Break Stuff

We've just had a painful break-up with our boyfriend, and our friend Libby is recommending we go out and Break Stuff as a way of giving vent to our pain. So we do that. We head out to a remote location, and Libby drags out a couple of boxes full of things to break. She only has time for three acts of destruction, though, so ... break three things, go home, and see the denouement.

It's about catharsis.

Each act of destruction comes with a fairly substantial chunk of conversation with Libby about Life and the Human Condition. It feels very sincere ... but also a bit scatter-shot, with each item going off into a different direction. It's a lot to take in, and I feel as though a bit more focus would be in order. The human condition encompasses multiple truths, and I think I would have preferred multiple views building towards a single truth, over singular views of multiple truths.

As I said, the writing feels, for the most part, quite sincere. So we come to this one moment in the endgame, the next night after our destructive spree, when we accidentally cut ourselves while cooking and find ourselves suddenly yearning to turn that destructive impulse on ourselves. The story describes it, in that initial moment, as finding that we "like it", which was a note so wrong that it rather shook my sense of the story's sincerity. As someone who's never been tempted to cut themself, I think a closer look at the impulse -- perhaps it is satisfying for its cathartic value? -- would feel a lot more convincing.

So, on the whole ... this feels a bit like a breakfast of black pudding and tea. Well-made, to be sure, but there's rather a lot of it and it crumbles into pieces maybe a bit more than it should.