2015-ish
Speculations: Longo on Zalamea
What Is Philosophy, part two
31 Dec 2015

2015-ish

Sphaleotas

1 Sec Let Me Chat About Sheafs
Urbanomic Office top memes of 2015

As a gradual crumbling which did not alter the physiognomy of the whole was interrupted in 2015 by a dawn which, like lightning, all at once revealed the edifice of a vaguely-post-SR world, the Suits At Urbanomic Press continued to hold steadfastly to their two major precepts, “destroy all humans” and “sciencey stuff not humanities”. Regrettable lapses notwithstanding (publications on site-specificity and the digital moving image, events on social media and capitalist subjectivation, choreography, and crime fiction), it is undoubtedly the dogged insistence on this impoverished worldview and the resulting decline that accounts for a relative paucity of faintly amusing Urbanomic-related memes over the past year. Let this not prevent Sphaleotas from fulfilling its dedication to snide and sarcastic reportage, even if it means swiping our way through a years worth of tedious G+ and twitter feeds.

  1. On the upside, 2015 saw three top Urbanomic celeb A-listers, Mackay, Negarestani, and Zalamea, featured among the 100 Global Minds catalogued in a mysterious but undoubtedly authoritative and finely illustrated volume on “the most daring cross-disciplinary thinkers in the world” published by Irish cultural trendsetters slash luxury goods company Roads (Illustrations by David Johnson).
      

  2. Envy and admiration for Ben Noys (qv. memes of 2014 mincemeat/meatgrinder/metallic skull condom) for his appearance in Private Eye’s “Pseuds Corner” – the one literary prize Urbanomic has always coveted (and to think we said drone thinkpieces were “going down” last year!)
  3. A foregone conclusion for Circumspect Response of the Year was the crushing blow with which the Object Lord (or Noumenal Emperor, if the spittlemongers are to be believed) – down 7 places at #75, solo after the supergroup split – put paid to the great Mark Gage New York Tower of Stuff vs Lamentably Awful Accelerationist Manifesto controversy, with one judicious put-down.
  4. As publisher of Fanged Noumena, Urbanomic were delighted to receive an invitation to the first annual convention of the Nick Land fan club, a gathering open exclusively to those icy, reptilian cogitators of sufficiently ubermenschlich clarity of mind to withstand the harsh truths of the Master’s eldritch auguries.

    The keynote was given by “number one fan” Angele Martinez, whose charming missive on perfumed notepaper arrived at the Urbanomic office in September:

    -(Ms Martinez née Lopez was later stripped of the title when her epistolary malware was intercepted by Urbanomic’s vigilant mailroom staff and other authorities).
  5. Then there was Bjork at MOMA. An anonymous NY artist sends us this puzzling Sellars-themed appropriative “response” to the Icelandic whimsy-queen’s collab with Tim “about three carpet runners wide” Morton (who, rumour has it, is the object of a new, meticulously-reasoned forty-six-chapter page-turner from “Warlock of Feyerabend Mountain” Pete Wolfendale)
  6. As accelerationism decelerated into the mainstream, Srnicek’s and Williams’s new masterwork Inventing the Future (subs, please check) caused further controversy, chiefly around that sensitive point of Marx interpretation, “the beards question”.
  7. Thinkiest Thinker of the Year
  8. Model of the Year: Gotta be CONSTRUCTIVIST GUY at Offprint Book Fair @ Tate Modern
  9. Best avant-niche speculative cosmetics metabrand: Beauty Cube
  10. Some other meagre hashtagcrumbs from the table of the 2015 internets:


Hi
I am Laura Robertson from [address redacted] OR 97520, United States.
I am an excellent writer. Since many years I have written great works. I have published several books at the publishing houses: “Random House”, “Harper Collins”, “Penguin Group”, “Macmillan”, “Simon & Schuster”, “Lulu”, “Amazon”, “Dorance” etc., in USA, and some ones at publishing houses in India. I can enumerate some titles:
1. “Parapsychology today”;
2. “Red and blue words”;
3. “Russian woman in the church”:
4. “Wonderful voice of dignity”;
5. “Japan – a miracle”.
The last 7 my manuscripts were not published because I have got a much better paid job and I have very much to work for this new job.
My manuscripts are wonderful, I have written them with passion and love, with hard work of documentation, with great care for the overall look and style, they are pleasant to read, engaging, interesting …
Because I have no time to look for publishers, to collaborate with publishers or publishing companies, or to seek clients who would buy my manuscripts at a good price, I decided to sell all 7 manuscripts, as soon as possible, at a low price: $ 100 per manuscript.
If you will buy such a manuscript – you will have ALL THE RIGHTS as an author on the manuscript, you will may sell it (at a much higher price), or you will publish it and you will get money as an author.
As soon as you will pay $ 100 via Paypal – you will receive IMMEDIATELY the manuscript by email.
These 7 manuscripts are:
1. “Candle in the Wind: Lady Diana, Princess of Wales” (106 pages)
As emblematic figure of British royalty, even world royalty, Lady Diana Planet has remained in people’s consciousness as a generous being, very warm-hearted, intelligent and realistic, with much common sense, aristocratic and well educated, with much love for her family and for everyone, an angel of the 21st century, a beautiful flower in the middle of admirers and supporters, an example of humanism, altruism, wisdom and love for people.
This work is dedicated to the memory of Lady Diana, with respect and piety, love and gratitude.
The memory of this wonderful being (Lady Diana) will be eternal, and the present work brings more details, appreciation, unique events, wonderful events, stories, humor and love, even the approach of femininity and sexuality in a fine and subtle manner, civilized and exhaustive, as a moment of modern royalty.
The work includes: early life, education and career, marriage to the Prince of Wales, engagement and wedding, Princess of Wales, royal duties, public appearances, charity work and patronage, problems and separation, divorce, personal life after divorce, landmines, death.
I paid special attention to the involvement of Lady Diana in life of fellows, especially in charitable activities. She visited and helped and was involved in hospitals, schools, various other establishments for poor people, was deeply involved in health issues, including AIDS and leprosy. She did a lot of charitable acts, visited very sick people and helped them with her beneficent presence, made animal protection campaigns, for AIDS, and fought against dangerous and inhumane weapons. She collaborated with numerous charitable agencies, with homeless people, young people, old people and children worldwide.
The chapter of her death is a sad, heartbreaking, with much regret and piety. She was a “candle in the wind”.
You can read an excerpt:
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“Diana was born on 1 July 1961, in Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk, and was the
fourth of five children of Viscount and Viscountess Althorp. The Spencers have been
closely allied with the Royal Family for several generations. The Spencers were hoping
for a boy to carry on the family line, and no name was chosen for a week, until they
settled on Diana Frances, after Diana Russell, Duchess of Bedford, her distant relative
who was also known as “Lady Diana Spencer” before marriage and who was also a
prospective Princess of Wales, and her mother. Diana was baptised at St. Mary
Magdalene Church, Sandringham. Diana had three siblings: Sarah, Jane, and Charles.
She also had an infant brother, John, who died only a year before she was born. The
desire for an heir added strain to the Spencers’ marriage, and Lady Althorp was reportedly sent to Harley Street clinics in London to determine the cause of the
“problem”. The experience was described as “humiliating” by Diana’s younger brother,
Charles: “It was a dreadful time for my parents and probably the root of their divorce because I don’t think they ever got over it.” Diana grew up in Park House, which was situated near to the Sandringham estate.
Diana was eight years old when her parents divorced, in which her mother later had an
affair with Peter Shand Kydd. In his book, Morton describes Diana’s remembrance of
Lord Althorp loading suitcases in the car and Lady Althorp crunching across the gravel
forecourt and driving away through the gates of Park House. Diana lived with her
mother in London during her parents’ separation. During Christmas holidays, however,
Lord Althorp refused to let Lady Althorp to return to London with Diana. Shortly
afterwards, Lord Althorp won custody of Diana with support from his former mother-in-
law, Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy. Diana was first educated at Riddlesworth Hall near Diss, Norfolk, and later attended boarding school at The New School at West Heath, in
Sevenoaks, Kent. In 1973, Lord Althorp began a relationship with Raine, Countess of
Dartmouth, the only daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and Barbara Cartland. Diana became known as Lady Diana after her father later inherited the title of Earl Spencer in
1975. Despite her unpopularity with Diana, Lady Darmouth married Lord Spencer at
Caxton Hall, London in 1976. Diana was often noted for her shyness while growing up, but she did take an interest in both music and dancing. She also had a great interest in
children. After attending finishing school at the Institut Alpin Videmanette in Switzerland, she moved to London. She began working with children, eventually becoming a nursery
assistant at the Young England School. Diana had apparently played with Princes
Andrew and Edward as a child while her family rented Park House, a property owned by Queen Elizabeth II and situated on the Sandringham Estate.
In 1968, Diana was sent to Riddlesworth Hall School, an all-girls boarding school. While she was young, she attended a local public school. She did not shine academically, and
was moved to West Heath Girls’ School (later reorganised as The New School at West
Heath) in Sevenoaks, Kent, where she was regarded as a poor student, having
attempted and failed all of her O-levels twice. However, she showed a particular talent
for music as an accomplished pianist. Her outstanding community spirit was recognised
with an award from West Heath. In 1977, she left West Heath and briefly attended
Institut Alpin Videmanette, a finishing school in Rougemont, Switzerland. At about that
time, she first met her future husband, who was then in a relationship with her older
sister, Sarah. Diana also excelled in swimming and diving, and longed to be a
professional ballerina with the Royal Ballet. She studied ballet for a time, but then grew too tall for the profession.”
=================
2. “Sexual life” (145 pages)
A complete work on sexuality, absolutely useful, eloquent in all related detail, modern, under the patronage and professional training of some great specialists: doctors, psychologists, sexologists, sociologists, journalists, lawyers, even politicians and military.
The work includes chapters:
1. Human sexuality
2. Sexual orientation
3. Heterosexuality
4. Human sexual activity
5. Child sexuality
6. Adolescent sexuality
7. Psychosexual development
8. History of human sexuality
9. Human female sexuality
10. Human male sexuality
11. Sexual response
12. Surprising health benefits of sex
13. Male pleasure positions
14. Giving her oral sex
15. Master the art of erotic spanking
16. Ultimate oral sex
17. Tips for better sex
18. Exploring female sexual fantasies
19. Useful sex positions
20. Multiple methods for multiple orgasms
I used a very extensive bibliography, works of great specialists in sexology in the US, Canada, Western Europe, India, Japan and Australia.
You can read an excerpt:
==================
“Human sexuality is the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality may also involve a person’s sexual attraction to another person – which may be determined by their sexual orientation – whether it is to the opposite sex (heterosexuality), to the same sex (homosexuality), having
both these tendencies (bisexuality), to all gender identities (pansexuality or bisexuality), or not being attracted to anyone in a sexual manner (asexuality).
Human sexuality impacts cultural, political, legal, and philosophical aspects of life. It can refer to issues of morality, ethics, theology, spirituality, or religion. Some cultures have been described as sexually repressive.
Interest in sexual activity typically increases when an individual reaches puberty. Some researchers assume that sexual behavior is determined by genetics, and others assert that it is molded by the environment. This is the nature versus nurture debate, in which one can define nature as those
behavioral traits that are due to innate characteristics, such as instincts and drives. The concept of nurture can be defined as the environmental factors or external stimuli that influence behavior, emotions, and thinking. Biological and physical differences include the human sexual response cycle among men and women.
Evolutionary perspectives on human coupling and/or reproduction, including the sexual strategies theory, provide another perspective on sexuality, as does social learning theory. Socio-cultural aspects of sexuality include historical developments and religious beliefs, including Jewish views on sexual pleasure within the marriage and Christian views on avoidance of sexual pleasures. The study of sexuality also includes human identity within social groups, sexually transmitted diseases, and infections (STDs and STIs) and birth control methods.
Eroticism is generally understood to refer to a state of sexual arousal or anticipation of such – an insistent sexual impulse, desire, or pattern of thoughts, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality and romantic love. As French novelist Honoré de Balzac pointed out, eroticism is dependent not just upon an individual’s sexual morality, but the culture and time that individual resides in as well.
Because the nature of what is erotic is fluid, early definitions of the term attempted to conceive eroticism as some form of sensual or romantic love or as the human sex drive (libido); for example, the Encyclopédie of 1755 states that the erotic “is an epithet which is applied to everything with a connection
to the love of the sexes; one employs it particularly to characterize…a dissoluteness, an excess”. However, because eroticism is wholly dependent on the viewer’s culture and personal tastes pertaining to what, exactly, defines the erotic, critics have often confused eroticism with pornography, going so far as to say: “[Eroticism] is simply high-class pornography; better produced, better conceived, better executed, better packaged, designed for a better class of consumer.” This confusion, as Lynn Hunt writes, “demonstrate the difficulty of drawing…a clear generic demarcation between the erotic and the pornographic”: indeed arguably “the history of the separation of pornography from eroticism…remains to be written”.
For a psychoanalytical definition, as early as Freud psychotherapists have turned to the ancient Greek philosophy’s “overturning of mythology” as a definition to understanding of the heightened aesthetic. For Plato, Eros takes an almost transcendent manifestation when the subject seeks to go beyond itself and form a communion with the objectival other:
“the true order of going…to the things of love, is to use the beauties of earth as steps…to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair actions, and from fair
actions to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty”.
======================
3. “Michael Jackson, King of Pop” (136 pages)
This artwork is a special one dedicated to a special artist: Michael Jackson.
Considered the King of Pop, Michael Jackson was a great personality, a man and a genius, a child and a grown man, a warrior and a defender of the rights of all people in the world.
Our planet would have been poorer without Michael Jackson.
His overflowing creativity, imagination without limits, sense of music and art, closeness to beautiful and wonderful things, friendship with the world of artists and fruitful collaboration with them, experience and memories of childhood, confrontation with great personalities (megastars) of the world, need for perfection and innovation in music, sentimental adventures and love stories in music and in life, changes of rhythm and style, collaboration with famous artists from other arts (literature, cinema, painting, drawing, dance, architecture, sculpture), knowledge of human races – from whites in America, Europe and Asia to yellows and blacks from Africa, Asia and North America, the loan of culture, customs, traditions, folklore and other cultural events, his walking on the Planet – from North to South, from East to West, his play with all populations of the Planet, his magical and triumphant influence on television, movies and media, his struggle for peace, friendship and a better world, his love for children, his instinct and genius as a musician, his ability to communicate with all people and change the world for the better – all these make Michael Jackson – King Michael Jackson.
This is the meaning and content of this work.
You can read an excerpt:
======================
“In March 2009, Jackson held a press conference at London’s O2 Arena and announced a series of comeback concerts titled This Is It. The shows would be Jackson’s first major
series of concerts since the HIStory World Tour finished in 1997. Jackson suggested
possible retirement after the shows; he said it would be his “final curtain call”. The initial
plan was for 10 concerts in London, followed by shows in Paris, New York City and
Mumbai. Randy Phillips, president and chief executive of AEG Live, stated that the first 10 dates alone would earn the singer approximately £50 million. The London residency was increased to 50 dates after record breaking ticket sales: over one million were sold in less than two hours. Jackson rehearsed in Los Angeles in the weeks leading up to the tour under the direction of choreographer Kenny Ortega. Most of these rehearsals took place at the Staples Center, which was owned by AEG. The concerts would have commenced on July 13, 2009, and finished on March 6, 2010. Less than three weeks before the first show was due to begin in London and with all concerts being sold out, Jackson died after suffering cardiac arrest. Some time before his death, it was reported that he was starting a clothing line with Christian Audigier.
Jackson’s first posthumous song released entirely by his Estate was titled “This Is It” which Jackson cowrote in the 1980s with Paul Anka. It was not on the set lists for the concerts, and the recording was based on an old demo tape. The surviving brothers reunited in the studio for the first time since 1989 to record backing vocals. On October 28, 2009, a documentary film about the rehearsals titled Michael Jackson’s This Is It was released. Even though it ran for a limited two-week engagement, it became the highest grossing documentary or concert movie of all time, with earnings of more than
$260 million worldwide. Jackson’s estate received 90% of the profits. The film was accompanied by a compilation album of the same name. Two versions of the new song appear on the album, which also featured original masters of Jackson’s hits in the order in which they appear in the movie, along with a bonus disc with previously unreleased versions of more Jackson hits as well as a spoken-word poem titled “Planet Earth”. At the 2009 American Music Awards, Jackson won four posthumous awards, two for him and two for his album Number Ones, bringing his total American Music Awards to 26.
On June 25, 2009, Jackson died while in his bed at his rented mansion at 100 North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles. Attempts at resuscitating him by Conrad Murray, his personal physician, were unsuccessful. Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics received a 911 call at 12:22 (PDT, 19:22 UTC), arriving three minutes later at Jackson’s location. He was reportedly not breathing and CPR was performed. Resuscitation efforts continued en route to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and for more than an hour after arriving there at 1:13 (20:13 UTC). He
was pronounced dead at 2:26 local time (21:26 UTC). Jackson’s death triggered a global outpouring of grief.
The news spread quickly online, causing websites to slow down and crash from user overload. Both TMZ and the Los Angeles Times suffered outages. Google initially believed that the input from millions of people searching for “Michael Jackson” meant that the search engine was under DDoS attack, and blocked searches related to Michael Jackson for 30 minutes. Twitter reported a crash, as did Wikipedia at 3:15 pm PDT (22:15 UTC). The Wikimedia Foundation reported nearly a million visitors to Jackson’s biography within one hour, probably the most visitors in a one-hour period to any article in Wikipedia’s history. AOL Instant Messenger collapsed for 40 minutes. AOL called it a “seminal moment in Internet history”, adding, “We’ve never seen anything like it in terms of scope or depth.”
Around 15% of Twitter posts—or 5,000 tweets per minute—reportedly mentioned Jackson after the news broke, compared to the 5% recalled as having mentioned the Iranian elections or the flu pandemic that had made headlines earlier in the year.
Overall, web traffic ranged from 11% to at least 20% higher than normal. MTV and BET aired marathons of Jackson’s music videos. Jackson specials aired on multiple television stations around the world. The British soap opera EastEnders added a last- minute scene, in which one character tells another about the news, to the June 26 episode.
Jackson’s memorial was held on July 7, 2009, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, preceded by a private family service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park’s Hall of Liberty.
Because of the high demand, organizers of the service fashioned a lottery style distribution method to give out tickets to members of the public. 1.6 million fans applied for tickets to the service over the two-day period that registration was open. 8,750 names were drawn at random to decide who to distribute tickets to, with each recipient receiving two tickets each. Jackson’s casket was present during the memorial but no information was released about the final disposition of the body. The memorial service was one of the most watched events in online streaming history. The U.S. audience was estimated by Nielsen to be 31.1 million, an amount comparable to the estimated 35.1 million that watched the 2004 burial of former president Ronald Reagan, and the estimated 33.1 million Americans who watched the 1997 funeral for Princess Diana. Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, John Mayer, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Jermaine Jackson, and Shaheen Jafargholi performed at the event. Berry Gordy and
Smokey Robinson gave eulogies, while Queen Latifah read “We had him”, a poem written for the occasion by Maya Angelou. The Reverend Al Sharpton received a standing ovation with cheers when he told Jackson’s children, “Wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it anyway.” The memorial is best remembered for when Jackson’s 11-year-old daughter, Paris Katherine, speaking publicly for the first time cried as she told the crowd, “Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine….. I just wanted to say I love him….. so much.” Reverend Lucious Smith provided a closing prayer. On August 24, several news outlets quoted anonymous sources as stating that the Los Angeles coroner had decided to treat Jackson’s death as a homicide; this was later confirmed by the coroner on August 28. At the time of death, Jackson had been administered propofol, lorazepam and midazolam. Law enforcement officials conducted a manslaughter investigation of his personal physician Conrad Murray, who was charged with involuntary manslaughter by prosecutors in Los Angeles on February 8, 2010. Jackson’s body was entombed on September 3, 2009, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.”
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4. “Adolescence – a wonderful and ineffable universe” (105 pages)
This work is a wonderful teaching for children and adolescents. The universe of childhood and the evolution towards adolescence and then to adulthood are presented with much charm, artistic talent, with language pleasant, simple, coherent and eloquent, with plenty of examples from the lives of children around the world (in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia), with significant moments in the relationship of children and adolescents with their parents and children relationship in daily life, at school, at play, in family, in various activities.
A special attention I have paid to adolescence, as the most beautiful and the most important stage of human life, with related changes – intellectual, moral, psychological, physical and sexual.
Adolescents are innocent and idealistic, but ambitious, with common sense, preoccupied with life around them and the entire society. Adolescents want to change the world for the better. The avidity of culture and information, their involvement in various events, the changes (sometimes too fast) in their life and personality – are described with much talent, pertinence, often with humor, common sense and eloquence, with advice and recommendations, with examples of various stories of teenagers worldwide.
Moral and spiritual profile of adolescents is described and analyzed deeply, accompanied by pertinent arguments and opinions of great specialists and of the heights of the spirit in the USA, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, China, India, Japan, Russia, the Arab world, South America, Australia, Africa.
The book is useful, interesting and enjoyable.
You can read an excerpt:
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“Childhood is the age span ranging from birth to adolescence. According to Piaget’s
theory of cognitive development, childhood consists of two stages: preoperational stage
and concrete operational stage. In developmental psychology, childhood is divided up into the developmental stages of toddlerhood (learning to walk), early childhood (play age), middle childhood (school age), and adolescence (puberty through post-puberty). Various childhood factors could affect a person’s attitude formation.
The term childhood is non-specific and can imply a varying range of years in human
development. Developmentally and biologically, it refers to the period between infancy
and adulthood. In common terms, childhood is considered to start from birth. Some
consider that childhood, as a concept of play and innocence, ends at adolescence. In
the legal systems of many countries, there is an age of majority when childhood
officially ends and a person legally becomes an adult. The age ranges anywhere from 15 to 21, with 18 being the most common.
Early childhood follows the infancy stage and begins with toddlerhood when the child
begins speaking or taking steps independently. While toddlerhood ends around age
three when the child becomes less dependent on parental assistance for basic needs,
early childhood continues approximately through years seven or eight. According to the
National Association for the Education of Young Children, early childhood spans the
human life from birth to age eight. At this stage children are learning through observing,
experimenting and communicating with others. Adults supervise and support the
development process of the child, which then will lead to the child’s autonomy. Also during this stage, a strong emotional bond is created between the child and the care providers. The children also start to begin kindergarten at this age to start their social lives.
Middle childhood begins at around age seven or eight, approximating primary school
age. It ends around puberty, which typically marks the beginning of adolescence. In this period, children are attending school, thus developing socially and mentally. They are at
a stage where they make new friends and gain new skills, which will enable them to become more independent and enhance their individuality.
Adolescence is usually determined by the onset of puberty. However, puberty may also
begin in preadolescents. The onset of adolescence brings various physical,
psychological and behavioural changes in the child. The end of adolescence and the
beginning of adulthood varies by country and by function, and even within a single
nation-state or culture there may be different ages at which an individual is considered
to be (chronologically and the legally) mature enough to be entrusted by society with certain tasks.”
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5. “Oscar-winning films”(147 pages)
We all love art, beauty of the human spirit, talent and creativity, love and struggle, hard work and success. A wonderful area of human activity that captured the attention and interest of entire generations, even from its occurrence, was cinema.
Who has not watched a good movie in his life? Who has not admired and appreciated great actors, directors, scriptwriters, camera operators, authors of music, authors of sets and costumes, real stars of the world?
But of all the films released in cinema’s history most compelling were (and still are) Oscar-winning films.
This work is a summary – coherent, interesting, pleasant, expressive, eloquent, original and with good sense of ALL Oscar-winning films, from 1929 to the present. Each film has its story and specificity, has its contemporary history and corresponding fashion to its year of occurrence, has its stars and charm, has its success and public.
This work presents in chronological order all the films in the world which were Oscar-winning. The references – for each film – are pertinent, realistic, with common sense, with eloquent and synthetic assessment, with listing the main filmmakers: directors, screenwriters, actors, authors of scenery, costumes authors, camera operators etc.
Each Oscar-winning film impressed – for its time – millions, even billions of people. You can find the legend of each Oscar-winning film. In addition, there are interesting, spicy, savory, exciting, impressive details about every Oscar-winning film.
You can read an excerpt:
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”
1930 – All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front is a 1930 American epic war film based on the Erich Maria Remarque novel of the same name. It was directed by Lewis Milestone, and stars Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy and Ben Alexander.
All Quiet on the Western Front is considered a realistic and harrowing account of warfare in World War I, and was named #54 on the AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies.
However, it fell out of the top 100 in the AFI’s 2007 revision. In June 2008, after polling over 1,500 workers in the creative community, AFI announced its 10 Top 10—the ten best films in each of ten “classic” American film genres; All Quiet on the Western Front was ranked the seventh-best film in the epic genre. In 1990, the film was selected and preserved by the United States Library of Congress’ National Film Registry as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The film was the first to win the Academy Awards for both Outstanding Production and Best Director.
Its sequel is The Road Back, which shows members of the 2nd Company returning home after the war.
The film opens in a boys’ secondary school in Germany at the beginning of World War I. The instructor, Kantorek, gives an impassioned speech about the glory of serving in the Army and “saving the Fatherland”. On the brink of becoming men, the group of boys is moved to join the army. The young enlistees are shown in basic training, aching for “action” fighting in the war. Their training officer, Himmelstoss — a strict disciplinarian who is hated by all the recruits — tells them to forget everything they know; they are going to become soldiers. Rigorous training diminishes the recruits’ enthusiasm some, but after little more than marching drills, suddenly the boys are told they are “going, up front”.
The new soldiers arrive by train at the combat zone, which is mayhem, with soldiers everywhere, incoming shells, horse-drawn wagons racing about, and prolonged rain. One in the group is killed before the new recruits can reach their post, to the alarm of one of the new soldiers (Behn). The new soldiers are assigned to a unit composed of older soldiers, who are not exactly accommodating. The young soldiers find that there is no food available at the moment. They have not eaten since breakfast – but the men they have joined have not had food for two days. One of them (Katczinsky) had gone to
locate something to eat and he returns with a slaughtered hog. The young soldiers “pay” for their dinner with cigarettes.
“For the Fatherland” the young soldiers’ unit is sent out on night duty and they move into position packed into a flat cargo truck. As the driver drops them off at their destination, he tells them, “If there’s any of you left, there will be someone here to pick you up in the morning.” The young recruits watch the truck intensely as it leaves. Katczinsky gives the “schoolboys” some real world instructions, telling them how to deal with incoming shells, “When you see me flop, you flop. Only try to beat me to it.” The unit strings up barbed- wire and tries to avoid shells. Flares light up the night sky as the enemy tries to spot them, machine guns hammer and a bombardment begins. Behn is killed by machine gun fire; most of the soldiers keep low in the trenches. Franz Kemmerich runs out to retrieve Behn, but, upon returning to the trench, realizes that he’s carrying a corpse. He is scolded by Katczinsky for risking his life. When the truck arrives in the morning most of the unit has survived.
Back at the bunker in the trenches, the soldiers play cards and fight off the rats who eat their food and gear. The young soldiers are showing signs of great stress: nightmares, shaking uncontrollably, and screaming about the unrelenting bombs. One recruit (Kemmerich) loses control, runs out of the trench and is injured. Some of the soldiers want to leave the trench and attack, but the enemy seems to have superior firepower.
When food finally comes, the men have to fight to get their share. Then they are overcome by rats and the soldiers kill the rats with spades. Suddenly there is a break in the bombing and the men are ordered out to fight.
A loud rumbling can be heard as the enemy approaches. The soldiers are in trenches with their rifles ready as incoming shells move closer and closer. They can do nothing but wait. The enemy French soldiers come into view, running toward the trenches, but the Germans hold their fire until the enemy is closer. Paul witnesses several soldiers die from shellfire. The Germans use machine gun fire, hand grenades and rifles to mow down the enemy. The enemy suffers great losses, but succeeds in entering the trenches, where hand-to-hand combat with bayonets begins. The Germans retreat to a
second line, from where they launch a counterattack. At great cost they enter the French front line, but are unable to hold their position, and are ordered to withdraw to their original positions.
The men of Second Company return from the battle and line up for a meal. The cook refuses to feed them because he wants the entire company to arrive. The men explain that this is all that is left of the company – 80 of the original 150 – and the cook refuses to give them all the food he has prepared. An argument follows and violence seems imminent when Lieutenant Bertinck arrives and orders the cook to give all the food to the men.
The men start out eating greedily, but then settle into a satiated torpor. They hear that they are to return to the front the next day and begin a semi-serious discussion about the causes of the war and of wars in general. They speculate about whether geographical entities offend each other and whether these disagreements involve them. Tjaden speaks familiarly about himself and the Kaiser. They speculate about whether it is the Kaiser or the manufacturers that need the war or whether it is the result of a fever.
Katczinsky suggests roping off a field and stripping the kings and their ministers down to their underwear and letting them fight it out with clubs. It is finally decided that they should go see their friend Kemmerich, who was wounded in the battle and is in a dressing station, and bring him his things.
Five of the men find Kemmerich in a very bad condition, complaining that his watch was stolen while he was under ether, and that he is in pain in his right foot. Not realizing that Kemmerich did not know, Müller lets slip that his right leg has been amputated; Kemmerich becomes upset. Kemmerich expresses regret that he would never become a forester and Paul tries to reassure him. Müller sees Kemmerich’s boots under the bed and tactlessly asks him for them. Kemmerich asks Paul to give his boots to Müller and then loses consciousness. Paul tries to summon a doctor, but the doctor and the medic can do nothing. As Kemmerich finally succumbs to his wounds, Paul leaves the dressing station with Kemmerich’s boots and breaks into a run. Müller is trying to talk about math to Katczinsky when Paul brings him the boots. Müller is pleased and says that he will not mind returning to the front in such fine boots. Paul describes how he reacted to Kemmerich’s death by running and how it made him feel more alive and then hungry.
In a sequence of battle scenes, Müller is wounded and his boots are passed on to another soldier, who is also wounded and presumed killed. One day Corporal Himmelstoss arrives to the front and is immediately spurned because of his bad reputation. In an attack on a cemetery, Paul stabs a French soldier, but finds himself trapped in a hole with the dying man in for an entire night. Throughout the night, he desperately tries to help him, bringing him water, but fails miserably to stop him from dying. He cries bitterly and begs the dead body to speak so he can be forgiven. Later, he returns to the German lines.
Then the company have a day off the front line, and soon everyone gets drunk and eats as much as they can. While washing in the river, the men catch the attention of French women who invite them in their house at night.
Going back to the front line, Paul is severely wounded and taken to a Catholic hospital, along with his good friend Albert Kropp. Kropp’s leg is amputated, but he does not find out until some time afterwards. Around this time, Paul is taken to the bandaging ward, from which, according to its reputation, nobody has ever returned alive; but he later returns to the normal rooms triumphantly, only to find Kropp in agony.
Earning a furlough, Paul then takes a brief trip back to his home, where he finds his mother is ailing. The people in his town are mindlessly patriotic and ignorant about what is happening at the front. He visits Kantorek, only to find him lecturing another class about the “glory of war.” Disgusted, he returns to the front, where only a few men of the Second Company have survived, including an old hand, Tjaden. Paul asks Tjaden about Katczinsky, thinking that he is dead, but Tjaden reveals that Katczinsky is still alive. Paul goes looking for Kat, finds him scrounging for food, to no avail. Kat is
wounded in the ankle by a bomb dropped from an airplane. So Paul decides to carry Kat to the field hospital. En route, though, the same plane drops another bomb, and the shrapnel from this explosion kills Kat, while Paul, in ignorance, continues to carry him to the field hospital. Paul is grief-stricken.”
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6. “From Ptahhotep until Garcia Marquez” (85 pages)
History of writing has attracted and fascinated many writers, historians, linguists, journalists, philosophers, even psychologists and psychiatrists.
I made a history of writing using extremely numerous specialized works (about the history of writing) which I have studied, ordered chronologically and as the historical importance, and finally I have obtained a synthesis extremely interesting and useful, savory and pertinent, a whole history of the evolution of writing: in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Babylon and the current Iraq territories, ancient Greece and Rome, the Middle East and the Far East (India, China, Japan), the entire Arab world, Western Europe, Eastern Europe (including Russia), and the USA.
A special attention I have paid great for great writers of the world: from France, England, Italy, Russia, Germany, Spain, USA, India, China, Japan, the Arab world.
You can find in this work all world famous titles, starting from Ptahhotep until García Márquez.
The work is short, synthetic, very eloquent, very helpful, extremely necessary for children and adolescents and for anyone who wants to have a good vision of the evolution of the world (especially on the evolution of writing) and a good general culture (especially literary culture).
You can read an excerpt:
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“Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) begins his literary career with jocose sketches, which he publishes in the newspapers, then he writes novels. At that time, the important newspapers were publishing serials: each episode of the novel urges you to read the next one. Like this, “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club” appeared in the newspaper. In 1837, the episodes of “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club” were brought together into volume. Samuel Pickwick is the founder of an imaginary club
– Pickwick Club. He and his servant gather together strange guys, who tell their adventures. At the same time, Pickwick himself has a lot of adventures. This book illustrates with humor the bourgeois and popular stupidity of Victorian England. In his youth, Dickens made the acquaintance of the terrible poverty and misery of the children, forced to work. Some ones exploit children and don’t take pity on them. The themes of the children appear in several novels of Dickens . The children Oliver Twist and David Copperfield bear the wickedness and the nastiness of the adults. They endure, undergo and bear the cruel tyranny of the headmasters of the odious schools and know the misery and the hunger. The novel “Oliver Twist” (1838) tells us about an abandoned child. He grows in the orphanage, which is a sort of jail for the unhappy persons, and will get in the mechanism of the crime. A kind-hearted harlot and a generous old man will take him out this mire. This book depicts the image of the rubbish of the society in London during the industrial revolution. In “David Copperfield” we learn the story of the happy life of a boy when he was near his mother and his wet nurse.
His universe of tenderness falls down when his mother marries again, and, especially, after the death of his mother. The step father sends the boy to a boarding school, than obliges him to work in the shop in London. David wants to escape from the misery and goes to his aunt – who is an eccentric one – then he works for a lawyer and, finally, he becomes an writer. His destiny was influenced by various characters : odious , shameful , detestable , hateful , manginess , sordid , delicious , charming , enchanting , rapturous , delightful , ecstatic , prepossessing , droll , funnily , quizzical ones . Many of his novels, with their recurrent theme of social reform, first appeared in magazines in serialized
form, a popular format at the time. Unlike other authors who completed entire novels before serialization, Dickens often created the episodes as they were being serialized. The practice lent his stories a particular rhythm, punctuated by cliffhangers to keep the public looking forward to the next installment. The continuing popularity of his novels and short stories is such that they have never gone out of print. Notable works:
“Sketches by Boz”, “The Old Curiosity Shop”, “Oliver Twist”, “Nicholas Nickleby”,
“Barnaby Rudge”, “A Christmas Carol”, “Martin Chuzzlewit”, “A Tale of Two Cities”,
“David Copperfield”, “Great Expectations”, “Bleak House”, “Little Dorrit”, “Hard Times”, “Our Mutual Friend”, “The Pickwick Papers”.
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7. “Adolf Hitler and his ability to change the world” (83 pages)
Considered as an evil genius, or strong personality, or the product of history in the beginning of the XXth century – Adolf Hitler marked the destiny of millions of people. If we consider only the number of deaths in World War II (20 million Russians, 8 million Germans, 6 million Hebrew, 4 million Polish and millions of deaths in the UK, France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, USA etc.) we can understand the awful appearance of this war and terrible look of one who triggered it: Adolf Hitler.
The book includes a description of the personality and life of Adolf Hitler, from childhood to his rise in politics, and then during the Second World War.
His ability to influence large masses of people and getting them to go on a certain road, for a specific purpose – is the main feature of Adolf Hitler.
We can remark his attitude anti-Semitic, racial discrimination, favoring certain nations (especially, German nation), his desire to conquer the entire planet and make a new world order, led by Germany and by an intellectual, political and cultural elite.
This world order, with classes of competences and ethnic features, with strong ones and weak ones, rich people and poor people, smart ones and stupid ones, educated people and illiterate people, competent persons and incompetent persons, with masters and slaves – were in fact the idea and philosophical foundations of a World Empire. Hitler wanted to lead the world, to master the world, to change the world.
His moral and psychological profile is amply described in this work.
You can read an excerpt:
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“Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the Nazi Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP); National Socialist German Workers Party). He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany (as Führer und Reichskanzler) from 1934 to 1945. Hitler was at the centre of Nazi Germany, World War II in Europe, and the Holocaust.
Hitler was a decorated veteran of World War I. He joined the German Workers’ Party (precursor of the NSDAP) in 1919, and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he attempted a coup d’état in Munich, known as the Beer Hall Putsch. The failed coup resulted in Hitler’s imprisonment, during which time he wrote his memoir, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan- Germanism, antisemitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. After his appointment as chancellor in 1933, he transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism.
Hitler’s aim was to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in continental Europe. To this end, his foreign and domestic policies had the aim of seizing Lebensraum (“living space”) for the Germanic people. He directed the rearmament of Germany and the invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht in September 1939, resulting in the outbreak of World War II in Europe. Under Hitler’s rule, in 1941 German forces and their European allies occupied most of Europe and North Africa. In 1943, Germany was forced onto the defensive and suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time partner, Eva Braun. On 30 April
1945, less than two days later, the two committed suicide to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned.”
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