Saturday, October 27, 2012
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Reader
This was the other movie that I saw last night.
I didn't like it, I didn't like any part of it. I did not even think there were any Oscar worthy performances involved.
Are we really expected to feel sympathy for a person for her illiteracy? Or for her stupidity beyond pride in refusing to admit it? But of course not, and the Auschwitz survivor in the movie agrees, no doubt.
Is it really probable that a 43 year old Tram conductor cant make out words? She would have to be able to understand numbers, that is essential for her job. Is the leap to the alphabet really such a huge one?
I also refuse to believe that she suffered any remorse for her actions till her last breath. To calmly and matter-of-factly explain away gas chamber assignment with storage space inadequacy is disturbing, to say the least.
What is the director trying to tell us? Did she really feel any remorse? Is the 7000 marks left for the survivor supposed to show remorse? Does literacy beget emotions? Is this a morality tale?
I didn't like it, I didn't like any part of it. I did not even think there were any Oscar worthy performances involved.
Are we really expected to feel sympathy for a person for her illiteracy? Or for her stupidity beyond pride in refusing to admit it? But of course not, and the Auschwitz survivor in the movie agrees, no doubt.
Is it really probable that a 43 year old Tram conductor cant make out words? She would have to be able to understand numbers, that is essential for her job. Is the leap to the alphabet really such a huge one?
I also refuse to believe that she suffered any remorse for her actions till her last breath. To calmly and matter-of-factly explain away gas chamber assignment with storage space inadequacy is disturbing, to say the least.
What is the director trying to tell us? Did she really feel any remorse? Is the 7000 marks left for the survivor supposed to show remorse? Does literacy beget emotions? Is this a morality tale?
Scent of a Woman
I saw this movie last night. I had seen fragments of it before.
I must confess I'm not too impressed. I highly disagree with Al Pacino's character, especially at the end of the movie. The right decision Chris O'Donnell could have taken would have been to rat out on the perpetrators.
On the one hand we have a Harvard scholarship and on the other expulsion, possibly a little respect from 3 no-gooders with the inclination to gravitate towards messier situations. And its not like the perps would be out of the woods, given that the other guy had pointed them out to the whole school anyway.
Al Pacino's speech did not impress me either, maybe its just because I tend to tune out sentences with more than a couple of profanities in each sentence.
I also disagree with Chris O'Donnell's actions being attributed to his Integrity. Integrity should be consistent, moral soundness. Morals are a society's attributes, rather than an individual's.
If anything, the protagonist can be claimed to be doing what is right, despite what his sense of morals demand.
Its a choice, and if risking expulsion and passing up a Harvard scholarship is what the hero deems right, he is not letting his sense of morals come in the way.
Personally, I wouldn't go with that option...
I must confess I'm not too impressed. I highly disagree with Al Pacino's character, especially at the end of the movie. The right decision Chris O'Donnell could have taken would have been to rat out on the perpetrators.
On the one hand we have a Harvard scholarship and on the other expulsion, possibly a little respect from 3 no-gooders with the inclination to gravitate towards messier situations. And its not like the perps would be out of the woods, given that the other guy had pointed them out to the whole school anyway.
Al Pacino's speech did not impress me either, maybe its just because I tend to tune out sentences with more than a couple of profanities in each sentence.
I also disagree with Chris O'Donnell's actions being attributed to his Integrity. Integrity should be consistent, moral soundness. Morals are a society's attributes, rather than an individual's.
If anything, the protagonist can be claimed to be doing what is right, despite what his sense of morals demand.
Its a choice, and if risking expulsion and passing up a Harvard scholarship is what the hero deems right, he is not letting his sense of morals come in the way.
Personally, I wouldn't go with that option...
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Periodicals
I've just read the Nat Geo Feb issue. Why February? Simply because I've been lagging by a month since last summer. This February issue was after all published in January.
This led me to inquire why Magazines and other periodicals pre-date issues. Could it be, I wondered, an adopted practice from pre-dating(if only by a day) newspapers since most publishers dabbled in publishing both, when the industry was in its nascent state? Or was it simply to make the issue appear new to first time shoppers at bookstores?
Rather than uncovering a secret that would make for a perfect quiz question, I'm afraid Wikipedia revealed a rather boring story. My second guess was closer to the mundane truth. The purpose is to appeal to first time shoppers. The subscription versus newstand price should have made this obvious, in retrospect.
Are magazines going the newspaper way? I think they are. I, for one, will be saddened by the demise of the printed magazine.
Newspaper, I couldnt care less about. For, in this day and age, do we really need to resort to referring to once-a-day publications to get our updates from the world?
J.K. Rowling, or Adrian Jacobs(if the plagiarism did indeed transpire), would have had to devise a different mechanism than owl-delivered Daily Prophet, had they but waited a few years.
This led me to inquire why Magazines and other periodicals pre-date issues. Could it be, I wondered, an adopted practice from pre-dating(if only by a day) newspapers since most publishers dabbled in publishing both, when the industry was in its nascent state? Or was it simply to make the issue appear new to first time shoppers at bookstores?
A quick Google search revealed nothing. I resorted to checking another search engine, probably for the first time in several years. The results were much further off the mark.
Finally searching for "cover date" revealed some answers.
Rather than uncovering a secret that would make for a perfect quiz question, I'm afraid Wikipedia revealed a rather boring story. My second guess was closer to the mundane truth. The purpose is to appeal to first time shoppers. The subscription versus newstand price should have made this obvious, in retrospect.
For most magazines that I can recollect, the newstand price is about a third of the annual subscription cost.
Are magazines going the newspaper way? I think they are. I, for one, will be saddened by the demise of the printed magazine.
Newspaper, I couldnt care less about. For, in this day and age, do we really need to resort to referring to once-a-day publications to get our updates from the world?
J.K. Rowling, or Adrian Jacobs(if the plagiarism did indeed transpire), would have had to devise a different mechanism than owl-delivered Daily Prophet, had they but waited a few years.
As it is, the availability of Apparation to all adults is discordant with the anticipation-with-bated-breath of the daily news. Let me not dwell on this topic any further though, since it would otherwise occupy a significant part of this literature.
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