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A HIDDEN LIFE

4/16/2020

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“A Hidden Life,” the latest Terrence Malick movie, arrived in the mail this morning. I spent the afternoon watching all 2 hours and 54 minutes of it. It is a movie that could have been made by no one other than Malick. I see reflections and reminders of every one of his previous movies in this one.

The story is simple. A young farmer with a wife and 3 little girls and an aged mother cannot bring himself to swear allegiance to a man whom he believes to be an evil dictator who has taken his country into an unjust war and who is killing innocent people.

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BURYING THE DEAD

4/15/2020

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I recently saw that the idea of using New York City parks for temporary mass burial of victims of COVID-19 was being floated. My first reaction: why temporary? My reaction upon deeper consideration: why temporary?
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“EVOLUTION”

4/8/2020

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In 2003 British science fiction author Stephen Baxter published his long (592 pages) novel “Evolution.” It is named for its central character. In addition to the Prologue and Epilogue it consists of 19 novella-length chapters in three sections: Ancestors, Humans, and Descendants. The novel covers a period of some 165 million years. Each chapter deals with a different time period, the first one in the farthest reaches of the past, the last in the far distant future.
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At the centerpoint of the novel, a few years from now, Life As We Know It is at its peak. Civilization is brought down by a perfect storm of pestilence and terrorism. Those few who survive retreat into the forest.

Until that point, the novel had celebrated the increasing complexity of the mind, the growth of intelligence, the creation of civilization. A success story.

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THE HOURGLASS

4/4/2020

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​        But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near . . .
 
Or so said Andrew Marvell back in the 17th century. Given my present age and the present pestilential crisis, I find the words just as pertinent for today. One wonders who is driving that chariot and one suspects it is someone one would rather not meet late at night in a dark alley.

Marvell is addressing a woman whom he wishes to seduce. He states that right up front:

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.

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Watching Again: An Open Letter to A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis

4/3/2020

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I am enjoying the new series in the New York Times in which you invite the public to watch movies with you during a weekend and then provide your own and your viewers’ thoughts about the movie the next week. Already you have persuaded me to take another look at “Top Gun” Lacking an email address to which I might send you condolence for the dearth of new movies to review during this time of plague as well as my own advice on what else you might do during this hiatus, I’ll try to get your attention this way. Too, this might contain suggestions helpful to some of your Constant Readers.
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ITCHES AND SCRATCHES

4/2/2020

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You may recall Ogden Nash’s young belle from old Natchez whose garments were always in patchez. When comments arose on the state of her clothes, she replied, "When Ah itchez, Ah scratchez.”

I’ve been thinking of that young belle recently and wondering if she might be a version of Gaia writ small, or perchance Gaia is that young lady writ large.

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