Rozworld’s WebLog

We finished watching the Complete Jane Austen on PBS last weekend and I have to say that I really enjoyed a number of the adaptations. My three favorite include, “Northanger Abby” (2007), “Pride and Prejudice” (1995), and “Sense and Sensibility” (2008). These portrayals illustrate what it must have been like to live in the tight social context of upper class Georgian England. Austen masterfully flaunts how the young next generation must navigate the fine line between, class, income, status, and love. Of course the films make no mention of what the bottom 99% of English society is doing at the time. These characters are all about connections, emotions, families, and all that jazz. The stories are almost like little social experiments that Austen concocts. She added in a lot of status, mixes in a potential income if they marry X, and then throws in a dash of family calamity. In the end, it always works out for the best and the newly weds cart off to their inherited English countryside mansion with wide smiles upon their brow. It’s pure fantasy for the modern day life. Jane Austen has her following just as J.R.R Tolkien has his. I however can claim a membership to both fan clubs.

Another Beyond Belief conference has come and gone. The central theme for this one was the Enlightenment, both in its history and whether or not we can ever have a second enlightenment. Some excellent lectures here. My favorites were from Jonathan Haidt and Patricia Churchland. Their talks about the sociological and neuropsychological basis of religion really made sense. The whole disagreement between Scott Atran and Sam Harris made for interesting moments.

http://thesciencenetwork.org/BeyondBelief2/

The documentary film titled “The War” by Ken Burns aired on PBS these last two weeks. It’s a fascinating 15+ hour story of America’s perspective and participation in World War II. It starts at Pearl Harbor and goes until the end of the War with the G.I.s adjusting to post war America. Jean and I watched all of it and found most of it gripping and intense. What makes this film so different from many of the “Hitler” channel’s shows of WWII was the reverse role of the players in story telling. Instead of the war being told from the perspective of elitists of government or from the generals, “The War” is told around the stories recounted from the actual G.I.s from 4 different American cities. These cities include Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and Luverne, Minnesota.

“The War” opens with the quote, “There are no good wars, only necessary wars.” One of the good things about this film was that it made us think of the WWII veterans that we personally know. It gives us some perspective on what they had to endure, but we will never really know. The other thought I had while I watched, was what an profound impact WWII had on the economy and social ideology of this country ever since. For instance, just think of all the military contactors that sprung up from ordinary business to fill the orders of war equipment. There are a lot of companies that exist today that know the fact that war is good for profits. Ever since the war there has always been a huge industry to sell and manufacture weapons.

Some of my favorite parts include:
The countless stories of tragedy and courage. One such story was of the marine platoon advancing in the dark on a south pacific island, when they hear a single gun shot. They all stop and dig in. Then they start to hear the moans of someone up ahead. The groans grow more intense and last all night. The man telling the story explains that he wished the guy would just shut up and die. When morning comes they discover that the man in pain was a marine who accidentally shot himself and that he had died in the night. Not only that, but it was the story teller’s best friend. The irony of war is raw with this sort of grit.

Then there is the story of a Native American soldier who has to accomplish four tasks in order to become a War Chief among his people, the Crow of the plains. The tasks were to lead a war party, to touch a living enemy, take away an enemy’s weapon, and to steal enemy horses. He accomplished all of these against the Nazi army.

The quotes by General George S. Patton left me laughing. He really was a colorful man and an awesome military genius. “Some men can shoot, some men can run. If you can shoot and run, you and Napoleon are pissin’ through the same straw.” or “Italy is like a boot, you have enter it from the top, like Hannibal did.”

I just have a couple criticisms about the film. One was that the segments that I found easy to get away for breaks were the stories from the home front. These are no doubt an important part of the story during the war, but I found them slow against the backdrop of conflict.
Another issue I have is with the whimsical music that was distractingly played during some of the more serious and tragic scenes.

Other than these couple things, I highly recommend this masterpiece of documentary film making. Thank you Mr. Burns!

By Tech Editor Jean

What are all these blue things I keep hearing people talking about? There are a lot of things that are either blue this or blue that. Take for instance the blue-tooth technology and things of this nature. What is that anyway? Does it magically help do the taxes? Does it take the dog for a walk around the block? Then what good could it possibly be? Then there is Blue-Ray? Ok, at least I have got some idea what this is. But why even have it? Why would you want to replace the DVD player that’s been around 10 years tops? We just got a DVD player a few years ago and it works perfectly fine. DVD’s color and picture are just fine for me. And what about the-Blue-Man Group? What’s that all about anyway. Are those guys nuts or what? Ok, I give up, I have no idea.

I just finished Joseph Campbell’s book, “The Power of Myth” with Bill Moyers. This book was based on a recorded conversation between the two that aired on PBS in the late 1980s. Joseph Campbell was the prominent author and Professor of Mythology and Comparative Religion at Sarah Lawrence University for a number of years and Bill Moyers is the award winning journalist for PBS. I used to believe that myths were some dotty irrelevant Greek stories that have no bearing on the way we think, but have now come to the realization that mythos is the underlying structure to every religion and belief system that has ever existed.
The ideas that myths convey are simply the ideas on how to conduct one’s self in life told in the context to have profound meaning. The rites of passage, from birth to coming of age to marriage and death, myths help give meaning to a seemingly meaningless world and extend rules for the individual and a society. Myths give comfort because they show that others have walked the same path.

The commonalities of myths show that across cultures, across religions, across languages, we are all human and share the same needs and a common psychology.

Some parallels between different beliefs systems, i.e. or things they won’t teach you in Bible school:

The Buddha and the Christ
The striking similarities between the life of the Buddha and the life of Christ are remarkable. For instance both characters had special births from their mothers, both found salvation beyond death. During life the Buddha was tempted 3 times, so was the Christ. And even parallels between their disciples, Ananda and St. Peter for example can be drawn.
Savior Gods
Savior gods permeate myths from around the globe. For instance take the “Corn Boy” in American Indian Myths. The corn boy is a story of a young man who was killed and was buried, only to come back and grow into the first stalk of corn for the purpose to feed his people. Another is the savior god Osiris, who died and was resurrected to become King and judge of all the dead.
The World Center
When I was in Alaska in August this year, I met one of Roger’s friends who was a fellow Taxidermist and who also happened to be a native Ojibwa Indian from Canada. He said something very profound that rings true throughout many of the world belief systems. He asked me where I was from and I said, “Wisconsin…”, “Well”, he said “[That is where my people started, Wisconsin is the sacred land, do you know what I mean?]”, and I said “Yes, I know what you mean…like Mecca”. In the Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell talks about that there is a place in the world where everything else revolves around it. It’s the place where a people find balance and a center between them and the world. Many cultures have a world center. Mecca for the Muslins is a world center. The Holy land or Jerusalem is also a world center for many of the other world religions. It was comforting to hear that our land here in Wisconsin, is considered by some to be a sacred site, but I’ve always known this in the back of my mind.
The Greek-ness of it All
Some of the Christian stories would have been very familiar to the pagan Greek listeners of the 1st Century: Christ turning water to wine, Dionysius also did this. Hermes walked on water in the Odyssey. If you were anybody of anything, you were descended from a God. It was common among the Greeks and Romans, for instance Caesar and Alexander the Great were both descended from the gods. This validated the individual and legitimized their rule.

Every night when we read a fairy or folk tale to Rosalind I now take heart that we are not just spending critical time with her but also being part of a larger tradition to convey and teach children moral conduct and comfort them with the end result of helping them to gain meaning from real world situations. There are myths for all phases of life, seek them out.

Jean and I finished watching the entire first season of “Rome” on DVD this week.

Up until this point, previous “sword and sandal” movies/series have only hinted at some of the things this program explicitly showcases, i.e. the roman slave trade, the roman religion and sacrifices, and gratuitous relationships. Graphic and bold, you get an unprecedented look at the dealing of the Roman senate, life in the Roman army and woman’s roles. Taking place in the years around 52 B.C. when Julius Caesar came to power, Rome follows two separate story lines that often intersect, one being, Caesar’s rise to power and the other being the dealings of a middle class Roman officer, Lucius Vorenus, and his subordinate/friend, Titus Pullo. The acting, costumes, and sets are all seriously good. The story lines are a mixture of fact and fiction set against the backdrop of political intrigue and epic history. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who appreciates a good historical novel.

Last Saturday we went test driving 2 hot new vehicles, the Toyota Prius and the Pontiac Vibe. Both cars have been on the market for several years now have been gaining in popularity. We’re really looking for a car with great gas mileage and although the Prius stands out because it’s a hybrid 50-60 mpg, the Vibe has fairly good gas mileage at 29/36 mpg. The first car we drove was a new 06′ Prius that happen to be on the lot. The sales person said it’s currently a 5 month wait for a new Pruis. The car was decked out with almost the top of the line package. It had a touch-screen voice-controlled navigation system, a rear camera, smart key system, was bluetooth enabled, and had a host of other features. What got me is that it does not come with a key, you open the door and push a “On” button to start it. Jean and I both drove it around the block and I was just impressed with the quality of the car. It felt like a nice solid stable car that was quiet and had good pickup. We were both very impressed with the Toyota Prius. Next we test drove the Pontiac Vibe. I’ve been seeing more and more Vibes around town and it seems like it has a good trunk on it for carrying cargo around. Again, we both got to drive it. To me it was like driving our old car. The Vibe has good visibility and a good space in the back trunk, but that’s about all I can say about it. When the sales lady starts explaining that you can adjust the ceiling light to turn “on” when the door opens, you can’t help but thinking that it’s pointless going any further down the road and turning right back. I think we’re going to get a Prius.