Gillian Flynn

We were the first human beings who would never see anything for the first time. We stare at the wonders of the world, dull-eyed, underwhelmed. Mona Lisa, the Pyramids, the Empire State Building. Jungle animals on attack, ancient icebergs collapsing, volcanoes erupting. I can’t recall a single amazing thing I have seen firsthand that I didn’t immediately reference to a movie or TV show. A fucking commercial. You know the awful singsong of the blasé: Seeeen it. I’ve literally seen it all, and the worst thing, the thing that makes me want to blow my brains out, is: The secondhand experience is always better. The image is crisper, the view is keener, the camera angle and the soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality can’t anymore. I don’t know that we are actually human at this point, those of us who are like most of us, who grew up with TV and movies and now the Internet. If we are betrayed, we know the words to say; when a loved one dies, we know the words to say. If we want to play the stud or the smart-ass or the fool, we know the words to say. We are all working from the same dog-eared script.
 It’s a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless Automat of characters.
 And if all of us are play-acting, there can be no such thing as a soul mate, because we don’t have genuine souls.
 It had gotten to the point where it seemed like nothing matters, because I’m not a real person and neither is anyone else.
 I would have done anything to feel real again.

3 thoughts on “Gillian Flynn

  1. shinichi Post author

     ’People judging everything you do without even knowing you. Like you with the cell phone photo at the park. I mean, you were probably like me: You were raised to be polite. But no one wants the real story. They just want to . . . gotcha. You know?’
     ‘I’m just tired of people judging me because I fit into a certain mold.’
     She raised her eyebrows; her earrings jittered.

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  2. shinichi Post author

    Gone Girl (film)

    Plot

    On their fifth wedding anniversary, writing teacher Nick Dunne returns home to find his wife Amy missing. Her disappearance receives press coverage, as Amy was the inspiration for her parents’ popular Amazing Amy children’s books. Detective Rhonda Boney finds poorly concealed evidence of a struggle in the house. Suspicion mounts around Nick, whose apathy is interpreted by the media as characteristic of a sociopath and even sows doubt in his twin sister Margo.

    Flashbacks reveal how Amy and Nick first met. Amy later revealed to Nick that Amazing Amy was a perfected version made up of the real Amy’s failures. Their marriage disintegrated over time; both lost their jobs in the recession and moved from New York City to Nick’s hometown of North Carthage, Missouri. Nick became lazy and distant and began cheating on Amy with Andie Fitzgerald, one of his students.

    Forensic analysis of the house uncovers cleaned bloodstains, indicating a probable murder. Boney unearths evidence of financial troubles, domestic disputes, and Amy’s recent willingness to purchase a gun. Medical reports indicate that Amy is pregnant, of which Nick denies knowledge. Amy and Nick had played treasure hunt games on every wedding anniversary; this year’s clues include profligate items purchased with Nick’s card, as well as a diary highlighting Amy’s growing isolation and ominously ending with the fear that Nick will kill her.

    Amy is revealed to be alive and well, having changed her appearance and gone into hiding in a campground in the Ozarks. Upon discovering Nick’s affair, she concocted an elaborate plan to punish him by framing him for her murder and making the motive seem to be money. She fabricated a long-standing diary that was accurate in its early entries but later evolved into false accounts of spousal violence and her increasing fear of Nick. She befriended a pregnant neighbor, told her fake stories about Nick’s temper, and stole her urine for the pregnancy test. She planted corroborating evidence of Nick’s guilt in the clue spots for the “treasure hunt” for the police to find. Before disappearing, she drained her own blood, splattered it across the kitchen, and cleaned it haphazardly. She anticipated that Nick would be convicted and executed for her murder and contemplated committing suicide after his conviction.

    Nick deduces Amy’s plan and convinces Margo of his innocence. He flies to New York and meets Tanner Bolt, a lawyer known for representing men accused of killing their wives. Nick also meets Amy’s ex-boyfriend Tommy O’Hara, who says that Amy had falsely accused him of rape, planting evidence around his house and forcing him to register as a sex offender to avoid jail. Nick approaches another ex-boyfriend, the wealthy Desi Collings, against whom Amy previously filed a restraining order, but Desi refuses to share any details.

    When Amy’s campground neighbors rob her of her money, she calls Desi for help, convincing him that she ran away from Nick’s abuse. Desi agrees to hide her in his lake house. After Andie reveals their affair at a press conference, Nick appears on a talk show professing his innocence and apologizing for his failures as a husband, in the hope of luring Amy. The show airs shortly before the treasure hunt clues land Nick arrested for murder. However, his performance rekindles Amy’s feelings for him and modifies her plans. She uses Desi’s surveillance cameras to her advantage, making it appear that Desi kidnapped and raped her. She seduces Desi, murders him with a box cutter, and returns home covered in his blood, clearing Nick of suspicion.

    When Boney probes into the holes in her story, Amy chastises her as incompetent. The FBI sides with Amy, forcing Boney to back down. Amy tells Nick the truth, saying that the man she watched pleading for her return on TV is the man she wants him to become again. Nick shares this with Boney, Bolt, and Margo, but they cannot prove Amy’s guilt.

    Nick intends to leave Amy, but she reveals she is pregnant, having inseminated herself with Nick’s sperm stored at a fertility clinic. Nick reacts violently to Amy’s insistence that they remain married, but feels responsible for the child. Despite Margo’s objections, he reluctantly decides to stay with Amy. The “happy” couple announces on television that they are expecting.

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