Rainer Maria Rilke: First Duino Elegy
Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the Angelic
Orders? And even if one were to suddenly
take me to its heart, I would vanish into its
stronger existence. For beauty is nothing but
the beginning of terror, that we are still able to bear,
and we revere it so, because it calmly disdains
to destroy us. Every Angel is terror.
And so I hold myself back and swallow the cry
of a darkened sobbing. Ah, who then can
we make use of? Not Angels: not men,
and the resourceful creatures see clearly
that we are not really at home
in the interpreted world. Perhaps there remains
some tree on a slope, that we can see
again each day: there remains to us yesterday’s street,
and the thinned-out loyalty of a habit
that liked us, and so stayed, and never departed.
Oh, and the night, the night, when the wind full of space
wears out our faces - whom would she not stay for,
the longed-for, gentle, disappointing one, whom the solitary heart
with difficulty stands before. Is she less heavy for lovers?
Ah, they only hide their fate between themselves.
Do you not know yet? Throw the emptiness out of your arms
to add to the spaces we breathe; maybe the birds
will feel the expansion of air, in more intimate flight.
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The Darjeling Limited
This is Wes Anderson’s best film to date. It reaches the same depth of Rushmore, but instead of staying in the same Chicago suburb, the director takes us on a wonderful road trip to India. Unlike Life Aquatic, which also wanted to be an adventure film, The Darjeling Limited is never boring because even when the pace of film slows down, we learn to know more interesting bist about the characters. Three brothers have not seen each other for over a year after their father’s funeral. Their mother never had much of a motherly instinct and apparently spent much of her maternal career running away from the family. The oldest son, who just was in a teribble car accident, wants to recreate at least the strong bonds between brothers by going on a joint trip spirtiual trip. I know a number of people who went to India to fix their spirits, but returned unhealed. Will the brothers suffer the same fate? Go watch this film to find out.
Hich 22: If you can hold it down on the smokes and the cocktails you may be well advised to do so
Christopher Hitchens recently was diagnosed with cancer. More often than not I disagree with his positions, but I am never bored by what he has to say. He is also a superb writer. I wish I could write so quickly and eloquently as he can. Andrew Anthony interviewed the pugnacious and hard-driking author this fall to find out if his views have mellowed a bit now that he is staring death in the face.
Christopher Hitchens: ‘You have to choose your future regrets’
In June Christopher Hitchens, the hard-drinking polemicist and atheist, met his toughest opponent yet when he was diagnosed with cancer. The question on many lips was: would his illness alter his beliefs - on Iraq, on Islam, on God? At home in Washington, with a large glass of Johnnie Walker to hand, he responds with characteristic combativeness.
Continue ReadingThe Social Network
When historians sit down to write the history of first decade of the 20th century, they would have likely used a few years ago labels such as the Rise of the Internet or Googlemania. If Facebook continues to grow and add functions at its current pace (email will soon be integrated with its message service), historians may simply refer to our time as the Age of Facebook. 500 million plus people have now signed on to Facebook. If you have a Facebook account, you will not want to miss the exquisite film about the beginnings of Facebook and its now 26-year-old founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who—just like Bill Gates—dropped out of Harvard to seize a rare business opportunity. The film is made by real pros who know how to create drama. Even if some stuff is invented to add more drama to the story, the film captures the heart the Facebook story and is a facinating watch. The ad for the film is one of the best promotional line I have ever read: You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.
Thomas D & “Million Voices”
The German phone giant Telekom has commissioned a very clever music video to create an advertisement that resonates in our social media age.
The Midterm Election Analysis: In politics, perceptions often matter more than facts
Hendrik Hertzberg provides the facts behind the defeat of the Democrats and highlights that Obama can show in the next two years that he is a great president by overcoming huge challenges.
ELECTORAL DISSONANCE (New Yorker)
Barack Obama had the mot juste last Wednesday for what had just befallen him and his party: a “shellacking.” The President’s choice of word was one syllable (and one “g”) longer than his predecessor’s summary after a parallel midterm debacle. But, then, Obama’s shellacking was several syllables worse than the “thumpin’ ” that George W. Bush and the Republicans took in 2006. That year, President Bush’s party lost thirty seats in the House of Representatives; this year, President Obama’s lost more than twice as many. It was a historic defeat. The Democrats retained their Senate majority, now much reduced, only by the grace of the Tea Party, which, in Colorado, Delaware, and Nevada, saddled Republicans with nominees so weighted with extremism and general bizarreness that they sank beneath the wave so many others rode. Come January, for only the second time in eight decades and the first in more than six, the House will have fewer than two hundred Democrats in it. And because Democrats also lost eleven governorships and control of nineteen state legislative chambers, the decennial festival of gerrymandering will put their congressional starting line for 2012 at least twenty seats farther back.
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The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
My Wes Anderson Film Festival continues. This week I screened his fourth film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). While Anderson pushes the cinematography onto a higher plane than in Rushmore or Bottle Rocket, the characters here feel more constructed and synthetic. Owen Wilson co-wrote the first two Anderson films. Perhaps he brought greater depth to the characters. The motor driving The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is the imaginative power fueling the script and the love for constructing detailed sets for each scene. Think of a Jacque Costeau documentary, Finding Nemo, and All About Schmidt or Sideways rolled into one. The eye is enchanted. Yet at times the film felt slow because we never sense that something dramatic is about to happen with any of the characters.
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