Visual Diary #21
big yuccas, Evan and Casey nawww, ghost worlds, ghost girls
This is a house around the corner with big yuccas out the front. I love how prehistoric they look. The house is almost an afterthought.
Quoth Evan after Casey attempts to break up with him on Atypical Season 3. This is a rewatch which alternately entertains and irritates - the story is often too plot-by-numbers, and a lot of the autism rep can be too much - but it has spirit and sweet characters, and I’ll watch anything with Jennifer Jason Leigh in it.
This is the final scene of Ghost World when Enid catches the magic bus. Another rewatch. Rewatching lots at the moment because whenever I try something new it usually disappoints. Ghost World is an archive of pre-Internet mood. Dan Clowes said he wrote female characters because they gave him permission to say things that he might otherwise get in trouble for. Enid Coleslaw, in more recent Reddit posts seems to inspire a lot of hate -what a moody bitch! But it’s not that she doesn’t like anything. It’s just that her enthusiasms are so specific. Like Bollywood soundtracks, and supposed satanists and Skip James and Seymour - sort of. (I also love Steve Buscemi in anything - except that embarrassing Telstra ad. Celebrities should leave advertising alone. Matt Berry I mean you too.) I enjoyed reading all the different fan and non-fan interpretations (“The bus symbolises a transition. For the old guy the transition is death. For Enid it's the transition to "adult life" and responsibilities, which in all it's meaninglessness pointed and satirised throughout the film, ultimately leads to death. Metaphorically and literally.” And I enjoyed reading this old interview with DC:
1) “Reviews say, “These two bored Gen X girls…” and I think these two girls are the least bored people I’ve ever created! They’re never bored, because they make something interesting out of everything.”
2) “People don’t believe me when I tell them how impossible it was to get non-bellbottom pants in 1977! When I learned about punk, I had to get non-bellbottom pants, but it was literally impossible. I had to have them made, get girls to sew them for me. You can’t imagine how that would be your only choice.”
My appreciation for Ghost World leaked all over my first novel Notes from the Teenage Underground. (I didn’t see this until decades later!) and the vibe was not so removed own experiences of growing up in a world where there seemed to be very few pathways to anything interesting, and only weirdos wore secondhand clothes.
This is my rendition of the photo by Alice Mills that features in the exhibition of women’s photography currently on at the NGV. The original photo is here. Don’t laugh - I know mine looks more like a little bearded man amid floating fitballs. Here, also, is some further information about the model Hilaire Syme.