District 9 - revised

We finally went to see District 9. By 'we' I mean my sister and I - the fellow contributor to this blog. Perhaps its worth mentioning that she wasn't keen to post something on this. She just didn't feel like it. After the movie, she was just too exhausted to do it. It wore her out. Too long...she thought. I agree. It was too long. It took too long for it to actually start get going.

I wonder about the intentions of the people that made this movie. There was so much 'making fun of' mostly black people I thought. Yeh, sure, they made fun of white people too, the main character being a prime example burrrrt...Lets just say I can understand why the Nigerian government banned the movie over there.

But generally speaking...I mean to have that alien be named 'Christopher' for instance...does that not remind you of the 'good old days' when the 'baas' would call his 'girl' 'Betty' even though her real name was Mogomotsi? Even that whole squatter camp scenario - I mean? Like white people are known to be residents in those parts.

The whole 'illegal aliens' thing - you know they aren't talking about any Americans or Europeans or Asians (think pre-BEE status) for that matter!

There were a lot of under tones I thought. Stuff that I suppose the regular viewer would have missed completely but I was left thinking - these people are generally making fun of me.

I suppose that is partly the reason my sister wasn't keen to review this movie...what do you say about it...what can you say? Was it funny? Was it good? It was ambiguous I thought. Maybe not even that. It was a movie about black people. The aliens were black people and whatever the writer wanted to say about black people was said...just disguised as alien derogation.

I suppose I too do not know what to say about it. Was it funny. Hm...lets think. T'was only funny when the joke was on Wikus. Which is hilarious itself because he turned out to be the hero, the savior of the aliens.

The ending is all too familiar.

The Diamond-Shaped Glass Building

Okay Brokensword - lets play your game. I actually saw this today on E Entertainment News.
So...which movie?

GROUND ZERO

Thought it would be too morbid to step off the bus and go through the whole drama/tragedy that was September 11th.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, the Caster Semenya Story

I read this incredible book a few months ago whilst on sabbatical (on my couch) and it blew my mind. And as soon as the Caster Semenya story broke a month or so ago I knew the story of the main character was the story of Caster.

Now to get this out of the way, I cringe whenever I hear the word hermaphrodite. Surely the journalist community is wise enough to know that this is a highly offensive term and it is like calling someone a nigger or a morphei or a stabane. The term is used to hurt and demean and should be stricken from any kind of reporting!!!

The correct term is intersexual, but I also think ‘middlesex’ is a little softer, less clinical and ‘androgynous’ a bit more endearing? To me androgynous means flexible and fluid in your identification. Who wants to be just one thing?

During my sabbatical I resolved to start reading all the Pulitzer prize winning novels and Middlesex was therefore on my list. It is a big book but because of the constant drama in the book it is very quick to read and totally engaging.

Middlesex is a story of Calliope and how she came to be and how she eventually found himself and continued to be, ‘in spite but not spiteful’.

The book suggests that the intersexuals develop that way because of a mix of genes that should not have happened. Calliope’s grandparents were brother and sister and I hate to ruin the beginning of the book for everyone reading this but there will be plenty other juicy bits in the book. The premise is that incest is the cause of this… (I don’t want to call it) deformity (because what you get from incest are people that resemble the characters in ‘Deliverance’).

The book proposes that because Calliope’s grandparents sinned when they got together, their punishment would be to have an intersexual grandchild. At least this is what the grandmother believes and she is very superstitious. In the world of the book you kind of buy into that and there is a scientific genetic drawing they do of why this is true.

Outside of the world of the book I am not so sure. Just as I have no capacity to grow eyebrows so too is the capacity to turn out one way or another.

But I get a feeling here in the outside world that Caster is getting punished for something that is not her fault, something that is not a fault, something that should be celebrated as getting closer to the ideal human. The chance to go through life and choose to do it not as a man and not as a woman but as someone far more measured and weighed with both sexes’ characteristics. I think it’s awesome and extremely sexy.

I suppose if Caster were to read this blog I would want her first to read the book, and then to know that she is supper sexy to me.

HERE'S SOMETHING YOU DON'T SEE EVERYDAY - HONEST ADVERTISING!

Sorry

I've moved from Caoe Town to Jo'burg and have not had the time to watch District 9, GI Joe and the rest. If you are up to discussing it or have watched any interesting flicks lateley, post a comment on this post. Jo'burg sucks ass 20% of the time.