I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

November 03, 2014 - 11:59 a.m.

I Will Go Where Hugo

This should be interesting. I never left the house or even got dressed yesterday. The furthest I got was the kitchen. My only contact with the outside world was online and a phone call from Heather. And of course I didn't get anything accomplished either. I did manage to cook all my meals. For dinner I made jerk chicken and plantains for the first time in ages. There are many downsides to being me but one of the good things is my high satiation level. I still get amazed and pleased at how well I can cook and I still love eating my own cooking. The meal was not a necessity but a pleasure.. Oh and I had chocolate milk with it!

I should have made hot chocolate the weather is finally turning. Saturday I wore my leather jacket for the first time this year and wore a hoodie under it. It was my first time wearing a ski cap. I'm pretty sure that's pretty late in the year for those to make their seasonal debut. Last night I broke out the space heater. My room gets cold.

As I had time I wanted to watch a movie on Amazon Prime, I chose, Hugo. I wanted to see that when it came out but my life was in turmoil. It still is of course. Do you know it? Have you seen it? I'm not sure if it should go on my "Probably Haven't Seen" list. If you haven't you should. The film is not a fantasy but it feels like one. It is about a boy that lives in the Paris train station in the secret room meant for people that maintain it but that have been forgotten. He keeps the clocks running after his uncle disappears. His obsession is getting an automaton running that his father was working on when he died. This gets him involved with the Georges M�li�s, a real life early film director.

The film is a paean to film. It makes the tired phrase movie magic real. The looks on the character's faces as they watch a Harold Lloyd film express so much. It is a transformative experience for them. The film takes them to a new world as Hugo takes us.

Though the film is not a fantasy there is extensive use of CGI and that creates much of the magical atmosphere.

Martin Scorsese directed it. We think of him as making gritty stories of low lifes and the life on the mean streets. But he's so much more than that. He was a sickly child who grew up watching film as he couldn't do much else. This is his love letter to the movies. Scorsese shows that he understands the material and does not inflict any of his usual cynicism. Hugo is a cynicism free zone. One character says "Only movies have happy endings" and this is a movie.

I was going to say that it shows the world as it should be not as it is but that's not true. It does better than that. It shows how the world that is can become the world that should be. When the film starts everything is wrong for everyone. All the main characters are suffering. Their lives are hard and they are hurting. But they go through the travails to find happiness and fulfillment. Fulfillment is the key. Hugo is driven by feeling he has a purpose, a vital piece in the vast machine that is Paris.

My life is not very good now. There's nothing I want more than to live happily ever after. Great art cannot exist in Arda unmarred as it requires conflict and resolution. A myth takes us from the imperfect world that is to the perfect world we desire.

I couldn't help compare it with Time Bandits another film I loved of a boy in trouble. Everything was great in the film till the out of the blue unhappy ending. I could never understand why Terry Gilliam did that. My own life was much better then but I still wanted the boy to live happily ever after till the end of his days which were exceedingly long.

All this fits in with things I've been thinking quite a bit about recently. People want happy endings. I know there are plenty of tragedies but happy endings are more popular. Look at the top grossing films of almost any year, they have happy endings. Real life doesn't work that way. Is that part of the appeal of religion? Is going to heaven the happy ending we can all experience? James Branch Cabell said that the story of Jesus was Cinderella. The lowly person becomes not just a princess but King of the World. It's a story that fulfills a deep need. Cinderella will always be the most popular story template.

So let me know if you saw Hugo. Let me know how you felt about it. It's in my hall of fame. On My List of Must See Films. I hope that linked worked. You should start now and make sure you see every film on that list. You no longer have to decided what move to order on Netflix, just order whatever the next one on the list that you haven't seen.

IMBD used to make adding to the list so much easier. I could do it from the page of any movie. Now I have to go to my list page then search for the film and add it. I wrote them about that once and they said they were working on it. That was at least 3 years ago. It has actually gotten more difficult since then.

Now to eat. Should I go back to telling you what I'm making for breakfast every day? No I'm going to resist . I am not going to tell you that I'm having sausage, egg, and cheese on a bagel.


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Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile November 03, 2014
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