You are an escape. You’re a break from our normal lives. You’re a parenthesis.
Alex (Vera Farmiga) to Ryan (George Clonney) when he realizes she’s got a whole family, not the inversion of himself with a vagina.
I might have finally cracked the name of the blog I owe the most credit to: a parenthetical departure
Sylvia’s blog is a passion project that became an escape for small thoughts, playful pages (I infer she’s an UI designer), and internet findings. What initially drew me in were the one-liners that felt like half-baked thoughts missing their main context. Most of them did seem to only make sense if they were within a parenthesis, while her living experience was what’s beyond the parentheses.
To Alex, Ryan was an extra to her meticulously structured life. She might not be home all the time, but she does have a settled life, contrary to what she tells Natalie (Anna Kendrick); although she never denies that’s what she ultimately wants, or has already. What was inside the parenthesis for Alex, was a relationship of pure fun and games, a distraction from regular life, the full plate. Ryan, on the other hand, realized too late that he wanted Alex to be a permanent addition rather than a temporary existence. The advocacy for an empty backpack, a lonely life, was indeed a philosophy and brand to convince himself that he belonged in the air, constantly departing from the main land.
When I think back on my use of parenthesis, I employ it for added humor, a side note or exclamations. Oftentimes, it is not of importance to the context, or else it’d be incorporated into the main text (which takes effort for coherent composition, so parentheses are the cheat code). The parenthesis, I realize can detract from the main clause, and disrupt the flow of the reading. So yes, like Alex, what’s in the parenthesis can be severed off like an afterthought, and Ryan should’ve known that earlier (shouldn’t game recognizes game?). Everyone needs a home to land at.
I’m a parenthesis?
Responds Ryan, over the phone.
Ryan’s character gets a taste of their company’s own medicine of being broken up over a device.