Welcome to this week’s 5BF: a dystopian world ironically close to ours, the complexity of having a child in today’s medically advanced
world, the collision of open marriage and hope?, one woman’s war for climate
against the government, and more…
1 – what I read
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – taking its title from a
Shakespeare’s play, Huxley’s novel is about a dystopian world where the civilization
is controlled from its birth to its conditioning of the mind, empty of every
possible pain and instability, that is to say, empty of everything ‘human’. This
book presents us with an unpleasant irony where the world has become so bleak
despite its achievement of everything we could wish for; a world that is at its
core more ours than a fictional one.
2 – this week’s articles
Is it my baby? @aeon – sperm-donors are commonly accepted,
but not ‘egg-donors’. The question about the genetical connection of a medically
injected egg from a donor in the mother is asked more often than when donated
sperm is used to produce a child. This article argues that laboring a baby
makes is yours, period.
Runaway feelings @aeon – a confessional story of dad who was
once a bad son to his parents, going against their advice to do drugs, get drunk,
runaway, sleep with different girls and so on. Now a parent of a growing girl
himself, he can realize how his parents must have felt about their child going
into the wild and dangerous world. But the parents can only make sure to be
there for their children and hope they return once they realize their mistakes.
3 – this week’s podcasts
The right to fail at marriage @NYTmodernlove – an essay
about a failed marriage of two proudly and happily wedded lesbians, and how
they too are humans and are vulnerable to and deserving of failure. A podcast
about how our identity merges at the humanity level.
Was it me or my astrology? @NYTmodernlove – story of an
American-Indian girl and her cultural history with a detailed astronomy of her
whole life, and what role it has played in her life, both career and relationship
wise. An interesting tale of fate, life, and unanswerable questions.
When two open marriage collide @NYTmodernlove – when Eric
has a fatal accident, it brings his wife, his girlfriend, who is herself the wife
of this essay’s narrator, and the narrator, together in an uncomfortable
situation of open marriages – which they come out of intact and more loving
somehow? For a monogamous person like me, this story was both nightmarish and
radical, as in how complex once simple things has gotten.
4 – this week’s movie recommendations
The Report (2019) – years long investigation into CIA’s unethical
‘enhanced interrogation methods’ EIM unveils horrific accounts of torturous
experiments on the captives of 9/11 attacks.
Woman at War (Iceland 2018) – a woman tries to save her town,
and the climate, by illegally cutting down the power supply being built for
mega economical industries.
CODA (2021) – the hearing/speaking daughter of an otherwise
deaf family tries to pursue a career in singing while also running her family’s
fishing business.
Emma (1996) – film version of Jane Austen’s novel ‘Emma’
where self-righteous Emma tries, fails, and then succeeds at the dramatic
business of matchmaking of her friend Harriet.
Orlando (1992) – based on Virginia Wolf’s novel of the same
name, this is 4 centuries long story of Orlando as he, later she, sees England
change both through time and for opposite genders.
5 – this week’s quote
‘You suffer from a strange melancholy. That is, you suffer
in advance.’
- Virginia Wolf (Orlando, the 1992 movie)