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@ 27.055 MHz: Ad Astra; My First Viewing Of Godzilla (1954), On June 17th, 1972

It found no trace of the environment its nature needed; and

its hide was full of open sores (perhaps metaphoric, although

I did not, then, know the word) for the verbal abuse and, sometimes,

actual physical assault to which I had been subjected

(too frightened into silence, with too much shame imposed)

too many times in the ultimately twelve years of public school that

I dutifully endured, all the while maintaining a three point five

grade point average:  enough to get in college, to my parents relief.

 

College, all four years there, was not that much better.



J-Called

 
 
Author's Notes/Comments: 

My fourteenth birthday fell on a Saturday, and my grandmother---who did not care in the least for horror or science fiction films---watched all of Godzilla (the Americanized version) being shown on our local Shock Theater.  I remember how she explained the film to me, and her understanding of it (with no previous experience of it) continues to amaze day . . . fifty-two years later.  Even as close as we were, I could not bring myself to tell her about the bullying at school which, thankfully, was temporarily paused during the Summer Break.

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last updated 25 August 2024 - 2:40pm
©21 June 2024 - 1:47am — S74RW4RD
21 June 2024 - 5:01pm — djtj
djtj's picture

Why

Why is it so hard to tell someone we are hurting. Worse yet to not see someone is hurting. Your grandmother must have been amazing. Thatnk you for the share.

21 June 2024 - 7:53pm — S74RW4RD
S74RW4RD's picture

Thank you for that comment. 

Thank you for that comment.  And yes, she was an amazing person.  I was adopted as an infant, but she and my grandfather welcomed me into the family without hesitation.  Plus I was the youngest of their four grandchildren, which did give me an advantage.


In the original Japanese version of the film, Godzilla is as much a victim as those who have died in its pathway, victimized by the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945, and then by subsequent nuclear testing.  The black and white film does not show the detail of Godzilla's hide, which was meant to be full of open sores (which would have been painful in the salt water of the Sea of Japan).  I did not, then, know what a metaphor was, but I was certainly able to identify with Godzilla, after some years of being bullied in school.


Thanks again for the comment.

Starward