Movie #14 - The Last Mimzy

I actually watched The Last Mimzy last Friday, but things kept happening - so here we are, a week later...  This is another on loan from Sam, and I wasn't really geared up to watch it.  I was told it was kind of a kids' movie, but not really, and science fiction.  All of those things are true - the main characters are kids, but there is some slightly scary stuff that I wouldn't necessarily show to young people.  That said, probably kids in late primary school and up would cope.  Young people today seem to do better with scary things. 

Sometimes, when I watch a movie, life just throws it all at me at once.  The essence I gleaned from this movie was that the world is a wondrous place, but older people are far less adept at seeing this.  Well, that was the main point.  The second, equally important, point, was that younger people can only find the wonder in the world if they can experience the world. 

When the kids are at home, the older boy is a typical older brother.  He is in middle school, about 13, and is bursting the bubbles of his little sister (the burger you're eating used to be a cow, that sort of thing).  He spends a lot of time playing with electronic devices and only a little time communicating with people, and is not doing very well at school.  As soon as they are away at the beach, he turns into the sort of older brother that girls with no brothers imagine are the norm:  he wades into freezing water to investigate things, he does all the scary stuff, he protects his little sister, and is a comrade instead of a competitor.  And he starts looking more closely at things, as his sister does all the time because she is still very much a child.  And these children, with the aid of these found objects (from the future), start to see and experience the world and all its wonder.  Not only that, but when they return from the beach, that wonder and insight remains (which leads to the FBI thinking they're terrorists... I won't go into that here...).  Moreover, because the boy has taken the time to investigate the minute workings of his surroundings, he does a fabulous science project.

So, 2 things. 1 - This term I've started teaching a few new kids, 2 of whom are in grade 2.  Both of them are delightful.  Bright sparks, enthusiastic, and interested in the world.  One of them was fairly silent in the first lesson but since then has talked and asked questions almost non-stop.  As we were going back to class on Thursday we were walking up steps with the sun behind us, so we could see our shadows in front of us.  She was so excited!  Not only could we see ourselves on the ground, but we could see ourselves moving and changing shape as we walked up the steps.  I won't give you all the examples of the wonder with which these girls see the world, but it makes my heart smile. 

2 - This is, again, Idiocracy.  Without children seeing the wonder in the world, how will they ever be captured by anything in the world?  And if they're never captured by anything in the world, how will they ever learn about anything in the world?  And if they never learn anything about the world, what will stop them thinking it's a good idea to water crops with Gatorade?  When they are told that this is how things are... well.  If they are told without finding out for themselves, then where's the interest?  Remembering stuff is different from finding out stuff.  You might be told that spiders respond to different frequencies, but if you actually watch a spider building its web (which is fascinating in itself), and then manipulate it by producing different frequencies, then that's something else entirely.  (This is, incidentally, the basis of Kodaly music teaching - letting the students discover new elements themselves). 

All this reminds me of brains.  There is some talk of this in the movie, too - how our brains change and develop as we grow.  (Again, this was touched upon at summer school).  The very young have brains with no clear roads, but as we grow and learn, we wear roads into the wiring of our brains.  Some of this is a good thing, like how to feed yourself without pushing a fork through your eye.  Or, plants need water to grow.  Some of this is limiting though, like thinking that when you draw, the sky must always be blue.  Like the message proclaimed by Beethoven (in Copying Beethoven) when we follow the rules life stays the same.  But to grow, and to create, and to experience, we do better to forget the rules, forget the wiring of our brains.  Pretend we are astronauts, or that parallel 5ths are acceptable when writing 4-part harmony.  This whole brain thing is yet another reason to keep learning things as we get older.  So often I meet another adult, who asks what I do, then responds with "I always wanted to learn the violin".  It's never too late.  I've even taught an 84-yr-old arthritis sufferer.  When I start something new my brain loves me.  My most recent new learning thing is Spanish, and not only can I feel my brain enjoying learning new pathways, the learning of new things is expanding the old knowledge (mostly because the romance languages are essentially different dialects of the same language, but still!). 

One other thing about this movie.  One of the lines near the end (when the future world has been saved by the young girl's tears - pure and innocent) - "our precious quality of humanity had been switched off" - really struck me.  So often, this is all too apparent.  Our society is turning far more introverted, looking to the self instead of to the community, and it's costing us.  This is not our natural state of being.  Communication and caring for others, and learning new things, and being open to the wonder of the world are all vital parts of being human.  I will no longer apologise for behaving like a kid.

Tequila and Extra Musings

Sunday.  Sunday was a big day.  I finally returned home after 11pm and decided not to do a blog post.  This is still, I think, a good thing.  Posting anything on the internet when super tired, not to mention slightly tipsy, is not on my list of things to do.

I was really only vaguely tipsy.  One glass of wine, and tequila.  I had never had tequila before, so this was an unexpected New Thing.  It was very nice tequila, provided by an authentic Mexican.  We were having tacos so this just enhanced the Mexican experience. 

But this was the very end of Sunday.  Writing Saturday's post about Idiocracy, I meant to add something about the whole kids thing.  I thought I might just edit the original post, but then there was so much more.  I found out on Saturday evening about a Customs House concert on Sunday.  Not on my original plan for Sunday, I was hesitant to go along...but I knew I would appreciate it if I went, and regret it if I didn't.  I just made it in time after church, and I was very glad my brother had saved me a seat.  All 3 Shostakovich string sonatas.  I was familiar with the cello sonata (played brilliantly by Patrick Murphy and Liam Viney); it was my first hearing of the violin sonata (played by Graeme Jennings and Anna Grinberg) - if this had been my first exposure to Shostakovich I would have been put off, but I think I need more education in this work; and the viola sonata (played by Yoko Okayasu and Grinberg) - again unknown to me, but so beautiful.  I was close to tears near the end (and I wasn't the only one).  A 2 hour concert, so good for my soul, my brain.  Near the end of the viola sonata I had a quick look around the audience - this is one of my concert habits - and had an epiphany of sorts.  Each of us in that room, although mostly separate, were all a part of this experience.  No matter our individual stories and what had led us to that moment, we were all connected.

Now back to Idiocracy.  In Saturday's review, I felt I missed a fence-post moment.  The movie portrays a society in which less-educated people reproduce more (a lot more) than more educated people.  This is the movie - not me.  As the 3rd of 4 children, with intelligent and well-educated parents, that would be hypocritical as a start.  Just in the last 2 weeks I've found that 2 separate couples, already each with a young daughter, are expecting a second child, and this news thrills me.  Every time I've become an auntie I'm over the moon.  I love teaching, and believe that every child is a gift, special, unique.  When people have children, whether planned or by accident, because they love each other - I have no problem with that.  When people have children because they don't have anything better to do, or because they can get more money from the government - this I find problematic.  When a child is neglected in love or education or care - this saddens me greatly. 

After the concert (at which there were a few kids, some who enjoyed it, some who were bored), I was in the queue for the bathrooms in front of a friend I don't often see.  "Anna! I love your blog!  What's your inspiration?"  I often have this conversation.  I gave my standard answer - last year was boring, I did the same things every week, so this year I'm trying to be less predictable.  But an alternative answer could be, because of Idiocracy.  By doing all the same things, my brain shrivels, synapses slow, I become a less capable person in every respect.  Generations of boring people result in the society found in the movie.  Which makes me so much more determined to do different things and live less predictably.

Movie #13 - Idiocracy

I'll admit it - today was nothing new.  I woke up intending to run but it was bucketing, so I dozed.  I taught students, I voted and had a quick gym session, I taught more students, I had a mini panic about wedding music, I played for a wedding, I got soaked on the way home.  I wore boots for the first time this year and had Indian for dinner (actually the 2nd time this year, both occasions the breaking of a fairly long Indian-drought).  However, last Friday night I watched Idiocracy, so tonight is the review.

I wasn't sure I wanted to admit to having watched this movie.  It is a very blokey movie.  I'm not averse to blokey movies... but this was rather - ah - juvenile.  So if you're into something slightly more upper class, or something you can show to a prospective partner or in front of your parents, don't choose this movie!  That said, I laughed a lot...  Plus, my brother and several of his friends keep referring to it and I felt rather out of it.

Idiocracy starts in the present time, where the Average Joe is frozen (with the Average Jane), and circumstances unfold to leave them frozen for many centuries.  They unfreeze in a time a few thousand years in the future.  I found the situation a lot like Wall-E, seeing a future highly likely based upon today's reality and trends.  Wall-E has the human race fat, not knowing how to use legs, finding all information from technology.  Idiocracy finds the human race stupid, as the smart people of today (according to the movie - not saying this is true, necessarily) - tend not to have kids, or reproduce much later, but less smart people... well, they keep having kids.  And so the outlook is a future of less smart people. 

Which means the Average Joe of today has become the smartest person, by a long shot, in the future.  He, with his fantastic IQ, is seen as the saviour of their world, sent to alleviate the starvation brought about by crop failures etc.  Ooh, does this sound familiar?  How about, when his solution (let's water the crops with water, not with something akin to Gatorade) doesn't have immediate effects, he even says "I just wanted to help you.  I didn't say I was the smartest person on earth, you did.  I was trying to help you live in a better world"...?  And then they try to kill him.  Of course, the crops finally show some signs of growth just in time for him to be not killed so we don't have the total gospel parallel, but still.

I was also reminded of one of the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde, in which most of humanity is becoming stupider, more easily entertained, because our attention is being drained by the time travelers (it totally makes sense if you've read the books, honest).  And the Simpsons episode where Lisa has the 'dumbening', loses interest in higher matters and contemplates the easy, brainless, happy option.  These all have that idea of our intelligence, our interest in higher matters, being zapped.  And I know these are all fictional scenarios - but think about it.  How often do we read a book instead of watching tv?  Paint a picture instead of watching youtube videos?  Make music, or at least listen to music (real music), instead of playing inane games on our smart phones?  Are we actually turning ourselves into the Idiocracy of the future?

*Edited: also see the next post (April 30) for a bit more on this.