Somewhere Different Now

I saw Invictus today and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's about a truly inspiring time, the early days of Nelson Mandela's presidency of South Africa. They country had just left apartheid behind, but many blacks were still bitter about all those years of horrible oppression while many whites were extremely distrustful of the new government and angry about their own loss of power. The nation could so easily have fallen apart, but it didn't. There are a number of factors that kept South Africa from disintegrating, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, but Invictus focuses on two: Nelson Mandela and rugby. I could care less about rugby, but it was a good microcosm to show all the racially charged issues that South Africa had to cope with. Also, all of you Doctor Who fans will be interested to know that this movie has Adjoa Andoh, who played Francine Jones, playing one of Mandela's aids.

I spent five months in South Africa in college, studying at the University of Cape Town. I really enjoyed all the reminders of life in that country I got from the movie, everything from drop-dead gorgeous aerial shots of Cape Town to a passing mention of a proposal to make retailers charge extra for plastic bags. (This was established law by the time I visited in 2004. Why doesn't every nation do this?) It was nice to go into the film knowing a little bit extra about the underlying politics and symbolism, but the film explains enough that you don't really need prior knowledge. f you're interested, however, I recommend Nelson Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. It's a well-told personal story of a truly remarkable man, but it is also a good introduction to recent South African history. Better yet, go to South Africa. Take me with you!

As for the film, it was quite good, though not truly great. I felt like it told most of the story it had in the first two-thirds or so, leaving the last third weighted down with too much slow-motion footage of large men slamming into each other while grunting a lot. Some bits toed the line between inspirational and trite. Matt Damon, playing the captain of the rugby team, did a decent South African accent but not much else. If you see only one 2009 movie about South Africa, it should be District 9. However, Invictus is still very much worthwhile. Bonus points: read this blog post on what Nelson Mandela's leadership in Invictus teaches us about how to tackle global warming.

I'm currently reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynn Truss. I correctly anticipated its appeal to my inner punctuation snob, but I never predicted how often it would make me laugh out loud. Consider this sentence about the Italian printer who, among other achievements, invented italics and printed the first semicolon: "That man was Aldus Mantius the Elder (1450-1515) and I will happily admit I hadn't heard of him until about a year ago, but am now absolutely kicking myself that I never volunteered to have his babies." Ha!

-While sitting in a public park in the ridiculously warm weather, I saw a man bicycling past with a LIVE IGUANA on his back. 

-I netflixed Terminator because I'd never seen it before.  I can't really offer much of an opinion on the movie as a whole because I kept getting distracted by the extreme eighties-ness of the hair and clothes and dissolving into giggles.  Also, in other states, if there is film available of the governor's naked butt it usually requires an apologetic press conference.  California is a special place.

-Netflix also recently delivered the first disc of Secret Diary of a Call Girl.  It was funny and quite enjoyable, if not my usual sort of thing.  I was glad that Hannah/Belle's speech and makeup were different enough from what Billie Piper had in Doctor Who that I wasn't constantly thinking "Rassilon's toenails, Rose!  What the hell are you doing?"  Sometimes, but not constantly.

-After a few weeks of being out of the writing mode, I finally made a tiny bit more progress on the post-CoE Jack/Doctor angst-fest that is currently the least stuck of my fic ideas.  However, a substantial part of today's wordcount was the lads digressing into a discussion of cowboys.  *facepalm*  Muse, you baffle me. 

-Let me say this again:  bicyclist with live iguana.

I'm going to Dragoncon next weekend!  Will any of y'all be there?  I'm looking forward to it, although the crowds might be even more crazy than usual due to some big name guests (Leonard Nimoy!  Patrick Stewart!  Adam Savage from Mythbusters!  William Shatner!   I'm glad I'm not in charge of crowd management.)  Gareth David-Lloyd will ( the rest of this sentence cut for CoE spoilers, just in case. )    I'm also thoroughly excited about the chance to see my family, who live in Atlanta and will also attend the con.  (Well, my dad and brother will attend the con full time.   My mom will probably come for a few hours one day to see Adam Savage and look at costumes.)   

I saw District 9 this week.  It was amazing!  (No spoilers in my discussion, no promises about comments.)  The premise is innovative. (Alien spaceship parks over Johannesburg, but the aliens inside are impoverished and disorganized.  They end up living in a shanty town in Jo'burg.  The movie hinges around an effort to evict them for relocation to a farther away camp.)  The treatment of social issues is complex.  The acting is superb.  The effects are great, integrating so well into the documentary-style film that you don't notice them.  This is what science fiction is for:  thought-provoking movies that can also feature a giant robot throwing a car.  Plus, I lived in South Africa for five months during a semester abroad in college, so parts of the movie were a trip down memory lane but with added aliens.  I highly recommend it, with the caveat that the severely squeamish might want to stay away.  There are some intensely gross scenes of illness and quite a bit of violence.

While I'm recommending things, I'd like to direct you to the book Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.  It's young adult (but entirely suitable for adults) post-apocalyptic steampunk about moving cities that eat other cities.  There are also airships!  And cyborgs!  That premise alone may be enough to send you to your local book store, but it's not just a cool idea.  It's a thrilling adventure that I found hard to put down, but it's really more about the fascinating characters and their complex moral dilemmas.   The warning for this one is that I came about thisclose to crying on the Tube while reading it.  Tissues are your friends!