August 16, 2009
This is my new blog about books, movies, weird people, and the writing life. I plan to describe very little about my day job as a lawyer. After work, I write books, screenplays, short stories, and letters, always with the hope of publishing. My books Family Meal and Start Your Own Law Practice are available on Amazon.com. Social Security Disability Practice is available from Knowles Publishing at their website.
Kathryn Bigelow's movie The Hurt Locker released about a month ago, leaves the audience feeling depressed about the morality of the United States. Why did we start this senseless war in Iraq? The story by Mark Boal follows the psychological lives of three soldiers whose mission together is to defuse unexploded bombs. One of the soldiers is a careful planner, one is emotionally wounded by the experience, and one is a blatant risk-taker. Each is a fragment of a person. Mixed together they make up about half a personality. Most of us are more complicated than that. We do more than perform a risky job very well, or take cool control of a situation, or break down because a friend has died. We look at the bigger picture. Where is the world headed? What is the practicality of certain moral customs? What is the best choice for the natural environment. None of the characters in this film sees the bigger picture. That is why they are all limited and sad.
The strongest protagonist in this movie is the bleak landscape of Iraq where life consists of shooting and being shot, sand, goats, and suspicion. This is the life whether you're an adult hoping to scare off the soldiers, or a 12-year-old boy whose corpse is used as a bomb
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Great new blog! I look forward to more reviews of books and movies. If you have not read _Family Meal_ yet, what are you waiting for?
ReplyDeleteLaura, I like your blog very much. I look forward to reading more from you and hearing your thoughts on different social issues and artistic pursuits. We share many of the same sensibilities. Sometimes I feel strangled in this sorry, bland land of deeply entrenched Republican-religious right environment.
ReplyDeleteGinny Padgett
Laura, I just finished a book I like very much. It was not what I expected. I found that to be an excellent discovery. It is The Linnet Bird by Linda Holeman, set in Liverpool, Calcutta and Kashmir during the 1820s to 1840.
ReplyDeleteThe Linnet Bird sounds good. I recommend Lime Trees Don't Bear Orange, about Trinidad and Tobago.
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