Simple People

Before I begin this blog I want to say thank you to my friend Vicky who has been the inspiration for my past three blogs and keeps saying things to me that are the subjects for my blogs. After a midnight chat she said the phrase "wouldn't it be nice if life was simple?" which got me thinking about the video below I had seen a few years back and the horror story I wrote called Til Death Do Us Part. So, thank you Vicky, my dear! It appears out midnight conversations spark inspiration for the two of us - me with my blog and her poetry which she also posting on her blog, which you can find here: http://vickyr2009.blogspot.co.uk/.

A little less than a year ago I came to the completion of - for want of a better word - novel called Til Death Do Us Part - my first bash at a horror novel set in the suburbs. It was heavily influenced by Richard Yates' fantastic novel, Revolutionary Road, and the spectacular score of Thomas Newman for the film which echoes memories of summer to me. The story is horror - the main theme being madness and the idea of people turning against one another - but it also looks at life and the dissatisfaction of it. The ultimate question - why can't life be simple? Why can't we all want simple things so then we will all be happy? 


A scene in the story - influenced by the Grey's Anatomy speech - is when the husband, Alastair, talks about his unhappiness with his life and how how he wished he wanted to want to conventional things that make people happy, make 'simple people' happy. He says:

“Thoughts simple people don’t get. You see, simple people are simple and they’re happy over simple things. They’re happy when their favourite drink is on sale. They’re happy to stay in with the woman they love and not consider anything else. They’re happy to live this life because they have everything they need. I’m not a simple person. I wish I was. I wish more than anything that I could simple. I want to be simple. Because no-one who is simple has the thoughts I have. They don’t look beyond and that’s all I do. Simple people are just happy and that’s it. They don’t need anything else. What they have is enough. I need more. Because I’m not simple. "

This is followed by another speech by the wife, Larisa, who looks back on her life and dreams of something more. She says:

“They don’t confuse things. They’re happy with the choices they’ve made, happy with the lives they have, they look on the bright side of everything. I don’t. I wish I did. I wish I could look at everything good in my life and be thankful for it. I wish I could accept the life I’ve been given, not worry about it being a comedy or a tragedy, not try and twist it around to suit what I want. I want to wake up in the morning and be happy with the sun shining. I want to look at things and not get angry over having seen them before. I want to not confuse things. I want to look at the now, not back or forward. Because if I do, if I turn into one of them, I’m sure I can be happy. But I worry I won’t. Worry I may never be happy. I can’t leave. I can’t stay. And sooner or later that choice is going to come and catch up with me.”

So I guess today's blog is about simplicity. The quotes from the story say all that is needed to say and all that is needed to think about. Right?