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Went to see "This is Not a Film" last night.
- The best of films leave me with a heightened sense of awareness. Every street scene I pass on my way back home becomes a significant tableau--the boarded up buildings across the street dressed in Caribbean colors, the cars merging in traffic, the poppies bending before the wind. Fatigue and good films (or books)--the best drug ever.
- The filmmaker at the center of the documentary is at home and full of the need to create. He is on fire with ideas but the court system has just given him a 20 year ban on writing screenplays and directing films. But he has this screenplay, he explains to the camera--that someone else wrote. If I read it to you, that's not the same as directing is it? Don't you just love humans; they always find a way.
- I don't know if it my being American and full of American movie expectations; or maybe these are human expectations--our non-directing filmmaker finds a way to get tension into scenes that have no apparent tension. It turns out his family has a pet iguana. In one scene, he sits and plays on the computer trying to get past the internet blocks. (Or maybe he is not-working on that screenplay). The iguana--that his family has begged him to care for--slowly strolls across the carpet, clambers behind the bookcase bolted to the wall. And I am sitting there thinking, the poor creature is going to get stuck and his family will be furious. But no, the moment passes with no crises. But he's held my attention on the screen when nothing has happened. Did I have those expectations because I am human or because American movies are fond of faux action?
- We get a little film theory as he rages to a film who has come over to handle the camera. He slips a dvd into the player. They say that I direct, he says, but in this scene the location directed. In the scene, a woman rushes down a long hall defined by full length windows. Look at the vertical lines and how they add tension, he says. The location has directed this!
- The movie ends outside in a blaze of color which makes you realize how muted the colors in the all the preceding scenes have been. Most of the movie takes place in his home, mirroring the screenplay that he wanted desperately to film. His denied film about an imprisoned young woman has been collapsed into this smuggled out documentary about his own artistic imprisonment.
- Mood:
awake
Breakfast brings random thoughts. I like CSI but this season reminds me the changes that occurred over time. The team started out as the night team which is why they were all skulking around with flashlights. The department did not always the equipment that they needed and occasionally borrowed equipment. Now they always have the proper tool and the tools always point them in the right direction. (Which is why the recent episode when the power went out was so fun. They had to work the tools that actual CSI labs have. This being television, the tools still worked and worked in the space of an hour show. But we expect that.) A few years ago, I attended an SF convention where CSI was included on the list of SF shows that people liked. Yes, it was science based but real forensics was nothing like the TV show.
Where now CSI? Now I want to see more “actual” drams. I want to see budget cuts. I want to see political fights. I want to see evidence corrupted or lost. (Well, I think they have done that before.) I want to see them deal with incompetent coworkers.
Some rooms smell of solder today even though no soldering was done in them. This was my project over the brief Mardi Gras holiday and this weekend.
On first inspection, it lit up half way, I worked on it a little bit and got this far. Now, it is back to lighting half way. (Less than that really) I made the mistake to trying to re-solder after watching a video to see how it should be done. No doubt, I broke a circuit somewhere or overheated something.
My defective heart, I called it on facebook. It does not blink (beat) as advertised and every LED does not light. It’s the best that I can do for now.
- Location:United States, Louisiana, Harvey
I’m awake, he posted.
Is anyone ever? one replied.
Prove it, typed another.
Nihilist! A graphic cry followed by exclamation.
That reply arrived late in the morning during a coffee break
Someone’s big word for today. :-)
Awake is a big word, someone ventured. Full of potential.
A female name accompanied by
the image of an arched foot stepping away in sand.
He traced the curve of it, the name and the foot,
wondering if they
could be a matched set.
- Location:United States, Louisiana, Harvey
- Location:Chalmette, La
- Mood:
tired
Embassytown also centers around language. In this SF novel, humans have encountered an alien race who have, let’s say, two voice boxes. Human linguists take the time to learn the individual sounds that make up the language but find that the natives can not understand them at all as we have one voice box only. Two voices from a single mind must speak in order to be understood. And the sound must come from a single mind, the linguists can not use machinery to double their voices. At the time of the novel, the human colony depends on clone Ambassadors to speak for them. The change that initiates the novel is the arrival of a new Ambassador from Breman—which is Great Britian to Embassytown’s America. All earlier Ambassadors were created on Embassytown. Breman, wanting to exert more control, has discovered a process to create and train their own Ambassador to the natives. Concurrent with this arrival, our narrator arrives to Embassytown. She is returning home, after having “escaped” this planet at the end of the known space and it is through her eyes that we will see the tumult that will occur because of the new Ambassador, the eventual collapse of the native society, and the war that results.
There are so many currents in this novel that wash against other books that I’ve read. The narrator’s husband admires the native’s language (he is a linguist) because it cannot be used to lie. He is aghast to find that some parts of the Host society is trying to learn how to lie. Although not religious—religion is almost non-existent in the novel—it is obvious that he feels like the Host are in a type of Eden that is being undermined. This reminds me some Jewish commentaries that say that God created several worlds until he got one where humans did eat from the tree of knowledge. Who wants their children to remain forever? In this case, the prophets of the novel (and Mieville uses that term) are trying to bring the lie to this race. In this case, the “lie” is metaphor. The Hosts’ language is extremely literal; they can manage simile if the simile has an equivalent in the real world. Thus, our narrator is “the girl who, in pain, ate what was given her.” She enacted that as a child so that the Hosts would have a simile meaning “making due.” There is also a pivotal scene in the novel that is so perfectly reminiscent of Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller that I can’t believe that it is accidental. This is yet another beach that the novel’s water washes up on. Do you want another one? There was a recent episode of Radiolab in which a woman discusses teaching a 27-year-old man sign language. He had never learned to read or sign. He was also very literal. He could not understand that language is representative and symbolic. The description of his change and how his world before and after having language was a real-world reflection of what happens in this book as human language comes the world of the Hosts. Check out http://www.radiolab.org/2010/aug/09/
- Mood:
calm
I actually purchased "The 100 Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" and "The Broken Kingdoms at the same time. I read the first one and started the second one and then decided to put the second aside for awhile.
Perhaps, not remarkably, the reason that I put the second aside is a reflection of the plot line in the novel. One of the lead characters in the first book is reviled by the protagonist and I came to share that viewpoint. Then I got to the second book and part of the plot concerns that character's redemption. Well, I wasn't ready to forgive him. Neither, it appears are some of characters from the first book. I put the book away. Read other fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels. Yesterday, I went back to "The Broken Kingdoms". It was a Friday off and I read until 2:30 am. Wonderful book.
After years of workshop, I read differently now. So I love the way that the author is able to move her protagonist, Oree, around. I have such trouble with that in my own stories. My workshop members are either complaining that they don't know how my character got from one place to another, or they are complaining that I am reporting movement unnecessarily. Ms. Jemisin does this effortlessly.
Some of the characters end with "cliff-hangers" that make you read one-more-chapter. But all of them don't. At times, I read on because I was charmed by the character and her growth.
She does manage to surprise me when I am telling myself what the next step in "the hero's journey" must be at that point. It helps that our hero is a heroine and a blind one at that. She is not "Buffy" who demolishes her enemies and she is not a passive screamer who must always be rescued. There is action a-plently in the novel. But while it is a fantasy, but the characters are emotionally true. Much to learn from as a writer. Much to enjoy as a reader. As a blind woman, Oree is not a hero who will, sword in hand, save the day while discovering her purpose in life. However, purpose and life, she will discover.
With its different viewpoint, this book complements the first. It doesn't feel like a 'middle" book. I would still suggest reading "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" first. Knowledge of the conflict that is going on will enrich the reader's appreciation of the story.
One of those days when I feel that I know why we never find evidence of intelligent life in the universe. Intelligent life evolves to consider short term gains. After all, we live in the short term. Eventually, they all must drown in their own waste or they crash their society.
The Boehner story is there only because he seems to think that we can only grow jobs by cutting regulation on companies. He applauded the EPA drawback.
- Arctic Ice Hits Near-Record Low, Threatening Wildlife
- EPA Postpones Power Plant Emissions Rules
- Boehner Offers Response To Obama's Jobs Speech
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/16/140516890/arctic-ice-hits-near-record-low-threateni ng-wildlife
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/16/140527388/epa-postpones-power-plant-emissions-rules
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/15/140513388/boehner-offers-response-to-obamas-jobs-sp eech
James Sallis continues to amaze me. Year after year, the tomes of some authors get larger and larger. However James Sallis produces these slim novels of fiction that are terse, poetic and defy categorization. The latest have been shelved on the mystery shelf at my library but they would fit just as neatly on the general fiction shelf. I hope that mainstream readers are wandering over to the mystery shelves or better yet finding this on the "New" book shelves that have no category. If you want to buy, you may have to order it. I have the devil of a time finding his books in the bookstore. When I see them, I usually buy them right away.
This book, "A Killer is Dying" alternates between three viewpoints, but you would be wise to pay attention. This waltz occasionally dances 2-3-1 instead of 1-2-3. The three viewpoint characters never meet even though a movie would show them all in at least one scene from the book. One viewpoint is the killer of the title who is dying of an unnamed disease. He is a perfectionist and the novel follows him as he chooses to find out who bungled the job that he was paid to do. The second character is one of the police detectives investigating the attempted murder. His wife is dying. The third character is a young man who has been abandoned by his parents. Struggling to live on his own, he inexplicably begins to share the dreams and nightmares of the contract killer. That much, you can learn from the book jacket and I will tell you little more. If you want a standard mystery, the book may disappoint you. Sallis is great for observing the rules of a genre and twisting them to his needs.
On another note, I have already started to see commercials for "Drive", based on an earlier novel. I am curious what will become of the book when it is transposed to an American movie format. American commercial movies are not known for subtlety. I read that the Lew Griffen books are also in development. I tremble to see what becomes of the main character who is Black, poet and a detective in an American movie. Do I sound as cynical as I feel about what I am likely to see on the screen?
Last night’s blog entry made me consider where my own fears are and what movies or books would express them.
If the Tea Party is afraid of the government, I feel that they are afraid that the government is taking the money out of their pockets. Some of them are afraid that the government want to take their guns. Others declaim about gay marriages and illegal immigrants and a myriad of other topics. But the one that I hear most is about money. Those of us on the outside can smile at the irony of wealthy people leading a movement of middle class and lower middle class people afraid that they will never join the ranks of the rich. As if!
I suppose my fears of more centered around civil and personal freedom. I am not afraid that the state will take away guns. i wish they would. No, I quivered as the so-called Patriot Act was signed. I was enraged as Louisiana dreamed up one anti-choice law after another. My nightmares are “A Handmaid’s Tale” and more centrally “Walk to the End of the World”. This despite the fact that I’ve fallen out of the age group that could be used as a breeder. Was it a line in “For Colored Girls” in which the poet said that she found being colored and female ‘so redundant’? Why are the people so ready to protect their guns also very anxious to keep me from reading certain books, seeing certain movies, and controlling my own body?
Instead of yet another Marvel comic book movie, I would love to see “Little Brother”. It would probably be cheaper to film.
After spending more time watching media than writing, I am wondering what the current state of SF/horror says about our fears.
In “Attack the Block” and “Cowboys versus Aliens”, we have an alien invasion. In both of these recent movies, unlike War of the Worlds, the humans are merely obstacles to the aliens real goal. In WotW, remember, we were at least food. In “Cowboys vs Aliens”, the aliens abduct humans occasionally, but they don’t care that the planet is inhabited. In “Attack the Block”, if the protagonists guess is correct, the aliens are not even able to see us unless we are splattered with their fluids. In both movies, the humans successfully fight off the aliens (surprise!), but I wonder what it says that humans are now more like fire ants overwhelming an unsuspecting enemy than a true combatant in an intergalactic fight. The angst of the Tea Party is partially fueled by people who fear that their government ignores them. Their old cry was to “take our country back”. Certainly, I can see strands of those fears in both of these movies.
Speaking of which, the Starz/BBC production of Torchwood, we have the odd matchup of two historical fears: the tyranny of a state, and the reintroduction of mass executions accompanied by public silence. Part of the problem that Torchwood is having this season is the not-quite successful graft of an European fear to an American fear. On the American side, we saw Oswald Danes rise as a public figure even as he was personally hated as a child murderer. On the European side, we saw the ovens reappear in Europe--in Great Britain even--to public silence.
Musings:
The alien abductions were definitely a poor plot point in “Cowboys vs Aliens”. Yes, they were necessary to explain the presence of the weapon used by the Daniel Craig character. But why do the abductions continue to happen after the alines ascertain that the natives are no match for their technology?
The kids in “Attack the Block” are striving to take their block back. They are as nationalistic about the block as any country. Indeed, the movie displays internecine battles between two groups of kids even as they are pursued by attacking aliens.
One review that I read this morning sneered that the heros in “Attack the Block” are criminals, even as the reviewer had to admit that the same is true for the hero in “Cowboys and Aliens”.
Earlier, I thought that the Oswald Danes story line was distracting from the primary mystery in this year’s series. Then I thought that the actor was simply so good that he outshone the others (That still may be true). Now, I think that grafting that story didn’t work well. I am reminded of the story line in Doctor Who about Saxon running for office and winning. It occurs in the background of an entire series and doesn’t come to fruition until the end of the series. With time constraints, Torchwood was constantly flipping between the primary investigation of the ‘end of death’ and Oswald’s shepherded progression to media darling. Until Danes was taken off the main stage the two stories seemed to have nothing to do with each other. Now that Danes has fallen, we have lost any jab at the ability of media to remake a monster into an acceptable guest at the dinner table--as long as he remains behind a tv screen.
by Nicholson Baker
This is another case where I don’t recall why I put this book on my read-this list. It is only 243 pages long but I began faltering early. It is surprisingly engaging when the protagonist is arguing aloud/teaching us about poetry. Poetry may have evolved technical terms, like iambic pentameter for a reason but Paul--our protagonist--feels that those terms do nothing but isolate regular people from poetry and make them feel that it can’t be understood. He also feels that iambic pentameter is not really five beats to a measure so the text is strewn through with poetry written in music form or poetry written with the beats underneath the words. That I found interesting. And when our interlocutor occasionally wandered off to talk about the mouse that runs across the curtain rod, I was initially amused. Indeed, Paul tells us that he is not able to write an introduction to his anthology “On Rhyme” and meanwhile a great deal of the book explains what happened to rhyme in English poetry. I began to wonder if the book represented the missing introduction. Especially since the length of the hard-to-write introduction is the same as the book I held in my hand.
Listen, nothing happens in the book. Even the book flap will tell you that; I am not giving anything away. Yet, it is not like Seinfeld, about “nothing”. When Paul whines about his life, I was ready to drop the book. However, it is only 243 pages and the pages on poetry are beautiful. It is, alas, very Anglo. Paul, our protagonist does acknowledge Black poets or any poets of color. No wait, rap poetry is used at least once to point out that regular people do listen to poetry; it’s just not acknowledged as poetry. He points that out, but Paul, the anthologist never consists adding hip hop to his anthology. Nothing happens. We follow Paul as he tells his invisible readers about poetry, tries to woo our lover back, and as he attends poetry readings and conferences. When he talks about poetry, I am engaged. When he so carefully describes his environment that I know I am listening to a poet, I am engaged. When he whines about his girl friend, I am bored. If form follows function, I would say that Paul is a great poet of everyday life, but he can’t write a love poem.
through; they swing their silver chains
and tree limbs vanish
photo by Alan Musselman
Untitled
Your affection is as constant as the tide
It rushes in, out.
It threatens to pull me under, to tear
me into ribbons on unseen rocks
When I return from the continent's edge
I find a sliver of green
glass in my foot
Fired silicon as fine as a jewelers’ loupe.
The better to see you with, a Mexican grandma whispers
as she displays her wares:
fine Spanish knives,
sweetened pastries to placate the tongue
and release from watery lovers.
- Mood:
artistic
It's an old book and a page count of 222 makes it approachable. The copyright is 1951 and as you might expect, there are moments--many moments--when I was given to grind my teeth and remind myself that the book is a creature of its times.
The reviewer in NYRSF quite properly writes about the evidence of the notion of ecology in the novel. (This is before Silent Spring in 1962) He extracts the theme of adaptation in the novel of both the humans and their society and the adaptation of the plants that threaten them. So, yes, there are carnivorous plants in the novel. However, most of the novel is taken up with how society reacts with hit with the double shock of 90% of the populace of Earth being struck blind and the fact that their pet carnivorous plants decide to pull up stakes and stalk them. The humans in the novel have to come to grip with the knowledge that humanity might have wrecked havoc on themselves. They bred the plants and the "comet" that blinded the world may have been an errant satellite built to destroy an enemy nation. It's a good review and it made me hunt up the novel.
Nevertheless, I hit certain sections and understood (maybe) why Joanna Russ wrote "We Who About To..." in 1977. The protagonist, Bill, in Triffeds sees a sighted man leading a gang of blind men early on in the novel. When one of the blind men demands a woman, the sighted leader promptly drags a blind woman out of the people milling in the street and hands her over. The protagonist tells himself that (a) he couldn't prevent this and (b) the woman would eventually be glad that she was "adopted" this tribe. Later in the novel, Bill joins another group where the leader declares that they will take on able bodied men and any women who can have children. The woman that Bill is interested in agrees saying that all women want children anyway. She insists that Bill must also take on 2 blind wives. (This group has raided a school for the blind and taken all the trained women.) This group eventually divides in two with one group declaring themselves civilized, Christian, and against free love. They eventually perish because they could not adapt to the new circumstances.
Russ's novel has a catastrophe also, but one of the women decides that she will not be a brood mare for the men. Much violence ensues. At the time that I read it, I found it depressing and shocking. Now I read Wyndham's book and find it disturbing to read a protagonist excuse rape by saying 'she'll be glad later.' And it irks me to read a character say no one has the right to "deprive any woman of the happiness of carrying out her natural functions." At least, Josella is given a line to wonder how many babies they will want. "I like babies, all right, but there are limits."
I ground my teeth, but I successfully made it to the end of the novel. It's a novel from the 50's, so you don't get today's cynicism. It has as much of a happy ending as might be expected. The book does explore the meaning of normal more than I expected from a disaster novel. A movie made of this book now would still concentrate on the killer plants and roving gangs more than the rambling of the protagonist as he tries to formulate what is moral and ethical in his new world. The only movies in which I see this type of moral questioning are war movies.
A certain amount of craziness:
I found a recipe for corn chowder in the weight watchers book and decided to try it. It called for frozen corn, but at the last minute I decided to buy the real thing. That explains the corn silk all over the kitchen counters and the bag of corn hulks on the floor. And three pots of boiling water on the stove.
Meanwhile, True Blood plays in the background despite the fact it’s a show that I detest more and more. Why do the non-white characters have so little control over their lives and the white characters have so much? Yet again, Tara is almost killed while Sookie is rutting in the woods. (Next week, it appears that Tara relents from vengeance—again.)
- Mood:
crazy
| Deb was a southern girl and she knew how to store bread. And yet. She held the suspect slice between index finger and thumb and looked at it carefully. The right edge was definitely a bright blue. And dang it -- bread not being worth a well chosen curse -- she had paid almost three dollars for this loaf. It had been brought home from Whole Food and shoved into the icebox almost immediately. The breadbox held potato chips, walnuts, and other produce that did not whisper come hither to Aspergillus No, the bread went on the bottom shelf of the fridge and you were lucky if you tasted it in its natural wheaty state fresh from the plastic wrapping. The kids knew bread as a stiff gritty substance striated with toaster marking. Plumped with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato and onions, bread made great piling for the structure of a hot sausage sandwich. But it was never cornflower blue. |
- Mood:
busy
There are some books wait-listed at the library, but they are graphic novels. More of the “Fables” series. When they do come in, they will take only around 2 hours to read. I’ll try to catch up on books I own for awhile.
Another thought engendered by one of the “Among Others” reviews. One person listed all of the books mentioned in that book. I haven’t read all of those, but that way lies madness. (I am still dubious about a 15-year old reading Delany)
- Mood:
blank
“Among Others” finally showed up in the library and I borrowed it from there, but I think that I will have to buy my own copy. It is so dear. At any rate, reading it, I find that it was appropriate to find it in the library. The main character checks books out of the library like I did when I was her age. Six at a time and finishing them in a week and back for the next six. She is handicapped where I was merely lousy at sports. I only am jealous that the character finds fandom so soon in her life. That she has someone to talk to and discuss books with.
I just finished the book this book so I won’t write much. I am still holding the joy of it to my heart.
References
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/arc
http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/01/excer
http://boingboing.net/2011/01/18/among-o
- Mood:
jubilant
Actually, the book was good all along, but against the popcorn of graphic novels and all of the magazines stacked up around here (^&%&%*&%%), it had trouble gaining traction.
Simply put, the book is about a man-eating tiger in eastern Russia. And no, I don’t know how it got on my “list”. After arriving at conventions and bookstores without the slightest idea of what to buy but knowing that there were many “I need to read that” moments, I started keeping a list on my iphone. In late June, I checked my list while I was in the library and “The Tiger” was on the list and available. A rare event indeed. This book is from 2010, so it’s possible that I added when the book was talked about in the media. When I picked it up, I had no memory of it. But it looked interesting.
The author does a good job of mixing conservation with tiger lore in Russia. He gathers a lot of information about the evolution of humans along side predators with some of the latest evaluations on how humans survived as a species. We are told that despite the media representations of man-the-hunter, it is just as likely than hunters stole game from other predators. Cats rarely eat all of what they kill and scientists have found it possible to track lions and subsist on what they leave behind. He also quotes a number of writers who note that native hunters in both Russia and Africa usually leave part of their kill behind for the native cats of the area. Share and share alike.
Once this particular tiger began killing people and eating them, there is no hope for him and the Russian equivalent of game wardens have to kill him. The author is blunt on both the horror of finding a man partially eaten or in one case completely--he says they only found enough to fit into a shirt pocket. He is elegiac when comparing the tiger to other “acts of God”. Unlike a hurricane that we name and ascribe thought to, this creature does plan your death.
Much of the imagery is done well. This happened in 1997 and the book was finished around 2008. The writer was able to talk to many of the principal people, but time has passed. Nevertheless, there are such striking descriptions. The tiger travels to a man’s camp site, drags a mattress out of the cabin beneath a tree and lays there in wait for his next victim. How does a tiger hide in plain sight?
I have seen a tiger close up--closer than a zoo’s false ecosystem. I can understand why the people of the Russian taiga call the tiger the Czar of the jungle. There are approximately only 500 left in the wild. Poachers and hunters are destroying them while Russia adjusts to capitalism. It would be a pity to see such a magnificent animal disappear.
Just another note--there are some excellent history lessons here for those of us in the myopic West. While the U.S. was bombing Cambodia, Russian and Chinese soldiers were playing war on their borders. It’s a wonder humanity survived the 60’s at all. It remains to be seen if we survive our continuing success at exploiting our environment.
youtu.be/NE-w1K4LCyw
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php
saracamis.blogspot.com/2011/06/opinion-i
- Saw the movie “Super 8”, which I enjoyed. I started writing a virtual review in my head and realized that I was confusing Jos Whedon with J. J. Abrams. Review postponed.
- Lunch on Sunday with a friend. Lunch was at Mondo, a Susan Spicer restaurant. So I can say that I’ve eaten at one of the restaurants of a top chef of New Orleans. More importantly, I got to spend some time with an old friend who is a much better conversationist than I.
- Saw the mid-season finale of “Doctor Who”. Yes, I am jumping about. You just realized how scattered I am? The finale was fine and I look forward to reading the blogs that discuss the current batch of revelations.
- Watched “Game of Thrones” and was genuinely surprised to see Ned bite the dust. GRRM plays for keeps. But then, this was a novel before a TV show.
- Started on a poem which reads more like a story. I will probably post it here, because it is only conversation right now. I love writing conversation between people. Plot is ever my problem.
- Enjoyed service out at Gates of Prayer. Summer is always good, seeing friends at different synagogues. Because it was back on Tuesday, I didn’t even mention Shavuot at Beth Israel. Service at Sinai was too early so I went to the study session out there. I lasted until midnight -- work on wednesday. Work tomorrow, in fact. So I end at this.
- And if I am going to go back to Tuesday, I should go back to Wednesday and dinner with another friend. Much laughter and talk over sushi.
- And I made it to the gym on Sunday. And I cooked. I haven’t cooked dinner in a week.
Why the silence?
I've been busy and stressed out.
Seeking my voice again.
Listening.
- Mood: blank
This book was written after the author wrestled with cancer. In it, he looks back at the shadow and ponders the the topics of why religious belief persists, what the “smallness” was that he felt when ill; can the sickening question be answered (why does human suffering exist?). During the brief book, he revisits both Job and the aforementioned Julian Jaynes. He traverses Ecclesiastes and Philippe Aries, Augustus and Boethius. His answer is different from Harold Kushner. In truth, I don’t know if he does answer it. I think that he finds the exploration more interesting; I agree. In the end, we read that he is 10 years free of cancer, but obviously the people that he met during his travails are still with him. He ends the book with memories of people that he left in that shadow.*
*And not in the shadow of death. Early on, he explains that the famous 23rd psalm does not read “the shadow of death”. There’s only one noun in the hebrew phrase. “To begin with,” he writes, “in the ancient Near East -- shadow generally had no negative connotations. The sun was hot, sometimes fatally so; shade or shadow saved you from its dangers. These words therefore generally had positive associations; often they were used metaphorically for ‘protection’.” Loved that!
- Location:home
OK, I am not the target audience for this. It has none of the angst of “Batman” and nothing like the wide sweeping story of “Lord of the Rings.” This is the comic book Thor, so we don’t even get the rich myth of Thor, Odin, Baldur, and the rest. I am not a Marvel-ette, so I can’t even tell you if they represented the comic book well. There is a reference to Stark, so this is the same universe as the one that contains “Ironman”. Did Marvel have an equivalent to the Justice League? Can we expect to see Ironman and Thor in a movie down the road?
This movie goes down the check list; the hero is broad shouldered, narrow waisted, photographs well. He’s based on a northern godling from a comic book, so America can have a blond hero without explanation. There a bunch of other godlings whose names that I did not catch and there is Loki, Thor’s brother, a more conflicted and more interesting character. There’s the required romantic interest and there is the required growth from the main character. I just found that even with the humor (I did laugh) and the wonderful special effects, I just didn’t care about any of the characters.
Instead, I found it amusing that one character in the movie recognizes Thor’s name. Is mythology still taught in school? I sat there trying to remember Odin’s wife’s name. I went down the days of the week until I found her waiting patiently at Friday. I wondered if any of the godlings was Baldur. I liked Odin and found myself wishing that someone would film Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” where Odin is a main character. I looked at the costumes of the gods and wondered how comfortable or uncomfortable they were---compared to the jeans worn by the humans. But still, I am hoping for better summer movies. Can I have at least half of my money back? The 3-d wasn’t worth it.
Yes, I will catch something more substantive. There is a mini-film festival going on in town now. But even there, I will be seeking the unusual and off-center topics.
http://www.napowrimo.net/2011/04/day-2/
So here goes: Cesar Vallejo wrote a pretty famous poem that begins with him saying that he will die in Paris, in the rain, on a Thursday (different translations from the Spanish make it hard to quote precisely in English). So go ahead and write a poem predicting your own death — at night in Omaha at the Shell Station, in an underwater Mexican grotto after a dry spell. It’s less morbid than you think!
Streetcar Pantoum
On Tuesday night the smell of jasmine intoxicates her
She pirouettes and stumbles on rain slick streets
The cry that escapes her lips is sharp and brief
as parcels tumble into the road.
She pirouettes and stumbles on rain slick streets
The alarm of banshee brakes match her cry
as parcels tumble into the road
The howl of companions echo ‘twixt inert glass canyons.
The alarm of banshee brakes match her cry
As metal wheels tear into flesh
the howl of companions echo ‘twixt inert glass canyons
The scent of blood cloaks nearby jasmine blooms.
- Mood:
amused
