Vampires and Samurai
A few observations about death and dying:
- I finally got a chance to see "Harakiri" last night, and I must say it's possibly the best samurai film I have ever seen. It's themed around the Japanese ritual suicide of seppuku ("Seppuku" is actually the real title, but they seem to have changed it here in the states to a more familiar, if entirely inaccurate, alternate). Seppuku was commited when a warrior felt he had been dishonored, and is an incredibly gory act of self-mutilation (gutting oneself with one's own sword) before a finale of beheading by another swordsman. It's one of the aspects of the samurai code of honor for which I have no respect at all (willingness to die, however difficult the means of passing, is cowardly however you look at it) - and it's exactly this hypocrisy that the movie focuses on. To give a summary of the plot would ruin the movie's amazing pacing (more twists and turns than a Hitchcock flick), but let's just say that the film starts by drawing you into the samurai code, and ends by showing you exactly how twisted and meaningless that code is. The movie's black-and-white photography and acting is incredible too. 10/10 stars. Two thumbs up. Highly recommended.
- I had a dream about vampires last night which got me asking this question, Let's say you are bitten by a vampire and become one yourself. And let's say that several years later, after much blood-guzzling and zombie-making, you get a stake in your heart, die, and end up facing Saint Peter. Now, when Pete is weighing whether you go to heaven or hell, does he count the acts you commited as a vampire? You weren't technically alive then, but you weren't dead either - and the drinking of blood to save your life was really beyond your control (unless you became a vampire on purpose). Moreover, does the act of biting another human qualify as murder? You're not really killing them either, although you are dooming them to the same life as you. I pondered over this question for awhile, and even thought it might make an interesting courtroom drama, until I realized that a) it was 4 in the morning, b) I was half-asleep, and that c) it was an incredibly stupid question to begin with. But now you know what kind of nonsense occupies my head in the wee hours....
- "And When I Die" by Laura Nyro is one of the greatest songs ever recorded. The hit cover by Blood, Sweat, and Tears, one the other hand, is *the* greatest song ever recorded. If you've never heard it, do yourself a favor. It's this gospel type number, but they keep changing the tempo and doing these weird jazzy shifts, just packing the thing with melodic hooks, but not taking away meaning from Nyro's amazing lyrics. "I can swear there ain't no heaven, but I pray there ain't no hell." Wonderful.
- When people ask me how I want to be buried/cremated/whatever, I'm not sure how to answer. I mean, I'm going to be *dead*, so it's really not going to make too much of a difference to me. I think my most preferable option would be (don't laugh) cryogenic freezing. I know it's a ridiculous sci-fi concept and probably doesn't work, but hey - I'm a ridiculous sci-fi *person*, and if there is even a chance that I can somehow come back and see what the world is like in 100 years, then I will take it. Besides, I'd get a slight chuckle out of my children trying to explain it to my grandkids:
Child: "Why isn't grandpa Ben having a funeral?"
Mother: "Because grandpa isn't dead. He's sleeping in a people-refrigerator."
Child: "That's weird. Why?"
Mother: "Because grandpa read too many comic books when he was a kid, and was deluded into thinking that if he freezes himself, then he can come back to life in the future, with a cloned body and robotic parts."
Child: (to self) "I suddenly have new respect for my grandfather. I want to be just like him someday."
If cryogenic freezing doesn't work out, then I'll opt instead for an incredibly cool gravestone. Preferably some kind of mazelike mausoleum, so that a new generation of kids can sneak in, tell ghost stories, and have a wonderful time. And of course I'd have to adopt a "Royal Tenenbaums" approach for my epitaph - I defenitely want to imply that I died of something cooler than old age. "He lived by the blade, and died by the blade" is a samurai cliche, that leaves enough to the imagination to be perfect.
- I finally got a chance to see "Harakiri" last night, and I must say it's possibly the best samurai film I have ever seen. It's themed around the Japanese ritual suicide of seppuku ("Seppuku" is actually the real title, but they seem to have changed it here in the states to a more familiar, if entirely inaccurate, alternate). Seppuku was commited when a warrior felt he had been dishonored, and is an incredibly gory act of self-mutilation (gutting oneself with one's own sword) before a finale of beheading by another swordsman. It's one of the aspects of the samurai code of honor for which I have no respect at all (willingness to die, however difficult the means of passing, is cowardly however you look at it) - and it's exactly this hypocrisy that the movie focuses on. To give a summary of the plot would ruin the movie's amazing pacing (more twists and turns than a Hitchcock flick), but let's just say that the film starts by drawing you into the samurai code, and ends by showing you exactly how twisted and meaningless that code is. The movie's black-and-white photography and acting is incredible too. 10/10 stars. Two thumbs up. Highly recommended.
- I had a dream about vampires last night which got me asking this question, Let's say you are bitten by a vampire and become one yourself. And let's say that several years later, after much blood-guzzling and zombie-making, you get a stake in your heart, die, and end up facing Saint Peter. Now, when Pete is weighing whether you go to heaven or hell, does he count the acts you commited as a vampire? You weren't technically alive then, but you weren't dead either - and the drinking of blood to save your life was really beyond your control (unless you became a vampire on purpose). Moreover, does the act of biting another human qualify as murder? You're not really killing them either, although you are dooming them to the same life as you. I pondered over this question for awhile, and even thought it might make an interesting courtroom drama, until I realized that a) it was 4 in the morning, b) I was half-asleep, and that c) it was an incredibly stupid question to begin with. But now you know what kind of nonsense occupies my head in the wee hours....
- "And When I Die" by Laura Nyro is one of the greatest songs ever recorded. The hit cover by Blood, Sweat, and Tears, one the other hand, is *the* greatest song ever recorded. If you've never heard it, do yourself a favor. It's this gospel type number, but they keep changing the tempo and doing these weird jazzy shifts, just packing the thing with melodic hooks, but not taking away meaning from Nyro's amazing lyrics. "I can swear there ain't no heaven, but I pray there ain't no hell." Wonderful.
- When people ask me how I want to be buried/cremated/whatever, I'm not sure how to answer. I mean, I'm going to be *dead*, so it's really not going to make too much of a difference to me. I think my most preferable option would be (don't laugh) cryogenic freezing. I know it's a ridiculous sci-fi concept and probably doesn't work, but hey - I'm a ridiculous sci-fi *person*, and if there is even a chance that I can somehow come back and see what the world is like in 100 years, then I will take it. Besides, I'd get a slight chuckle out of my children trying to explain it to my grandkids:
Child: "Why isn't grandpa Ben having a funeral?"
Mother: "Because grandpa isn't dead. He's sleeping in a people-refrigerator."
Child: "That's weird. Why?"
Mother: "Because grandpa read too many comic books when he was a kid, and was deluded into thinking that if he freezes himself, then he can come back to life in the future, with a cloned body and robotic parts."
Child: (to self) "I suddenly have new respect for my grandfather. I want to be just like him someday."
If cryogenic freezing doesn't work out, then I'll opt instead for an incredibly cool gravestone. Preferably some kind of mazelike mausoleum, so that a new generation of kids can sneak in, tell ghost stories, and have a wonderful time. And of course I'd have to adopt a "Royal Tenenbaums" approach for my epitaph - I defenitely want to imply that I died of something cooler than old age. "He lived by the blade, and died by the blade" is a samurai cliche, that leaves enough to the imagination to be perfect.
posted by BG | 10:37 AM
|
0 comments
