Blog #4   Tuesdays with Morrie

            After running all of my races for the day, I had my ear buds in and was trying to fall asleep.  It was a winter track meet, during Christmas break last year (2011), and I all I wanted to do was pass out.  Next to me was Mike Puhl, reading some tiny paperback.  There was too much going on round me, so I gave up my efforts to sleep and asked Mike what book he was reading.  He told me it was called Tuesdays with Morrie and that he was reading it for Mr. Ingram’s Death and Dying course.  “What an odd name for a book?” I thought.  I looked the book up on-line later that night after I had gotten home.  The reviews said it was a very good book and had sold millions of copies.  All I thought was, “That’s what they say about all the boring classics.”  Satisfied, a nodded my head and forgot about it.

            This year, as it was my turn to be a senior and take Death and Dying, I had the opportunity of reading the very same book and there are few times in my life a have ever been more mistaken.  Tuesdays with Morrie is a very simple book, that depicts the last fourteen weeks of a very wise man’s life.  This man, Morrie (duh), is anything enver short of knowledge.  It seems that he has some idea or virtue to fit everyone.  When I was reading this book, it felt like all my problems and worries were gone and I was at peace with everything around me, simply listening to the wonderful words of Morrie Schwartz.  

            There was one thing I did not understand at first though.  How come Mitch Albom, the author and narrator of the book, almost never said a word during the fourteen interviews?  The way he wrote his book, it seems like he never had anything to say back to Morrie.  Finally, after I had finished the book, I realized why.  There are some people that I have met that I could listen to all day.  Some people just have that gift that they can hold your attention and make even the simplest of topics seem interesting.  The conversations you hold with these people seem life altering and mesmerizing at the time, and then afterwards you realize you were just talking about food or grades or football.  This must have been the case with Morrie.  It isn’t that Mitch didn’t have anything to say, but he wanted his book to be filled, mostly, with the final words of Morrie.  He didn’t want what he had to say get in the way of the beautiful advice offered by his old friend. 

           

Blog #3  Would Hamlet make a good friend?

            Hamlet was a crazy guy.  He wasn’t born that way though, and he didn’t just one day decide to start scaring the hell out of everyone around him.  He was driven to his madness by outside forces, extremely unfair forces if you ask me.  So, my answer is yes.  I think Hamlet would make a great friend.  Even though he killed multiple people, some without remorse, he’d be a great buddy.  

            Before all of the craziness and disaster started in Hamlet’s life, he was probably a normal prince inhabiting a much more normal world.  He most likely was spoiled and got his way a lot, but he seems like a really nice guy.  Hamlet and Horatio were great friends and I could see myself palling around with them, slaying all the bad guys and seducing all the fair maidens   

            The one thing I’d have to make sure of not doing is angering Hamlet.  I can see why he killed Claudius, but Polonius didn’t do anything.  Sure he was a stuck up old man, but he didn’t deserve to get stabbed.  Also, Hamlet had Rosencrantz and Guildenstern killed.  I know they were planning on leading him to his own death sentence, but Hamlet showed zero guilt sending them off blindly to their deaths in England, and they even used to be his friends.  

I think I could put up with all of this though.  Hamlet seems like a really cool guy, and I’d let him slide on the killings.  Hopefully I wouldn't offend him.  

Blog #2   L.A. Confidential

            L.A. Confidential isn’t a new movie, but has been around for over ten years.  It is just recently though, that I have watched it.   

            This movie, set in 1950’s L.A., is ruthless, smart, sexy, dangerous, and funny.  Its characters are tough and its plot is rivetingly awesome.  The corruption of the Los Angeles Police Department makes you wonder if some cops are still that way today, 60 years later.   

            There are two opposing forces in this movie and they are shown in Edmund Exley and Wendell Bud White.  Like opposing forces they eventually end up clashing, crashing angrily into each other.  The two have different motives but in the end come together and in my mind perfectly.

            Edmund Exley is straight shooter.  After a scandal in a police jail room he tells the truth about what happened, snitching on another cop.  He secured justice and did the right thing, but in some way I hated him.  With the rest of the cops on the force, I couldn’t believe he ratted out a fellow officer.  I also couldn’t believe the way I was thinking, hating someone for doing the right thing? 

            My favorite character is Bud White.  A short-tempered but driven man, Bud is a dangerous force to stand in the way of.  Along with Exley, these two emerge as some of the only cops that don’t abuse their power in the LAPD.  For this, they are both admirable.  Among the corruption and decay of a police force, these two stand alone as the heroes the movie needs.  My favorite scene is when the two finally collide and go at it in the police office.  After beating the crap out of Exley, White realizes what is actually going on in the force.  As the two unite, the next hour may be the greatest of tag-team copping in all of cinema. 

           

            I was stunned by the reality this movie portrayed, the undeniable and awful power that some cops assume over others made me furious.  I was disgusted by the LAPD.  Even more, this movie has made me curios of something: are cops still corrupt?  Obviously not to the point of drug deals and money laundering, but do some cops still assume too much power?  I sort of doubt it, although it is hard to look at someone fairly who pulls everyone over for driving five miles per hour over the speed limit

           

            The best movies always leave you wondering with questions.

Blog #1   Sad, Sad, Sad

Who do I feel most sorry for: Hamlet, Janie, Stevie, Sydney Carton?

            We have read a few books so far this year, and it seem each of these works contains characters that have experienced severe hardships.  In this blog I will be discussing which character was subject to the most suffering; the character I feel most sorry for. 

            To me, the obvious answer would be Stevie.  He was the most innocent of all character we have been introduced to so far, and he was forced to suffer the worst and least honorable death.  So, to me Stevie is far too obvious a choice and I will switch him out for Mrs. Verloc, to make the odds more fair. 

            Right away I’m going to rule out Sydney Carton.  The tragedy that has befallen him is great, but at the end of the day it was his own choice.  I don’t think this in bad way but, in fact, a very good way.  Sydney is a hero and deserving of praise for his righteous acts.  I don’t feel at all sorry for him but, instead, I admire him and am inspired by his final act.

            The next choice I will rule out is Mrs. Verloc.  Her brother was killed, but as tragic as that is, she still murdered her husband.  In cold blood she murdered her husband in his home and his shop.  The choices made by Mrs. Verloc after Stevie’s death constitute, in my mind, who she really is.  Instead of feeling sorry for her I have grown to dislike her. 

            Lastly I will rule out Hamlet.  His father was killed by his uncle and his mother was a whore, but he still is a prince.  Before all these tragedies had befallen him, Hamlet was most likely a very spoiled child who always got what he wanted.  Until now his life was probably very easy.  Also, Hamlet at first comes off as a brat.  He originally whines about the unfortunate circumstances that have surrounded him, instead of immediately taking action.  By the end of the play though, I came to love Hamlet.  He grew from a child, unable to cope, to a strong young man willing to give his own life to conquer evil and exact revenge.  He deserved the thrown his father had planned to leave for him and it kills me to see that he can’t have it.  Hamlet would have attended the most funerals, but many were caused by his own sword.

            So, of all the characters I have been introduced to, I think Jane suffered the most.  At first I disliked her.  Janie seemed so stuck up, abandoning her first husband merely because he asked for some extra help around the farm.  I couldn’t believe she would run away from a marriage so easily.  Then I saw this action for what it truly was; Janie was on her life-long search or happiness.  She wanted to live and would make any sacrifice to achieve this goal she held onto so tightly.  Then she met Jodie, and he flat out tricked her.  He locker her away and tied up her hair around her mouth so she couldn’t speak.  He oppressed his own wife, the one he had promised a wonderful new life.  After ten or more years of marriage Janie finally gets out and finds freedom in Tea Cake.  She loved Tea Cake and the she herself had to kill him.  Of all the deaths in each of these works, Tea Cake’s is the most tragic to me.  I felt so sorry for Janie as she sat at trial for her unwanted killing.