Years ago, at Oberlin, a young artist's daughter began posting YouTube videos of herself.
Highlights from GIRLS: "The Return" (Season One)
-With her parents, in Michigan, Hannah watches "some Netflix." We don't know what the show is, but here's the dialogue we hear, in grave whispers: "My nighttime socks are looser. They have room so that my feet can breathe. My feet need to breathe in the night." "But it's daytime now. Why wear the nighttime socks right now?" "Because my daytime socks have holes in them." (We know this is loaded with tension, or we hope it is, but we have no idea where the tension is coming from. This is the Dunham who embraces absurdity--the same Dunham who named her protagonists Hannah Horvath, Marnie Michaels, Jessa Johansson. Also, if you are watching "House of Cards," you know that such fatuous dialogue isn't terribly far-fetched for Netflix. Have you seen the recent episode in which Frank has a long, tedious exchange with a battle re-enactor, regarding the exploits of "Augustus Underwood"? Kill me now.....Part of GIRLS's great accomplishment was to act as a pop-culture critic. "Everyone's telling me to call Paul-Louis and tell him he's going to be a father, but maybe I just don't want to do that. Maybe it's like when everyone's telling me I need to watch THE WIRE--and, no, I just really do NOT want to watch THE WIRE." I hear you, Hannah. You have a friend in me.)
-"The Return" concerns a war between Two Hannahs. We have New York Hannah--who is working on "a very important book" and wonders desperately if Adam is still alive and well. We have Michigan Hannah--and we see a few possible iterations of this Hannah's future. Michigan Hannah could be a florist. She could have "a real job, like teaching." (This would allow her to do her world-shaking writing without distractions--though, actually, we don't see many distractions for her in NYC.) She could organize lectures for East Michigan University. The two Hannahs exist together in Pharmacist Phil's bedchamber, in one of the more provocative scenes. New York Hannah continuously rears her head: "Do you want me to take my boots off?" "Well, it's up to you, but I'd think you'd want bootless feet up on the bed." (We can imagine Adam likes boots--the kinkier, the better--and he does not worry terribly about having them on the bed.) "Oww! Please do NOT put a finger in my asshole!" "I'm tight, like a little baby, right?" "Just--just please do not say things like that." (This scene--more than any other--confirms for us that New York Hannah will win the war. She cannot have vanilla sex and live with Pharmacist Phil in suburban Michigan. Sex is a means of self-discovery; Adam may treat Hannah's heart "like monkey meat," but there's something in that Bushwick rathole that Hannah very desperately needs--for her future. "Phil maybe doesn't have a fire burning under his ass, and you need that," says Loreen, with admirable precision. Back to Bushwick: Back to the "crack lady, who once talked to me for thirty minutes about walnuts. She thought I had them, and I said I didn't, so then she started grabbing my ass. She said she thought they were in my butt pocket, and I...." Does this make you think of Hannah and Elijah in Season Six? "You're the one who let the homeless lady into our apartment." "That lady was fun and you know it.")
-"Candy has been so great about all this Keri shit--but, listen, Plummy, your break is over now, yeah?" "Okay, Squirt.....OKAY? SQUIRT???"
-"You care about this show? That's YOUR cross to bear."
-"I'm gonna make you anything you need--we do NOT have soy milk--and then you and I are gonna have A Talk."
-This episode weirdly prefigures "Latching." In both cases, we have Loreen pushing Hannah toward the spot she needs to arrive at. The drama comes from Hannah's running away. Quite literally, in "Latching," she runs away; she wanders pantless through Poughkeepsie, or whatever town she has invaded. In "The Return," Hannah briefly tries on the mask of a person who would be comfortable on Jimmy's Pizza dates, at ill-advised "benefit concerts" for the vanished Keri, surrounded by images of mid-nineties Parker Posey and the Goo Goo Dolls. Loreen, in "Latching": "You can't un-friend your baby. You can't delete his phone number. This is one decision you can't take back." Loreen, in "The Return": "You need someone with fire under his ass." Oddly, these moments make me think of a friend ten years ago, who claimed to want me to move to Buffalo ("They have a great gay scene there!") but also pushed along my New York writing life in an odd way ("You wrote a new story? Is it bizarrely bitchy and embittered?" he once asked, with something that was not *not* affection.) Dunham's title--"The Return"--can be read as a reference to Hannah's trip to Michigan, but it can also be read as a reference to the episode's last minute, in which Hannah makes a figurative return to New York, to her destiny, to her tortured relationship with Adam. That seems, to me, to be the real, epochal "return" in these thirty minutes. I may continue to write about Season One--because I'm generally more interested in beginnings than in endings, and because I have an easier time understanding Goo Goo Dolls Hannah than New Mother Hannah. Or I may move on. We shall see. Happy Monday!
In at least one video, she--Lena Dunham--was semi-nude, and she provoked a strong reply. Many people really hated the clip--but, regardless, they did *not* feel neutral about the work.
Post-college: Dunham, in her early twenties, moves back to New York City and makes "Tiny Furniture," which everyone sees. Jenni Konner sees it. Envious show-runner Liz Meriweather sees it. Judd Apatow and Nora Ephron see it. They see it--and they all talk about it--and suddenly Dunham, still sort of an adolescent, has for herself a major TV contract.
That contract grew out of Dunham's own soul; she had put her most objectionable, most entitled self on-camera, whining at her mother, enraged by her sister's reasonable wish for quiet and for some personal space. Dunham was honest, and people replied. She wrote her own future.
I did possibly my last post on GIRLS today--or maybe my last GIRLS post just-for-a-while. So grateful for this show. Enjoy!
P.S. You can "subscribe" now to "Liars and Saints." There's a little button on the page, under the blog title. Food for thought!
Highlights from GIRLS: "The Return" (Season One)
-With her parents, in Michigan, Hannah watches "some Netflix." We don't know what the show is, but here's the dialogue we hear, in grave whispers: "My nighttime socks are looser. They have room so that my feet can breathe. My feet need to breathe in the night." "But it's daytime now. Why wear the nighttime socks right now?" "Because my daytime socks have holes in them." (We know this is loaded with tension, or we hope it is, but we have no idea where the tension is coming from. This is the Dunham who embraces absurdity--the same Dunham who named her protagonists Hannah Horvath, Marnie Michaels, Jessa Johansson. Also, if you are watching "House of Cards," you know that such fatuous dialogue isn't terribly far-fetched for Netflix. Have you seen the recent episode in which Frank has a long, tedious exchange with a battle re-enactor, regarding the exploits of "Augustus Underwood"? Kill me now.....Part of GIRLS's great accomplishment was to act as a pop-culture critic. "Everyone's telling me to call Paul-Louis and tell him he's going to be a father, but maybe I just don't want to do that. Maybe it's like when everyone's telling me I need to watch THE WIRE--and, no, I just really do NOT want to watch THE WIRE." I hear you, Hannah. You have a friend in me.)
-"The Return" concerns a war between Two Hannahs. We have New York Hannah--who is working on "a very important book" and wonders desperately if Adam is still alive and well. We have Michigan Hannah--and we see a few possible iterations of this Hannah's future. Michigan Hannah could be a florist. She could have "a real job, like teaching." (This would allow her to do her world-shaking writing without distractions--though, actually, we don't see many distractions for her in NYC.) She could organize lectures for East Michigan University. The two Hannahs exist together in Pharmacist Phil's bedchamber, in one of the more provocative scenes. New York Hannah continuously rears her head: "Do you want me to take my boots off?" "Well, it's up to you, but I'd think you'd want bootless feet up on the bed." (We can imagine Adam likes boots--the kinkier, the better--and he does not worry terribly about having them on the bed.) "Oww! Please do NOT put a finger in my asshole!" "I'm tight, like a little baby, right?" "Just--just please do not say things like that." (This scene--more than any other--confirms for us that New York Hannah will win the war. She cannot have vanilla sex and live with Pharmacist Phil in suburban Michigan. Sex is a means of self-discovery; Adam may treat Hannah's heart "like monkey meat," but there's something in that Bushwick rathole that Hannah very desperately needs--for her future. "Phil maybe doesn't have a fire burning under his ass, and you need that," says Loreen, with admirable precision. Back to Bushwick: Back to the "crack lady, who once talked to me for thirty minutes about walnuts. She thought I had them, and I said I didn't, so then she started grabbing my ass. She said she thought they were in my butt pocket, and I...." Does this make you think of Hannah and Elijah in Season Six? "You're the one who let the homeless lady into our apartment." "That lady was fun and you know it.")
-"Candy has been so great about all this Keri shit--but, listen, Plummy, your break is over now, yeah?" "Okay, Squirt.....OKAY? SQUIRT???"
-"You care about this show? That's YOUR cross to bear."
-"I'm gonna make you anything you need--we do NOT have soy milk--and then you and I are gonna have A Talk."
-This episode weirdly prefigures "Latching." In both cases, we have Loreen pushing Hannah toward the spot she needs to arrive at. The drama comes from Hannah's running away. Quite literally, in "Latching," she runs away; she wanders pantless through Poughkeepsie, or whatever town she has invaded. In "The Return," Hannah briefly tries on the mask of a person who would be comfortable on Jimmy's Pizza dates, at ill-advised "benefit concerts" for the vanished Keri, surrounded by images of mid-nineties Parker Posey and the Goo Goo Dolls. Loreen, in "Latching": "You can't un-friend your baby. You can't delete his phone number. This is one decision you can't take back." Loreen, in "The Return": "You need someone with fire under his ass." Oddly, these moments make me think of a friend ten years ago, who claimed to want me to move to Buffalo ("They have a great gay scene there!") but also pushed along my New York writing life in an odd way ("You wrote a new story? Is it bizarrely bitchy and embittered?" he once asked, with something that was not *not* affection.) Dunham's title--"The Return"--can be read as a reference to Hannah's trip to Michigan, but it can also be read as a reference to the episode's last minute, in which Hannah makes a figurative return to New York, to her destiny, to her tortured relationship with Adam. That seems, to me, to be the real, epochal "return" in these thirty minutes. I may continue to write about Season One--because I'm generally more interested in beginnings than in endings, and because I have an easier time understanding Goo Goo Dolls Hannah than New Mother Hannah. Or I may move on. We shall see. Happy Monday!
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