Digging for Meaning

I am reading 'Whiplash' by Joi Ito. Its a book attempting to make sense of complexity of the new rapidly changing world. Surprisingly, it counters the complexity of the world with simplistic perspectives that are relevant only in certain situations. I have read the first two chapters so far. The first was about 'emergence' over 'authority', second about 'pull' over 'push'. These are essentially prescriptions for alternate systems of organisations. emergence refers to the capability of living things to respond to situation by organising without authority, without visible co-ordination, animated with simple actions and reactions, not chain of commands. This occurs in nature fairly commonly - ants working together for example. The sum is greater than individual parts. The second concept of 'pull' is variant of the same theme in a sense. pull is 'just in time' response to a situation, rather than a planned 'push' for an occ...

Saw 'Tanu weds Manu returns' yesterday. Excellent movie after a long time. :) (apart from one dimensional Manu and the Haryanvi family as prop.) I - Restless = humans It made me think about the trend of lead characters in bollywood movies - men/ women. (Raj in countless SRK films or Kangana in most of her films). They are all spontaneous, restless, rebels (often without a cause). They are also someone who people graciously put up with for the sake of movie's plot. This is in contrast to lead characters from earlier days. (80s - macho, 70s - angry against system, 60s - stoic silent, graceful). The grace is gone from modern world and modern cinema. With rise of corporate careers and desk-bound audiences, the lead characters are increasingly 'bubbly' (females leads), 'spunky' (male lead) and are infantile and narcissistic. The more inconsequential and replaceable lives become (of white collar audience), the more spunky and bubbly the characters become...

The trailer doesn't do justice to the film. The film is much more entertaining... until the climax. Well paced, right insights, right punches... and then the movie ends much before it should have. The movie has an 'adarsh baccha' climax. ( I can visualise 'the system' petting the film makers for towing the line.) The movie makers took the insight and then stripped it off its ambition, its angst.At the end all that remains is a sense of disappointment. The movie is about a few youngsters who show the middle finger to the system to protest against their powerlessness. Now,  I love stories of subversion -  V for Vendetta,  Fight Club or even the Dead Poets Society.  There is a certain ambition in subversion. Fight club destroys credit card companies. V blows up the symbols of power centres. Even the students in the dead poets society stand on the desk in defiance to the head master. These movies identify the power centre and subvert it.  Ungli makers didn...

http://online.wsj.com/articles/book-review-a-time-to-attack-by-matthew-kroenig-1403220920 The link is to a WSJ review of a book written by an apparent trigger happy lunatic. The book in question is called 'a time to attack'. Clue no. 1 about the psychiatric help that the author needs. How should one read this? 1. The conclusion is the title, why read the rest of the book? who wants to read a story without any suspense? who  reads a story backwards? The answer is, the ones who are in agreement, but are either  in conflict with self over that position or want to be able to convince others. So the book is obviously not for people who want to figure things out or understand the very complicated situation that we are in. (Why not 'the Iran problem'/ 'the nuclear question') It is for the ones who are too impatient to appreciate complexities and want simple 'final' answers. People who seek vicarious fulfillment in abstract far away conflicts in a bid to ...

I saw 'Mumbai meri jaan' .. and let me assure u, its a kickass movie. Brilliant it is! The movie is like a crow.. it nibbles at your wounds and makes noises that you would not like to hear. Its naked. A friend of mine was complaining '.. but I don't want to see this mumbai'. I won't give a description of the movies, or the details of the scene, (and I am so tempted to.. the sheer brilliance of them shots.. every shot has its politics.) or venture into an analysis of how this movie has shades of anti capitalism and so on $ ... but the beauty of the movie is in it's truthfulness and politics. I hope there were more crows like these. :P Another friend was complaining at the climax of the cliche therein, but then again why be non- cliche for the sake of it. The director pokes with the sensibility stick to the jaded zombified couch potato audience, and after the audience wakes up and becomes responsive, he holds the open soul-mouth of the audience so th...