I couldn’t wait to get away
by uzwi
Debilitatingly superficial content massively over-invested with meaning by the acting & direction; grinding earnestness about issues that make you shrug, or which can exist solely in the manufactured situations of the text; the utter, controlling pseudo-martyrdom of the central character. Constant reference to story and story-telling which makes you think one minute it’s a parody of @GuyInYourMFA and the next that it is actually being piped into your head direct from a combined group therapy session & writing workshop. I’ve never watched anything working so hard to position the narcissistic viewer along with the narcissistic writer at the heart of the text; or been so relieved to see anything end.
the m john harrison blog 
Is this a review of a book or a lamentation of the one you just finished?
You have to guess.
“I’ve never watched anything working so hard to position the narcissistic viewer along with the narcissistic writer at the heart of the text”
That reminds of an interesting thing recently. I went to see George Saunders give a reading and he talked about the relationship between the reader, writer and the writing. He said the writer was like a puppeteer moving the characters around, and that the reader was aware of the puppet and the writer at the same time. But, he said, the more you as a writer invest in the puppet, the more you respect it, the more the reader feels respected. And then a bond is created…I’m not explaining it very well. I don’t think he was talking about reading as an immersive experience exactly. Anyway, the reason I mention it is because when he said this I thought how this would work for the masochistic pleasures of reading a M.John Harrison book. I imagined an incredible puppet show that seduced the viewer completely. Then the puppets turning into a bear trap that hobbles the reader and follows him home attached to his bloody leg. And the reader feeling oddly grateful for the experience.
& so they should. Why else would I work my hands to the bone for them, day after day like this etc?
don’t know what yours was, but i’ve been to several of those myself just recently… pain in the bum.
Contemporary society is the worst film Hollywood ever made.