| I don't think many of the comments I read on the web | | | | have just picked up and cooked from any cook book. |
| about the Julia/Julie controversy slice through clean. | | | | She chose Ms Child, the patron saint of French |
| They usually swing off-tangent as highly biased praise | | | | cooking in America and a virtual member of every |
| or near-defamatory critique, depending on whether it is | | | | American household, as the angel to help her focus |
| about their favorite or not. | | | | and resist her neurosis, by "completing something" |
| I usually choose to fault circumstances rather than | | | | within a schedule. The need for protocol is mentally |
| persons. And in my opinion, the words "protocol" (as | | | | imposed and her heart was unaware of it. She instead |
| applied to our actions) and "ADD/ADHA" (which I | | | | gave in to literary outbursts of familiar fondness and |
| distinctly heard in the movie), together, cut to the | | | | admiration which to the nervous is an expression of |
| marrow. When the need for protocol meets up with | | | | supreme good will...sadly, Ms Child felt differently. |
| ADHA, there is certainly going to be a problem. | | | | Underlying this tension between the two, the basic |
| These are my insights after seeing the movie. | | | | goodness in both persons prevented anything more |
| Ms Julia Child is a public icon, a star in her own right, an | | | | harmful than media gossip from making the scene. The |
| institution. She personified feminine goal-setting and | | | | fact that Ms Child didn't pursue deeper into her rights |
| achievement, points which scored zero stars for Ms | | | | regarding her publicity in Ms Powell's literary |
| Powell who was intensely aware of her being a | | | | efforts(which she might have done...and then this entire |
| habitual "half-way-through." The movie suggests the | | | | controversy: book, movie and all would never have |
| cause to be ADHA, a neurosis associated with | | | | been), just goes to show that she had understood the |
| attention deficiency, hyperactivity and possibly | | | | situation. Might she not have read up on Ms Powell and |
| emotional fits. Julie's first cubicle scene is not just | | | | fallen into a maternal silence when she discovered that |
| humorous local color. Distracted, fidgety and emotional | | | | besides not being a cook, Ms Powell was working to |
| is the picture we get of her, barely listening to client | | | | overcome a handicap? Ms Powell, on the other hand, |
| after client and finally settling on one whose complaints | | | | never lost faith in her "angel" and interpreting Ms Child's |
| meant enough to make her teary-eyed. This shows | | | | disdain as simple disinterestedness, reveals that she is |
| just this peculiarity of hers. She couldn't focus on things | | | | a child at heart, neither giving nor taking malice, believing |
| with her mind unless her heart helped out. But when | | | | everything to be obtainable or excusable by loving |
| she did focus, it was with all her heart. | | | | fondness. |
| On the other hand, it would probably have seemed to | | | | Needless to say, the acting is finely nuanced, with such |
| Ms Child, as it would have to most celebrities, that her | | | | a fineness that I didn't realize what I had just seen until |
| life and fame were being involved by Julie in an | | | | later, after research and reflection. As for the intrigues |
| unprofessional, inelegant and unflattering setting. The | | | | which have grown around this topic, including my own |
| more so because the Julie/Julia project was really a | | | | premature opinions, I found them generally reactive, |
| log meant to monitor and self-comment on Julie's | | | | tangential but stimulating! |
| personal progress rather than a practical methodology | | | | Strange how we are moved by circumstances. Julie |
| for bringing out the excellence of the Julia Child recipes. | | | | Powell's handicap leads us to focus on a life and |
| To someone unaware of Julie's real intentions, the | | | | career which peaked a generation ago. Perhaps life is |
| project would have seemed like a clumsy caricature | | | | telling us to slow down and look back a bit. Maybe it's |
| on the art of cooking. No wonder Ms Child thought the | | | | time for someone to make a movie on Julia Child alone |
| business "rude"; her initial impression is summed up by | | | | and what she has to tell this generation? |
| "She isn't even a cook!" And all this without her explicit | | | | Conclusion: The famous blog isn't really about cooking |
| approval. And we do need the permission of people, | | | | at all, strictly speaking it isn't even just about blogging |
| famous or not, to use them or anything they own for | | | | your experiences either. It is a brave young girl's effort |
| purposes other than plain citation, and even then, some | | | | to overcome her handicap, an effort that has been |
| people like to know "content and context" before they | | | | rewarded but not fully so. Here's to the eventual |
| endorse. | | | | complete transformation of handicap to talent. Bonne |
| Given her condition, Ms Powell could not be motivated | | | | Chance!! |
| to accomplishment by strangers and hence couldn't | | | | |