It all started in a movie theater with my mother. We were there to see a new film with that quirky Will Ferrel character. Stranger Than Fiction. The funny advertisements had the two of us sold, or at least they had me sold, that's all that really matters, my mom took me to go see movies that I wanted to see. Because I was 10 or so.
The funny movie that the advertisements and the lead role forecasted was not incredibly funny, or goofy, but serious. And quite compelling. It's my oldest memory of being challenged by a film, or whatever, by art, if you will. I really, really enjoyed myself. My mother joked that she can "start taking me to serious movies now."
Little Matt felt enlightened for what was probably the first time. What a peculiar feeling that was. What an amazing feeling that was.
Two years later, I sat down in another movie theater with my mother and saw The Dark Knight. Again, I was tricked into seeing a movie that would challenge my feeble [then 12] young mind. The Dark Knight wasn't a big, dumb popcorn-cruncher, it was, well,
incredibly enlightening.
Earlier today I sat in a movie theater with my mother, again, and saw The Perks of being a Wallflower. I haven't read the book so my predictions about the film were based off of those dastardly, often-misleading advertisements, that this time managed to make a movie look like a potentially-pretentious quirk-fest.
But it was, well, I think you know.
The Perks of being a Wallflower made something click deep inside of me. It really reminded me of who I am and why I choose to be that person.
It's not a connection made with any of the film's characters that made this click. It's simply the feeling the movie gave me, reminding me of the other two times at the movie theater with my mother.
I'm a critic, and I'm a writer and I'm a seeker of enlightenment.
Let me get one thing straight. If Stranger Than Fiction was a goofy comedy, if The Dark Knight was a big, dumb popcorn-cruncher, if The Perks of being a Wallflower was a quirk-fest, they would not be intrinsically lesser works of art. The point is that these movies took me out of my comfort zone, especially the first two, because Little Matt watched those.
And it was then in Middle School that I learned about rhetoric. Not that word specifically, I wasn't even a teenager at the time and my vocabulary was expectedly less-than-impressive, but rhetoric all the same. By rhetoric in this context I mean critique, and the expression of opinions. I learned about rhetoric when I happened upon reviews, in issues of Nintendo Power and in articles on IGN. People do this? Surely I can.
I've been passionate about art and entertainment when I became passionate about writing and rhetoric during that time in Middle School. I like video games and comic books and novels and music and movies, and I experience them in a way unique in comparison to just about everyone else that I've conversed with on the subject. I experience video games and comic books and novels and music and movies because I seek enlightenment, and I seek to develop my own rhetoric.
When I play a video game, or read a comic book or novel, when I listen to music, or listen to a song, I ask myself what I got from the experience, and I ask myself what I thought of the experience. Often, I take the latter and share my thoughts with the world, whether it be through conversations with friends, a tweet, or a written piece for my blog. I share my thoughts and seek others', publicly ponder what I experienced through social networking, and write reviews.
Video games and comic books and novels and music and movies are not time-wasters for me, like they are for most people. They're enlightenment, and they're additives for my rhetoric, and they always are. That Pixar movie, that blood-and-sex comic book, that crappy game on the App Store, it's all enlightening because I knew, from experiencing it, what exactly it is and how it fits into the world I live in. And it all expands my rhetoric because my world-view has, and my opinions have, more weight.
And that's essentially what my life is. I seek enlightenment through art and entertainment, and I seek to expand my rhetoric by talking, thinking and writing about those experiences.
That's who I am. And I like that.
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