[ SECRET POST #4239 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4239 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.



__________________________________________________



02.
[2018 Chinese tv-drama Guardian]


__________________________________________________


03.
[Amy Adams in Sharp Objects]


__________________________________________________



04.
[Martian]


__________________________________________________



05.
[Castle Rock]


__________________________________________________



06.
[The Girl Next Door & Watching the Detectives]


__________________________________________________



07.
[Criminal Minds]







Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 35 secrets from Secret Submission Post #607.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

04. https://i.imgur.com/OsCnow5.png
[Martian]

[sparklywalls]

I read the book about a year before the film came out and iirc there's more of a sense of hopelessness at times in the book, probably easier to do so when the narration is coming from inside the character's head.

There's also a few more soul-crushing disasters that happen to him in the book. I thought it was funny that my husband (who hasn't read it) said "I really thought something would happen to the rover near that crater, that was such a tease!" towards the end of the film because something DOES happen in the original story! I guess for the film they decided they didn't want too many instances of what might feel like unrelenting misery?

[(Anonymous)]

I realise they can't fit everything in and they really did a great job with the film... but DAMN the book is so much better.

[sparklywalls]

Same thought here.

Though my feelings on the ending is massively in favour of the film. The book kinda ends abruptly and I did enjoy having a full-on happy ending where you get to see Mark back on Earth living a great life after everything he went through.

[(Anonymous)]

whenever I see someone saying stuff like this about the book, or talking about the amount of cussing in it, I remember the time I saw three 11 or 12 year old girls eagerly discussing what a great book it was, during coffee-and-cookie time after church service, and had a quiet "yes good" cackle to myself about it

[(Anonymous)]

maybe i worded the secret wrong but i didn't want more hopelessness, just a recognition of how perfect isolation like that could mess the human brain up big time

[(Anonymous)]

TBH I feel like, scientist or not, there's something a little bit desperately pathological edge about Watney's constant logs, and whole friendly joking vibe he does them in. He's talking to someone, imagining that someone is going to find the logs and hear them someday, to stave off that isolation - like a digital Wilson. And he manages/needs to keep working obsessively which keeps that coping mechanism from crumbling before he gets back in touch with Earth. And there's also the number of times he does get hurt, which I don't classify as self-harm but which might qualify as some form of less-than-super-healthy recklessness. The morbid jokes when he's doing stuff like digging up the nuclear heater kind of connect to all of that.

Also, worth noting that space agencies these days test really extensively for various kinds of psychological resilience as part of astronaut selection.

All in all, I definitely would have enjoyed a hallucination or two as well, but I find the story as told not to be beyond my suspension of disbelief in terms of Watney weathering the effects of isolation.

[(Anonymous)]

It didn't. The book had the exact same problem as the movie in this aspect of it.

[(Anonymous)]

It's interesting that you don't think it covered the impact of solitude, because i thought it was specifically about that.

SA

[(Anonymous)]

Not that you said it didn't cover it at all. You know what I mean.

[(Anonymous)]

i didn't get that impression at all. it seemed more about perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds and setback after setback (after all that is what the "moral of the story" is that he gives in his little speech at the end)

[(Anonymous)]

The film is like a snapshot of the book. It does a great job of capturing the jist of the book but it's not a patch on it.

[(Anonymous)]

The pacing of the movie didn't allow for a drawn-out recovery after he gets saved. In fact, the ending seemed incredibly rushed as it was. They treated the climax as the moment when Watney and Lewis reconnect above the surface of Mars. Then they cut to Watney back on Earth, like the 18-month trip back didn't happen, so they can give us the denouement on Earth. I can see why they made that decision, bc there'd be no real sense of him getting home until he was safely on Earth. But no, they didn't have an opportunity to explore his psychological recovery, a lot of which probably happened in that 18 months, but which would have totally killed the momentum/climax of the film.

[(Anonymous)]

I would have loved to see more of that journey home, personally.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

That's what fanfic is for.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I mean, sure, but even as an avid fanfic writer and reader, I still don't buy into the argument that fanfic is an equally satisfying solution to every missing segment of a story. When I said I would have liked to see it, I meant just that.

[(Anonymous)]

What I meant with the fanfic comment was: some things aren't appropriate for the primary medium because they don't fit, or they're outside the scope. This is a perfect example of that, imho.

The book didn't address his PTSD either, so that would have been added material, anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

I'd give him a least a little more leeway since he had something to do 100% of the time just to survive, so he didn't have much time to dwell on his isolation (which the book points out a few times, iirc), and also astronauts are definitely assessed and prepared for disaster scenarios including long-term isolation, so he's got a big advantage over a normal person. But I do get what you mean.

[(Anonymous)]

I love both the movie and the book. I love those vast unattainable landscapes and the sense of "we can almost live here if we're bloody careful and super-intelligent." I guess from his point of view, knowing the resources of an entire planet were directed towards getting him home would have helped, a bit like the Thai football team caught in the cave once they'd been found. And screening and training would've helped too, and maybe previous disasters like Apollo 13. But the whole "massively isolated" thing would have been so much bigger in real life. I kind of want a complete series now.

Also, I'm going to re-watch the movie tonight! Thank-you, anon!

[(Anonymous)]

I completely get that the situation is extreme, but honestly? Just being able to text/chat with my family and friends would be all the human contact I needed (/extreme introvert). Especially if I had to spend the majority of my time just trying to survive.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you read? Watch any form of media? They're all forms of human contact that the main character would not have had, at least not in abundance. It's a very different sort of isolation than just having no emotional connections, it's a complete cut-off from humanity. Creative personalities might have a better chance, but even then there's so much you can do with no outside influence, for ideas or fact checks or anything.

[sockes]

But we see the character do both of those things. He's explicitly shown both in the movie and the book going through the personal items his crewmates left behind and watching movies, listening to music, etc. I'm not sure how you're classifying "abundance," but he had at least seven hard drives worth of stuff to shift through.

[(Anonymous)]

Previous anon.
Exactly! Sounds like heaven. And I could finally write all those stories that have languished while I’ve been forced to work and occasionally pretend to enjoy the company of others.