14 Days of Thankfulness

Today I am thankful for reading. I'm glad that the printing press was invented; I've probably spent half of my lifetime reading something or other. I have always had this compulsion to investigate and find out about things. I love to learn and to know stuff. Books are my friends. Today S-Boogie folded up a paper, drew a picture and some lines on it, and then "read" me her book. It was a story about a wolf who lived in a castle and who had to fight some bad guys to get out and go to school. I'm glad that she's starting to love books too and that she understands the power of storytelling. Little Dude is also getting into reading and we often spend most of the morning reading books together before we go wait for the bus.

Even though I'm not always a gung-ho patriot, I am very grateful to live in a country with freedom of the press and an amazing supply of information. Although I've read some who worry that our country is moving towards totalitarianism, I think they're a little ridiculous compared to the real thing. Part of my studies in literature have been twentieth-century European history and we have nothing on the real fascists and socialists. This is mostly an opportunity for me to tell you about the movie we just watched last weekend: The Lives of Others. It is awesome--one of the best movies I've seen in a while. And it was a good reminder why totalitarian states never work out.

Comments

Zillah said…
So here's the question I've been debating for months now: do you think that The Lives of Others deserved to win the Oscar for best foreign film over Pan's Labyrinth?
11/11/2007 10:30 AM
FoxyJ said…
Actually, I was going to put this in the post but it didn't really work well. I loved both movies, but I think that The Lives of Others is superior in its plot. I tend to prefer moral ambiguity and characters that are not stereotypically evil or good. I recognize that Pan's Labyrinth is trying to be like fairy tales and it does this well. I don't know--I think they are equally good, but I also feel like The Lives of Others has moral lessons that are more applicable to our everyday lives and that are more realistic. Of course, morality and adherence to realism are not always the best criteria to judge movies on. As far as filmmaking goes I think they are equally matched.
11/11/2007 1:31 PM
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