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Rediscovering My Hope

We seem to be living in a time of increasing hopelessness. We are sitting in our homes watching as the world faces more and more problems every day, while we feel helpless to do anything about it when we can't even go places and do things to support ourselves financially and emotionally. A worldwide pandemic has temporarily shut down economies and continues to claim lives dat after day. Riots and protests over issues of racism are at an all-time high. Political climates everywhere are full of turmoil and uncertainty. Fear over government control in the wake of global catastrophe is only adding to the issue. Wildfires are raging yet again, causing apocalyptical red skies. Every day we see dissension and debates online, or hear about global crises that need immediate attention. Where is the hope? Socio-political issues seem to be growing into bigger discussions than ever before. Maybe, now that we have little going on in our lives, we have suddenly discovered that we have more time t
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We Must Speak Until Our Voices Are No Longer Needed

 I almost hate to admit it, but I've had moments over the past few months when the social justice messages flooding all of my web pages and social media started to feel like too much and I just wanted to shut it all out for a while. Maybe you've had an experience like that too. It's okay to feel weighed down or overwhelmed by all of it: the injustice, the opposing arguments, the lack of a clear and easy solution for all of the world's ills. It's a lot to take in. The Message Is Important, Therefore We Must Speak It In spite of our discussion exhaustion, the message of equality is so important. There is a reason that these discussions have been going on for decades – centuries, even. Of course, the discourse seems more prevalent now than ever. Perhaps it is because we have all been given a new platform through social media that simply could not be had before. Now, people who could never make their views known to the masses have a way to share their thoughts with comm
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Billie Eilish's video reminds women that self-worth is more important than others' opinions of us

Billie Eilish just released her official tour video " NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY " and – wow! – there is a lot to unpack. I don't often discuss this sort of pop culture news, but she has me thinking that maybe I should. This video packed as much punch as any literary prize-winning story, if not more. In the video, the pop star sheds her baggy attire while she addresses her haters and, more specifically, body-shamers. Billie Eilish is notorious for wearing over-sized clothing that hides her figure. She has said that she does this so that no one can use her size or appearance against her because they can't actually see what her body looks like. But the narration in the video makes it clear that she still experiences judgement all the time, not just for how she looks, but for what she wears and how she acts. Why? Because she is in the limelight? Yes, that does amplify the attention she gets, and provide a platform for critics to call her out on a more public scale. But there
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That nagging question – Captain America: The Winter Soldier

From the moment that Thor enters the scene in the first Avengers movie , there is one question that continually arises, slowly gaining traction until it all comes to a head phase 3's Civil War (which will be discussed in a subsequent post). We see it in the mistrust between Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the members of the Avengers team. It plays out in covert government operations and secretive weapon-building programs as much as it does in the need-to-know style of operations frequently undertaken by our heroes. As any great Spider-man fan knows, "with great power comes great responsibility." But what happens when no one trusts the powerful people to be appropriately responsible in their actions? The question at the root of Hydra's subterfuge and the plot to use S.H.I.E.L.D. technology for murderous purposes is essentially the same as the one that spawned Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's comicbook masterpiece , and it is this: "Who watches the Watchmen?" If t
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Never enough love: the failings of P.T. Barnum's fight for fame (The Greatest Showman)

The Greatest Showman  was one of the greatest movies of the last few years. The catchy tunes, the exploration of the human condition, and the message of self-love were enough to propel the movie to a spot of lasting fame and notoriety among fans and the entertainment industry alike. Besides, it had a pretty solid cast of familiar faces and a few breakout performers. It was fascinating to hear, as the movie quickly gained traction, that this was a story which Hugh Jackman had hoped to tell for a long time. I wondered while watching it what had so intrigued him about P.T. Barnum that he wanted to immortalize the man on screen—why did he want to tell Barnum's life story? Something special It is clear from this film that Barnum was unique. His mind worked in such a different way than the rest of the people around him. While the movie depicts this through his particular brand of imagination and inventive thinking as a child leading to an illustrious career, in reality he was a tr
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Victor Frankenstein

The story of Frankenstein is one that has been told and retold so many times and in so many ways. When I heard the title of this particular rendition, I was interested by the fact that this more than any other acknowledges that the story is more about the character of Victor than it ever was about the monster. If you know the original novel, then you know that the story is about a young man whose mother passes away just before he moves to university. Having always been interested with alchemy, science, and the occult, Victor dives into his obsessions and, fed by his depression, he seeks a way to overcome death (but by creating life rather than undoing death). His life is subsequently ruined by his own actions and inability to cope with his mother's death when he creates a monster that despises him for giving it life and leaving it to fend for itself. Thus when I heard about Victor Frankenstein , I thought the movie might explore more of the main character's emotional develo
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Fabricating reality: Soviet "truth"-making in Darkness at Noon

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[Warning: contains some spoilers] It's been over a year since I actually finished reading this book (yes, I am very behind on all of the things I wanted to write about), but in all that time I have never managed to come up with something clear to say about the novel. The main reason for this, I believe, is that the book is so conceptual in nature; while there is a narrative, the bulk of the book is taken up with internal monologues and interrogation discussions surrounding ideas about the morality and contradictory nature of the Soviet Union's actions. In an interesting coincidence, however, I find myself sitting down to write this after having recently gone through a personal experience that has helped me to look at this book in a somewhat new light. See, someone thought it would be funny to convince me that something was a joke when, in actuality, everything they were telling me was true. While I had originally questioned the truth of their claims, I became convinced th
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