Introduction

                             Welcome to Stuart Fernie’s Blog

Please scroll down or find on the right links to articles, pages of reflections on films and books, and occasional pieces of short fiction.

Articles include advice and questions to assist in the writing of essays about films, thoughts on Proportion and Self-respect, "The Offence", "Trainspotting", "Three Days of the Condor", "Spotlight", "Good Night and Good Luck", "The Count of Monte Cristo" (French version, 2024), "Midnight Express", Jason Bourne, Advocating Arts and Humanities, "Heaven's Gate", "Civil War", "The Ghost and Mrs Muir", "Ad Astra", Duality in 19th century literature, "Living", "Hell in the Pacific", "Point Blank", "Vera Cruz", "Dr Strange in the Multiverse", my interpretation of "Il faut cultiver notre jardin", "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources", "Drive my car", "The Batman", the place of acting in society, thoughts about religion and fate, "The Banshees of Inisherin", "Full Metal Jacket", "The Bishop's Wife", "Moliere", "Les Fleurs du Mal", "Soylent Green", "Bad Day at Black Rock", "The First Great Train Robbery", The Dreyfus Affair, "Persona", "The Seventh Seal", "A Clockwork Orange", "Night Moves", "Lonely are the Brave", "In the heat of the night", "The League of Gentlemen" (1960), thoughts on the nature of film noir, "Star Trek", "Seven Days in May", "Dead Poets Society", "Good Will Hunting", "Callan", "The Hill", "Cool Hand Luke", "The Hustler", "Road to Perdition", "The Verdict", "Three Colour Trilogy", "Jojo Rabbit", "Jeremiah Johnson", "Collateral", "Joker", "Barry Lyndon", "The Bridge at Remagen", "Le Mans '66 (Ford v Ferrari)", Charles Foster Kane ("Citizen Kane"), "The Deer Hunter", "Highlander", "No Country for Old Men", "Gattaca", "The Adventures of Robin Hood"(1938), "Apocalypse Now", "Spartacus", "The Bridge on the River Kwai", "The Long Good Friday", "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", "The Third Man", "Finding Forrester", "The Outlaw Josey Wales", "Untouchable" (2011),"Unforgiven", "The Manchurian Candidate", "The Wild Bunch", "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", "Papillon" (1973), "Public Eye", "Existentialism in society today", "Seven Samurai", "It's a Wonderful Life", "Don Quixote", "We're No Angels", "The African Queen", "Babette's Feast", "War for the Planet of the Apes", "Dunkirk", “Dances With Wolves”, “Inherit The Wind” and “The Prisoner”. 

A link to my YouTube channel with video presentations of a number of my pages.

After I retired from teaching, I thought I’d write my memoirs, “What have I done?”, and present them online. Please find links to these memoirs, some French support pages and reflections on "Les Miserables" below.

I can be contacted through the comments sections or at stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk

Other blogs available:

French Support Pages

Discussion of “Les Misérables”

Tales of teaching – memoirs of a former French teacher

All intellectual property rights reserved

Proportion and self-respect through insignificance and equality

 

Rough thoughts on proportion and self-respect through recognition of 

insignificance and equality

Pressure to do everything perfectly and appease others may begin as external but will quickly become internal. This striving for perfection in order to please or satisfy others may create anxiety, overthinking, overplanning and may lead to self-inflicted imperfections and perceived inadequacies, occasioning disappointment in how one is perceived by others and confirming a sense of failure in oneself. Seeking and focusing on minor defects and self-doubt rather than positive outcomes can engender feelings of personal incompetence, inevitability and catastrophising.

All of this is predicated upon the concept of the significance of one’s actions to others, a significance that is often out of all proportion with reality. Most interaction with others is transitory, often transactional, and rarely of any lasting significance.

The desire or need to please or impress everyone you meet is nonsense - people generally use one another to simply get by in life. Most people you meet will be unimportant to you, just as you will be inconsequential to most people you meet – the impression you make will not be retained by most, and even if it is, so what? Why should their thoughts be important to you? Will you remember these people in the future? You need to get people and their actions and reactions in proportion so that you do not allow a fundamentally insignificant interaction and a desire to please to take on a value and significance they do not warrant. This exaggeration may lead to an unmerited attribution of superiority to others and an equally undeserved sense of personal inferiority. Treat others with respect and be polite but there is no need for anxiety – nature’s rules apply to us all equally and you have no reason to assume others’ superiority or your own inferiority. You may not know them, they are unlikely to mean anything to you and, in any case, based on fleeting and relatively unimportant encounters, they are unlikely to remember you, just as you need not remember them.

Significance and worth should be weighed up and not be assigned automatically – do not be swayed by position or reputation, but rather consider what others say and do and, using balanced and reasonable judgement, attach the value you think appropriate. Wisdom may come from even the lowest echelons of life, just as ineptness and ignorance may spring forth from those in authority and power.

Nor should you allow yourself to be swayed by the confidence of others. Confidence does not necessarily imply ability or validity, indeed overconfident and highly assured people may lack the intelligence or will to recognise their own weaknesses, failings or poor judgement, so do not assume inferiority to someone who merely projects confidence. Bear in mind also that this confidence may even be a façade to obscure their own feelings of inadequacy.

Be yourself. If others take something positive from your presence or contribution, that is good but it is up to them, not you. You are not obliged to seek their approval. If you get on well with someone and the relationship is natural and unforced, then this is a solid basis for future development. If a relationship is forced and unnatural, ultimately this is likely to cause friction and it will fail. There is no need for anxiety as you don’t need to set out to appease others. Be respectful, give praise where it is due but be willing to recognise what you consider to be failings in others as well.

Do not try to adapt to others’ company beyond the norms of politeness and respect. In so doing, you may be debasing yourself. It is essential to maintain self-respect if a relationship is to have any lasting value. Bear in mind that we are all in the same position. We all share fleeting interactions, moments and memories, and we should treat one another with proportionate respect, and that includes ourselves.

You do things on your own terms. You can only be yourself, not a puppet to please others, and it is only by being yourself that your contribution will have value and you will gain self-respect. There is no need for anxiety as you are expressing and pleasing yourself. Do not be unnecessarily hard on yourself and recognise your own worth, just as you are willing to recognise the worth of others.

 

My thanks for taking the time to read these notes. I hope you found them of some value.

Stuart Fernie (stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk)

 

BLOG                                                   YouTube