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| I think this is the most I've used Xanga in a year. I was looking over my past posts, and forgive me for the lack of seemly modesty, but I was impressed with some of the stuff I've written. Ah, the cleverness of me, as Peter Pan says. Alright, well, I'll be going back to being a mortal now. I have reached a point in my thesis where I can't think of what else to write, so I am hoping that writing on xanga will inspire me to new heights. It's hard when your topic is gravedigging and all you've done for the past few months is look at accounts of death and burial practices. Well, I was the one to pick it, so I shall be the one to finish it I suppose. So, how are burial practices relevant? You can in fact tell a large amount about a culture from how they bury their dead. You can deduce factors in their religion (do they cremate, do they bury, do they grind up and eat?), you can also make certain assumptions about the society. Why do we have memorial services? Is it for us, for the grieving family, or for the dead person? Well, I'll leave you with those morbid thoughts. | | |
| Wow, two in a week. I think I'm setting a record. You realize, Stephanie, that this is pretty much for you, seeing that no one else has left a comment. Well, I watched Pan's Labyrinth this past weekend, a movie that was recommended to me by my good friend Steven Carriger. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by it, and in continuing efforts to delay the finish of my thesis, I figured I'd give you my thoughts while not spoiling the movie for anyone. So, here it is.
The movie tells the tale of a young girl in Fascist Spain 1944, whose mother has just recently married a Captain posted in the Spanish countryside. The girl soon discovers that she is actually a princess from the underworld. She must set out on a quest, detailed to her by Pan, in order to gain her place in her kingdom.
And that's about it in a nutshell. What struck me was the imagery of the entire movie, and being in far too many of Dr. Fritz's film analysis courses, I began jotting a few things down. First we have the backdrop of the story itself, Fascism and its brutallity. The movie has been described as escapist, but I would only partially agree. Escape yes, but not from reality, rather from the fairy tale of Fascism.
Next we have the imagery of the tasks that our dear girl, Ophelia, must face. First she has to kill a very large and fat frog staying in the bottom of a fig tree, sucking the life out of it. Could this represent the former elite of Spain, who let conditions get to the point of Civil War? Who sucked the life out of the country, growing corpulant just like the frog, while others died?
Next we have a task with a rather grotesque looking creature, with eyes in its hands. Pan describes this being only as "not Human". As it slumbers, Ophelia notices pictures above it, depicting the monster killing children. Before the monster is a massive feast with everything possible to eat. If one eats of this food, though, bad things happen. So, what does this monster represent? Perhaps Fascism. Luring starving people with the promise of food and sustanance. They do not look far enough ahead to see the consequences (children being killed) but focus only on the short term benefits. In the end, though, they awaken a monster, and are swept away by it, unable to stop what they have awoken.
The last task I shall leave for those who have seen the film, not wanting to spoil it for anyone.
Your overall imagery is intriguing. It is indeed a fairy tale worthy of the Brothers Grimm. Yet the majority of the brutality you see, is not committed by the monsters/creatures. It is by the Spainiards, mainly the military.
Lastly, we see the theme of continuity in the film. The captain carries a watch that belonged to his father which was broken by said father so his son knew the time he died. The Captain also insists that his pregnant wife be brought to the countryside from the city, saying that "A son should be born where his father is." The continuity is finally broken in the end, but I shall not say how. All in all, a very thought provocative film that was quite enjoyable and well done. Well, I have succeeded in putting off my thesis long enough. I got a few ideas while writing this, so I shall end the review here. Tshus. | | |
| It's been forever and a day since I've updated this thing. I have to admit, Facebook and Myspace have so many more bells and whistles, but the true reason is that I just have so little time to write anything anymore. I am now approaching the "Endkampf" of my thesis so to speak, and I just have to say that I am looking forward to having it done with. It seems I have become the local thanatologist at ETSU seeing that everyone is coming out of the woodworks wanting me to do some research on some aspect of death or dying. Well, that's about all right now. Sorry it isn't longer. Does anyone I know use xanga anymore, out of curiosity? Tschus. | | |
| Wow, it's been forever since I've updated. Many reasons are to blame. For one, I'm in graduate school and my time has increasingly become busy. Secondly, I finally gave in and got a facebook account. Why? Well, all the people I know kept bothering me about it, just because they wanted to add me as a friend. Now, I have family who want me to join myspace. What is the purpose for having all these sites, I ask you? I fear that in this electronic age we are losing the valuable gift of personal contact. Instead of getting a letter, which someone took time to write to you, you now get a mass forward or a short email (and I'm guilty of this myself, though not the forwards, I hate forwards). All that to say this, I fear that we are having a breakdown of the "community". As our population becomes more fluid, we have our few select friends we talk to, and no one else. I think that is one of the valuable assets of church, it draws the community together. This kind of goes along with my thesis research. What roles do communities play in your life? Do you have a strong sense of community, or do you give it little attention? One reason the Fascist doctrine was so appealing was because it played upon the sense of community, and encouraged it. Volksgemeinschaft anyone? Well, there is a post, a short one granted, but one all the same. To Stephanie I will say that I am sorry that I have been a bad friend in not keeping in touch. I'll talk to you soon. Tschau. | | |
| I am sure that most of you have seen the news recently concerning the Pope Benedict and the fury of the world of Islam. Were there any doubt that this was a religious war, well, I'd say ithey're pretty much destroyed now. Has it really gotten to the point where even religious leaders must fear what they say. For those of you in the dark on this, at a conference in Germany Pope Benedict quoted a Byzantine Emperor, now what exactly he quoted, the articles aren't that clear. The purpose of the Pope's speech was to denounce religious reasons for violence, concerning all religions. Now what has happened? You have churches being burned down, a nun was shot, and more violence coming from our dear fanatical friends in the Middle East. You know, it is sad because there are moderates in Islam who just want to worship in peace, and it isn't exactly Islam persay that I am writing this, it's the fanatical groups that insist upon violence should anyone say anything about their precious religion. You don't see people in the United States burning mosques down whenever they behead an American in the name of Allah, or denounce Christianity, or guarantee that when they do acquire a nuclear bomb, the first place it is going is to Israel. Whenever I begin to have doubts about our stay in the Middle East, something like this happens. Unfortunately, while smaller in percentage, these fanatics are strong enough to dictate terms to the rest of the populace. Something must be done to moderate them, something must be done to say, "You can't just keep on promising the conquest of the world and destruction of Israel, and not expect the Western World to respond." You can't keep on referring to the Western World as evil and not expect some ramifications. Now, not wanting to get too political, I certainly think that the situation in Iraq could be managed better, but then again I do not have the credentials, nor the experience to say such a thing with authority. We are coming to a boiling point. If anything happens to the pope, the United States will be the least of the worries for the Islamic world. | | |
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