Note: this post was inspired by me being a lot less disturbed by ‘Black Swan’ than most people I know.
I finally gave in and saw Black Swan. I’m still not 100% on Darren Aronofsky’s obsession with damaged women. Some days I think he might be a modern-day Tennessee Williams, compassionately observing women’s self-torment. Other days I’m not so sure. But the buzz, I just can’t resist the buzz. And Plato, of course — swans, ponies, whatevs; the chariot of the soul can be driven by black and white badgers for all I care.
And yup, that movie blowed up real good. You can’t fault DA for his filmmaking; the visuals are arresting, the detail is beautifully observed, yadda yadda Oscar-worthy yadda. Black Swan is less harrowing than Requiem for a Dream (what isn’t?) but still disturbing — unless you’ve kind of seen something like it before. Driven creative types tormenting themselves to reach the pinnacle of an arcane art that nobody really understands or cares about. Ambitious personalities in a grueling competition for ‘high-stakes’, low-respect jobs. Psycho-sexual tensions with creepy old European mentor figures…wait, maybe that’s only a problem in certain disciplines.
He's totally inviting her up to see his Goethe offprint.
Here’s a summary of the movie in case you’ve been locked in bunker somewhere: Nina the ballerina (Natalie Portman) tortures herself to be perfect. She wakes up at night to practice her en pointe. She starves and mutilates her already-frail body. All terribly ironic because what her director fears is that she, being type A++, will dance the White Swan perfectly but will not be able to channel the seductive and wild Black Swan. ‘Perfection isn’t about always being in control,’ he reminds her, calling her a coward as she trembles before him. Enter Lily (Mila Kunis), the cheeseburger-snarfing, chain-smoking bad girl of the ballet company, whom the director assigns to be Nina’s understudy. You can already see where this is going, no?
There’s an expression Portman nails, a really scary combination of ruthless ambition and all-consuming fear. It’s the face of somebody wanting something desperately, yet constantly worrying that they are not good enough, always running through the rules in their head just to make sure they know everything. Nina is perfectionism personified, and we only hope she’ll get over it in time to be truly brilliant.
Fear is the mind killer.
Rules were also a theme of Lev Grossman’s Magicians, a book foisted on me by multiple academics, all of whom told me it was ‘just like grad school.’ Yes, it was: it perfectly describes how intensive rote learning will kill your love of even the coolest subject. But like Black Swan, The Magicians had a sense of what you could achieve with the rules once you’d internalized them. To be able to freestyle, to innovate, to apply them to new situations — that is the point of mindless memorization. The rules themselves are not the end goal. This is all too easy to forget if you’re a) a perfectionist, b) surrounded by perfectionists, or c) part of work culture that prizes perfectionism. Perfectionism is an evil beast that likes having rules to flagellate people with.
One of my undergraduate friends claimed my Latin translations were ‘magic’. They certainly weren’t; it was just that mathematical adherence to every cotton-picking rule was not the foremost issue in my mind. And I never dreamed of anything like perfection. Making the words make sense is the only goal. Pragmatism is the ultimate foil for perfectionism.
Maybe someone should write a ballet about the Ivory Tower; at their worst, academics hiss and snap at each other like prissy ballerinas or indignant swans. (Swans really are nasty creatures, if you’ve never met one.) The point of cultural criticism or history is that civilization’s most prized rules are often arbitrary; yet perfectionists (who tend towards careers like academia) have trouble admitting this general rule might apply to their own rules.
This could be you.
Obviously, I’ve missed out on obsessive perfectionism (a big thanks to my non-insane parents there), but I’ve seen a lot of it in my life. So I’m very glad that Darren Aronofsky showed it as the pathological condition that it is. It’s a good movie anyway, and for those of you on the job market it is possibly the only thing that will make you feel better about your personal hell. The level of competition and hatred is about the same, but grueling workouts and starvation make ballet just that touch worse.
And that’s it, no more thinky movies. Today I’m seeing $#@! Tron. Or maybe even Burlesque. Take that, perfectionism!
Your posts have been so spot-on for everything I’ve been going through in graduate school. For now, I still want to continue on the academic path, but I appreciate the ideas about protecting time and combatting perfectionism–all things I’ve been wanting to implement in my own life. Thanks for providing some sanity in an insane academic world.
You’re welcome, and thanks for reading. Though I feel nervous that anyone is calling me a voice of sanity…
“Maybe someone should write a ballet about the Ivory Tower; at their worst, academics hiss and snap at each other like prissy ballerinas or indignant swans. (Swans really are nasty creatures, if you’ve never met one.) The point of cultural criticism or history is that civilization’s most prized rules are often arbitrary; yet perfectionists (who tend towards careers like academia) have trouble admitting this general rule might apply to their own rules.”
They could … but the problem is … will anyone see it? is it that interesting like the work produced by scholars? no. it’s not. thus, it isn’t interesting unless it’s as seductive as the graduate?
Uh, I have to disagree that the work produced by scholars is interesting. Though I’d agree that the academic life might be better expressed in a movie, or as I’ve suggested elsewhere, an FX series. Then you might get that Graduate feeling in…
Well, the first step is admitting you have a problem, right? I am one of those perfectionist academics, but I try not really hard to foist those expectations on my students. Yes, their papers need to come in on time, but I do not flagellate them if they splice a few commas (unless they ask to be flagellated… but I digress).
I appreciate your blog as well, and I have to say I feel like you have the makings of a book yourself – filled with practical advice on how not to implode in the crazy-making world of academia. Add that to your “to do” list.
Wait, you probably don’t even do lists. Oh, to be you, WoPro.
Well, you bring up an interesting paradox: I believe it is a teacher’s job to maintain high standards, i.e. not to give an A for B work. That is kind of perfectionist, I suppose, but I think it’s just as important to impart the lesson that a B is totally fine and that living a happy life means going for a B in most arenas and knowing when it’s truly important to get an A. Same goes for self-flagellation — fine to admit you’ve done a B job, because requiring yourself to be an A all the time will make you crazy.
Well, thanks. I actually wrote a book already (though it’s not fully edited yet), and it’s meant to be satirical essays…but who knows, you gotta go with what the market tells you, right?
And au contraire, I’m an obsessive list-maker, but I’ve learned that you never finish everything on the list. I guess if you do it’s one of those rare A moments? Very important life lesson.
“I believe it is a teacher’s job to maintain high standards, i.e. not to give an A for B work. That is kind of perfectionist, I suppose, but I think it’s just as important to impart the lesson that a B is totally fine and that living a happy life means going for a B in most arenas and knowing when it’s truly important to get an A.”
Well said!
I teach, and I do maintain high standards in the classroom. I expect them to consistently show, and consistently do good work, if they want an A or B. Good point, though, about a B being a fine thing to strive for, sometimes. We cannot have everything, sometimes we have to choose between two worthwhile things. I think raising young people to believe they can do “anything they set their minds to” is a mistake.
I love your writing style. Kudos to you for doing what you’ve done. I can just imagine how many people wagged their finger at you when they learned that you were planning to leave!
Oh, yes, the ‘having it all’ myth has now infected everybody like a spore, creating an entire generation without time-management skills — after all, if you don’t choose between activities, you’ll never do a A job on anything. It’s infuriating, because I think this is what leads people to think that asking for A work is somehow unrealistic or completely unachievable. Not so, but you have to choose to put in the time and energy.
Thanks, and actually academics are a lot more passive aggressive than that. Not so much finger wagging, but clucking and ‘well, at least we have jobs’. Ugh!
I really enjoyed this post! Being a movie lover myself, I really liked how you drew out key themes and related them to life. I am on the job market, have perfectionist tendencies and used to dance ballet so this may be worth watching – although I am a scaredy cat.
Admittedly, there have been a lot of Tweets about people having nightmares after seeing this movie. I didn’t have that problem myself, but maybe see it during the day so it’s light when you get outside?
Every academic should read The Paradox of Choice.
I haven’t read that one but I enjoyed Nudge, which is also about choice and choice architecture.
I’m always telling my writing students that “perfection is the enemy of art,” but rarely following up with “and if you don’t believe me, come tour my graveyard of destroyed endeavors.”
I’m intrigued by Black Swan, but have an involuntary recoil reaction to Aranofsky after Requiem For A Dream. Extraordinarily beautiful movie; never, ever want to see it again. Although, now Aranofsky’s directing the next Wolverine installment, so either he’s going mainstream, or Wolverine is about to be plunged into a personal hell of alienation, doubt and self-loathing, facing the greatest villain of all: his own mind.
Byronic? Deliberately cultivating the namesake? Oh, dear.
I had the exact same fear, and in fact skipped every other DA movie after seeing Requiem for a Dream. It really isn’t as bad, IMHO, largely because it’s very metaphorical. Or maybe I’ve just grown callous, I don’t know.
Re: perfectionism, Sol Saks says that whatever you write is always better than what you don’t write.
I’m intrigued and now feel I must see Black Swan, esp. after reading this bit of your review: “Driven creative types tormenting themselves to reach the pinnacle of an arcane art that nobody really understands or cares about. Ambitious personalities in a grueling competition for ‘high-stakes’, low-respect jobs. ” How much closer to academia can you get, minus the tight bodies??
It’s a very beautiful movie in many ways, and frankly if you’ve seen the crazy perfectionism before I really think you’re going to be less upset than many viewers! If you see it, let us know what you think!
I’m totaly intrigued about this film but no-one I know wants to see it (those I’ve asked are all connected to academia) Why? Not because the film is connected with ballet but really, as they’ve said themselves, becuase they know that they’re recognise themselves as the ambitious personalities in grueling competition…for high stakes/low respect jobs.
Okay, let me get this straight: they’re completely admitting they have a problem, but their solution is to avoid reflections of it art? That’s is both ineffectual and sad. Why not see the movie yourself? I gave up trying to get my academic friends to see movies since they never had the time, and just started going to whatever I wanted to see myself.
I saw it yesterday and thought it was a powerful film. The people with me either liked it and thought it was well done or really, really hated it. I felt completely immersed in the movie throughout and disturbed, of course. I knew it wouldn’t have a happy ending. To me the movie was about perfectionism and unhealthy mother-daughter relationships. If I hear the words “sweet girl” again anytime soon I’m going to run away screaming!!
Yes, so creepy, and poor Barbara Hershey! Again, I wonder what DA’s obsession with plastic surgery is! Why did the haters hate it, might I ask? I get several hits a day from ‘black swan sucks’ and I’m puzzled. I understand if you don’t like it, but it’s still pretty darned good filmmaking — and I hate pretentious cinema types myself. I was kind of irritated that I liked it, to be honest.
PS-This was far easier to sit through, and much less disturbing, than Requiem for a Dream.
Right? At a certain point, Requiem wasn’t even about enjoyment, it was about the grim determination to see it all the way through!
I had the same reaction to Black Swan. I was disturbed, but not as disturbed as others seemed to be because it all seemed so familar in a twisted strange way. Loved it!
I really enjoyed it too, despite the darkness…but sad how familiar it was!
Just found your blog, and am currently sifting through the posts and thinking about what you have to say.
I’ve been waffling about seeing Black Swan, but your post here makes it sound like something I should see. My admittedly perverse love of academentia is rooted in that whole striving for perfection thing that appealed to me since I was (no exaggeration here) eight years old. I continue to romanticize the harshest bits, precisely because they are harsh. But I’m also learning that I’ll probably never actually be perfect, and that I can be okay with that, sometimes.
Shorter version: Even though my approach to my work places me squarely into the category of people who drove you nuts when you were a practicing Worst Prof, I am enjoying the hell out of your posts, and looking forward to getting a chance to read through them.
Thanks, and thanks for visiting. I’ve heard of your site but have yet to visit — now I have a good reason to go on over. And yes, see the movie, it’s very beautiful….and maybe it will make you rethink the romance of perfectionism?!
“Driven creative types tormenting themselves to reach the pinnacle of an arcane art that nobody really understands or cares about. Ambitious personalities in a grueling competition for ‘high-stakes’, low-respect jobs. ”
Very well stated, and if only “Black Swan” stuck to this (and had a different director), this might have been a good or even great movie for me. I found myself wondering if this was the original script and DA just HAD to tack on an over-the-top, sophmoric portrayal of psychosis to this compelling theme.
This director strikes me as a con man — just enough interesting truth and emotion to compel the viewer, but there is a base manipulation going on underneath it all. Instead of striving to lead the viewer to some greater understanding of the human condition, he’s hammering us over the head with pop psychology and very cheap emotions. To me, it read like a humorous horror movie with art house pretentions–truly a god-awful combination.Finally, it struck me that the movie came dangerously close to conflating “perfectionism” and “psychosis”, inflating an already overblown stereotype into a clumsy cartoon—insulting to real artists of all stripes.
Perhaps I’m being unfair to the director and his intentions are much more pure–I can’t be much more sympathetic if he is merely confused and inept.
Mark my words, in a few years the actors, who so committed themselves to this movie, are going to watch it again and cringe.
I’m not too concerned about director’s intentions, and years of teaching have made me wary of demands for Subtle Art (really and truly, most people aren’t going to ‘get’ it anyway). I agree DA has a problem with holding back, but the psychosis part didn’t seem as far gone to me as to others…then again, I have seen it in spades.
Add me to the list of those who saw it, enjoyed it, and found it less intense than Requiem. I suspect that seeing Requiem for a Dream makes the Black Swan viewing experience far easier (if only in contrast).
I agree, so the question becomes, do you tell people to just see Requiem so they get that you’re not an insane psycho for not being upset??
Someone should write a ballet about movies that suck like “Black Swan.”
Why not do it yourself. ‘Cause it must be easy to make something really great, right?