Watching, reading
The luxury... renting movies and reading novels. LOL! Doesn't take much, doesn't it?
A few nights ago, I rented an excellent movie, The Last King of Scotland. The movie is based on the book of the same name and tells the story of Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, as seen by the fictional character of a young Scottish doctor who becomes Amin's personal physician. Forest Whitaker plays Amin and he does an amazing job of portraying an individual who is charismatic but scary, paranoid, hungry for power.
Last night, I rented Fast Food Nation, also based on a book. The movie would have probably been more interesting as a documentary (or shockumentary), but as a story, it made for a pretty thin plot and weak characters. I consider myself well-informed about the dubious practices of the factory farms in North America, so most of the movie showed me nothing new. The lessons could be extrapolated to the entire food industry. Mass production of cheap food means something's gotta give: nutritional value, manipulated food source (antibiotics, growth hormones in meat, GMOs), workers and producers who get paid close to nothing for their effort. Many, many reasons for switching to local, organic food instead.
I just finished a novel by Jodi Picoult called My Sister's Keeper and I would strongly recommend it as a summer read. This is the story of Anna, a thirteen-year old who grows up with a sick sister, Kate, who has a rare and aggressive form of leukemia. What is unique about Anna is that she was conceived with a little bit of help from science so she could be a perfect match as a donor for her sister. The book explores some of the ethical questions around genetic engineering and whether or not it is right for parents to expose one child to potentially dangerous medical procedures so another child can be saved. The story is told from the point of view of the mother, father, Anna, Kate, their brother Jesse, as well as a few other characters. Not great literature, but a touching story, right until the end.
A few nights ago, I rented an excellent movie, The Last King of Scotland. The movie is based on the book of the same name and tells the story of Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, as seen by the fictional character of a young Scottish doctor who becomes Amin's personal physician. Forest Whitaker plays Amin and he does an amazing job of portraying an individual who is charismatic but scary, paranoid, hungry for power.
Last night, I rented Fast Food Nation, also based on a book. The movie would have probably been more interesting as a documentary (or shockumentary), but as a story, it made for a pretty thin plot and weak characters. I consider myself well-informed about the dubious practices of the factory farms in North America, so most of the movie showed me nothing new. The lessons could be extrapolated to the entire food industry. Mass production of cheap food means something's gotta give: nutritional value, manipulated food source (antibiotics, growth hormones in meat, GMOs), workers and producers who get paid close to nothing for their effort. Many, many reasons for switching to local, organic food instead.
I just finished a novel by Jodi Picoult called My Sister's Keeper and I would strongly recommend it as a summer read. This is the story of Anna, a thirteen-year old who grows up with a sick sister, Kate, who has a rare and aggressive form of leukemia. What is unique about Anna is that she was conceived with a little bit of help from science so she could be a perfect match as a donor for her sister. The book explores some of the ethical questions around genetic engineering and whether or not it is right for parents to expose one child to potentially dangerous medical procedures so another child can be saved. The story is told from the point of view of the mother, father, Anna, Kate, their brother Jesse, as well as a few other characters. Not great literature, but a touching story, right until the end.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home