Dead Poet's Society is an amazing movie - within the first few minutes i could feel it - this movie was written from the very depths of my soul.

all that i ever dreamed of communicating to the world; the very blood that surges through my veins - it is all there, acted out on screen. it is as though robin williams is reading the script of my life and the very ideals that make me.

especially, especially when john keating told them to rip pages out of their 'literature textbooks'. he asked them to read, 'understanding poetry' and a phd critic had written about plotting graphs to determine the greatness of a poem. to ask certain questions so as to evaluate the poems value.

and then, he asked them to tear it out, tear it all out.

that was the most exhilirating movie scene i have ever watched in my life. ever. how many times have i said this - poetry is not about graphs, formulae or grades! poetry is life, passion, love - it is everything. it is not something you can simply rob of its value by plotting graphs of importance and finding the product of its 'components'. and i hate it, i hate it when people go through their lives seeing literature as but a subject to score in, as something passing, something of little importance because after all they're going to get their doctor's degrees and forget all about shakespeare. but this, this very movie made that statement i've always been dying and wanting to make to the world. and someday, i will make it again in my own way, because we forget too easily.

poetry is beautiful, because it is love. the love of words, the love of making a difference in other's lives when they read it, whatever that difference may be, the love of writing, the love of reading, the love of love.

that is why i love literature, and that is why i love that movie - because it speaks for me, and perhaps for countless others who love writing like i do.

perhaps you think i am momentarily inspired as all these movies are - inspiring 'teacher' stories - but i am inspired because this is a movie about passion, a movie about having passion for writing above all things. not feminism like mona lisa smile will be or graduating well like dangerous minds - this is about the very beauty and soul of writing. the things it does to people and how it is, not what we make it into.

if you love lit, watch this movie. and if you don't, maybe this movie will help you understand why i love it so.

+ posted by M @ 7:51 PM