Tuesday, January 28, 2014

"You gonna bark all day little doggie, or are you gonna bite?"

I would like to take this moment to talk about the movie Reservoir Dogs, and many other of Quentin Tarantino's works beyond merely the story of the tragic hero. His movies are all so incredible: the depth of the characters, the witty dialogue, the raw violence and showing of humanity's true colors are just awe-inspiring. The thing I almost like the best about Tarantino's films is that they focus on the "bad guys", people that for the most part are considered exclusively to be bad. They focus on robbers and bounty hunters and assassins and people that just kill a whole lot. But something that many of us forget is that just because something is considered to be bad or evil or wrong, not every single aspect and every single thing associated with it is also bad, or that it will not have any good qualities or depth. The dialogue in Tarantino's films reveal depth, compassion, and humanity in characters considered everyone to be exclusively evil. For example, Reservoir Dogs focuses on a bunch of criminals, one of them an undercover cop, in the planning and immediate aftermath of a diamond heist. Not good people. But the opening scene shows the entire group at breakfast, talking about music, and the radio, and old friends. Their conversation eventually turns to the fact that one of their group, Mr. Pink, does not tip. They go into how waitresses need the money and it's all very compassionate and considerate and logical and friendly, showing that these people have integrity and kindness in their hearts.
Of course, the movie has to show the exception to the rule of friendly criminals, and that is Mr. Blonde, or Vic Vega. In stark contrast to arguably the best of their group, Mr. White,  Mr. Blonde is completely crazy and violent and psychotic. He starts off on a poor note by starting to shoot up a group of civilians during their heist and ending (literally) having cut open the face of, cut the ear off of, and almost setting fire to, a police officer he had hostage in his trunk. He is shot by the other criminals before he has the chance to set fire to the officer. The rest of the men, however, all show compassion and remorse for the people Blonde shot, and all made sure they didn't themselves kill any civilians. Mr. White himself prides himself and his team on their openness, and has immense faith for and compassion in his injured compatriot, Mr. Orange. It is however revealed that Orange is an undercover cop, and White, finding honesty the most important thing and not considering cops to be real people, shoots Orange in the head. Oh well. No one's perfect.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

"I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils (capitalism), namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals."

One thing I'd especially like to reflect on about the past week is our research into ancient greek theater and myth, specifically Aristotle. He was a really influential philosopher of Ancient Greece. Personally, I love his teachings, especially the political. He believed that there were basically three good forms of government: monarchy (rule by king), oligarchy (rule by elite few), and constitutional rule, or a democracy (rule by the people). he said that the first two were easily corruptible, and power would go easily to the ruler's heads in those systems, so a democracy is best because it is less easily corruptible. "The many are more incorruptible than the few; they are like the greater quantity of water which is less easily corrupted than a little” (Aristotle). He also believed that within a democracy, the ideal leaders that inevitably come forth would be a well educated middle class. He said that the rich could not lead, because they know the taste of wealth well and would exploit their rule to gain more wealth, and they would not understand any state of being that consisted of an overbearing need of wealth. He said the poor, also, could not rule because they would be resentful of the rich and would aim to take from them as much as possible. He thought that since the middle class knows a little of wealth and a little of want, they would be able to rule fairly and rightly for both ends of the spectrum, especially if educated. 

It is a bit confusing, though, the thought that even in a true democracy, there would still be an individual class of leaders that form, but Aristotle knew that leaders will naturally come forth from a group of people, as evident in all society: that a hierarchy of some form forms even from anarchy and that in a society with projected equality, people will want to be led and the ideal people to lead will be an educated middle class. Unfortunately, as he also recognized, the people that will come forth will not be fair leaders, as the people that strive to be leaders therefore are at their heart bad, "...it is all wrong that a person who is going to be deemed worthy of the office should himself solicit it... for no one who is not ambitious would ask to hold office” (Aristotle). So we do see that Aristotle's teaching were slightly idealist, hinging on the fact that even though the people that come forward to lead are the wrong people to lead, that the right people to lead will come forward. It is, however, slightly less idealist as him just teaching some form of anarchist communism, so he did at least recognize there must be some separation from the ideal in the real world. 

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Oedipus Rex Inventory

Sophocles
Sophocles was born in 496 BCE in Colonus, a Greek village outside of Athens, and he died in 406 BCE in Athens. Sophocles was very lucky: he was born into a relatively rich family, the son of an armor smith, and received a very good education, as well as having great beauty, physique, athletic prowess, and musical skill. He was well known for his plays and his intimate connection to the government, leading families, and religious centers of Athens.

Oedipus Rex
The Man
As a man, Oedipus is was pretty good guy. The only arguably bad thing he did was kill a stranger at a crossroads, Laius, out of anger, but through the entire play his motivation is the welfare of his people. He's trying to free his people of a terrible plague brought on by the wrath of the gods, and is trying to find justice for the murderer of the previous king. Only problem is, the murderer is him.

The Myth
The myth centers around a boy named Oedipus, a child of the king and queen of Thebes, Laius and Jocasta, who was prophesied to one day murder his father and marry his mother. Because of this terrible prophecy, Laius and Jocasta had him killed, but instead of killing him, he was taken to Corinth and he ended up as the adopted son of the king and queen there. He grew up and travelled back to Thebes and unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, while meeting a sphinx and becoming the new king along the way.

The Play
The play begins 20 years after he marries his mother, and the city of Thebes is under the effect of a terrible plague, brought on by the gods. He sends a friend to Apollo, who says the only way to lift the plague is to find the murderer of Laius. Through trying to find the killer of the old king, Oedipus finds out that it was indeed him that killed his father, and he gouges his eyes out so that he may no longer see the evil in the world.

Aristotle

Aristotle was a famous greek philosopher that lived in the fourth century BCE. He was taught by the famous Plato, and was the teacher of Alexander the Great. His studies included works regarding literature, poetry, astronomy, rhetoric, geometry, biology, and logic. His ethical teachings essentially founded the framework of all basic ethical principles including those used by the Christian church and the American Judicial System. His studies of logic created the basis for almost all logical thought to this day, and his writings outlined almost every logical or argumentative flaw to date, giving modern logicians the title of Aristotelian Logicians, even drawing parallels to the most modern mathematical logic.

Tragedy

Tragedy, or tragic drama, is any piece of literature in which a central character called a tragic protagonist or hero suffers some kind of serious misfortune that is significant in that the misfortune is logically connected with the hero's actions. Its origins stem from the singing a dithyramb, a choral lyric in honor of Dionysus, and it was revolutionized by Aristotle, who evolved tragedy to the story of the tragic hero.

Hubris

Hubris is a trait that eventually leads to downfall that basically means arrogance and pride to an extreme level, and ignorance of any possible obstacles. Greek-wise, it's mostly used to mean believing you can do something better than the gods. This is a big no-no in ancient greek culture, which is why hubris is always linked eventually to downfall. It is what's called a fatal flaw, an attribute that condemns one to failure in the future. Greeks thought that everyone had one, and if they couldn't identify it, they would die due to it.

Dramatic Irony

Dramatic Irony is a form of literary irony in which the reader or audience or listener or or whatever knows something the characters do not. It is very common in tragedies, as the audience will know some approaching or underlying factor the tragic hero does not, and it (the audience) will have to watch helplessly as the hero keeps trundling onward toward the tragic end. It is also common in modern horror: knowing the killer is there, there is something under the bed, is always scarier as you scream silently at the character not to do whatever they're about to do than knowing nothing.

Teiresias

Teiresias was a legendary prophet in ancient greek mythology. He once accidentally came across Athena bathing, so she blinded him. As his mother pleaded for Athena to forgive him, Athena gave Teiresias the gift of prophecy to make up for his loss of sight. His prophecies range from warning Pentheus to recognize and welcome Dionysus, a prediction of the greatness of Hercules, a warning to the parents of Oedipus about what he would do to his parents, and advice to Odysseus about how to placate Poseidon.

Fate

In Greek philosophy, fate was a concept of unescapable destiny that ruled over all, even the gods. Delphic oracles once said in greek legend "no one, not even the god, can escape his appointed fate". The fates of men were determined by many different beings, Delphic prophets, Apollo the patron of Delphi and the oracular god, or the 3 Moirai, or Fates. The Moirai were three beings with the great power of deciding the length of man's life: Clotho, the spinner, that spins the thread, Lachesis, the measurer, that decides the length of the thread, and Atropos, she who cannot be turned, that cuts the thread.

Greek Theater

Greek theater originated as festivals to the gods, in which plays would be performed in the name of and to honor the gods. Thespis was the legendary first actor and is the namesake for Thespians, people of the theater. The venues played in were usually massive open-air amphitheaters built into the side of hills, with seats going up the side of the hill and a stage down at the bottom in the center. Plays themselves were normally based on already known myths, usually involved the use of messengers to relay messages, and took place in one or two main places. The more comedic plays usually involved contemporary, relevant political issues and were often simple satires on society, politics, and literature relevant at the time.

Monday, January 13, 2014

"Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in all its beauty."

The movie Baraka teaches a lesson of compassion, unity, and empathy for all humanity normally only achieved by the finest of World Literature. It is rare that a film can present such a message in a meaningful way, as the deepest most big box office movies normally get is about to the level of intellectual stimulation achieved by Donnie Darko or Memento. In this way Baraka becomes more of an item of World Literature than one of the cinema. Its strong images provoke compassion and bring revelation for all aspects of our society, from the poverty and yet intimacy with the earth achieved by many still undeveloped cultures from Australia to sub-saharan Africa. It is indeed moving to witness this connection still very much alive in these cultures while almost the entirety of the rest of the world has left that far behind.
A second very moving and meaningful image was the people moving through the subway, all sped up. I actually disagree with Brussat's assertion that those images were included with the purpose of merely showing the value of only efficiency and compulsion in society, pushing compassion to the side. I would say that those images, interspersed with images of small chicks being tumbled through machines, being catalogued and handicapped and shuttled into incredibly confined spaces to work tirelessly for some corporation, providing their eggs and meat for people to eat, were meant to be drawn a parallel to the chicks. The images are meant to show how the people ferrying through the turns and doors and checkpoints and turnstiles of the subway system are identical to the chicks, the only difference is that the people maintain the illusion that they are doing it of their own free will. Powerful message.