Dinnertime or thereabout. You spent the day
not doing much except watching a film, Blue is the Warmist Colour.
** **
Blue Is the Warmest Colour (French: La Vie d'Adèle
– Chapitres 1 & 2 – "The Life of Adèle – Chapters 1 &
2"), also known as Adèle: Chapters 1 & 2, is a 2013
French romantic coming-of-age drama film written, produced, and directed by Abdellatif
Kechiche, starring Léa Seydoux and Adèle
Exarchopoulos. The film revolves around Adèle (Exarchopoulos), a
French teenager who discovers desire and freedom when a blue-haired aspiring
painter (Seydoux) enters her life.
At the
2013 Cannes Film Festival, the film unanimously won the Palme d'Or from the
official jury and the FIPRESCI Prize. It is the first film to have the Palme
d'Or awarded to both the director and the lead actresses, with Seydoux and
Exarchopoulos becoming the only women apart from director Jane Campion to have
ever won the award.
Blue Is the Warmest Colour is based on the 2010 French graphic novel of the same name by
Julie Maroh, which was published in North America in 2013. The film had its
North American première at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival. It has received
critical acclaim and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign
Language Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film not in
the English Language. Many critics declared it to be the best film
of 2013.
Selected and edited from Wikipedia
** **
1804
hours. This is one of the best foreign films I have seen in years. The focus,
from my perspective, is on the human condition of which sex is a large part,
especially when young. Love, however, complicates the two main female characters.
Is sex an obsession? I don’t know. I don’t think so. In the film (on Netflix) sex
appears to be a near obsession; or, does sex have to do with not being alone in
the world? If I were a young man seeing this, or as I am older, these are the
first questions I ask myself after seeing the film. I remembered the film title
having won an award or two, which is the main reason I chose it. I wonder how
American women have reacted to the French film. I miss the zeroing in on the
human condition in many films. Last night, as Carol is in Westerville, I
watched Transformers, the Age of Extinction. I have never seen a Transformer
film before except in kids’ cartoon framing. It was okay, better as it got
longer, but not for me except for the experience of watching it – a typical
summer action movie – not that there is anything wrong with it.
You are DVRing “The Bomb” and the last
season episode of “Poldark” on PBS, “The Last Ship”, “Falling Skies” (on TNT) and
“Human” (on AMC) tonight. – Amorella
1823
hours. Too much video to watch at once; the “Blue Is the Warmest Colour” film
was almost three hours. These others I’ll filter out during the week. Carol
only watches “Poldark” and both she and Linda will want to see it when they
arrive for a couple of days tomorrow. I really like “Human” but the plots of
the two TNT shows I’ve seen for a lifetime – they are basically computer-generated
scripts these days, that’s how I see them. Why do I watch them? Looking for something that
isn’t there I suppose.
Evening. You had a snack supper of crackers
and cheese and ice water while you watched the DVRed “The Bomb” on PBS. - Amorella
** **
The Bomb explores how what started as simple scientific
curiosity ultimately resulted in a weapon capable of ending civilization. The
invention, says historian Richard Rhodes, “Was a millennial change in human
history: for the first time, we were now capable of our own destruction, as a
species.”
The program recounts the bomb’s history, as well as the
successes, failures and moral dilemmas of the personalities who created it. We
learn how it was developed and how it quickly changed everything, from international
relations to politics, culture, even sex.
No less than the discovery of fire, the bomb marks a dividing
line in human history between all that came before it, and everything that
follows. For the first time, humans acquired the ability to destroy themselves,
and we are still struggling to learn how to live with this awesome power.
Decades after it first appeared, the bomb has receded in the public
consciousness — but it continues to shape our lives.
We hear from scientists, weapons designers, pilots who dropped
nuclear bombs, former Secretaries of Defense and State who wrestled with the
bomb’s impact on international diplomacy, witnesses to nuclear explosions,
historians, and ordinary men and women who have lived and worked with the Bomb.
The Bomb was produced by Lone Wolf Media.
Selected
from PBS online
** **
2122
hours. I remember a couple of similar headlines they used about the testing
when I was delivering newspapers in the early fifties, and more personal than
that I remember seeing the early morning Northern Lights in March or April
caused by those tests in Columbus, Ohio while delivering the newspaper, that
and the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember that fateful October night at the
fraternity house when about nine I thought we would be dead or dying by a bomb
blast by eleven. (The night the Soviet ships were stopped by the U.S. Navy.) I
had it figured in my head that the first three hydrogen bomb blasts from the
USSR in Ohio would be Wright-Patterson in Dayton, Cincinnati and Cleveland,
close by, Pittsburg and Detroit. Then my internal debate decided one bomb
exploded a mile high would take care of Dayton and Cincinnati. So, if I went
down to the cemetery on Walnut and Grove I might see a bright light in the
southwestern sky. Actually, I walked down to my Grandparents Orndorff at Knox
and Walnut about ten and like millions of other people, woke up the next morning.
The show is a sobering reminder of how the world was and how it now is – in my
lifetime I still might see a nuclear strike, probably atomic not hydrogen, but
by terrorists somewhere in the world. Enough for tonight.
A change of thought. You have two immediate
focuses – one on Dead Nine and the other on that once thin line between
Saturday night and Sunday morning. – Amorella
2155
hours. The line is from “Fruitcakes” by Jimmy Buffet. In the song the lyrics
say: “Religion: there’s a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning,”
but with Amorella about in my head and fingertips I don’t feel a line
separating a Holy Saturday from a Holy Sunday. This is a transcendental world
no matter what day of the week it is. A transcendental mirror is something I
can see through and still reflect from. It is amazing to me that I was
conscious when the first three atomic bombs were dropped and exploded. I was
conscious when I really truly thought they were going to drop on us. I wondered
if the bomb dropped close – accidently missing Cleveland or Dayton if I would
sense the light before being vaporized. In any case – we are here until we are
not. So it goes.
The
other focus is Dead 9 and Merlyn’s confrontation with himself. Who else is he
going to confront. It seems to me that all this dreaming he is doing in the
books has no more purpose than anyone else’s dreams, be they Living or Dead.
** **
The Science Behind Dreaming
New research sheds light
on how and why we remember dreams--and what purpose they are likely to serve
By
Sander van der
Linden |
July 26, 2011
For
centuries people have pondered the meaning of dreams. Early civilizations
thought of dreams as a medium between our earthly world and that of the gods.
In fact, the Greeks and Romans were convinced that dreams had certain prophetic
powers. While there has always been a great interest in the interpretation of
human dreams, it wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century that Sigmund
Freud and Carl Jung put forth some of the most widely-known modern theories of
dreaming. Freud’s theory centred around the notion of repressed longing -- the
idea that dreaming allows us to sort through unresolved, repressed wishes. Carl
Jung (who studied under Freud) also believed that dreams had psychological
importance, but proposed different theories about their meaning.
Since
then, technological advancements have allowed for the development of other
theories. One prominent neurobiological theory of dreaming is the “activation-synthesis
hypothesis,” which states that dreams don’t actually mean anything: they are
merely electrical brain impulses that pull random thoughts and imagery from our
memories. Humans, the theory goes, construct dream stories after they wake up,
in a natural attempt to make sense of it all. Yet, given the vast documentation
of realistic aspects to human dreaming as well as indirect experimental evidence
that other mammals such as cats also dream, evolutionary psychologists have
theorized that dreaming really does serve a purpose. In particular, the “threat
simulation theory” suggests that dreaming should be seen as an ancient
biological defence mechanism that provided an evolutionary advantage because of
its capacity to repeatedly simulate potential threatening events – enhancing
the neuro-cognitive mechanisms required for efficient threat perception and
avoidance.
So,
over the years, numerous theories have been put forth in an attempt to
illuminate the mystery behind human dreams, but, until recently, strong
tangible evidence has remained largely elusive.
Yet,
new research
published in the Journal of Neuroscience provides compelling insights into the
mechanisms that underlie dreaming and the strong relationship our dreams have
with our memories. Cristina Marzano and her colleagues at the University of
Rome have succeeded, for the first time, in explaining how humans remember
their dreams. The scientists predicted the likelihood of successful dream
recall based on a signature pattern of brain waves. In order to do this, the
Italian research team invited 65 students to spend two consecutive nights in
their research laboratory.
During
the first night, the students were left to sleep, allowing them to get used to
the sound-proofed and temperature-controlled rooms. During the second night the
researchers measured the student’s brain waves while they slept. Our brain
experiences four types of electrical brain waves: “delta,” “theta,” “alpha,”
and “beta.” Each represents a different speed of oscillating electrical
voltages and together they form the electroencephalography (EEG). The Italian
research team used this technology to measure the participant’s brain waves
during various sleep-stages. (There are five stages of sleep; most dreaming and
our most intense dreams occur during the REM stage.) The students were woken at
various times and asked to fill out a diary detailing whether or not they
dreamt, how often they dreamt and whether they could remember the content of
their dreams.
While
previous studies
have already indicated that people are more likely to remember their dreams
when woken directly after REM sleep, the current study explains why. Those
participants who exhibited more low frequency theta waves in the frontal lobes
were also more likely to remember their dreams.
•
This
finding is interesting because the increased frontal theta activity the
researchers observed looks just like the successful encoding and retrieval of
autobiographical memories seen while we are awake. That is, it is the same
electrical oscillations in the frontal cortex that make the recollection of episodic
memories (e.g., things that happened to you) possible. Thus, these findings
suggest that the neurophysiological mechanisms that we employ while dreaming
(and recalling dreams) are the same as when we construct and retrieve memories
while we are awake.
In
another recent study
conducted by the same research team, the authors used the latest MRI techniques
to investigate the relation between dreaming and the role of deep-brain
structures. In their study, the researchers found that vivid, bizarre and
emotionally intense dreams (the dreams that people usually remember) are linked
to parts of the amygdala and hippocampus. While the amygdala plays a primary
role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions, the hippocampus has
been implicated in important memory functions, such as the consolidation of
information from short-term to long-term memory.
The
proposed link between our dreams and emotions is also highlighted in another
recent study
published by Matthew Walker and colleagues at the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at
UC Berkeley, who found that a reduction in REM sleep (or less “dreaming”)
influences our ability to understand complex emotions in daily life – an
essential feature of human social functioning. Scientists have also recently
identified where dreaming is likely to occur in the brain. A very rare
clinical condition known as “Charcot-Wilbrand Syndrome” has been known to cause
(among other neurological symptoms) loss of the ability to dream.
However, it was not until a few years ago that a patient reported to have lost
her ability to dream while having virtually no other permanent neurological
symptoms. The patient suffered a lesion in a part of the brain known as the
right inferior lingual gyrus (located in the visual cortex). Thus, we know that
dreams are generated in, or transmitted through this particular area of the
brain, which is associated with visual processing, emotion and visual memories.
Taken
together, these recent findings tell an important story about the underlying
mechanism and possible purpose of dreaming.
Dreams seem to help us process
emotions by encoding and constructing memories of them. What we see and
experience in our dreams might not necessarily be real, but the emotions
attached to these experiences certainly are. Our dream stories essentially try
to strip the emotion out of a certain experience by creating a memory of it.
This way, the emotion itself is no longer active. This mechanism fulfils
an important role because when we don’t process our emotions, especially
negative ones, this increases personal worry and anxiety. In fact, severe REM
sleep-deprivation is increasingly correlated to the development of mental
disorders. In short, dreams help regulate traffic on that fragile bridge which
connects our experiences with our emotions and memories.
Selected and edited from -- http://www.scientificamericanDOTcom/article/the-science-behind-dreaming/
** **
2244
hours. The article above is a bit dated, and as far as Merlyn and the books are
concerned, I assume Merlyn, being long time dead, is using his spiritual memory
and imagination not his amygdala and hippocampus. With Merlyn the dreams are
definitely a struggle between his emotion and reason, but for what purpose does
he share these pieces of fiction with the Living?
I, the Amorella, am sharing the dreams with
you, orndorff. You are sharing them with the world at large.
2220
hours. These story-dreams are from my brain waves though, my amygdala and
hippocampus.
No. They are from your heartansoulanmind,
boy. – Amorella
2222
hours. I share them out of my humanity’s necessity. It is morally wrong to not
share a gained by emotional and logical experience spiritual human thought.
Even if you think it has no purpose or
meaning? – Amorella
2227
hours. It is arrogant for me to think it may have some spiritual purpose or
meaning, though it seems unlikely coming from an agnostic. I cannot know
whether it has meaning or not. I don’t care. I do have to share the dreams of
Merlyn though and I promised myself I would see these books through a better
edition than the first one published – better written and more thoughtful and
polite.
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