Books and Movies Reviews: February 2012

Sunday, February 26, 2012

We would still be reading this 200 years later…Age of Reason by Thomas Paine…

Just finished reading Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason"

What can I say?

That a book written more than 200 years ago could find so much resonance today is something that is needs to be read to be believed

Thomas Paine was a man who was so far ahead of his time that he would be called far ahead of his time today!!

The moral courage and the personal integrity that exemplified his entire life marks his written work. Age of Reason was a book that caused such an explosion in its time that it did two things - immortalized him for posterity and condemned him during his lifetime.

Yet at the end of his life, when he was dying a painful death, deserted by friends and shunned by people who had hailed him a hero once, he stuck to what he had believed in and displayed the same sense of sarcastic humour that he showed in his work. A life lived as written

Age of Reason is an all out attack on the system of organized religion - more specifically Christianity, this being the religion that Paine encountered in England, France and America, the places where he lived and fought all his life. Paine was a brilliant pamphleteer and so was used to laying out his ideas concisely and clearly without using any dense logic or arguments. He uses the same technique in his writings.

Reading this, even 200 years later, feels like a stirring call to arms. And the fact that a large part of this book was written and completed at a time when Thomas Paine was under the belief that he could be executed anytime makes you appreciate the book more...

There are two important aspects of the book that stands out - the material of the book and the way it is written

The material of the book is based on a simple premise - Organized religion is a sham at best and dangerous at worst. This is because the purpose of organized religion is to make us act contrary to our innermost feelings, filling our head with impossible and fantastic things that has no basis in reality. The only true religion is that of Deism and the true bible is Nature.

Because, as Paine explains so beautifully, God has anyway given us an abundance of miracles in everything around us, in existence itself. Why do we need foolish miracles or religion? This was the first time that material like this was published in a direct and plainly written attack, even though the thoughts on which Paine based his work had been around for some time - in the work of David Hume and Spinoza for example.

The book is divided into two parts - the first is a general discussion on religion and on Paine's personal beliefs. This is where he puts forward his most compelling and beautiful arguments for the religion of the mind and the heart. He explains what he feels and why he feels so. The second part deals directly with Christianity. Deals is a wrong word actually. Rips apart is perhaps more appropriate. Paine takes some of the implied and maybe even cherished beliefs of Christians and literally rips them to shred...

Which brings me to the fascinating way the book is written. He is attacking organized religion in open field, which at that time was immensely powerful and controlled almost every aspect of life. Yet, he never uses any circular arguments, does not hide behind any one else and or any other theory. His attacks are straight to the point and argued so logically and beautifully that the modern reader will still find the reasoning fascinating, no matter how many Richard Dawkins he may have read.

When he is attacking Christianity, he maintains his good quality acerbic humour to mock the beliefs and at the same time gives irrefutable proof of why he considers the beliefs to be wrong. He picks up different aspects of Christianity - the bible and its different books, the

characters of Moses, Joshua, Jesus and the significant events on which Christianity is based - most importantly the resurrection of Jesus. This was written to make perfect sense to a complete layman on the street. And this it does brilliantly!!!

The style has a wonderful sense of a person who is simply trying to wake up the reader to things which seem painfully apparent once explained...

This is a book that I hope I will be revisiting many a times. The book that has inspired people from Mark Twain to Christopher Hitchens is not something that can be digested in one reading...

This a book that cannot be reviewed enough, Instead I will leave the reader of this post with some of the sentences in the book that are so powerful and beautiful that they need to be read again and again...

Quotes from “Age of Reason”...Read below...

Labels: america, banned, Books, controvery, deism, England, historical, history, religion

Sunday, February 19, 2012

(Movie) This revolution will not be televised directed by Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain

In an age of 24 hours television, when we have the whole world beamed to us by an almost inexhaustible array of channels, "This revolution will not be televised" poses some very uncomfortable questions about what we are fed everyday from the newsrooms of the world

A paranoid's favourite statement is - "We are being lied to". This being an affront to our superior intelligence, we choose to deny, even though we realize the kernel of truth in it. Or as Kurt Cobain put it succinctly - "Just Because You're Paranoid, Don't Mean They're Not After You"

When you see something like "This Revolution will not be televised", you realize that the paranoid is probably much saner than we thought. And you wonder what else is here that you think you knew, but probably don't know s**t

The setting of the documentary is the 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela in which western influenced and financed groups and army elements tried to oust Hugo Chavez, the charismatic rebel president who had come to power on the back of a popular upsurge. Chavez was intended to become another bloody statistic in the long history of popular presidents in Latin America removed by force, the United States always being the alleged culprit. Look at what happened to Allende

Filmed by Irish filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha O Briain, what was originally intended as a biographical sketch of the Hugo Chavez, turned into a fascinating look into the coup events as situations changed rapidly and drastically around them.

Labels: alternate history, america, conspiracy, documentary, media, movies, revolution, venezuela

Saturday, February 11, 2012

(Movie) The Gold Rush directed by Charlie Chaplin

So, this was the movie that Chaplin wanted to be remembered for the most

Your own jury can be out on that one but one thing is for sure, along with his other great classics like “The Kid” or “City Lights”, “Gold Rush” would rank as one of the all time classics – a feast that can be enjoyed not matter what your age or what your mood for that matter.

Its a measure of Chaplin’s genius that he could sustain his audience through a full length silent feature movie, a length which many modern movies struggle to fill with any meaning, with all the tech wizardy in hand.

Much like “The Kid”, which came earlier, Chaplin is able to combine comedy, pathos, a keen sense of human nature and a social non-judgmental commentary and a sense of irreverent frivolity. Many people today mistaken Chaplin with slapstick or physical comedy, which is a tragedy of ignorance. Almost none of his works are of the kind that would make you laugh without making you think, however subtly. And that is where the power of something like “Gold Rush” comes into focus.

This Page

Books and Movies Reviews

Sunday, February 26, 2012

We would still be reading this 200 years later…Age of Reason by Thomas Paine…

Sunday, February 19, 2012

(Movie) This revolution will not be televised directed by Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain

Saturday, February 11, 2012

(Movie) The Gold Rush directed by Charlie Chaplin

About Me

Links

Previous Posts

Archives