Thank you for visiting my profile. I've signed up to post a follow-up to the 2009 movie Teenage Dirtbag, written and directed by Regina Crosby, available on Netflix (and hopefully elsewhere). Please don't read further if you haven't seen the movie yet, I wouldn't want to spoil it for you.

At first I wasn't even sure I liked this movie, but it took up residence in my imagination. To feed my connection to it, I read reviews and then discussions on IMDB, and then I found myself watching it again. I admire this movie's architecture as much as its drama, and, as a romance that never was, it really was done right. (echoes of House of Mirth by Edith Wharton and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, though the latter was a romance that did happen). Teenage Dirtbag was so moving, I guess, that I couldn't stop myself from messing with its perfection by bringing its lead characters together after all, if just for a moment. To do this, I had to disregard my own conclusions about Thayer's demise (I am pretty sure he died) and take the bait offered in the implausible suggestion that he faked his own death. Oh well. To the extent you read this chapter, I hope it doesn't do too much violence to your enjoyment of the beautiful tragedy of the movie.

Some reviewers of the movie have suggested that Amber lacks any admirable qualities. I have to disagree. She lacks courage, but she has depth, and ultimately comes to know herself pretty well. Besides, I cannot see truly loving a character who lacks any venality. She requires certainty, but despairs in the end because she discards the possibility of love in favor of the security of social status... very Lily Bart-like, that. Maybe some viewers might have liked her better if she had ultimately rejected the brass ring but suffered, lost her love anyway, and died in the end, like Lily Bart. I don't see much more nobility in one than the other. Besides, I am very interested in what it means to live through the choice of the socially-acceptable, safe path, given that it's not where your passion lies. A person with an interior life does not simply stop living it, though they have turned away from, or otherwise lost, the object and subject of their desires.

"Adia" is the title of the Sarah MacLaughlin song quoted by Amber Lang in her creative writing class in this movie. It's a pretty name and I'm a girl who likes pretty things, though it has no special significance beyond that (I'm also an indifferent listener to Sarah MacLaughlin music, finding it somewhat beautiful but overexposed. If I had to choose any songwriter to quote for my high school creative writing class--and I did, actually, lo those many years ago--it would be Suzanne Vega.) Finally, for basic stats, I'm a thirty-something wife and mother with a day job. I've been fortunate to find some time to dwell in Amber and Thayer's world. If I can ever resolve a way for them to spend more time together short of some cringe-worthy external factor (a car accident! the apocalypse!), I do hope to come back to this.