Tuesday, November 23, 2010

What makes you cry?


Do you cry at Movies or Books?

I confess to being lachrymose, I cry at anything. It does not take much to get me to “fill up”

Take for instance last night I watched a movie about soccer. Would that make you cry – bring it on Margaret – where are the tissues. I am a sucker for all that baloney. I just can’t help it. Sentimental, moi? Of course.

Believe me, I take after my Dad. He was a “cry baby” too. We used to go the pictures (movies) on a Wednesday and a Saturday; you can bet we both shed a tear. We liked Horse and dog films, guaranteed to weep buckets.

John and I spent a Christmas in Cyprus. For the first time EVER we put our dog, Nell, in a kennel while we were away. You know what, we were daft enough to watch Lassie Come Home…oh the sobs across that warm Cypriot night. People were closing their balcony doors.

I can remember age seventeen and trying to be cool on the bus – going to work, dressed in my finest, reading a book by a famous British author called “A J Cronin. The book was “The Citadel” the hero’s lovely wife is run over and killed. Bucketfuls, mascara everywhere. How embarrassing. For the next week I didn’t take the bus but walked to the office. Three-mile walk, no easy job in stilettos, let me tell you.

But you know what - I enjoy it. Book, film, TV drama – and don’t get me started on real life. Goodness, people come and tell me their troubles, knowing they are going to get a full-blown reaction. And do I actually cry at my own stories? Well of course, come on if the author doesn’t cry it’s darn tooting the reader won’t!

9 comments:

  1. Oh Margaret! What a great blog post. It's not that I don't sympathise - I do - but the tales of your tears made me laugh!

    I'm afraid I'm the same, though. What makes me cry? Hormones! Everything! Stories about heroic animals. Books I've read a dozen times before and know what happens... The scene in Mary Stewart's This Rough Magic where the dolphin saves the heroine's life because she had saved it when it was beached. Sob. I've got a lump in my throat just thinking about it. You are not alone!

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  2. Wonderful post, Margaret! As with Nicola, your tales have left me with a smile on my face. I can just imagine you on the bus!
    And I'm so glad you said your own stories make you cry - because I was reading through one of mine the other day (prior to sending the full MS off!), and I started filling up during one scene. Now I just hope it makes the editor do the same!

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  3. I'm just as bad. My husband says I'm the only person who could cry at the weather forecast which is of course a GROSS exaggeration....

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  4. Isn't it amazing, Nicola, I cried at that book too. And don't get me started on Flipper!
    It does you good though, doesn't it? And hey Paula that is great that you had the lump in the throat, shows you are doing it right, but I was never in doubt about that.

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  5. I'm not going to admit to crying (can't deny it's never happened, though).
    If a book or film doesn't stir your emotions, then it hasn't done its job.

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  6. You're so right, JRL! What books or films make you mad? Sad? Sexy?

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  7. I usually can't listen to Bob Seger's "Famous Final Scene" without welling up; nor can I watch live footage of JFK at The Kennedy Library in Boston without crying. Or when I learn someone I know has cancer. - George Fitzgerald

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  8. Ana they sound like a good idea for new topics!

    Hey George, thanks for stopping by.

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  9. Sorry I missed this post yesteray. It was a crazy day. I am a big cryer. Songs, books, movies, commercials...they can all get me going!

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