Pynchon

Recently Lorraine asked me to change my lunch hour so that it starts from 12pm instead of 1pm. Although now the afternoon sometimes seems endless, an earlier lunch does have an advantage in that I am now having it with a completely different set of people. A change is as good as a rest, and all that. One of the people I now have lunch with is a girl called Mallory.

Ah... Mallory. Lovely girl. Early 20's. Quite petite, slim and pretty. Long brown hair, brown eyes, little square glasses. Kind of innocent, open and enthusiastic. Endlessley likeable. Of course she is as dumb as a bag of spanners, but hey, I suppose beauty comes with it's own cost.

So, today Mal and I were talking, and the conversation went something like this.

Mal: You see a lot of films, don't you John?

Yer Pynch: Yes. I suppose I do.

Mal: I saw a really great film at the weekend.

Pynch: What was that, then?

Mal: It was called "Flight 93".

(Quick digression here, just to explain.

"Flight 93" and "United 93" are completely separate films based upon on the events that occurred on and around United Airlines Flight 93, on the day of the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, September 11th 2001. Mal was referring to "Flight 93", which was the Emmy nominated TV movie, and not "United 93", which was the Oscar nominated major studio movie.

Weirdly enough, Lorraine has seen "Flight 93", and thought it was a good film, but she has never seen "United 93". I have seen "United 93", and thought it was a very powerful piece of work, but have never seen "Flight 93". No doubt we will synchronise at some point.

End of digression.)

Pynch: Did you like it? ("Flight 93").

Mal: Yeah! It was great. Have you seen it?

Pynch: No.

Mal: It was great. These terrorists take over a plane and the passengers fight back. Bit of a sad ending though.

Pynch: Oh, yeah.

Mal: Yeah. The terrorists crash the plane and everyone is killed. It was sad.

Pynch: You know it was the fourth plane, don't you?

Mal: What do you mean?

Pynch: It was the fourth plane. On 9/11.

Mal: How do you mean?

Pynch: 9/11. The attack on the World Trade Centre? The Pentagon? There was a fourth plane and they think that it was probably going to target the White House. Those people on that plane, they were heroes. They brought the plane down.

Mal: I don't understand.

Pynch: 9/11? 2001? Terrorist attack? 9/11?

Mal: 9/11? I think I've heard about it. What was that about, then?

Oh...

Dan Theman was sitting with us and he raised an eyebrow at me. A master of understatement, that's Dan.

So, instead of giving Mal a slap, I went through a quick summary of the events of September 11th, 2001 (lest we forget, the most crucial world shaping day of the past 10 years), as I remembered them. That over, Mal told me how she was really looking forward to the new series of "Big Brother" and asked me if I would be watching it?

Probably not.

True story.

Maybe it's me. I do not write about current affairs very often, but I do watch the news and I do read the newspapers. I care. I am concerned about what is happening in the world. I sometimes worry about where we are all going. If I didn't do that, maybe I would be happier.

Mal is a very happy girl.

I used to joke in the 1980's, during the whole era of Reagan-Thatcher paranoia, cold war, arms race, nuclear buildup nonsense, that upon hearing of a nuclear attack on the UK, my Mom's reaction would be to get the washing in. You see, current affairs did not impact on her at all. Her life was her kids, the house and that was that. Anything outside of that was just irrelevant and didn't matter a jot.

Maybe ignorance is the way to happiness, but I would prefer to know what is going on.

Labels: Movies, Thoughts