Log 18
Writer movies for inspiration: Julie & Julia (2009) and its many literature-involved characters
Listening to: Ain’t Got No, I Got Life (Live in London, 1968) by Nina Simone
Every month, I unconsciously sit in front of the laptop, type some streaming URL and watch a movie dedicated to journalism, literary writers or documentaries/biographies of writers in general.
In this city where culture isn't lovingly studied and appreciated, but rather traditionally and blindly lived, lacking in progress and modernity, any person who loves and wants to make a living through the arts can get stunted. It happens more often than I would like.
Next week the Favorite Son studying medicine in Cebu will have finally graduated. He'll be moving here to work in the city's public hospital for a year. M, our maid, who almost cannot leave the home with all that’s asked of her, was asked to go to Cebu to fix Favorite Son's things and papers for his transition here. I know I'll never have this kind of support and/or attention. Truthfully, I just want to be left alone. Even that they couldn't give me. What a sad life I have that I long for something as detrimental as neglect.
But the arts get me by. This little blog I have, the tiny scribblings I do now and again, my submissions which I always feel embarrassed about, they help. Of all the arts, movies and songs are most accessible for me. We'll be concentrating on a movie for this log.
Julie & Julia
If I were being truly honest with myself, in my heart of hearts, the kind of confession I’m too scared to even write down in my journal, but I’m only finding the courage now as I’m typing this… the kind of writer I want to be is a blog writer. A paid one. Then I could read my surroundings, and in turn, the world, without worrying about my next meal or paying some life necessity. I'd not be anxious of submitting to publications too; they always make feel me a bit off.
I don't believe "the age of blogging" has passed. Being an active blogger on Blogger, WordPress and Medium before— I don’t write there but still visit often for their amazing content— a lot of bloggers are still gaining good traffic from the topics they write about. It's most apparent here as well, on Substack. People do get by with blogging. I still have hope that I'll reach that level.
Julie Powell got her big break from blogging during the early 2000s. That was Blogging's heyday. Her blog soon turned into a book and then eventually a well-loved movie starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Stanley Tucci. To us living far away from the U.S.A., it was our first introduction to chef and U.S.A. cultural icon Julia Child. She was an author of a book too and an avid pen pal.
Now, this is a 13-year old movie and well-loved at that. It’s filled with famous people, both modern and historical. So, I’ll spare you the review of the movie itself. But watching this again, it truly just dawned on me how almost all the characters worked in the writing/publishing business. Or, very much entrenched with the act and process of writing.
So let me list them down.
The Writers:
Julie Powell
One of the first famous bloggers I know. She has two blogs: the blog that made her famous: The Julie/Julia Project which I managed to find archived here; and, her personal blog, http://juliepowell.blogspot.com/
Julia Child
Chef, Television host (even before the feminist movement), Author, Julia Child was also an avid letter writer to her long-time pen pal.
Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle
2/3 of the trio authors for Mastering the Art of French Cooking, both were accomplished chefs, teachers, and authors like Child.
Irma Rombauer
Making the briefest appearance in the movie (played by Frances Sternhagen) was Irma Rombauer, author of “one of the world’s most widely read cookbooks,” The Joy of Cooking.
The Epistolers:
Paul Child
Paul Child, widely known solely as “Julia Child’s Husband,” was a diplomat and photographer. He was also poet and constant letter writer to his twin brother, Charles.
Avis DeVoto
Long time pen pal of Julia Child, DeVoto and Child exchanged over a hundred letters which was compelled into a book.
The Editors:
Eric Powell
Julie Powell’s husband. Editor of Archeology Magazine in both the movie and in real life.
Judith Jones
Legendary U.S. editor and writer Judith Jones was known for editing Child’s Mastering and The Diary of Anne Frank
There was a time when I had this kind of writing life. A time when I was surrounded with creatives, aspiring classmates hoping beyond hope that their works be published. A time when our professors, mentors all, in pedestals of awards, honor and recognition.
Two or more years into the pandemic, here I am, away from those wonderful people. I don’t know a writer here and the only publicly known and seen artist here has an illegal spot beside a KFC sidewalk, his art sprawled on urban concrete.
Hope glows, though, whenever I remember Flannery O’Connor’s conviction to stay in the American South. They say, in terms of place, a writer may do one of two things: Like James Baldwin, flee from the place you were from and write about that setting from afar. Or, like O’Connor, choose to stay within the place where you draw your stories from, be a constant observer of things, its peoples and norms. Forcedly, I’m on the O’Connor route for now. It doesn’t seem too unfortunate though. Or rather, I will it not to be.
Dire though my situation seem, my stories still spring forth from here, from my family and this city. Like Julie and Julia, my life right now is a movie of sorts [melodramatic tone]. I’m still at it, still writing. Hopefully, this long and arduous chapter will come to a close and I’ll have an ending like Julia’s, in a bright kitchen full of love, with a published work, and with a good man, ever supporting and rooting for me always.