What makes innocence

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Published by Elizabethtaylor. Published January 24, January 31, Previous Post Living in Squalor! Next Post Disbelief. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:.

Email Address never made public. Create your website with WordPress. Loading Comments Email Name Website. Once the idea of childhood became laminated to the idea of innocence, children could be used strategically in political arguments.

Children made these arguments appear to be apolitical, or simply evocations of truth. Some people very consciously employed children to gain sympathy for their perspectives. Other figures, Bernstein argues, unintentionally affected racial issues in the United States. In , Johnny Gruelle appropriated blackface imagery to create Raggedy Ann. He deliberately chose such imagery not to make a political statement, but to tap into a source of mass appeal.

W hat is it that is most appealing about children? Is it simply their physical beauty? Is it their openness to loving and being loved? Their playfulness, their innate humour? Beyond these things, in my view, children are beautiful because they possess something that we have all lost — the quality of innocence. The gap between innocence and experience is endlessly explored, like a gap in a tooth, by artists and writers.

I have felt in exile ever since childhood — not as a result of some traumatic experience, but the simple, slow dimmer switch of time passing and imagination coarsening. But what is innocence? Like St Augustine on the subject of Time, 'If you do not ask me what time is, I know it; if you ask me, I do not know.

When I watch my youngest daughter, Louise, playing for an hour with Sylvanian families, singing to herself, I know I see it. When I watch my year-old, Eva, dancing as if no one is watching, I know I am also seeing it. We as humans are so lucky to meet so many people that will one day leave us.

We are so lucky to have the ability and courage to suffer, to grieve, and to wish for a better ending. For that only means, we were lucky enough to love. When Sony announced that Venom would be getting a stand-alone movie, outside of the Tom Holland MCU Spider-Man films, and intended to start its own separate shared universe of films, the reactions were generally not that kind.

Even if Tom Hardy was going to take on the role, why would you take Venom, so intrinsically connected to Spider-Man's comic book roots, and remove all of that for cheap action spectacle? Needless to say I wound up hopping on the "lets bash 'Venom'" train. While I appreciated how much fun Tom Hardy was having and the visual approach to the symbiotes, I couldn't get behind the film's tone or story, both of which felt like relics of a bygone era of comic book storytelling that sacrificed actual pathos for that aforementioned cheap spectacle.

But apparently that critical consensus was in the minority because audiences ate the film up. On top of that, Ruben Fleischer would step out of the director's chair in place of Andy Serkis, the visual effects legend behind characters like 'The Lord of the Rings' Gollum and 'Planet of the Apes' Caesar, and a pretty decent director in his own right. Now with a year-long pandemic delay behind it, 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' is finally here, did it change my jaded little mind about the character's big-screen worth?

Surprisingly, it kind of did. I won't pretend that I loved it by any stretch, but while 'Let There Be Carnage' still features some of its predecessor's shortcomings, there's also a tightness, consistency and self-awareness that's more prevalent this time around; in other words, it's significantly more fun! A year after the events of the first film, Eddie Brock played by Tom Hardy is struggling with sharing a body with the alien symbiote, Venom also voiced by Hardy. Things change when Eddie is contacted by Detective Pat Mulligan played by Stephen Graham , who says that the serial killer Cletus Kasady will talk only with Eddie regarding his string of murders.

His interview with Kasady played by Woody Harrelson leads to Eddie uncovering the killer's victims and confirming Kasady's execution. During their final meeting, Kasady bites Eddie, imprinting part of Venom onto Kasady. When Kasady is executed, the new symbiote awakens, merging with Kasady into a bloody, far more violent incarnation known as Carnage. It's up to Eddie and Venom to put aside their differences to stop Carnage's rampage, as well as Frances Barrison played by Naomi Harris , Kasady's longtime girlfriend whose sonic scream abilities pose a threat to both Venom and Carnage.

So what made me completely switch gears this time around? There's a couple reasons, but first and foremost is the pacing. Serkis and screenwriter Kelly Marcel know exactly where to take the story and how to frame both Eddie and Venom's journeys against the looming threat of Carnage.

Even when the film is going for pure, outrageous humor, it never forgets the qualms between Eddie and Venom should be at the center beyond the obvious comic book-y exhibitions. If you were a fan of Eddie's anxious sense of loss, or the back-and-forth between he and the overly eccentric Venom, you are going to love this movie.

Hardy has a great grasp on what buttons to push for both, especially Venom, who has to spend a chunk of the movie contending with losing Eddie altogether and find their own unique purpose among other things, what is essentially Venom's "coming out" moment that actually finds some weight in all the jokes. Then there's Harrelson as Carnage and he absolutely delivers!

Absolutely taking a few cues from Heath Ledger's Joker, Harrelson is leaning just enough into campy territory to be charismatic, but never letting us forget the absolutely shattered malicious mind controlling the spaghetti wrap of CGI. Serkis' directing itself deserves some praise too. I can't necessarily pinpoint his style, but like his approach on 'Mowgli,' he has a great eye for detail in both character aesthetics and worldbuilding.

That goes from the symbiotes' movements and action bits to bigger things like lighting in a church sequence or just making San Francisco feel more alive in the process. As far as downsides go, what you see is basically what you get.

While I was certainly on that train more here, I also couldn't help but hope for more on the emotional side of things.

Yes, seeing the two be vulnerable with one another is important to their arcs and the comedy infusions work more often than not, but it also presents a double-edged sword of that quick runtime, sacrificing time for smaller moments for bigger, more outrageous ones. In addition, while Hardy and Harrelson are electric together, I also found a lot of the supporting characters disappointing to a degree. Mulligan has a few neat moments, but not enough to go beyond the tough cop archetype.

The only one who almost makes it work is Naomi Harris, who actually has great chemistry with Harrelson until the movie has to do something else with her. It's those other characters that make the non-Venom, non-Carnage moments stall significantly and I wish there was more to them. I wouldn't go so far as to have complete faith in this approach to Sony's characters moving forward — Venom or whatever larger plans are in the works — but I could safely recommend this whatever side of the film spectrum you land on.

This kind of fun genre content is sorely needed and I'm happy I had as good of a time as I did. Brittany Morgan, National Writer's Society 2. Kristen Haddox , Penn State University 4. Welcome back. Sign in to comment to your favorite stories, participate in your community and interact with your friends.

No account? Create one. Start writing a post. The key to retaining happiness is continuing to harness the imagination, beauty, and faith that our old, childhood self once attained. New York University. This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator. Subscribe to our Newsletter. Keep Reading Show less. The Narrative. Iowa State University. Dash Cam Dashcams are cameras that you mount on the dashboard of your vehicle, typically looking out through the windshield.

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