Obscure Eastern Culture (1)

While most of the kids here (The “Western World” that is) grew up with Power Rangers, Pokemon and pizza pies, I often felt I cannot really relate to them because my growing up happened in the far far East, a place where you don’t have culture, but the culture has you!

I grew up with a culture that wasn’t communist (since Communism fell six months after I was born), nor was it all Power Rangers (NO Power Rangers, in fact, something I remain grateful for to this day).

Nowadays many parents lament the terrible materialism, etc..in which their kids have to grow up, because there are no substitutes. I beg to differ. I will, therefore, tell tales of the things which I know from my childhood, that are almost uniquely Czechoslovakian and that in my eyes, are far better that any Strangely Coloured Power Ranger.

The first, and a person favourite of mine is a character from kids’ stories. His name is Brouk Pytlik (CZ) or Chrobak Truhlik (SK). I will call him Truhlik, because that’s the name I got so used to, even if correctly, it should be Pytlik.

So that’s him. He was thought up by Ondrej Sekora, and here’s his story (at least what I remember from the books).

As you can see, he’s a bug, and even though I tend to hate insects, since this one isn’t really real, he’s actually my idol, kind of..

His mother layed ann egg (future Truhlik) into a tree, but before he hatched, the tree was chopped down, processed and made into a railing which ended up in the cinema. Whe Young Truhlik finally hatched, he  was facsinated by the Movies, and always came out to watch them. So, even at the early stages of his life, he had a great knowledge of the world. Later, he became a full grown bug, he claimed that ‘he’s been everywhere, seen everything and knows anything’. Of course, he really didn’t, but many actually believed him.

For a short time, he served as a sidekick to Ferdo the Ant. When he went solo, he accomplished many things, including beaing in a band, beating up one of his neighbors, working in the beehive, waking people up, becoming an acrobat, an architect. Later, he was also buried alive and when it finally looked like he would settle down as a respected artist (painter and conceptual artist) with his own school, things took turn for the bizarre and he was ran out of town. His current fate is so far unknown, but we can confirm that he still knows everything and has been everywhere.

What a pity that the era of Renaissance men (and bugs) has come to an abrupt end!

So there you have it..

Peter

Alles Is Liefde, Actually…

And again. An article which no-one will read, because it’s uninspired, obvious and very much passe. But still, I feel that I must  voice out my discontent about one of the most successful Dutch films ever, simply because we are not in a Communist Nation and it is my duty to make my opinion somewhat public, in order to stop these shocking atrocities happening.

OK. It wasn’t all that bad, but as a romcom, it was just not good enough. Alles is Liefde is what we in Slovakia call ‘a weak tea’ compared to films like Love Actually. Fund mention Love Actually, but in fact, the comparison is quite deliberate.

I imagine a good, but otherwise uninspired Dutch screenwriter finally deciding to go see what sort of movies are out there. After going to the cinema on a cold winter’s evening (and it’s also raining; don’t forget, we’re in Holland), he finds himself charmed by that great British romcom.

Naturally, he or she then goes home and starts writing a script that is very much alike. There are indeed many similarities in the two films. The non-linear structure, many stories that are strangely interconnected and all takes place around a special time of the year (Christmas versus Sinterklaas).

That’s where the similarities end, but still, the two movies are too much like one another NOT to be compared. But I will not realy on recounting the differences between these two films to the reader. The can, if they widh to, go and see both and make up their own mind.

Anyway, few of the characters are lovable, Carice van Houten’s character (Kiki) is extremely aggressive and says ‘duh’ in the most annoying manner ever to appear in front of the audiences. The story feels a little rushed, with very little time between the introduction and resolution. Some plots are quite weak and improbable, which combined with a lack of laughs, makes the movie seem very odd, if not slightly neurotic. See, the thing about comedies is, that the laughter makes the storyline irrelevant and believable, no matter how ludicrous it actually is, but only if there is laughter. There was not a lot of laughter in this one, the film left me feeling rather puzzled at best.

I’m not trying to say that Love actually is the best movie EVER, it is just a much better romcom than Alles is Liefde would ever had the potential to be.

Peter

War with the Newts- A book review

When I ventured into the American Book Centre in The Hague, I felt like an idiot. I was about to go and order a book called ‘War with the Newts‘. Despite the somewhat corny title; some people on amazon.com rate this book as a satirical dystopia which belongs up there with Orwell’s ‘1984′ and Huxley’s ‘Brave New World”. To be perfectly honest, the author mentions Huxley, but apart from that, it really does not feel like either of the books ( Although I’ve never read BNW, I read all the spoilers on the internet).

But first things first. The book was written in 1936 by the Czech author Karel Capek. Its original title (Valka s mloky) to me sounds a million times less silly than its aforementioned English translation. Capek was one of the most celebrated Czech authors of his time (20’s and 30’s) and is also known for introducing the word robot. Without him, we’d all be using the word ‘android’ or something similar.

As you should know ‘1984′ opens up with the world (or at least England) in a sorry state, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, another book in the genre also presents the world (in this case, the USA) in a grip of a totalitarian regime. The War with the Newts, however, begins in the Dutch East Indies, on the boat of captain Van Toch (later to be revealed Vantoch from Jevicko, Czechoslovakia), who is neither a pirate, nor a resistance fighter to any opressive world state. Simply, the book begins with a world where the author lived, a world, which still in many respects resembles ours.

To be blunt, the novel does not once present a well rounded main character (a character which undergoes some development is Mr Povondra, but the author does not give him enough space). That is not however, the point of the novel. The novel does not need to make us feel sorry for a person, and not even for humanity. We finally see ourselves as greedy, enslaving, cheating, perpetually unhappy and so sure of our own intelligence and superiority that we don’t even consider the implications of our deeds, and after the truth finally arrives on us, we sink into a state of denial.

While this all sound rather bleak, the author puts this across in a humorous, witty way and in a sense it seems like this cannot have been otherwise. While other respected authors tend treat their end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenario with seriousness, Capek makes it all rather funny, only at the end does one realise the tragedy of mankind.

I cannot compare this novel with 1984, both are too different to be compared, but the War with the News, for me is more light-hearted and the constantly shifting storyline, in which the author proves to be an accomplished storyteller in many different ‘genres’, and in the end, mankind gets a second chance, unlike 1984, which is a masterpiece, although a rather depressing one.

Some of my favourite chapters in the book are chapters 6 and 7 (The Yacht in the Lagoon and the Yacht in the Lagoon (continued)). It really shows the silliness of Hollywood (read it and you’ll see). I also liked one part in the book when various contemporary celebrities are ‘interviewed’ about whether Newts have souls; the funniest answer (which again, mocks showbizz) is that of ‘Mae West’:  “They have no sex appeal. So they can’t have a soul.” (page 142) or another witty remark by ‘G. B. Shaw’: “The certainly have no soul. In this they resemble man.”(page 141).

If you’re looking for a likeable character in this book, someone you can identify with, don’t read it, you’ll be disappointed. If you are looking for a clever satire and an accurate commentary on the state of the world (not only in the 30’s), then this is something you might want to read and enjoy.

Note: never having read the original version, I cannot be sure how accurate the translation was, although it seemed to flow nicely, I found one mistake of the translator. At the end of the book, things are reffered to as ‘dear’ due to the war with the Newts. This should really be ‘expensive’, but I’ll forgive this one mistake, since is Czech (and also Slovak) the meaning of the word ‘drahy’ (dear, expensive) depends on the context in which it is used.