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So around January 2002 I went to see The Fellowship of the Ring with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thelionforreal, who was at that point possibly already a part of the Popslash=>Lotrips migration. I had already been resisting seeing the movie for a month or more because--I realize this will not make any sense to anyone, okay, but there it is--I had come across a Theban Band manip of Aragorn and Boromir, and I had made it my desktop wallpaper, and Boromir was smiling a particularly happy smile, and I knew that he was going to die in the movie, and I knew that he would not smile that smile or be that happy, and I did not want to see it.
But eventually I went to see the movie, and sure enough he died, and I started crying--I started sobbing, and I did not stop for half an hour. If you are familiar with the movie, you will realize that this took me through the rest of the movie, the credits, and the three-block walk home from the movie theater. I still feel kind of bad about subjecting Missi to that; I'm sure she was even more baffled by it than I was.
Ever since then, I feel a little uncertain of what I mean, or what anyone else understands me to mean, when I say a book or a movie or something made me cry. Last night I finished reading The Persian Boy, and Alexander's death (this is even less of a spoiler than Boromir's death, okay) made tears drip from my eyes, and instead of just saying to anyone "The Persian Boy made me cry!" I found myself wondering what it meant when I said that and whether I would be somehow deceiving someone because I was not, for instance, prostrated with grief for at least half an hour.
So! A poll. (On Dreamwidth only. But you can be a part of this very important scientific undertaking with an OpenID login!)
( A poll about crying over stuff. )
thelionforreal, who was at that point possibly already a part of the Popslash=>Lotrips migration. I had already been resisting seeing the movie for a month or more because--I realize this will not make any sense to anyone, okay, but there it is--I had come across a Theban Band manip of Aragorn and Boromir, and I had made it my desktop wallpaper, and Boromir was smiling a particularly happy smile, and I knew that he was going to die in the movie, and I knew that he would not smile that smile or be that happy, and I did not want to see it. But eventually I went to see the movie, and sure enough he died, and I started crying--I started sobbing, and I did not stop for half an hour. If you are familiar with the movie, you will realize that this took me through the rest of the movie, the credits, and the three-block walk home from the movie theater. I still feel kind of bad about subjecting Missi to that; I'm sure she was even more baffled by it than I was.
Ever since then, I feel a little uncertain of what I mean, or what anyone else understands me to mean, when I say a book or a movie or something made me cry. Last night I finished reading The Persian Boy, and Alexander's death (this is even less of a spoiler than Boromir's death, okay) made tears drip from my eyes, and instead of just saying to anyone "The Persian Boy made me cry!" I found myself wondering what it meant when I said that and whether I would be somehow deceiving someone because I was not, for instance, prostrated with grief for at least half an hour.
So! A poll. (On Dreamwidth only. But you can be a part of this very important scientific undertaking with an OpenID login!)
( A poll about crying over stuff. )