All I ever wanted to know about pig-sodomizing hillbillies I learned from "Deliverance"

12/25/08
Christmas Day! And even more snow. “Lucy kind of looks like a lemur,” my roommate Scott just said. I just finished watching Deliverance, the 1972 film. (It says something about my warped sensibility, I suppose, that Deliverance is my idea of a Christmas movie!) It’s sort of a 1970s version of The Lord of the Flies. I’ve known I should watch it since I stumbled upon a review of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre (a lifelong obsession) on Rotten Tomatoes that said “Texas Chain Saw is, along with Deliverance, the quintessential example of a film that is not really about what it appears to be about.” The most notable thing about it is the guilt the men feel about what they do to survive: murdering their attackers. The fact that they feel they need to lie and hide what they did even though it was perfectly justifiable in light of the circumstances. I spoke with Mom yesterday; Jocelyn’s originally ectopic pregnancy has corrected itself and moved into her uterus, so she is officially pregnant with her fourth child. Mom goes on and on about every cute little baby-talk thing that the kids say, and all the cutesy widdle baby names they have for each other and everything, and it simultaneously bores and nauseates me, and I have to get off the phone with her. No matter how often I call her or how long we talk, it’s never enough for her. And her constant references to her impending death are more annoying than saddening or anything else. She cheapens it by drawing attention to it continuously in advance of the fact. Well, time to get all bundled up and brave the snow! On my way to Christa’s for turkey dinner. Meghan left for Tacoma this afternoon & Scott goes up there tomorrow night & they’ll both be gone til Monday, so I’ll actually have the whole house to myself all weekend!