Do you always like book charcters?

The last time, during our English lessons, girls established the fact that “a good story has characters you can empathise with”. A bestseller called “The girls on the train” is in absolutely contradiction to this statement.

Firstly, you really hate all of characters in this book and the main character is the most antipathetic one. Sometimes you just ask yourself: do they have to be so annoying and irritating? However, it doesn’t really bother a reader, you just keep reading to know what will happen next. You want to solve a crime! Personally, I have finished this book in five hours, because I couldn’t put it down.
The story is not really complicated: there are a murder, a drunken witness and a lot of questions. It is not as sophisticated as the works of Agatha Christie but it is still a good entertainment. If you don’t have any plans for Sunday, you should buy it!

Coming back to the topic, there are some books, like these written by Joyce or Woolf, when you cannot empathise with a character. Because of the narrative mode called stream of consciousness, which show you exactly what is going on in the head of a person, you can understand their world but it will still be their world. In this case, it is not possible for reader to become somebody else and indentify completly with this character.

Moreover, Nabokov - a great writer and the professor of literature - said that strong feeling of identification with characters is just childish.

The Japanese notion of „égalité”

The confrontation of our dreams with the reality is always painful. The young, beauty and smart Belgian woman returns to the country of her sweet childhood – Japan, in order to work in an international company as a translator. Trilled and enthusiastic as kids waiting in line to the roller-coaster, she comes to work……… and here are journey begins.

For the European woman the Japanese attitude, the establish rules how to act in a workplace, and the overwhelming etiquette are just ridiculous. In particular for a French-speaker (we all know what are: French Revolution, Bill of rights, May 1968, etc) the notion of rigorous hierarchy really sounds just like a very bad joke.

An example the most hilarious for me concerns the usage of the foreigner language. She can’t use the Japanese language in front of the people from other companies. Why? The white woman, who understands everything they say, may cause their discomfort. The Nippon staffs stay with the Nippon people. Not with the white one.

“Stupeur et tremblements” (ang. Fear and Trembling) by Amélie Nothomb shares with us another look into Japanese culture. This is not an advertisement, but critical analyse of the modern Nippon society where people overrated their career and aren’t familiar with the notion of “mind’s independence”.

Hippy in the XXI century

In “Captain fantastic” the main character decided to live in a forest with his wife and kids in order to escape excessive consumerism and be close to nature. He made his own utopia. As a matter of facts, he is so happy with his wife, children are very athletic, smart, resourceful: they enjoy sports and sophisticated lectures. They do love their parents. And of course, they are wiser than their contemporaries.

In my opinion, the director is trying to convince us that living, just with the family in the middle of nowhere, has no impact on children at all. He creates his idyllic world which consists on avoiding the civilization, dwelling in a hut, reading mind-expanding books about the philosophy and hunting.

This is just ridicules. Nowadays you can’t run away from a contemporary world and live in your way. Or maybe you can as long as your kid is healthy and doesn’t need a modern medicine…

The notion of the independence doesn’t work anymore. Firstly as citizens, we are involved in a public life even against us. Secondly, the world is giving us a lot of possibilities but all of them are elements of the system. Thanks to the system and development of civilization we have education, healthcare, fast transport – everything. 

The vision in the film is just a dream.

Free will doesn’t exist

Two films: to different point of view.

“A Clockwork Orange” is a Kubrick’s so-called manifesto against the modern fascism. By this term he understood a creation of a new man: a person programmed by a government and the psychiatrists who is just a submissive slave.

Long story short: the main character due to his brutality is sent to participate in a research program as a guinea pig. The bunch of scientist wants to “repair his soul” and make him a useful, nonviolent citizen. After a week of a horrifying therapy, he is not capable of aggressive behavior. When he wants to act violent, his body tries to destroy himself. By losing his ability to make a choice, Alex is no longer considered as a human being. He must be good, even against his will, otherwise he dies. We see that the main problem for a director is a question: what make us human ?

The message of “The Devil's Advocate” is clear and absolutely different . No matter what choice you made, the results of your action are always the same. In this case the “free will” is just a human illusion, our way to convince ourselves that the existence has a deep, true meaning and that we are responsible for our life (and moreover – life after the death). According to Taylor Hackford who directed this movie, the theories created by John Calvin about the providence are the ultimate truth. We are just toys used by God to make a show. Nothing more and there is no such thing as a free will.

Have a nice Sunday