(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.
31 October 2010
22 October 2010
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.
10 October 2010
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.
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.
26 September 2010
Maa: A Ballet by Kaija Saariaho
(Miller Theatre, 25 September 2010)
The prevailing laws of physics, which make life possible, are highly improbable. Even though any other, potential, universe would seem unrecognisable to us, statistically it may deviate minimally from ours. Often, contemporary art represents such potential notions of beauty, plausible and minimally different from the received notion---but ugly. Ugly art helps one understand the native by portraying the foreign. Such art is akin to a poem submitted for publication by a skilful alien, unaware that his language resembles C++ more than English. Such an inhuman work makes a human appreciate the human---as Luca Veggetti's ballet does.
The dancers' movements are strained and serve no purpose. Why move at all? Perhaps, the bodies do not move by their own volition. The characters are absently self-absorbed. They move and touch out of habit, betraying no emotion. Their bodies are vacant. The sadness of the characters' situation is in their inability and unwillingness to fully utilise their bodies (the dancers' skill and effort notwithstanding).
When faced with such an alien production, one can try to appreciate the alien artist; one can even grant him the benefit of the doubt by supposing that he finds the work beautiful, and, then, try to appreciate that beauty; or one can seek the missing component that is necessary for beauty. The attraction of the first and second alternatives in encounters with contemporary art is less than in encounters with foreign cultures; a culture has its constituency, a piece of art may not.
The prevailing laws of physics, which make life possible, are highly improbable. Even though any other, potential, universe would seem unrecognisable to us, statistically it may deviate minimally from ours. Often, contemporary art represents such potential notions of beauty, plausible and minimally different from the received notion---but ugly. Ugly art helps one understand the native by portraying the foreign. Such art is akin to a poem submitted for publication by a skilful alien, unaware that his language resembles C++ more than English. Such an inhuman work makes a human appreciate the human---as Luca Veggetti's ballet does.
The dancers' movements are strained and serve no purpose. Why move at all? Perhaps, the bodies do not move by their own volition. The characters are absently self-absorbed. They move and touch out of habit, betraying no emotion. Their bodies are vacant. The sadness of the characters' situation is in their inability and unwillingness to fully utilise their bodies (the dancers' skill and effort notwithstanding).
When faced with such an alien production, one can try to appreciate the alien artist; one can even grant him the benefit of the doubt by supposing that he finds the work beautiful, and, then, try to appreciate that beauty; or one can seek the missing component that is necessary for beauty. The attraction of the first and second alternatives in encounters with contemporary art is less than in encounters with foreign cultures; a culture has its constituency, a piece of art may not.
"Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality" by Manjit Kumar (2008)
Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Bohr, and Einstein each, with near-religious conviction, believed in his own version of reality, despite no experimental evidence could discriminate among them. The physicists' debate was not futile, however. Even though the application of existing knowledge is unaffected by the fiction behind equations, the advancement of future science is. Speculations about the unobserved reality help generate new hypotheses and prioritise pending experiments. Furthermore, even if, say, Heisenberg were unsure about the verity of his vision (which he, a scientist, must have been), the society would nonetheless want him to passionately advocate that vision, thereby encouraging others to harness their arguments.
19 September 2010
"Red Plenty" by Francis Spufford (2010)
Many things in a society can go wrong; most do. It is a theory of why something ever goes right that is wanting---a theory without the air of Jane Austenesque inevitability to it. "Red Plenty" tells how coercion, intimidation, and delusion can dress, feed, educate, and house. The employed centralised control is liable to manipulation by all, including those lacking pro-social disposition. Hence, the requisite coördination should better be achieved by a minimally centralised system. Instead of being itself centrally imposed, the system must spread by contagion, through revolution or---most reliably---evolution.
Individual liberty not only prevents the wrong but also nourishes the right, as is best described in Chapter "Midsummer Night, 1962." Liberty enables the like-minded to identify and inspire each other.
Individual liberty not only prevents the wrong but also nourishes the right, as is best described in Chapter "Midsummer Night, 1962." Liberty enables the like-minded to identify and inspire each other.
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