Comments for Shane White http://shanewhite.com Sun, 09 Oct 2011 04:30:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Comment on Things Undone by Shane http://shanewhite.com/shop/things-undone/#comment-2 Shane Sun, 09 Oct 2011 04:30:04 +0000 http://white.alchemycs.com/?post_type=product&p=180#comment-2 "Rick Watt is a mopey twentysomething who moves jobs from Philadelphia to Seattle -- and, in flashbacks, moves from one girlfriend to a prettier model -- without budging his massive mopey depressiveness. White shows the mopiness and depression by having Watt slowly turn into a zombie, complete with body parts falling off -- and that's a great visual metaphor...except that it doesn't make up for the fact that Watt has no real reason to be mopey and annoying. His new job isn't going as well as he'd like it to, but he's also just being a jerk, particularly to his girlfriend, Natalie. White is going for existential ennui, or maybe a quarterlife crisis, but, really, it's just that Rick is a passive-aggressive jerk who can't communicate effectively with either his girlfriend or his co-workers. He gets a happy ending of sorts by learning to have "backbone," which is precisely the wrong lesson -- Rick needed to be able to talk, not to fight. The zombie motif is artistically interesting, but the moments of greater zombification aren't consistently related to Rick being more beaten down and dehumanized; more often, they're a product of his own anger or lack of attention. There's nothing wrong with Rick that a bit of slowing down and paying attention wouldn't cure; he's not a zombie, just a self-absorbed guy who thinks he deserves to get better than he gives." -Andrew C Wheeler “Rick Watt is a mopey twentysomething who moves jobs from Philadelphia to Seattle — and, in flashbacks, moves from one girlfriend to a prettier model — without budging his massive mopey depressiveness. White shows the mopiness and depression by having Watt slowly turn into a zombie, complete with body parts falling off — and that’s a great visual metaphor…except that it doesn’t make up for the fact that Watt has no real reason to be mopey and annoying. His new job isn’t going as well as he’d like it to, but he’s also just being a jerk, particularly to his girlfriend, Natalie.

White is going for existential ennui, or maybe a quarterlife crisis, but, really, it’s just that Rick is a passive-aggressive jerk who can’t communicate effectively with either his girlfriend or his co-workers. He gets a happy ending of sorts by learning to have “backbone,” which is precisely the wrong lesson — Rick needed to be able to talk, not to fight.

The zombie motif is artistically interesting, but the moments of greater zombification aren’t consistently related to Rick being more beaten down and dehumanized; more often, they’re a product of his own anger or lack of attention. There’s nothing wrong with Rick that a bit of slowing down and paying attention wouldn’t cure; he’s not a zombie, just a self-absorbed guy who thinks he deserves to get better than he gives.” -Andrew C Wheeler

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