17 September 2015
Moving into dusk. You are off Merchant Drive
and I-75 staying at a Best Western Motel. Tomorrow you head south on I-75 for
one exit then roll east and south on I-40. Once you hit Asheville the drive is
south, first to Hendersonville.
18 September 2015
You
arrived before three after a disappointing side trip to Hendersonville. –
Amorella
Hendersonville Main Street downtown is all commercialized;
small shops to be sure, and many independently owned, lots of upscale
restaurants, clean and well manicured but no longer quaint. We bought a couple
small birdfeeders and left driving down to I-25 into the South Carolina
wilderness. We found fuel and filled up, getting 40.4 miles per gallon from
Mason, Ohio to Sunset, S.C. Fuel cost was $22.50 for 10.7 gallons with a total
429 miles driven. We are quite pleased.
After
checking in and relaxing at Cottage Four until Bill, Sharon and Jessie arrived we
all drove in our car to the rehearsal barbeque at the Market Shoppe;
afterwards, back to the cottage to sit and relax on the balcony under the stars
surrounded by very tall pine trees.
19 September 2015
We
drove to a couple parks within The Reserve. The scenery is enjoyable and Carol
had a chance to walk on a third of a mile relatively flat track. We had a
sandwich at the Market Shoppe and relaxed until the afternoon wedding. The small
chapel appears interestingly Quaker with hints of austere early
Presbyterianism; no stained glass windows but they were nicely placed. I liked
it very much. The ceremony was short, personal and memorable. I like that also.
Cocktails and the following dinner were at the Golf Club; this was also
enjoyable. Everyone appeared to have a good time, as well they should – very nice
wedding day – topped and surrounded with beautiful weather. Carol and I left soon after the dancing
began. We did have a private dance in the light of a quarter moon in the
parking lot before heading back to the cottage. Again, we sat out on the
balcony for a bit before calling Craig and Alta and chatting with laughter for
the next twenty minutes or so. It was good to talk with them on this occasional
day. We do miss their not being with us.
20 September 2015
Sunday
morning, Jessie left for her Arlington apartment. Jim and Jeanne moved into the
cottage with us and we left for a brunch at the King’s (Lauren’s parents).
Alas, the driveway to their house was far too steep for Carol’s liking and good
health – there was no way she was going to attempt to walk down it; nor would
I. We stopped at the park with the track and she walked her mile. Then to the
cottage where I did my exercises. When they returned in the early afternoon we
drove to a couple of parks outside The Reserve – one, the highest waterfalls in
the eastern United States. It was a mile uphill to see it, I got half way,
Carol made it up and back, so this is the first time she walked two miles in
one day. We had good chats/conversation Sunday evening – very relaxing for all.
21 September 2015
We
all had breakfast together and left for our separate ways mid-morning. We
arrived home about five-thirty late afternoon Monday. We had supper at
Chipotle/ Panera, a stop at Kroger’s on Tylersville, home and relaxation. Carol
read and I watched a free science fiction movie On Demand, Prometheus.
It was okay but the conclusion was rather give-me-a-break dorky.
22 September 2015
We
got up later than usual. After breakfast and the paper I did my forty minutes
of exercises (like I had done Sunday). We had Penn Station for lunch and are
now at the far north lot of Pine Hill Lakes Park. Carol is finishing up her James
Rollins’ Eye of God (page 321) “Notes To Readers”. She says it was a
good book.
We
are at Kroger’s on Mason-Montgomery Road for forgot-to-pick-up-essentials. It
is another beautiful Fall day, a day early.
You are still unwinding from the trip, boy.
Consciously trying to focus on Pouch Ten will not do. – Amorella
1724 hours. We are home and a change to an old wear in the
house only shirt; at least that is the general intent. One of the fun things
about a wedding is observing the people, especially those I’ve never seen
before. If you ask the right questions, people may reveal more about themselves
than they might intend. And, if they don’t, that’s okay too. That also tells me
something about their inner character. I am reminded of Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s
Black Veil”. I enjoyed this story from my first reading in school and I enjoyed
showing the development and varieties of meaning that can be taken from this
single piece of literature. Human nature is woven tightly within and around the
culture in which it was written. Bravo, for Nathaniel Hawthorne.
**
**
"The
Minister's Black Veil" is a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
It was first published in the 1836 edition of The Token and Atlantic
Souvenir, edited by Samuel Goodrich. It later appeared in Twice-Told Tales, a collection of short
stories by Hawthorne published in 1837.
Plot summary
The
story begins with the sexton standing in front of the meeting-house, ringing
the bell. He is to stop ringing the bell when the Reverend Mr. Hooper comes
into sight. However, the congregation is met with an unusual sight: Mr. Hooper
is wearing a black semi-transparent veil that obscures all of his face but his
mouth and chin from view. This creates a stir among the townspeople, who begin
to speculate about his veil and its significance.
As he
takes the pulpit, Mr. Hooper's sermon is on secret sin and is "tinged,
rather more darkly than usual, with the gentle gloom of Mr. Hooper's
temperament". This topic concerns the congregation who fear for their own
secret sins as well as their minister's new appearance. After the sermon, a
funeral is held for a young lady of the town who has died. Mr. Hooper stays for
the funeral and continues to wear his now more appropriate veil. It is said
that if the veil were to blow away, he might be "fearful of her
glance". Mr. Hooper says a few prayers and the body is carried away. Two
of the mourners say that they have had a fancy that "the minister and the
maiden's spirit were walking hand in hand". That night another occasion
arises, this time a joyous one—a wedding. However, Mr. Hooper arrives in his
veil again, bringing the atmosphere of the wedding down to gloom.
By the
next day, even the local children are talking of the strange change that seems
to have come over their minister. Yet, no one is able to ask Mr. Hooper
directly about the veil, except for his fiancée Elizabeth. Elizabeth tries to
be cheerful and have him take it off. He will not do so, even when they are
alone together, nor will he tell her why he wears the veil. Eventually, she
gives up and tells him goodbye, breaking off the engagement.
The one
positive benefit of the veil is that Mr. Hooper becomes a more efficient
clergyman, gaining many converts who feel that they too are behind the black
veil with him. Dying sinners call out for him alone. Mr. Hooper lives his life
thus, though he is promoted to Father, until his death. According to the
text, "All through life the black veil had hung between him and the world:
it had separated him from cheerful brotherhood and woman's love, and kept him
in that saddest of all prisons, his own heart; and still it lay upon his face,
as if to deepen the gloom of his dark-some chamber, and shade him from the
sunshine of eternity".
Even
though Elizabeth broke off their engagement, she never marries and still keeps
track of the happenings of Hooper's life from afar. When she finds out that he
is deathly ill she comes to his deathbed to be by his side. Elizabeth and the
Reverend ask him once again to remove the veil, but he refuses. As he dies,
those around him tremble. He tells them in anger not to tremble, not merely for
him but for themselves, for they all wear black veils. Father Hooper is buried
with the black veil on his face.
Analysis
Like
many of Hawthorne’s works, the setting of the story is an 18th-century town in
Puritan New England. The scene provides the backdrop for a psychological
exploration of the themes of sin, repentance, and morality. Much of the
story focuses on the acrimonious reaction of the congregation to the seemingly
benign veil. Hawthorne uses their reaction as a critique of the Puritan image
of original sin, using the veil as a representation not of "secret
sin" but the inherent sinful nature of all people.
Nathaniel
Hawthorne writes the story in an allegorical format, using a didactic tone. The
main theme proves to be revealed sin and underlying guilt, with Hooper's method
of preaching being to wear his sin on his face in a literal way. The
townspeople grow uncomfortable with him because they start to become aware of
their own sin. Hawthorne keeps the motive of the veil unknown to the reader.
But the interpretation of the story generally rests on some moral assessment or
explanation of the minister's symbolic self-veiling. Literary critic Edgar
Allan Poe proposed that the issue of the minister's self-veiling was a mystery
conceived to be solved or inferred by the reader.
While
Poe proposed this, Hawthorne never lets the reader know the reasoning behind
the veil. While the veil is the main symbol in the story, it is also
ironic. Hooper, in his stubborn use of the veil parable of one sin, is
unconsciously guilty of a greater sin: that of egotistically warping the total
meaning of life. In addition to standing for a man's concealment or hypocrisy
and for Hooper's own sin of pride with its isolating effects, it stands also
for the hidden quality of second sin. Hawthorne's use of ambiguity can be
portrayed in many different ways: the manipulation of setting, manipulation of
lighting and effects, and the use of an unreliable narrator to weave a shocking
story that could or could not be likely. The narrator's credibility tends to be
questionable because it is not a direct source. In using a third person
narrator, the minister's motives are never solidified which keeps up the
suspense.
Calvinist
interpretation: Some interpretations posit that
the minister's congregation feared the veil as it pointed to their own hidden
sin; unsure of their own salvation, this produced feelings of unease. This is
unlikely, however, as the Scripturally literate Puritans undoubtedly knew the
numerous New Testament passages promising salvation through faith. Salvation by
faith is, in fact, a distinguishing element of Calvinist and Puritan beliefs.
If, as did the Puritans, we accept the premise that mankind is inevitably
tainted by sin, and that it prevents anything mankind attempts from a) pleasing
God or b) producing positive results in any way (the New Testament phrase for
this is "good fruit"), then we see that Hooper's veil actually
demonstrates the divisive effects of sin and how it affects the relationship
between humanity and sovereign God.
Selflessly,
Hooper has chosen to wear the veil himself, resulting in a sort of ostracization
from his community. This gives his community the opportunity to understand
something of the nature of sin as it appears to God. If any fault, from a
Calvinist and Puritan's perspective, may be found in Hooper's approach, it
would be his neglect of Scripture and his failure to overtly communicate a
connection between Scripture and his veil, or his failure to emphasize the one
sure way in which mankind may please God and be redeemed of their sinful
natures, i.e., faith in Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected only Son of
God. Hawthorne may also have been blatantly referencing II Corinthians 4:3,
which describes that which separates man from understanding the gospel message
as a veil.
Hidden
nature of guilt: Hooper arouses in a sermon the
notion of secret sin and the sad mysteries in which we hide from our nearest
and dearest. Hooper acknowledges the problem of sin, the guilt that is admitted
openly, and the guilt of sin that is repressed or hidden from the world.
When the
Reverend Hooper makes the people aware of the darkness within his being, he
introduces disintegration of a barrier between his repugnant, repressed self
and his conscious self. This barrier is characterized by the veil, which is
transferred into the expression of hidden guilt. Hooper, in the story, advises
to the congregation that everyone wears a black veil this is apparently
inferring that everyone has some form of hidden guilt. Some evidence in the
story suggests that Hooper committed a very atrocious sin, such as adultery.
This could be a reason for his black veil.
Communion
of sinners: Hooper leads the townspeople in
realizing that everyone shares sin no matter how much they try to avoid facing
it. All people sin and it is up to them whether they face their sin or ignore
it. Hooper tries to teach a lesson. In content, the lesson may be very much
like the sermon on "secret sin" Hooper was scheduled to teach, but
the townspeople are uncomfortable with the medium. The veil is something they
have to see every day, rather than a sermon just once or twice a week.
Morality: Hawthorne's use of Hooper's veil teaches that whether we face
it or not, we all sin and must accept what we have done, because judgment will
come for everyone. Hooper decides to represent hidden sin and guilt in a literal
way to reach out to his followers.
John H.
Timmerman notes that because of Hawthorne's writing style Hooper's insistent
use of the black veil, Hooper stands as one of his arch-villains. This is from
Hooper's act of separating himself from the rest of humanity and denying his
love for Elizabeth in favor of the veil.
Symbols
The veil
can be a symbol of the ways and practices Puritans, as well as people today,
misleading others of the sins they have committed while completely and truly
facing themselves. The veil is used as a daily reminder of people's sins,
undeniable truths, guilt, and secrets that they are just unwilling to admit. In
his lesson, Hooper uses a parable to influence his congregation, and possibly
even further on to Puritan society. However, he pays a high price for this
parable: The community's admiration for him turns to confusion and fear, and he
is forced to live a lonely, isolated life. Many people in the congregation
assume that Hooper is keeping a secret sin from them and in turn and since
black veils are a sign of mourning, they thus assume death.
The
black veil is a symbol of secret sin and the how terrible human nature can be.
This could represent the secret sin that all people carry in their hearts, or
it could be a representation of Mr. Hooper's specific sin, which some readers
think to be adultery. Hooper as Everyman bearing his lonely fate in order to
portray a tragic truth; and there is the implicit one of human imbalance, with
Hooper's actions out of all proportion to need or benefit. Edgar Allan Poe
speculated that Minister Hooper may have committed adultery with the lady who
died at the beginning of the story, because this is the first day he begins to
wear the veil, "and that a crime of dark dye, (having reference to the
young lady) has been committed, is a point which only minds congenial with that
of the author will perceive." Minister Hooper also seems to be unable to
tell his fiancée why he wears the veil due to a promise he has made, and is not
willing to show his face to the lady even in death. Finally, two funeral
attendees see a vision of him walking hand in hand with the girl's spirit.
In a
different view, the black veil could represent the Puritan obsession with sin
and sinfulness. Puritans held beliefs of predestination and that only
"God's elect" will be saved when the day of judgement comes, and this
weeding out process of finding the saved versus not saved was a large part of
Puritan life. The reaction to the minister's veil is one of annoyance and fear,
"'I don't like it,' muttered an old woman, as she hobbled into the
meetinghouse. 'He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his
face.'”
We are
given no clues in the story up to this point as to how or why or when the
minister came to have the black veil over his face, it is just there, and as
far as we are told the minister is doing nothing different from his normal
routine. The one and only difference is a simple veil covering his face and the
way his congregation thinks about him now. This is Hawthorne criticizing the
overly judgmental nature of the Puritans belief on sin, for them sin was an
undeniable mistake, "Hooper need not have committed any specific sin; for
the hardened Puritan, his humanity was sinful enough, and he wore it the way
the medieval penitent would his hair shirt. Anything less than absolute
perfection was absolute corruption.” The inclusion of an old woman used to
introduce us to the Puritan's rough ways was no mistake, Hawthorne wanted to
show the most "hardened" Puritan elder and their reaction to the
minister as evidence of how judgmental even the most seasoned Puritan can be.
On the
next page following the old woman's quote Hawthorne uses the narrator to point
out what the congregation is really feeling on the inside, even though their
outward reaction displays something entirely different, "A subtle power
was breathed in his words. Each member of the congregation, the most innocent
girl, and the most hardened of breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them,
behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or
thought." This "iniquity of deed or thought" seems to hark back
to the Spanish inquisition (hence the use of iniquity) and suggests the Puritan
congregation is starting to realize their own faults: that being the overly
harsh judgement they put on the minister and anyone else for superstitious
things such as a black veil. The fear ultimately draws from the congregation's
thoughts over being saved or not being saved. They sound loud and proud in
being critical of the minister for his veil, but they are clearly weak and not
confident inside their own minds about their personal salvation, so the harsh
judgement of others could possibly be seen as a way to relieve themselves for a
people were never sure about whether they were really going to heaven.
Inspiration
Hawthorne
may have been inspired by a true event. A clergyman named Joseph Moody of York,
Maine, nicknamed "Handkerchief Moody", accidentally killed a friend
when he was a young man and wore a black veil from the man's funeral until his
own death.
Selected and
edited from Wikipedia – The Minister’s Black Veil
**
**
1751
hours. The above is so much fun to read. I delight in the ideas of the ‘Analysis’
and ‘Symbols’ selections. I love literature still. Wikipedia provides me the
entertainment of remembering how the literary-oriented classroom was and
hopefully still is – lots of character development and lots of interpretation.
Wonderful story. Lauren and Mike’s wedding had not the thought of black veils,
hidden or otherwise. A walk down the street of most any town in the world
though will show you one if you look carefully enough, perhaps even your own.
You think I have a black veil, boy? –
Amorella
1757 hours. I ‘knew’ this response was coming Amorella as
soon as I wrote “even your own”. You know I was not thinking of you at the
outset, but one word leads to the next and I cannot think fast enough to catch
the connection. It is like a simultaneous translator is translating my thoughts
before I ‘consciously realize’ what my thoughts are. Now, back to your question
with my response. I do not think you have a need for any veil whatsoever; I
however, cover you with a veil for myself. Why? Good question. – rho
You did not anticipate this direction of
conversation. – Amorella
1805 hours. No, I did not.
Post. – Amorella
1806 hours. Thus, the classroom in my head is turned about
and I sit in the minister’s seat still learning (and being acutely reminded) of
what it is to be a human being.
**
**
Prometheus is a 2012
science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, written by Jon Spaihts and Damon
Lindelof. . . . It is set in the late 21st century and centers on the crew of
the spaceship Prometheus as it follows a star map discovered among the
artifacts of several ancient Earth cultures. Seeking the origins of humanity,
the crew arrives on a distant world and discovers a threat that could cause the
extinction of the human race.
Development
of the film began in the early 2000s as a fifth installment in the Alien franchise. Scott and director
James Cameron developed ideas for a film that would serve as a prequel to
Scott's 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien.
. . . According to Scott, although the film shares "strands of Alien '
s DNA, so to speak", and takes place in the same universe, Prometheus
explores its own mythology and ideas.
Prometheus entered production in April 2010, with extensive design phases
during which the technology and creatures that the film required were
developed. Principal photography began in March 2011, with an estimated US$120–130 million
budget. The project was shot using 3D cameras throughout, almost entirely on
practical sets, and on location in England, Iceland, Spain, and Scotland. It
was promoted with a marketing campaign that included viral activities on the
web. Three videos featuring the film's leading actors in character, which
expanded on elements of the fictional universe, were released and met with a
generally positive reception and awards.
Prometheus was released on June 1, 2012, in the United Kingdom and on June
8, 2012, in North America. It grossed over $403 million worldwide. Reviews
praised both the film's visual aesthetic design and the acting, most notably
Fassbender's performance as the android David. However, the plot drew a mixed
response from critics, who criticized plot elements that remained unresolved or
were predictable.
Plot
As a
spacecraft departs a planet, a humanoid alien drinks an iridescent liquid; then
dissolves. The remains of the alien cascade into a waterfall.
In 2089,
archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway discover a star map in
Scotland that matches others from several unconnected ancient cultures. They
interpret this as an invitation from humanity's forerunners, the
"Engineers". Peter Weyland, the elderly CEO of Weyland Corporation,
funds an expedition to follow the map to the distant moon LV-223 aboard the
scientific vessel Prometheus. The ship's crew travels in stasis while
the android David monitors their voyage. Arriving in 2093, Mission director
Meredith Vickers informs them of their mission to find the Engineers, and not
to make contact without her permission.
The Prometheus
lands on the barren, mountainous surface near a large artificial structure,
which a team explores. Inside they find stone cylinders, a monolithic statue of
a humanoid head, and the decapitated corpse of a large alien, thought to be an
Engineer; Shaw recovers its head. The crew finds other bodies, leading them to
surmise the species is extinct. Crew members Millburn and Fifield grow
uncomfortable with the discoveries and attempt to return to Prometheus,
but become stranded in the structure when they get lost. The expedition is cut
short when a storm forces the crew to return to the ship. David secretly takes
a cylinder from the structure, while the remaining cylinders begin leaking a
dark liquid. In the ship's lab, the Engineer's DNA is found to match that of
humans. David investigates the cylinder and the liquid inside. He intentionally
taints a drink with the liquid and gives it to an unsuspecting Holloway, who
had stated he would do anything for answers. Shortly after, Shaw and Holloway
have sex.
Inside
the structure, a snake-like creature kills Millburn, and sprays a corrosive
fluid that melts Fifield's helmet. Fifield falls face-first into a puddle of
dark liquid. When the crew return, they find Millburn's corpse. David
separately discovers a control room containing a surviving Engineer in stasis,
and a star map highlighting Earth. Meanwhile, Holloway sickens rapidly. He is
rushed back to Prometheus, but Vickers refuses to let him aboard, and at
his urging, burns him to death with a flamethrower. Later, a medical scan
reveals that Shaw, despite being sterile, is pregnant. Fearing the worst, she
uses an automated surgery table to extract a squid-like creature from her abdomen.
Shaw then discovers that Weyland has been in stasis aboard Prometheus.
He explains that he wants to ask the Engineers to prevent his death from old
age. As Weyland prepares to leave for the structure, Vickers addresses him as
"Father".
A
monstrous, mutated Fifield attacks the Prometheus ' s hangar bay and
kills several crew members before he is killed. The Prometheus ' s
captain, Janek, speculates that the structure was an Engineer military
installation that lost control of a virulent biological weapon, the dark
liquid. He also determines that the structure houses a spacecraft. Weyland and
a team return to the structure, accompanied by Shaw. David wakes the Engineer
from stasis and speaks to him in an attempt to explain what Weyland wants. The
Engineer responds by decapitating David and killing Weyland and his team,
before reactivating the spacecraft. Shaw flees and warns Janek that the
Engineer is planning to release the liquid on Earth, convincing him to stop the
spacecraft. Janek ejects the lifeboat and rams Prometheus into the alien
craft, while Vickers flees in an escape pod. The Engineer's disabled spacecraft
crashes onto the ground; its wreckage crushes Vickers. Shaw goes to the
lifeboat and finds her alien offspring is alive and has grown to gigantic size.
David's still-active head warns Shaw that the Engineer has survived. The
Engineer forces open the lifeboat's airlock and attacks Shaw, who releases her
alien offspring onto the Engineer; it thrusts an ovipositor down the Engineer's
throat, subduing him. Shaw recovers David's remains, and with his help,
launches another Engineer spacecraft. She intends to reach the Engineers' home world
in an attempt to understand why they wanted to destroy humanity.
In the
lifeboat, an alien creature bursts out of the Engineer's chest.
Themes
The
central theme in Prometheus concerns the eponymous Titan of Greek
mythology who defies the gods and gifts humanity with fire, for which he is
subjected to eternal punishment. The gods want to limit their creations in case
they attempt to usurp the gods.The film deals with humanity's relationship with
the gods—their creators—and the consequence of defying them. A human expedition
intends to find God and receive knowledge about belief, immortality and death.
They find superior beings who appear god-like in comparison to humanity, and
the Prometheus crew suffer consequences for their pursuit. Shaw is
directly responsible for the events of the plot because she wants her religious
beliefs affirmed, and believes she is entitled to answers from God; her
questions remain unanswered and she is punished for her hubris. The film offers
similar resolution, providing items of information but leaving the connections
and conclusions to the audience, potentially leaving the question unanswered
Further religious allusions are implied by the Engineers' decision to punish
humanity with destruction 2,000 years before the events of the film. Scott
suggested that an Engineer was sent to Earth to stop humanity's increasing
aggression, but was crucified, implying it was Jesus Christ. However, Scott felt that an explicit
connection in the film would be "a little too on the nose.”
Artificial
intelligence, a unifying theme throughout Scott's career as a director, is
particularly evident in Prometheus, primarily through the android David.
David, the android, is like humans but does not want to be like them, eschewing
a common theme in "robotic storytelling" such as Blade Runner.
David is created in the image of humanity, and while the human crew of the Prometheus
ship searches for their creators expecting answers, David exists among his
human creators yet is underwhelmed; he questions his creators about why they
are seeking their own. Lindelof described the ship as a prison for David.[55] At the
conclusion of the film, David's creator (Weyland) is dead and his fundamental
programming will end without someone to serve. Lindelof explained that David's
programming becomes unclear and that he could be programmed by Shaw or his own
sense of curiosity. Following Weyland's death, David is left with Shaw, and is
sincere and interested in following her, partly out of survival and partly out
of curiosity.
Another
theme is creation and the question of "Who Am I? Who Made Me? Why Hast
Thou Forsaken Me?" Development of the in-universe mythology explored the
Judeo-Christian creation of man, but Scott was interested in Greco-Roman and
Aztec creation myths about gods who create man in their own image by
sacrificing a piece of themselves. This creation is shown in the film's opening
in which an Engineer sacrifices itself after consuming the dark liquid, acting
as a "gardener in space" to bring life to a world. One of their
expeditions creates humanity, who create artificial life (David) in their own
image. David then introduces the dark liquid to Holloway who impregnates a
sterile Shaw, and the resulting child impregnates an Engineer, creating the
child of all three generations, Scott likened the Engineers to the dark angels
of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and
said that humanity was their offspring and not God's.
Shaw is
the only religious believer in the crew and openly displays her religious
belief with a necklace of a Christian cross. Lindelof said that with her
scientific knowledge, her beliefs felt outdated in 2093. Shaw is excited when
she learns that she was created by the Engineers and not a supernatural deity,
but it does not cause her to lose her faith, it reinforces it. Lindelof said
that asking questions and searching for meaning is the point of being alive,
and so the audience is left to question whether Shaw was protected by God
because of her faith. Scott wanted the film to end with Shaw's declaration that
she is still searching for definitive answers. In addition to the religious
themes, Lindelof said that Prometheus is pro-science and explores
whether scientific knowledge and faith in God can co-exist.
Beside
drawing several influences from Paradise Lost, The Atlantic’s Govindini Murty noted further influences, and wrote
that "[t]he striking images Ridley Scott devises for Prometheus
reference everything from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001
to Leonardo da Vinci’s Vituvian Man and Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires. Scott also expands on the original Alien
universe by creating a distinctly English mythology informed by Milton's Paradise
Lost and the symbolic drawings of William Blake..”
Selected
and edited from Wikipedia - Prometheus (2012 film)
**
**
1913 hours. Well, here is more ‘artistic discussion’ on
analysis and symbolism as far as I am concerned, except this is a film, a movie
from my perspective and is not so worthy of thought as a film or literature.
Once home you watched NBC News and then the
third and final installment of PBS’s “Arthur and George”. You both enjoyed the
three episodes.
**
**
Arthur and George
Martin
Clunes (Doc Martin) stars as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock
Holmes, in a three-part MASTERPIECE Mystery! adaptation of the novel by Julian
Barnes. Outraged by injustice to an Anglo-Indian solicitor, the famed author
uses the methods of his own fictional detective to get at the truth.
Co-starring are Arsher Ali (The Missing) as George Edalji; and Charles
Edwards (Downton Abbey) as Alfred Wood, Sir Arthur’s real-life “Dr.
Watson.”
The
Sunday Telegraph (London) proclaimed that Arthur & George is,
“thoroughly enjoyable ... Clunes proves exceptionally winning as the widowed
writer and sometime crusader for justice, Arthur Conan Doyle.”
Based
on true events, Arthur & George is adapted from the acclaimed novel
of the same name, which was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize. The series
airs in three episodes on MASTERPIECE, Sundays, September 6-20, 2015 at the
special time of 8pm ET on PBS.
Selected
and edited from PBSDOTorg.
**
**
You are embarrassed that I wish to include
the above in the blog, but it is important to remember who you are, boy, the
various facets of what is important to you, and although you are not a crusader
for justice like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, justice is a theme running through the
Merlyn’s Mind series as well as Great Merlyn’s Ghost. – Amorella
2135 hours. My favorite literary lines carrying my strongest
youthful sense of divine justice come from Dante's Inferno (John Ciardi translation)
**
**
I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE.
I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE.
I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW.
SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT.
I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE,
PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT
ONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEAR
WERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I STAND.
ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.
**
**
2156
hours. Even now, reading these words stirs my heartansoulanmind.
It stirs your soul, boy, not your heart and
mind which the thought terrifies you even today. – Amorella
2200 hours. I can understand the terror effecting the heart
and mind, but why would the soul be stirred by such an accounting of words?
Here are the words that stir the humanity in
your soul, boy. – Amorella
**
**
SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT.
I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE,
PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT
ONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEAR
WERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I STAND.
**
**
2205
hours. I am amazed. I have never thought to see these words separate from the
original grouping. I cannot deny this may indeed be true within my deepest
self. How
do you see such things I cannot, Amorella?
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