It’s too difficult to decide on just one. There are so many amazing quotes, and so many different types and different reasons to love them. So many I trot out without realising. Even Tricky, tricky, tricky is from The Craft, and I find myself unwittingly quoting it whenever something is, well... tricky.
So I will have to settle and choose a couple. But in the spirit of good sportsmanship, I will draw on different types I love for different reasons, rather than endlessly harping on about kick-ass characters delivering amazing lines from comics and TV programmes.
3) Magneto
"I wear red, the color of blood, in tribute to their lost lives. And the harder I try to cast it aside, to find the gentler path, the more irresistibly I am drawn back. I should have died myself with those that I loved. Instead I carted the bodies by the hundreds, by the thousands, from the death house to the crematorium, and the ashes to the burial ground. Asking myself now what I could not then—Why was I spared?" ~ Uncanny X-Men #274
There are endless amazing magneto quotes. Some of them just rock-hard cool and awesome, when he goes all biblical and kick-ass. But this one is a bit special because it separates Magneto from your typical comic book baddy. There’s a reason he does what he does, and even though he’s cast as the bad guy, they twist and subvert traditional good/evil expectations and you end up identifying with him.
He goes to extreme lengths and is relentless in his battle to protect his species, but there’s always a justifiable rationale for his actions and a wounded, abused child-holocaust-survivor driving them.
"The thing none of you will ever understand is that there are no sides. There are no heroes or villians. There's just what I want and how I'll get it."
"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage – no mere veneer of vanity – is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition! The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one-day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."
This is nice just because it enshrines the cleverness of the book and film so succinctly. Vs, 5s and Es appear throughout both as a recurring motif, and this scene encapsulates it beautifully as V talks to Evey (EV) for the first time, using 48 V words, then repeating E...V... as he hears her name, and slashing a V on the wall.
They are literally stuffed everywhere in the book and film, some subtle, some far from it- but it is super fun spotting them. Beethoven’s 5th gets a few outings, and clock times make use of 11:05 (5th of November connotations, and a neat V in analogue time). It really is beautifully constructed.
An amazing film too. Always makes me wonder if I’d be one of the brave ones to march in protest and make a difference, or if I’d be at home cowering under a blanket.
1) Simon Amstell
Amid my squealing comic book fanboydom, I also wanted to include something that actually made a difference to me. And from such an unexpected quarter too. We saw Simon Amstell in stand up about 3 years ago, and amazingly funny it was too. But along with all the hilarity I went away having learned a powerful lesson that has stayed with me ever since, and has actually changed the way I think and react to a considerable number of events: Acceptance. A lesson from a London cab driver.
"He said to me: ‘Well, is there anything you can do about it?’
And I said ‘No there's nothing I can do. It's a real injustice.’
And he said ‘Acceptance.’
‘What do you mean, whispering wise cab driver?’
And he explained so absurdly simply that if there's nothing you can do about something, then you do nothing.
And in that moment the feeling of injustice, the frustration was lifted, it was gone. There was nothing to do...
...You can't change other people. All you can do is let go of your limited perception of them."
And that was it. I went back to school on the Monday, ACCEPTING that there are some things I can control, and some things I really can’t. Not that you give up trying altogether, naturally... The things you can change, you do- I try to make their school lives positive and consistent. But I no longer beat myself up for being unable to change the life of a child whose parents abuse, neglect or otherwise fuck with their lives. I accept that I can’t change the behaviour of other people- you just do what you can.
And you know what?
As you can see, I’m a lot happier*.
*Also a quote- Jack Nicholson’s Joker: Batman, 1990
No comments:
Post a Comment