Death of a Salesman

(Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 30 October 2010)

The Salesman mistakes the symptoms of others' successes (e.g., connections and popularity) for causes (e.g., perseverance, talent, and specialisation). He passes today's opportunities for tomorrow's deceptively certain uncertainties. His main accomplishment is in having raised a question. The search for an answer may require more than a single generation. One should recognise the significance of having raised the question enough so as not to kill oneself for a wrong reason.

What an odd habit of taking pride in one's children, instead of enjoying their companionship, when applicable, or, otherwise, discarding them, if legal. What an odd habit of looking up to one's parents instead of exercising one's own judgement. The main virtue of the state's social welfare system is in disengaging families and freeing individuals to develop their talents in the company of strangers.

How much like robots humans are. And yet, having appreciated that fact, one cares about them even more.

The players are uniformly competent. Joseph Ziegler does not invest his character, the "small man" salesman Willy, with excessive substance (e.g., an inkling of an answer). Ari Cohen has the versatility required for portraying Biff, who cannot be copied off a catalogued type.

Social Network, The (2010)

There is no greater impetus for creativity than anger, attests the latest picture from the land where all the women are good looking, all the men are accomplished, all the children are over eighteen, and all the animals contribute to human well-being without sustaining injuries. Nor is there a surer recipe for success than persevering, retaining friends, and remaining a gentleman.

"Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics" by Nick Herbert (1987)

One shall believe not that which is most comforting and not that which is most probable, but that which is most likely to generate those testable hypotheses that will facilitate the eventual discovery of truth. Believing otherwise is myopia and selfishness at the expense of posterity.

ProArteDanza

(Harbourfront Centre, 9 October 2010)

Roberto Campanella and Robert Glumbek study ideas, expressed in the form whose beauty humans are best capable of appreciating---that of bodies, perceived as individuals, given meaning by their environment. Ideas migrate, individuals meet; ideas spread, groups form; ideas clash, individuals suffer the collateral damage. Ideas do not survive in a single individual for long; they are harnessed in competition with others' ideas.

Broadcasting ideas without an audience is the last resort in desperation, sad and ugly. Instead, the choreographers respectfully let their dancers listen to each other. The bodies realise that each of them is enslaved by an itinerant idea. An efficient carrier of ideas, an individual sometimes supports others only in order to crash them with greater glory in future. Mostly, however, an individual supports others when not recognising the difference between the others and himself. The dancers' bodies forgive and care for each other, as if conscious of each other's transience (humbled by the potential immortality of the ideas that they carry) and cherishing their moments of capacity. They respect by giving each other's ideas a chance.