SEPTEMBER - EPISODE IX: FALL 2021

        WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE IX: FALL 2021

Hello People of the World;

 

Here we are again nearing the end of another year with a dangerous pandemic sweeping the world and no one cares. We stopped commenting on the weather because it leads to climate change discussions that we would rather avoid. When the rainy fall starts, we will see the folks that say they love fall complaining about all the rain.

 

As always: Stay safe. Stay home.

 

 All right, let’s get going:

 

1:[ This virus really showed how equal we all really are: how we are all really thinking we are the heroes of our own stories.

 

2:[ I love how all these armchair YouTube book reviewers with 20/20 hindsight getting mad at the documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune", like he ever could have gotten it made, and how they are sooo glad he never made it because it goes against the very essence of Herbert's themes of his Dune Series, ie: the mistrust of messiahs. Because Jodorowsky's Dune would have played up that concept of Paul becoming a galactic messiah and BOOOOOOOO, that was totally what Herbert DIDN'T mean with his seminal series.

 

Except that in the first book, Paul DOES BECOME A GALACTIC MESSIAH, and that when Dune Messiah was released, “real” Dune "Fans" hated that he TORE DOWN THE CONCEPT OF PAUL AS A GALACTIC MESSIAH. Also, all Jodorowsky was doing was his own adaptation of only the first book, WHERE PAUL BECOMES A GALACTIC MESSIAH!

 

3:[ Shang Chi Review: I enjoyed this one very much. It was a fun Marvel-flavored action film. Not too heavy, the story is clear. Culture Lite. Tony Leung is the best, as is Michelle Yeoh. Classic.

 

I get people are hating this. (NWPI and all). I also get the representational baggage too. I mean, I get it: that one movie is supposed to represent the entirety of a varied community, which leads to reduction-ism and single-voice authorities, but hey, good first step, right? (Despite a long history of Chinese representation in film)

In the end, it is another fun one in a long line of fun product from Marvel Studios. I enjoyed this one very much.

 

HIGH RECOMMENDATION

 

4:[ There has been a lot of chatter online about the “Squid Game” character of  Song-woo being described as "Morally gray" and how people “relate” to him. The character was a sociopath that was never morally gray. The actual morally gray person was the lead character Gi-hun, who used his daughter’s birthday money to gamble and tricked an old man into giving up his marbles. That is morally gray. There is no room for blurred morality when you choose to kill another person for money. What we are deeming to be acceptable in this society is astounding and is leading us to our downfall….

 

5:[ I finished my zombie script. I registered the first draft of the screenplay depicting Urban Native peoples stranded within their community’s Native American Center during a virus outbreak. I saw another Indigenous zombie movie and just did not like it. I think we can be allowed to not like Native things.

 

6:[ I have been quietly re-watching all of the Star Trek: the Next Generation feature films. The ones people seem to say are the worst, are actually pretty good, and the one everyone says is the best, is actually the worst.

 

7:[ We were discussing the Gaze in media representations in my class yesterday and I used a Diet Coke ad with Taylor Swift to question my students’ perspective on whose gaze is the depiction coming from. Also, who was the ad made for. We also discussed the concept of the oppositional gaze as stated by bell hooks. That looking upon something you oppose can be empowering for the objectified. Then, my little girl and I had a chat about the oppositional gaze of the music of Taylor Swift herself, in that she created songs crafted from her perspective against the romantic idea of the break-up song. How she is empowered as the author with her specific perspective on not pining for the person she broke up with as so many songs have done….

 

8:[ We cannot go back to “Normal” all after this, because there seems to be this contempt for intelligence. Most of the tantrums about masks are happening in libraries, schools, and bookstores; perceived centers of the intelligentsia. Which can also be seen in their embrace of misinformation and willful ignorance as some form of rebellion. Interesting, this.

 

That is it for this month.

 

As always, I invite you to comment, correct, or contradict anything I write here. I am open to a critical debate. Thanks for taking the time to check out what I write here and I will see you in a month.

 

Until next time, remember “I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”

 

 

2020 Ernest M Whiteman III