A Book to Read

Well that is typically what books are for. I think I'll take this chance to actually speak on topic. So far, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man has been a somewhat major letdown. Ralph Ellison does a very poor job of writing an engaging novel. I mostly only feel apathetic in regard to his protagonist. I'm given very little reason to care about what happens to a character that really isn't very compelling whatsoever. Poignant social commentary or not, a narrative is a failure if it feels like a chore to pick it up. It might be only me, but I'm only continuing with reading it because I want to be done with it so I can move onto something more interesting. To be fair, I'll open my own selection to criticism. The next thing I will read will most likely be How to Be Alone by Jonathan Franzen.

Movie Review

I've decided to give up TV for lent (mostly for the purpose of freeing up time), so I'm actually not sure what movie I last saw outside of school. As such, I think I'll just talk about the movies we've watched in class. I did rather like Exit Through the Gift Shop, but I didn't think it was anything spectacular. Do the Right Thing was awful. I was really bored while we watched that, so I mostly just tried to tune it out and read or do something else. The movie adaptation of The Autobiography of Malcolm X left very much to be desired as well. All excuses of time constraints aside, valid as they are, it was a mediocre movie. Since those are the only two movies directed by Spike Lee I've seen (that I know of) I think I can safely say he's off to a poor start in my book. I don't intend on watching any more of his movies, however, so I guess that's how it'll stay. I didn't really care about the Copyright Criminals thing. I've heard good things about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, so I'm looking forward to seeing the end of that and commend this selection. The Road was probably by far the worst movie we've seen to date.

Art Review

I google'd "art" and found this. I think it's somewhat interesting. I probably wouldn't buy it or anything, but it's pretty cool I guess. 

We Have the Right

We have a lot of rights. Defining freedom as the ability to act according to our will, we have nearly unlimited freedom. The only thing we are ultimately limited by is our own capability. We cannot perform some action which is logically impossble, and as such we do not have the freedom to act according to our whims. Penalties do not restrict rights, however; just because there is a punishment for some action does not mean the action is impossible. blahblahblah

McCarthy's Birthday Week

I'm not really sure what to say to this more than happy birthday week.

X is Known

One of my favorite quotes from the Autobiography of Malcolm X so far is, "I have never previously told anyone my sordid past in detail. I haven't done it now as though I might be proud of how bad, how evil, I was. But people are always speculating- why am I as I am? To understand that of any person, his whole life, from birth, must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that has ever happened to us is an ingredient."
Since I couldn't possibly know of every detail of Malcolm X's life, there is no way he could be fully known to me by this standard. I know the things he has deemed important enough to be included, and therefore I know which types of experiences he thinks most shape a person's personality, however.

X Marks the Spot

This blog entry has a double meaning; it may be referring to the X that typically shows the location of treasure on a map, or it may be referring to Malcolm X's favorite hobby. You see, Malcolm X very much enjoyed marking spots. Wherever he went, he liked to leave a playing card with an X on it. While these two meanings may seem separate, they are much more related than they may seem on the surface. They are interrelated in that those X's on the treasure maps were in fact drawn by Malcolm X! Malcolm X realized the impending pirate takeover of the world, and in a heroic effort to prevent another ninja-pirate war he created thousands of treasure maps to distract the pirates. If not for "X marking the spot," the world would be a very different place today; we would all be pirates.