FILM 1846: WHITE MAN'S BURDEN

FILM 1846: WHITE MAN'S BURDEN

TRIVIA: John Travolta took the role at Quentin Tarantino's urging.

Desmond Nakano, who is Japanese-American, created the film in part because of how we felt that to both American whites and blacks, he was "them". He also tapped into the disorienting feeling he felt when he visited Japan, saying that "for so long I had been different, it felt wrong to be the same."

BOOK 189: SAPIENS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND: YUVAL NOAH HARARI

BOOK 189: SAPIENS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANKIND: YUVAL NOAH HARARI

This book surveys the history of humankind from the evolution of archaic human species in the Stone Age up to the twenty-first century, focusing on our own species of human, Homo sapiens. The account is situated within a framework provided by the natural sciences, particularly evolutionary biology.

Harari surveys the history of humankind from the evolution of archaic human species in the Stone Age up to the twenty-first century, focusing on our own species of human, Homo sapiens. He divides the history of Sapiens into four major parts: 

The Cognitive Revolution (c. 70,000 BC, when Sapiens evolved imagination).

The Agricultural Revolution (c. 10,000 BC, the development of agriculture).

The unification of humankind (the gradual consolidation of human political organisations towards one global empire).

The Scientific Revolution (c. 1500 AD, the emergence of objective science).

Public reception

First published in Hebrew in 2011 and then in English in 2014, the book was translated into 45 languages (as of June 2017). It also made to The New York Times best-seller list and won the National Library of China's Wenjin Book Award for the best book published in 2014. Writing four years after its English-language publication, Alex Preston wrote in The Guardianthat Sapiens had become a "publishing phenomenon" with "wild success" symptomatic of a broader trend toward "intelligent, challenging nonfiction, often books that are several years old". Concurrently, The Guardian listed the book as among the ten "best brainy books of the decade".

Scholarly reception

Anthropologist Christopher Robert Hallpike reviewed the book and did not find any "serious contribution to knowledge". Hallpike suggested that "...whenever his facts are broadly correct they are not new, and whenever he tries to strike out on his own he often gets things wrong, sometimes seriously". He considered it an infotainment publishing event offering a "wild intellectual ride across the landscape of history, dotted with sensational displays of speculation, and ending with blood-curdling predictions about human destiny." 

Science journalist Charles C. Mann concluded in The Wall Street Journal, "There’s a whiff of dorm-room bull sessions about the author’s stimulating but often unsourced assertions." 

Reviewing the book in The Washington Post, evolutionary anthropologist Avi Tuschman points out problems stemming from the contradiction between Harari's "freethinking scientific mind" and his "fuzzier worldview hobbled by political correctness", but nonetheless wrote that "Harari’s book is important reading for serious-minded, self-reflective sapiens." 

Reviewing the book in The Guardian, philosopher Galen Strawson concluded that among several other problems, "Much of Sapiens is extremely interesting, and it is often well expressed. As one reads on, however, the attractive features of the book are overwhelmed by carelessness, exaggeration and sensationalism." 

Reviewing the book in The New Atlantis, John Sexton, graduate student at the University of Chicago, concluded that "The book is fundamentally unserious and undeserving of the wide acclaim and attention it has been receiving".

MY VERDICT: I found this book entertaining and interesting. Despite some negative reviews from scholars, I found some fascinating theories that I previously had not heard of and some of Harari’s viewpoints were thought provoking. There is a lot of information to digest and I forgot most of the history at the start by the time I got to the end, which is more to do with my memory than a fault of the book. I did feel that the last chapter prophesized too much and continued on a bit too long but overall I enjoyed it.

http://www.missmoss.co.za/2017/06/21/kirsten-sims-saturn-return/

BIG LITTLE LIES (2017)

TRIVIA: HBO won the rights for the series in a bidding war against Netflix.

Nicole Kidman was once engaged to Lenny Kravitz, the father of her co-star Zoë Kravitz.

After collaborating on this project, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon re-teamed to obtain the rights for an adaptation of "Truly Madly Guilty," also a novel by Liane Moriarty.

Laura Dern has previously portrayed the mother of her two co-stars Shailene Woodley and Reese Witherspoon. In this she plays a fellow mother at the primary school.

The soundtrack went #1 on iTunes' Soundtrack Chart and #2 on the Top Albums U.S. iTunes Chart. In June 2017, the soundtrack was officially released on CD, followed by a double Vinyl release in July the same year. The latter features new songs, including one by the director of the series, Jean-Marc Vallee. The soundtrack also features cast member Zoe Kravitz's first official single, a rendition of Elvis' "Don't".

FILM 1674: MARGUERITE

TRIVIA: Shot entirely in the Czech Republic.

The name of the title character is a gallicised form of Margaret Dumont, the dignified lady with the figure of an old-time opera singer who was the foil for the Marx Brothers' gags.

BOOK 169: THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS: ARUNDHATI ROY

The God of Small Things (1997) is the debut novel of Indian writer Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" that lay down "who should be loved, and how. And how much." The book explores how the small things affect people's behavior and their lives. It won the Booker Prize in 1997.

The God of Small Things was Roy's first book and as of August 2016 is her only novel. Completed in 1996, the book took four years to complete. The potential of the story was first recognized by Pankaj Mishra, an editor with HarperCollins, who sent it to three British publishers. Roy received 500,000 pounds in advance and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries.

STYLE: NON-SEQUENTIAL NARRATIVE

The God of Small Things is not written in a sequential narrative style in which events unfold chronologically. Instead, the novel is a patchwork of flashbacks and lengthy sidetracks that weave together to tell the story of the Ipe family. The main events of the novel are traced back through the complex history of their causes, and memories are revealed as they relate to one another thematically and as they might appear in Rahel's mind. Although the narrative voice is omniscient, it is loosely grounded in Rahel's perspective, and all of the episodes of the novel progress toward the key moments in Rahel's life.

(Information from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_of_Small_Things)

FILM 1618: THE WOMEN

TRIVIA: In addition to its all-female cast, every animal that was used in the film (the many dogs and horses) was female as well. In addition, none of the works of art seen in the backgrounds were representative of the male form, except for the cartoon bull that appears in the picnic scene during the fashion sequence.

There are over 130 roles in this movie, all played by women. Phyllis Povah, Marjorie Main, Mary Cecil and Marjorie Wood originated their roles in the play, which opened on 7 September 1937 and had 666 performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York. No doubles were used in the fight sequence where Rosalind Russell bites Paulette Goddard. Despite the permanent scar resulting from the bite, the actresses remained friends.

When Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford were called to shoot publicity stills, neither actress would enter the studio first. Instead, they remained in their limousines and circled the parking lot until director George Cukor summoned them and they instantly behaved like best friends.

Although uncredited, F. Scott Fitzgerald contributed to the writing of the screenplay.

Sydney's, the beauty salon where the initial action takes place, was named after Sydney Guilaroff, the chief hairstylist at MGM from 1934 to the late 1970s. He was brought to MGM from New York at the request of Joan Crawford.

The $225 nightgown Mary admires after the fashion show would be the equivalent of $3,840 in 2016.

Remade as The Women (2008).