Various things (perhaps somewhat controversial)

[mary_j_59]

It's seemed a long time since I've posted here - this one will cover at least two subjects, perhaps three. The first - the Nakba - is somewhat controversial, so it's under a cut.

Briefly, I can't help thinking, more and more, that it is a mistake to treat life as a zero-sum game, in which there must always be winners and losers. Naturally, no one wants to be a loser, most especially people who have already lost a great deal. They get defensive and hostile in fear of having whatever they have managed to win taken from them. And who can blame them? I can't. But there must surely be other ways of looking at the world and its problems.

The article I'm linking to is by the author of a beautiful book called "On the Hills of God". It's about his family's experiences sixty years ago, during Al Nakba. Here is the link: http://www.counterpunch.org/fawal05202008.html

Two or three years ago, I happened to walk into a local bookstore and met Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh at a signing. He is also (like Mr. Fawal, and Edward Said, and Hanan Ashrawi) a Palestinian Christian, and he was hopeful that, very soon, the walls of anger and vengefulness and fear between Palestinians and Israelis would come down and the people would live together in one country. The peoples, after all, have so much in common, including a love and reverence for the land. I hope he's right. To truly see each other as brothers and sisters is a new way of looking at the world; it is still, nearly 2,000 years after Christ's death, extremely radical. It sounds so simple, and yet it can be very hard, in practice. And the first step is always recognizing the others' pain.

That is what the parents of little Abir and Smadar* are somehow managing to do. That is heroism. We need more heroes of this sort in the world, and I hope we will get them - and recognize and encourage them when we see them. I had been going to link to a second article here; it was published on the counterpunch site on May 5, and was written by an Israeli Jew, a founding member of Combatants for Peace, the organization to which Bassam Aramin (Abir's father) and the Elhanans (Smadar's parents) also belong. The title is "There is Hope in Gaza". If you are interested, take a look.
(* These are the two young girls I mentioned on March 16th).

End of controversial section. Well, maybe! Onward to a movie review
(and how do people ever do those nice multiple lj cuts within their blogs?)

On opening night, my sister and a friend all went to see Prince Caspian. All three of us would recommend it, and are going to see it again. To my mind, it was a bit uneven; my chief problem was that it was too much a war movie and did not have quite enough Aslan in it. I would have liked to see and hear him interacting with Peter and Susan - but, otoh, the scenes with Caspian and (especially) Lucy were exactly right. That was a *big* plus. Other positives:

The trees! The centaurs! Reepicheep! TRUMPKIN! (yay - I always liked the character as a child, but the actor was truly wonderful). Our friend and my sister couldn't get over how cute the mice were, nor how realistically they moved (yay Syd and animation team!). Both Deirdre and I also liked that there was closure for Prunaprismia and the baby, and that faith and humility came through strongly as necessary virtues. Our friend *loved* the Christian messages in the film. I also really, really liked the Telmarine armor and most of what they did with the culture. They came across like conquistadors, and it occured to me, as I watched, that the Telmarines actually were colonizers, just like the Europeans in the Americas. And Lewis was from Belfast, and, though a Protestant, considered himself an Irishman - which, of course, he was. I really liked that, in the end, this story was about reconciliation and peoples learning to live together. So you see - I've come full circle here. (And it is, of course, Aslan who makes reconciliation possible; He calls to our good impulses and encourages us to act on them and to see and reject the bad ones. They actually did show that in the movie.)

Now, in fairness, things I didn't like. I thought there were too many battles - and I didn't like the River god terrorizing Sopespian's *horse*. I didn't really like "Susan, warrior princess" - she seemed too much of a ruthless killer. Although the tension between Peter and Caspian was natural enough, it's true it wasn't in the book, and, unlike in the book, we never got to see Peter apologize for being pig-headed. In the movie, his bad decisions got people *killed*. So - not a perfect movie. But, on the whole, we all thought it a very good one, with some depth. And it was just lovely to look at, too.

So, if I had to sum up this post, I'd say it's about the crying need for reconciliation and forgiveness in our world, and how difficult it can be to achieve those things. They demand heroism, and we don't always know what heroism really is. Which could bring me straight back to Harry Potter, via Young Wizards - imo, a much, much better series. But I'll stop now!

(That was going to be my third point, but this is already much too long. I'll get to Diane Duane and her young wizards later.)

Comments

[puckling.livejournal.com]

So basically you and I are both going to like this movie (as soon as I get around to seeing it) but for pretty much the *opposite* reasons, is what I'm getting here ;). However, I'm looking forward to your post about Diane Duane.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Well - possibly. I can't imagine liking this movie if you strongly disliked the Telmarine sections and the visuals, so I think our reactions *might* have something in common. Perhaps.

I'll be getting back to Diane Duane in a day or two. It was suggested to me that I write a comparison between Severus Snape and Ed the Shark, but that essay is not in me! What I have to say is a lot more basic; I'm rereading the series from the beginning right now, while waiting for the fourth "Attolia" book, the fifth "chronicles of ancient darkness', and a few others. I forget - did you read "The Thief" and its sequels? Excellent books!

[anne-arthur.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the very belated comment - I finally went to see Prince Caspian last night (it has been out for about three weeks here). I wasn't really sure what I was expecting - I had only seen one review of it, which was unremittingly hostile and clearly politically motivated - but I was very pleasantly surprised. Like you, I thought there was not enough Aslan (is Liam Neeson getting expensive?), and I didn't particularly like the way they had Lucy ride out through the battle to find him - it stresses the importance of faith, I suppose, but in a way that turns it into a mad, dramatic, completely counter-intuitive gesture, rather than the book's more low-key message of trusting Aslan and finding that the very wrong-seeming way is in fact the right one. But I did like the way that it was only after they had done that that everyone could put aside their egos and start co-operating (although I agree with you, I think we could have done with more of an apology from Peter). And I also liked the way that, animated by Aslan, the land itself seemed to rise up against the Telmarines (the animation for the trees was excellent, much better than the Ents in LOTR - I loved their roots). I'm not sure about the amount of fighting - one of the criticisms in my review was that it was far too easy for the Narnians and that everything always went in their favour, and what principally struck me was that this was very unjust, and that the fighting was very bleak and nasty (those poor Narnians trapped in Miraz's castle . . .). Susan, warrior princess, is annoying, I agree - but I'm afraid inevitable in today's world. I thought that Trumpkin was excellent, and also Nikabrik (the same actor who plays Flitwick in the Harry Potter films, I think) - his desperation came across well. (In that regard I also liked Trumpkin's comment on the bear: if you're treated like an animal for long enough you'll become one.) CaspianLatino would never have occurred to me, but I liked him a lot (although I wish I'd seen the film a couple of weeks ago - last night I kept half-expecting him to start thanking Roger Federer for an excellent match!). In fact I loved the whole conquistador look for the Telmarines - it makes sense in the light of their origins in our world, and, as you have said, it resonates very well with their role in Narnia. Looking at the book last night, it even works quite well with the Pauline Baynes illustrations. I loved the way they came across as a complex people, not just a bunch of villains - and that Caspian the Telmarine could nevertheless become a legitimate king. All of which is there in the book, but could easily have been ignored . . . And the effects were great (another gripe of my review). So I am very impressed - roll on Voyage of the Dawn Treader!