Comments on: Fake Invasion at Gleiwitz

By: Indigobusiness

Indigobusiness — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:11:16 +0000

Should’ve been ‘fewer smilies’, not ‘less’…(some words are more equal than others).

By: Xman

Xman — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:58:26 +0000

“More similes and less smilies, I say.”
Nice!

Just finished Animal Farm again last night. Hadn’t read it since high school in 1970? Amazing! Instead of thinking of Stalin, though, I thought of our own society/government.

By: Indigobusiness

Indigobusiness — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:14:41 +0000

I’m fond of foreign books and films,as well. There’s a more honest pathos to them that confronts the themes of the human dilemma. Not just kill the bad guys, or win at all cost American formula. What’s happened to our art, our pop culture?

I bought some dvds recently: Y Tu Mama, Tambien…Amores Perros…Motorcycle Diaries, etc. And I’ve been watching The Dancer Upstairs, John Malkovich directed Javier Bardem in a fascinating study of Peruvian revolutionaries and politics. But Xman’s post reminded me of books I need revisit, or finish, he reminded me of that feeling of being on a date. Well said.

When we get back to valuing fairness above “winning”, we’ll be a better lot. More similes and less smilies, I say.

By: Xman

Xman — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:56:21 +0000

I have really been enjoying books and movies from foreign perspectives. Especially Russian or old Soviet Bloc countries. Subtitles are pretty easy to adjust to.
Anyway, in many cases, foreign books/movies seem to have a grittier truth to them that is refreshing. Odd to say graphic dog guts is refreshing, but I do appreciate the honesty.

On the other hand, why do movies and books from latin countries seem so sensual? I swear, I feel like I’m on a date when I read/watch them.

By: JoeC

JoeC — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:26:34 +0000

Pretty bizarre…I’m listening to David Benioff’s novel, “City of Thieves,” on CD (my current “listen to a book on the drive to work” choice). I’d never heard of Skinner’s dogs before, but in just yesterday’s listen, the protagonist stumbled onto a field filled with shot dogs with bombs on their backs. The book — an excellent novel, by the way — takes place during the Nazi siege of Leningrad. So, the Russians had trained their dogs that there was food underneath their tanks. Then the Russians starved the dogs for a week, strapped bombs to their backs, and turned them loose when the Nazi tanks advanced. But, in Benioff’s story, the Nazis had already wised up to what happens when a dog with a bomb on its back thinks theirs schnitzel beneath their tank (BOOM!), so the German sharpshooters had taken out the dogs before they reached their tanks, and by the time our hero emerges from the woods onto this snow-covered field full of tank tread marks, the field is littered with the carcasses of bomb-carrying dogs, some still alive and clawing along with their guts trailing. Did I say I’m really liking this novel? It’s a very entertaining, very deep-felt powerful book. And, after never having heard of tank-busting bomb-toting dogs before, then hearing about them twice from two different sources in two days…well, thought it was worth a mention. You know what the Police say: “A star fall, a phone call. It joins all. Synchronicity.”