Conversations

Sometimes I get theories about things that, to be honest, do not the least matter, but for some reason acquire this weight of importance for me. They are silly ideas and they spring in the middle of nowhere and out of the blue, not at all worthy of thought and discussion, but Ice attempts to make sense of them.

My theory about the death of the rom-com genre, for example, he developed into this elaborate and very sound exposition of society today. It was something that hit me while I was in the shower. All I told him was that the rom-com is dead. It has been replaced by this emerging new genre and sub-genres that claim to present the truth, "raw and unmarred." The element of romance is no longer there, I complained. No more gallant alpha males as leading men rescuing unbelievably beautiful damsels in distress. No more grand gestures to sweep the other off his/her feet. No more fairy tales. No more promises of happily ever afters. Instead, we are presented with subtle, "truthful" characters and plots. Who wants that, I grumbled. If I wanted truthful, I'd look at my own life, not watch a movie. I was grieving; it was my favorite genre, after all.

He was about to leave for school then, but still he listened to me intently, as if he had all the time in the world. It is true that the rom-com is dead, he said, and it has been replaced by the pseudo rom-com. Unlike the original, he continued, this new genre aims not to serve as a form of escape for the audience, but as a form of self-psychoanalysis. This may be a good thing, he tried to assure me. This hadn't occurred to me, so he proceeded to explain why. I saw why. Excellent point! But then he said that this new genre is the fruit of reality shows. I begged to disagree. This trend has been ongoing since the birth of cinema itself. The goal of film being, more than anything, to replicate life. He then struggled to defend his point amid protests.

This went on for about 30 minutes.

I think everyone deserves to have an Ice. :)