not ruin it with the trappings of modern day life.

What has come to the world, that we cannot seek out one hundred proof amusement anymore? Does anyonethink a movie should be anything more?

In 1934, when Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert appeared in It Happened One Night, they had nothing more in mind than to entertain the audience. The story follows a sassy heir and fiancée to another man Colbert running away from her strict father. She runs into down-on-his-luck news reporter Gable, who carts her back to her father and her fiancé. On the journey, they fall in love. What is there in that that smacks of anything but undiluted enjoyment? Oh, but there is that ever pervasive yet ever without proof moral: Love conquers all. And yet, both Gable and Colbert are noted on AFI’s list of Top Actors, placing at numbers 7 for males and 12 for females, respectively, according to Wikipedia. If two of the best actors in all of film history know that when embarking on a trip to the movies, the sacrament of entertainment should be held above all, what is so difficult for younger generations to grasp? Those who hearken to critics who vilify shiny, pretty, blockbuster releases because of their lack of the weight and unbridled darkness of subject that so appeals to today’s society, like we can hide the fact that we still favor an inclination for that light-hearted, jaunty, straightforward comedy that’s funniest moments are those when someone is being hit in the face.

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Pulchritudinous is my freebie big-word-that-doesn’t-actually-make-sense-in-that-context. I claim it. I also claimed Wikipedia as my source to signify the very fan-based citations Wolcott (the article's author) uses.

The Hunger Games