New Sentimentality

I finally managed to pick up two things that I had purchased more than a year ago: Kokoro and Seven Samurai. Maybe this month im feeling the need to actually pick these things up, especially since I left them a long time out of sheer laziness. It's kind of funny how I picked up both of these things almost recently. I remember finishing The Alchemist and thinking I really needed a book that was more contemporary and even post modern in some of it's outlook - Murakami got me on that whole wavelength with Kafka. The surrealism in that book is perhaps it's biggest
 draw - you just get sucked into this world of bizarre occurances and essentially complexities of the human soul: trying to survive but trying to understand and comprehend complex feelings and difficult situations. Murakami isn't overly optimistic yet neither is he overly pessimestic; he just sits in the middle :P.

Kokoro is an interesting read though because you can see a number of things. The first is its impact on Murakami's own writing - Soseki's writing shares themes such as the nature of friendships and relationships as does Murakami but I think Kokoro isn't so gritty about it. That's not a bad thing at all, on the contrary you get both sides of the friendship told. You have the student who remains nameless throughout explaining why he's so intrigued by Sensei (the other main character) and how different he is to what he's been raised up with. Sensei on the other hand plays a very introverted character who retains a sense of mystery about his past and his views on love and life and as a result has fascinated the student. It doesn't read like a "classic" novel; it feels so contemporary that when I imagine the events I see them in present day rather than turn of the 20th century which is roughly when Kokoro was written. 

Secondly, what kind of ideas does the book try and address? like i mentioned the nature of friendship and the perceptions of participants in those friendships. The student is really interested to learn from Sensei and feels that he won't be disappointed by who Sensei really is and as a result wants to find out the truth, whereas Sensei on the otherhand has trouble trusting many people after a fateful event in his life which caused a gradual change in his personality and his outlook on life to become more cynical. He is an isolated man because of lack of trust and the student looks to seek out the answers. Their friendship seems fragile but grows as the novel progresses but you always get the sense that while the two begin establishing a connection, there is a wall between the two which Sensei erects until the climax, fundamentally depicting the isolation we feel in everyday life to other people and how we seek to find a connection that is sustainable and deep enough to mean something to our core. It's rather ironic that Sensei finally let's his wall down completely but finds his own demise in it. The person the student finds the most inspirational is Sensei - who is a character that doesn't hold a "rank" in society, but has his own ideals of life and of love which makes the student more and more intrigued with him and I think that Soseki's portrayal is really a modern outlook on how are parents may assume we should see things in one way because they want it for our benefit but in reality we don't accept it because they do not offer anything that really addresses the heart or "Kokoro" as the book's title is labelled.

Soseki also tries to look at the gap between two generations and how what we want maybe different to what our elders want or think of what we've achieved. It's kind of interesting because the student has a balance of filialness yet disagrees with his parents even though he may not openly admit it out of respect. But it really highlighted how different times have changed during the last century and how that has affected generation gaps that have usually kept rather similar ideologies. 

Soseki also looks at women's place in society and how although at the time they may have "certain roles" he tries to explain that we should look beyond that. I think if we translated that into a more modern context it could be tolerance of not just women but of race too so it's interesting to see a classical novelist trying to look at an idea such as this.

All in all though, it's really worth reading and I was surprised at it. I remember trying to read it a year ago and thinking "what the?!" because I was so used to a fantasy like novel, but if you are open about novel form than it's worth picking up definitely.

Seven Samurai was awesome as well. At first watching it I was kind of like "meh" but the second half really picked things up. It's an interesting look on caste differences between farmers and samurai and how people were "born" into these families. Kikichikoyo was my favourite character by far - his brazen and rough nature was funny but he had a real history as to why he was like that, why he tried to become a samurai and his understanding of the situation better than any of the other samurai because he was a farmer. He makes this really passionate plea about how farmers are miserly and lie but do so because of samurai. It really hit home the sense of oppression that caste systems had and still have on people. One thing Kurosawa is really into is the idea of cycles. Throughout the film he has these shots of the watermill just spinning but it depicts this idea of calmness initially, but you see some of the darker aspects of the idea of cycles. Especially when they farmers are defending the village from bandits and Kikichikoyo grabs this child that is crying with that watermill behind just carrying on spinning whilst the accompanying house is burning down and he is screaming out and crying about how the child was him when he was younger - It contrasted the earlier scene that had the peaceful spin of the watermill by a mile. The ending was really class though: that final shot really highlighted the futility of war; how nothing had changed for the samurais looking to seek a way out of their role and how different the farmers were to the samurais.

A very good film, but you need patience to watch it: clocks in at 207 minutes spread over 2 discs.

On that note, here's that closing scene shot. Peace out!

(Note: this is not the full pic - here's a link to the full thing: http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e189/drunkenmaster42/SevenSamurai6.jpg)

What Could Be

So im reading Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist" every night for the past 2 weeks now. At around 2am i'll lumber myself up the stairs, into that bed and turn on the reading lamp on the window sill. The yellowy glow across the room and the bookcase is pretty soothing and sets the mood for quiet and peaceful reading. So I began reading and was surprised - it's not really a tale set to woo you with its descriptive depth with plenty of adjectives describing everything in the environment, instead its more a book that tries to do that for the human soul: the descriptiveness comes from talking about the internal struggle of fulfilling dreams and our journeys through life that may or may not let us fulfil those dreams.

One of things about the book I don't really connect with is the whole idea of "follow your heart and you will get the answers". No doubt that's true to some extent, but I think it kind of forgets everyone else in the world and their actions which may have some effect on you. However, Coelho tries to answer that with the use of "The Desert". I think the desert while is supposed to show the power of nature, its there to show the reality of the world - People are fighting in a war and being naive enough to just follow your heart will get you killed. It's the balance of understanding people and your own heart. I think the book really describes the dichotomy between the heart and minds of people and what makes us so different to other species on this planet. Our rationality dictates we can only proceed in certain ways whereas our heart wants and desires that which may seem improbable or impossible to achieve. You know, I kinda like that idea that it explores, because we as humans try hard to seperate the two and try to find ourselves more rational answers to our lives and then explode out with our hearts without really merging the two too much. I guess that's what passion and professional behaviour is; its interesting nonetheless. 

One of the ideas that i really like is the concept of following the "omens". I believe in the world there are signs that if we look at can lead or direct us. It's all based on perception and some individuals may say that one interpreted thing may be absurd but for some it could be a sign to move in a certain way or do a certain thing. Afterall "everything happens for a reason" and i believe those signs really explain the reason behind why certain things work they do, why lives are lived in certain ways because of certain events. To the more rational part of the human that seems implausible because its not a tangible thing, but sometimes we have to trust that which is beyond our senses.

Anyways, from being rather sceptical about the book, im starting to love it now and see why its very popular. I don't believe following your heart will necessarily show your destiny but i think it'll move you and challenge you in ways you wouldn't think were possible of yourself and i think that alone is worth the trip. The book is really a tale of finding your own personal destiny and finding what is worth it for yourself. In some ways its what Aristotle said about "the golden mean" and having an ultimate purpose in life. I think people's aspirations change throughout their lives, but i think alot of the time thats because they never take the chances that maybe available to them and begin to really doubt they can really achieve their end goals. I do highlight "maybe" because sometimes we don't get those chances. To find ourselves though, that involves taking part in the world and not musing constantly - you need to put practice to the theory before you can drive :P.

If anything, i definitely recommend the book; a bit hard to adjust to if you enjoy more complexy in the writing style and slightly idealistic but enjoyable and engaging nonetheless. Its really like a theological interpretation of Aristotle's Golden Mean to be simple but with more of a religious element to it.

Good book read it :).

Gardenia

Man what a class track. Kyuss was my turning point in finding my own musical tastes. I remember just following whatever was being played on the radio or on my pc, but when i got into kyuss i started branching off into my own tangents and for that kyuss will always be one of my favourite bands - their impact on my taste on music and even my guitar playing is something i feel today :). I remember the first song i heard was Hurricane and i was thinking "DAMN who the hell is this?! this is some seriously class stuff!" so I found And the circus leaves town and just creamed that album completely. Phototrophic's psychedelica with that stellar solo in Spaceship Landing was enough to convince me to start finding my own niche sort of sound. When i say that i don't mean in the "yeah man im different to you lot" more finding a sound that hit the spot :P. Which is what stoner rock does for me :). From Kyuss i've gotten into Colour Haze, Los Natas, Motorpsycho and other bands. From Kyuss I even went onto just explore random different genres.

Anyways, Kyuss are one mofo band :).

PEACE!

Go To Sleep

Let's put it pretty straightfowardly: I AM MONGED.

Seriously I don't know what to write but I think or more accurately I feel I should write something. There's some things that shouldn't put down though because perhaps sometimes it's quite dangerous to open the casket full of those squeaky webs (not the pure deep stuff, the more periphery things occupying the mind), I don't think im the type to say those things out aloud. I don't like talking about myself in the first place so I don't see the need to talk about myself more. I prefer to hear other people talk and just listen. But let's give it a whirl.

Recently I just really hate socialising in larger groups. The more I see it, the more I feel claustrophobic in some social settings. I'll see all these people talking about all these interesting things and yet I'll just be totally not bothered LOL. In some ways I believe I am socially inept. Even when I do say things I feel I am always patronising even though it's not my intention to be so. It's kind of frustrating but meh when I have music to trip me out it's not so bad. When I get into that completely quiet mood I'll start becoming very angry and aggressive; I won't explode (although sometimes I feel I will) I'll just feel bitter about things; feeling inept, remembering things in the past and trying to make connections to understand why I think I feel inept and then getting angry because im lazy enough to assume that those events have controlled my life in a way instead of doing something about it, just like some of those people who claim depression but aren't really and truly that level of clinical depression. It's one of those reasons behind why I just move away from London; a clean slate, a tabula rasa of sorts.

WOW I am completely paranoid about this aren't I?

OOO speaking of tabula rasas, I was thinking about how John Locke claimed that we are born with a blank slate and just thought maybe that's not true. I think children are born pre-disposed with certain personality types that learn and perceive things in different ways (just as adults do but it's distinct in childhood as well). Locke claims everything we learn through experience and sensory and thats how we develop personalities, but I think children are alot more independent than that - they have more innate perception skills than Locke's assumes. It's how parents say that their baby is "well behaved" or "naughty". Some might argue that even that can be experience based and that babies already experience these things but if genetics can determine predisposition to certain ailments its just as likely and possible that some personality traits are also passed on or adapted onto offspring. Anyways it's all about tabula rasa and innate abilities mixed together - experience and inheritance go hand in hand - they aren't seperate.

Peace.