It’s not often that the short story, a more old-fashioned literary form, makes a splash in modern popular culture. But in December 2017, a fiction appeared in the newspaper. New Yorker became one of the magazine’s most read articles of the year.
“Cat Person” featured Margot, a young student, and Robert, an older man whose relationship takes off after a series of text messages and culminates in an awkward sexual encounter. Topics such as age difference, consent, and feeling responsible for other people’s feelings were discussed in a way that almost every woman reading could relate to in some way.
Beyond its obvious artistic merits (depth of character, clear prose, insightful observations), Cat Man’s online success is partly due to its timing – it captured the disillusioned, jaded, somewhat cynical mood of readers. It didn’t take long for the #MeToo movement to gain traction online; Sexual politics have been at the forefront of many people’s minds and have been the subject of many passionate discussions.
“Cat Man” set the Internet on fire. The then-unknown writer Kristen Roupenian became famous as a kind of prophetess of modern dating. Many people misinterpreted the story as a type of “personal essay” popular at the time (Roupenian insisted it was fiction, but in 2021 Alexis Novitsky published an article in the magazine slate claiming it was based on a true story from her own life without her consent, leading to yet another collective online crisis). Thousands of women praised his confession, hundreds of men called him “nonsense.”
Roupenian then received a million-dollar advance from her publisher, Scout Press, for a complete collection of stories. You know you want itwhich was released in 2019. As expected, Cat Man was still the best story – and the book proved that there is no great art in playing on the zeitgeist.
After the first few months of interest, “Cat Man” faded from memory, and Roupenian’s book did little to rekindle the flame. But the original phenomenon was reason enough to cancel the film rights – and now, six years later, the time has come: cat lover, Film directed by Suzanne Vogel (author Smart book and director The spy who abandoned me) and starring ContinuityNicholas Braun as Robert and newcomer Emilia Jones as Margot.
This is not the kind of material that can easily be covered in a full two hours. The original focuses on Margot’s inner monologue and very little happens: she meets Robert, they text each other, eventually meet and have sex, and then break up. So, as expected, the cheesy atmosphere and recognizable nuances of Cat Man simply don’t translate to the big screen.
But mostly Cat lover stays true to the source material, right down to the emojis Robert sends in response to some of Margot’s messages. This fleshes out the characters a bit (Robert is a confident guy here). war of the stars Fan and Margot have a strained relationship with her mother), but the main creative freedom lies in the depiction of Margot’s fear, disgust and ambivalence towards Robert, who in the story is actually a vessel for Margot’s own projection of her self-image. like yourself – in moments of fear in horror films.
For example, when Robert asks her out on their first date, Margot imagines Robert strangling her in the car, and this is what happens on the screen in front of us. The idea is that it gives the rest of their interactions an eerie coldness, just like it does in Margot’s mind – and it does, but it’s a shame that Robert is influenced by Margot’s fears while the main plot is one of ambiguous . is. .
In a way, you can see the logic behind this: from her point of view, the original story is almost cruel, a technique aimed at exposing the pitfalls of seeing oneself through another person’s eyes (a “fantasy of one” pure ego). that she could hardly believe it). she told herself that she had it,” as Rupenyan wrote). But by upping the stakes and drama, the film undermines the usual angst that made the story so interesting.
Where Cat lover achieves success thanks to his grotesque physicality. He contrasts the ugly, melodramatic horror playing out in Margot’s head with the very real horror of her physical interaction with Robert, namely the worst kiss ever filmed in film history, and the hours between her fingers, real-time sex. The scene in which Margot withdraws from her body. In the story, Roupenian writes that after sex, Margot “felt like a snail on which he had poured salt,” the same feeling one gets from an observer noticing slippery tongues, bodies hitting bedposts, and bodies being observed by Robert. postcoital fawn. Either way, you’ll need some extra salt to ease your pain.
All of this highlights one of the most interesting aspects of this story: the difference between relationships online and in real life; how your own self-esteem can be distorted when viewed through a screen. Sex is inherently aggressive, emotional, and almost incredibly different from the light banter in Margot and Robert’s text messages. On their cell phones, they see each other watching them and inhale the results—Margot thinks she’s sexy and young, and Robert thinks she’s caring and knowledgeable—like a heady high. In the sex scene, Margot sees herself for the first time (in the film, she appears as a ghost over her own head; in the story, she thinks, “This is the worst life decision I’ve ever made!”). looks at the situation objectively.
But while all of this adds to the story’s appeal, the film improves or expands upon it very little. After the initial ending – with Margot dumping Robert and him later sending her a series of frantic messages that end with a message that simply reads “Whore” – the film devolves into an absurdist coda that is a horror-movie precursor to its hooks. illogical ending. Margot has become so paranoid that Robert is stalking her that she goes to his house, where a confrontation and then a physical altercation occurs. It takes all the zeitgeist elements of the original and amplifies them to the extreme, meaning the truly human elements are left out.
One of the main problems with Cat lover is that it is full of superficial observations and insults the audience by explaining that women spend most of their interactions with men feeling anxious and uncomfortable, and men have no idea. The opening quote from Margaret Atwood is, “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them.” On the screen you can see “Women are afraid that men will kill them” – if anyone sees this, then this is an original story. Unless he has read it, which seems unlikely, he will have no doubt about the underlying message.
The filmmakers may have tried to maintain a 2017 feel, but as discussions about feminism have changed since then, the film feels dated. In any case, the audience does not have the opportunity to interpret the film for themselves, which was the reason for making the film. New Yorker The story’s broad appeal.
There are references to doing things “for the love of women”, potential suitors being “tall, dark and troubled”, and many thinly veiled allegories about colonies of female ants. A generous view might be that some of this is a tongue-in-cheek nod to the internet vernacular of the time (Margot Taylor’s best friend, named Tamara in the original story, moderates a feminist subreddit), but the more obvious themes are intertwined with what clearly appears to be an extended comment is intended to address gender dynamics. It’s not that they’re not true—again, the feeling of not wanting to feel bad on a date or knowing that you’re putting yourself in danger after meeting someone is very real for many women—but they are. Therefore, it’s a shame to sit in the audience, take a reference and know that the filmmakers think that you didn’t do it.
In a way it’s ironic Cat lover so concerned about the pitfalls of how online personas can mislead a person’s true nature. The story had a huge resonance online because of its mystery, nuance, and supposed compatibility with our own lives. We were all very excited about our first offline date, but in real life things are different.
Source: I News
I am Mario Pickle and I work in the news website industry as an author. I have been with 24 News Reporters for over 3 years, where I specialize in entertainment-related topics such as books, films, and other media. My background is in film studies and journalism, giving me the knowledge to write engaging pieces that appeal to a wide variety of readers.