{"id":533,"date":"2012-10-31T20:54:46","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T00:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.briancroxall.net\/lit-tech\/?p=533"},"modified":"2012-10-31T20:54:46","modified_gmt":"2012-11-01T00:54:46","slug":"just-like-breathing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.briancroxall.net\/lit-tech\/2012\/10\/31\/just-like-breathing\/","title":{"rendered":"Just like breathing"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you think about daily life, you don\u2019t tend to think about the simple things. No one is going to think back to that one awesome night you had with your friends and remember that you were breathing<\/em> the entire night. The same tends to go for looking. Just like breathing, something I do every waking second of my life, is looking. I look at the street in front of me so I don\u2019t fall or step in something, I look at my phone to check the time or maybe see if I have a text from someone, but most importantly, I look at people. I know that sounds incredibly creepy, like I\u2019m lurking in a dark corner and leering at people who are passing me, but it\u2019s true; I look at people. And don\u2019t deny that you don\u2019t, because people are interesting<\/em>. They\u2019re fun to look at. They\u2019re unique. Just like Ophelia.<\/p>\n

In Annette Debo\u2019s \u201cOphelia Speaks:<\/em> Ressurecting Still Lives in Natasha Trethewey\u2019s Bellocq\u2019s Ophelia,<\/em>\u201d Debo writes about the mundane act of looking, except the way she tells it, it\u2019s not so mundane anymore. She says, \u201cThe sex industry is as much about theatricality as it is about sex, and in Bellocq\u2019s Ophelia<\/em>, the act of looking is layered, circular, and reflexive.\u201d (Debo 207) What she is saying, is that looking at Ophelia is on the same level as having sex with her. Debo goes on to continue the different people who look at Ophelia, and how each of them look at her differently. I agree with Debo about the fact that Ophelia is being looked at and each person looking at her, does it differently. Ophelia is a strong woman, and she keeps her head held high, through all the objectification and lurking she\u2019s put through. When she is found outside of her Quarters, and she is slathered with paint and forced to pose for a mugshot, she decides not to let it tear her down. She sees the picture of herself, \u201cpaint smeared on my face, my hair\/loosed and wiled\u2014a doppelg\u00e4nger\/whose face I loathe but must confront,\u201d (Trethewey 29) and she doesn\u2019t shy away from it. She confronts herself, and I find this to be one of the moments where you can see how strong Ophelia really is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you think about daily life, you don\u2019t tend to think about the simple things. No one is going to think back to that one awesome night you had with your friends and remember that you were breathing the entire night. The same tends to go for looking. Just like breathing, something I do every<\/p>\n