Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Within these past two days, I've visually imbibed quite a lot of images of gore and violence.
On Monday, the doctor screened a video of birth procedures during the Reproductive Health class. It wasn't a simulation - the video showed real women giving birth to real babies upfront and unflinchingly, with forceps and blood and spewing fluids. It was pretty gross, but not as abject-ingly disgusting as I thought it would be. Perhaps it's because I have become more used to such gory images after watching lots of Diru PVs. Or perhaps most women are used to seeing lots of blood coming out from that area anyway, so it's not a big shock. At any rate, I'm pretty glad that the woman giving birth does not have to see what happens on the other side of her. What's ghastly isn't the copious blood but the pain of the mother in labour (that was silenced, perhaps to the relief of the audience, in the video) and the surprisingly inhuman appearance of a newborn baby.
Well, attending the lecture on the extremely long list of "common pregnancy problems" and watching that video may have just put me off the idea of having children. I know being pregnant and giving birth are common experiences that most women get over without much trouble, but the mere thought of having to withstand nine months of discomfort and pain and not being able to live my life as I normally do makes me shudder. I don't know how my mother managed to survive morning sickness for eight months (the usual period is 3 months). I think I would have completely lost it just after two weeks. I don't tolerate long periods of pain well, and nine whole months seem like unbearably prolonged torture. Not to mention that one of my teachers in Cedar died recently during childbirth from a burst water bag that suffocated her lungs. It makes it all seem so utterly senseless that women die from something as common as giving birth. But death is senseless and you can die just as meaninglessly from a car that happens to run you over.
Then yesterday, I watched Scream for the Film Studies module. It wasn't half as gory as a Diru PV, and I'm ok with slasher flicks but not horror films. Moreover, the film was actually pretty intelligent in the way it poked fun at the cliches of slasher flicks while using them to arouse suspense and excitement. The last part when the survivors look down on the body of the killer and Randy says, "This is the part when the supposedly dead killer gets up for one final scare" and the killer predictably wakes up and gets a bullet straight in his forehead was simply hilarious.
However, I don't think I can feel the same way when I have to watch Nang Nak for Asia Moderns in a few weeks' time. I am absolutely terrified of horror films. Psychopathic serial killers I can take, but not ghosts and monsters. Even reading Dracula a few semesters ago spooked me out considerably, even though I knew it was all Freudian taboo sexuality and matricide stuff. I guess I have to foresake the screening and the seminar if I want to be able to function adequately in the final hectic weeks of the term...
kaoru said at 6:38 PM
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