SO HELLO THERE IT IS WEDNESDAY AND I HAVE NOT SAID ANYTHING OF SUBSTANCE FOR SOME TIME NOW

[outsidetheparty]

One of Stellan's toys is a french-canadian monkey. We don't know why he's french-canadian, only that every time he picks up the monkey I am compelled to say hello I am your monkey! yeesss are you ready to play with your monkey now yes? where you'll have to pretend that italic text denotes a gutteral french-canadian accent because I am at a loss for exactly how that would be most effectively transliterated. There are three people in this house for whom I am narrator, each with his own specific accent: Frank has his deep, slightly stoned "are you going to eat that?" thing going on; Stellan himself is high-pitched and honestly rather foul-mouthed, especially before meals or naps; and then there is this french-canadian monkey. Here is a photo of the monkey:



and I should note that there's ongoing discussion between squirrelhaven and I as to whether he's french-canadian and not just french; the only evidence being a frequently guttered JE SUIS CANADIENNNN!!!! on his part which is maybe protesting a little much if you know what I mean. Also I sometimes mix up the pronouns, such that the monkey tells Stellan "Okay now your mother and I have to go away and be alone by ourselves now, you just wait here and be quiet for a while, ok yes?" which is just a wrong thing for a monkey to say, french-canadian or not.

Anyway, the reason I was posting was to tell you that we watched Synechdoche, New York last night and it reduced me to literal, face-hurts-the-next-morning-from-the-muscle-strain-of-holding-them-back-for-124-minutes tears, in a "wtf who gave Charlie Kaufman permission to eavesdrop on my therapy sessions" kind of way. Not so much the four year old tattooed european sex trade daughter parts, but the striving, the aging, the death. That the fictional representations of us would be better at being us than we are. That the inside is the outside. That the house is on fire. I was going to watch it more times before saying anything, but I'm worried that if I look too closely at it it'll evaporate. And if someone was eavesdropping on your therapy sessions they might have made a completely different movie. Still.

Comments

[samtheeagle.livejournal.com]

I'm laughing so hard that it hurts.

[abka.livejournal.com]

My nephew has that exact monkey, I'll have to pass along its nationality :)

[squirrelhaven.livejournal.com]

My working theory is that the monkey comes from a mixed family, one French parent and one French-Canadian parent and presumably some strife between the two, and that this is what's behind its identity issues, including the frequent fumbling of pronouns.

[outsidetheparty.livejournal.com]

If you can figure out what any of the rest of the animals in the set sound like, do let me know; at our house the monkey is very talkative but the elephant and toucan just lie there.

[cybersattva.livejournal.com]

Oh my yes. A friend was visiting years ago and gave Spoo this squeaky voice. Laura and I looked at each other and whispered "That's not what he sounds like!" It was just weird and wrong. We all know that Spoo is more of this earnest fast-talker "You guys...hey you guys...guys...you totally forgot I'm shut out of the room now, you know" kind of pug.

And Synecdoche, New York is totally going on the Netflix queue.

[outsidetheparty.livejournal.com]

It's going to be very unsettling when Stellan actually does start speaking, if his real voice doesn't match the one in my head.

Of course it'll be even more unsettling if it does.

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

So you're saying we should see the film, then, eh? :-)

[outsidetheparty.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound like a weird thing to say, but I'm honestly, truly not sure. It hit me very hard in some very me-specific places, that's for certain.

[winterborne.livejournal.com]

Very curious about the answer to this question too.

[squirrelhaven.livejournal.com]

Yes, see the film. I didn't have anywhere near as personal a reaction as D, but I was still bowled over by the movie as a very thoughtful, often funny, often mind-bending, and just generally moving and fascinating piece of art. (Well, I found the first 20 or 30 minutes a little tough to get through, because it's a whole lot of set-up and I was waiting for it to go somewhere. But then it really, really did.)

[bayleaf.livejournal.com]

I read this post weeks ago, and laughed (apparently to myself - sorry for not commenting!) about it and that was that. Until tonight, when I'm watching BTVS w/ my sister, who has never seen it, and was reminded of it.

We don't know why he's french-canadian
Oz is chatting up Willow, and talking about how the monkey is the only animal cracker who gets to wear pants. He makes it talk, and Willow says, 'The monkey is French?' to which he responds, 'All monkeys are french. You didn't know that?'

So there you go. There's that question answered. *g*