10 things about me as of late.
1. So you may know I've been taking Open Uni classes in Film & TV Studies. It's not super-difficult and it's mostly just very interesting but I can't help but feel all kinds of insecure and incapable of myself anyway. I don't know what it is. There's so much newness to learning all of this, I'm really not sure if I'm doing anything right and I've just been really unsure of everything as of late. It sucks.
2. Okay, so how much do I like the fact that a week after Saif gets interviewed on http://ibnlive.com, Akshay gets interviewed on the same program. Allow me a small, weird fangirl moment when I contemplate the awesome coincidity of that.
3. I am finally coming 'round to checking out the recent Ed Norton awesome & am currently downloading Down in the Valley. Cowboy weirdness? Hello, I'm so there. Wonder if I'll still find him hot.
4. There are things I should contemplate, or act on, like the future studies thing (probably Philosophy though fuck me I'm not sure if I want it or can get in) or a job, or even just getting around to framing the poster I got off eBay. But everything stresses me. I'm hopeless and often kind of dumb, simple as that really.
5. If I had LOADS of money, I would buy everyone on my friendslist this DVD. Seriously.
6. I normally don't crosspost BBS posts but this one I had to. From the topic Armenian Genocide:
Well, to my great ignorance I have to admit I didn't know about this tragedy until today when I spent a good portion of the day watching various documentary programs at dad's place. One of them dealt with the Armenian genocide. Another one was about Hollywood's relationship to Nazi Germany and how the movies dealt with Holocaust after WW2. What can I say? My faith in humanity died in one simple afternoon. Thank you, television.
But just the fact that I ran into two genocides in one afternoon I guess tells you something. Tells you that maybe it's not so unbelievable people are capable of these horrendous acts. Justin mentioned Nanking - genocides have happened in various parts of the world at various times, usually at the time of war. Genocide is a strong word, and a new one. The documentary pointed this out. It was invented by a Holocaust survivor who'd had over 40 of his relatives killed during the genocide. In the past there surely more incidents that we could stick the label "genocide" over, if we looked at their grandeur and smaller horrific systematic killings at war camps and such - I know such from even my own country's history.
But no, I don't suppose genocide could be called 'often' or 'usual' in any way.
The documentary emphasised the changing of power in Turkey after the genocide had been committed. The new people in charge wanted to wash their hands off the doings of the people before them and wanted Turkey to strive towards becoming a Westernized nation. I guess a part of this became the genocide denial. Owning up to one's past isn't easy; dealing with a huge national trauma isn't easy.
A part of Turkish school curriculum, the documentary seemed to say, was to emphasize the killings of Turks committed by the Armenians. The nationalists screaming, "Who cares for those Christians that got killed? Look at how many Muslims were also slaughtered!". Turks find themselves saying it was a war, of course there were casualties - on both sides.
Which I guess brings us back to the matters of religion. Did it matter that Armenians were Christians? The documentary brought up the extreme torture that especially Armenian clerics had to suffer. When the program was first shown sometime last week, my mum & her husband watched it and began talking about how this thing was brought up *now*, the documentary shown *now*. Why now? The husband wanted to look at it from a slightly propagandist point of view and connected it to America's "quest" in the Middle-East. Christians killing Muslims, one could oversimplify it. Almost a hundred years ago some Muslims killed a lot of Christians. Can you justify a killing with past killing? As I said, it's oversimplifying the whole thing but an interesting viewpoint. Why now? What is the real role of religion? A street person in the documentary, a Turk, said, "We couldn't have committed genocide. We're Muslim." - religion speaks a message of peace, always, but people kill anyway. Such is the way of the world. Was the man speaking the propaganda he'd been taught since he was a kid?
Another view on "Why now?" is Turkey's desire to join EU. In EU there's Germany, who's owned up to their own past tragedies and dealt with it. Hell, they're still dealing with it. Such incredibly cruel actions do not just go away with one generation, they stay in the nation's collective conscience for a very long time. I think the consensus in Europe would be, if Turkey wants to join, they have to 'fess up. Deal with it. It's difficult and it hurts but if they want to join, if they want a future with the Europe that's suffered the Holocaust, they have to finally face their own.
Throughout watching the program I kept having this one thought that haunted me, "What are they not showing?". Maybe it was the sheer strength of belief that the Turks had about the Armenian genocide, or maybe it was a real flaw in objectivity of the program, but I just felt like I wasn't getting the full story. What were the facts behind the civil war, how many people *actually* got killed on both sides? I'm not saying Armenian genocide didn't happen because from the witness reports and all the footage clearly showcased in the documentary, I'm pretty certain it did happen. But what about the Turkish side? How many really got killed?
I don't think it's easy to come clean about these things but I wish Turkey did, for their own sake. No one's going to look down on them for being honest with themselves, but I fear they be too far in spending money on keeping the truth from coming out.
7. One of the other documentaries I watched today was on American racial politics history. It kind of make me sick.
8. I've been reading a highly metaphysical piece of literature called PS. I Love You by Cecilia Ahern - in other words, total chick-lit. What can I say? It's sweet enough but either she had no editor or then the Finnish translation sucks *ass*. It's slightly annoying. It seems like paragraphs end abruptly and the whole thing just falls apart. But occasionally you have a nice moment where the whole topic of getting over spousal death is handled very nicely and there are some moving dialogues. Here's one sweet story they could never adapt onto the Indian silver screen thanks to the problems with widows in society. Which is sad. But what's even more sad is that nowadays I can't help but recast love stories I read with Indian stars. Sigh, Bollywood what have you done...
Another book I've been reading, or re-reading is this Finnish book on the Tamil part of the Indian culture. Dad gave it to me last Christmas and since then I've gotten into Tamil films and Carnatic music in a big way so now it's way, way more interesting than back when I first read it. I so wish I could study Tamil. But really I should just look into finding more Carnatic music.. So far my knowledge of the genre is pretty much just this one Tamil oldie with a Carnatic soundtrack.
9. Okay, guys, confession time. I am a closet LonelyGirl15 fan. What can I say? Some of you folk on my flist are into soap operas, some of you dig Asian dramas (doramas), some of you just like some weird crap. The Breeniverse is the first fictional web drama and it has it all - okay, not, so far it only has freaky religions & a will-they-won't-they-couple... But still! I really enjoy following it.
10. Alright, maybe I didn't actually have 10 of these things. Ah well.
2. Okay, so how much do I like the fact that a week after Saif gets interviewed on http://ibnlive.com, Akshay gets interviewed on the same program. Allow me a small, weird fangirl moment when I contemplate the awesome coincidity of that.
3. I am finally coming 'round to checking out the recent Ed Norton awesome & am currently downloading Down in the Valley. Cowboy weirdness? Hello, I'm so there. Wonder if I'll still find him hot.
4. There are things I should contemplate, or act on, like the future studies thing (probably Philosophy though fuck me I'm not sure if I want it or can get in) or a job, or even just getting around to framing the poster I got off eBay. But everything stresses me. I'm hopeless and often kind of dumb, simple as that really.
5. If I had LOADS of money, I would buy everyone on my friendslist this DVD. Seriously.
6. I normally don't crosspost BBS posts but this one I had to. From the topic Armenian Genocide:
Well, to my great ignorance I have to admit I didn't know about this tragedy until today when I spent a good portion of the day watching various documentary programs at dad's place. One of them dealt with the Armenian genocide. Another one was about Hollywood's relationship to Nazi Germany and how the movies dealt with Holocaust after WW2. What can I say? My faith in humanity died in one simple afternoon. Thank you, television.
But just the fact that I ran into two genocides in one afternoon I guess tells you something. Tells you that maybe it's not so unbelievable people are capable of these horrendous acts. Justin mentioned Nanking - genocides have happened in various parts of the world at various times, usually at the time of war. Genocide is a strong word, and a new one. The documentary pointed this out. It was invented by a Holocaust survivor who'd had over 40 of his relatives killed during the genocide. In the past there surely more incidents that we could stick the label "genocide" over, if we looked at their grandeur and smaller horrific systematic killings at war camps and such - I know such from even my own country's history.
But no, I don't suppose genocide could be called 'often' or 'usual' in any way.
The documentary emphasised the changing of power in Turkey after the genocide had been committed. The new people in charge wanted to wash their hands off the doings of the people before them and wanted Turkey to strive towards becoming a Westernized nation. I guess a part of this became the genocide denial. Owning up to one's past isn't easy; dealing with a huge national trauma isn't easy.
A part of Turkish school curriculum, the documentary seemed to say, was to emphasize the killings of Turks committed by the Armenians. The nationalists screaming, "Who cares for those Christians that got killed? Look at how many Muslims were also slaughtered!". Turks find themselves saying it was a war, of course there were casualties - on both sides.
Which I guess brings us back to the matters of religion. Did it matter that Armenians were Christians? The documentary brought up the extreme torture that especially Armenian clerics had to suffer. When the program was first shown sometime last week, my mum & her husband watched it and began talking about how this thing was brought up *now*, the documentary shown *now*. Why now? The husband wanted to look at it from a slightly propagandist point of view and connected it to America's "quest" in the Middle-East. Christians killing Muslims, one could oversimplify it. Almost a hundred years ago some Muslims killed a lot of Christians. Can you justify a killing with past killing? As I said, it's oversimplifying the whole thing but an interesting viewpoint. Why now? What is the real role of religion? A street person in the documentary, a Turk, said, "We couldn't have committed genocide. We're Muslim." - religion speaks a message of peace, always, but people kill anyway. Such is the way of the world. Was the man speaking the propaganda he'd been taught since he was a kid?
Another view on "Why now?" is Turkey's desire to join EU. In EU there's Germany, who's owned up to their own past tragedies and dealt with it. Hell, they're still dealing with it. Such incredibly cruel actions do not just go away with one generation, they stay in the nation's collective conscience for a very long time. I think the consensus in Europe would be, if Turkey wants to join, they have to 'fess up. Deal with it. It's difficult and it hurts but if they want to join, if they want a future with the Europe that's suffered the Holocaust, they have to finally face their own.
Throughout watching the program I kept having this one thought that haunted me, "What are they not showing?". Maybe it was the sheer strength of belief that the Turks had about the Armenian genocide, or maybe it was a real flaw in objectivity of the program, but I just felt like I wasn't getting the full story. What were the facts behind the civil war, how many people *actually* got killed on both sides? I'm not saying Armenian genocide didn't happen because from the witness reports and all the footage clearly showcased in the documentary, I'm pretty certain it did happen. But what about the Turkish side? How many really got killed?
I don't think it's easy to come clean about these things but I wish Turkey did, for their own sake. No one's going to look down on them for being honest with themselves, but I fear they be too far in spending money on keeping the truth from coming out.
7. One of the other documentaries I watched today was on American racial politics history. It kind of make me sick.
8. I've been reading a highly metaphysical piece of literature called PS. I Love You by Cecilia Ahern - in other words, total chick-lit. What can I say? It's sweet enough but either she had no editor or then the Finnish translation sucks *ass*. It's slightly annoying. It seems like paragraphs end abruptly and the whole thing just falls apart. But occasionally you have a nice moment where the whole topic of getting over spousal death is handled very nicely and there are some moving dialogues. Here's one sweet story they could never adapt onto the Indian silver screen thanks to the problems with widows in society. Which is sad. But what's even more sad is that nowadays I can't help but recast love stories I read with Indian stars. Sigh, Bollywood what have you done...
Another book I've been reading, or re-reading is this Finnish book on the Tamil part of the Indian culture. Dad gave it to me last Christmas and since then I've gotten into Tamil films and Carnatic music in a big way so now it's way, way more interesting than back when I first read it. I so wish I could study Tamil. But really I should just look into finding more Carnatic music.. So far my knowledge of the genre is pretty much just this one Tamil oldie with a Carnatic soundtrack.
9. Okay, guys, confession time. I am a closet LonelyGirl15 fan. What can I say? Some of you folk on my flist are into soap operas, some of you dig Asian dramas (doramas), some of you just like some weird crap. The Breeniverse is the first fictional web drama and it has it all - okay, not, so far it only has freaky religions & a will-they-won't-they-couple... But still! I really enjoy following it.
10. Alright, maybe I didn't actually have 10 of these things. Ah well.