Some of us are home, while many others of us are out there traveling the world, or traveling to view natural phenomena, or doing both. So I’m holding off on the news with nuance in order to share some personal entertainments. This is mostly for the consolation of those of us at home (also make cake and popcorn), but perhaps those of you out galavanting have more leisure time for the entertainments listed below. Hope you are having fun.
Watching
I have been in a few social spaces of late where the movie Poor Things has come up. There is much to talk about.
I experienced it, at least from the beginning, as a horror movie, the cringe of graphic medical dissection and autopsy, the movie hits hard right from the beginning, and then it pairs that with the disconcerting actions of an adult woman with a baby’s brain. It’s a world of victorian science and operating theaters where students and others spectate the callous treatment of the human body. A Frankenstein story where “God,” or Godwin Baxter, has created Bella, from the corpse of a recent suicide victim, who had been pregnant. The movie begins with Bella doing the childlike things of learning in her grown body. We watch as the male protagonists take her under their wing. Be her parents. Be inconvenienced. Use chloroform to control her. Prepare her for a world where the things she wants are not condoned. When she can’t be stopped, let her go discover for herself. It’s a coming of age as she sets out on her adventure, while her male caretakers stay back and console themselves by meddling with more cadavers.
You may hate this movie and the way it assaults you.
More than one person has called it pornography. When I repeated that thought to Josh, relating the cringe, uncomfortable as like porn, he made the point, that if that is what you are experiencing, you are watching someone else’s porn. And I don’t believe the sex in the movie was intended to be a turn on. Bella was raised on empiricism and she was bound and determined to find the source of her own pleasure.
For me, I was interested in the socialization of someone who is not a baby, with features designed to inspire caretaking, but an adult woman, with features that inspire our norms and expectations, and watch as her baby mind reacts to what those realities engender. To watch her realize God is fallible and still love him. To see these parents have to set her free in order to find out for herself what the world is like. She gave the world many opportunities to behave better, and yet it did not.
Bella epitomizes beginner’s mind and duck medicine. And some would say she is Eve herself. The movie is on Hulu and Amazon right now and also in some theaters.
Memories of Times Past
This post by Courtney Martin about her dad’s Alzheimer’s reading drew me in. It was very beautiful and familiar feeling in its sweetness:
Listening to Heather Cox Richardson
Do you know you can listen to Heather Cox Richardson’s letters now? If you are a long-time subscriber, like I am, you are not yet signed up to receive the voice letters automatically in your inbox. (If you are a new sign up, they will come to you automatically.) Here is how you can opt in to getting them sent to you directly (or opt out if that is your wish). I read her letters in the morning with my morning cup of jasmine tea.
For some good recent reads, check out these ones:
I really liked yesterday’s letter, a walk through the history of Andrew Jackson, inspired by Trump’s recent comparison of himself with Jesus (on March 25th, on his social media platform). Apparently Andrew Jackson similarly compared himself to Jesus during his whistle stop campaign for the 1866 election after his attempt to become an authoritarian president. Both Trump and Jackson either see themselves or see Jesus differently than I do. Listen to it here.
I really appreciated this recent letter where HCR outlined what has been going on in Orban’s Hungary as he makes it into an “illiberal” democracy and how a US right- wing think tank intends for the US to follow suit. Here is a quote:
Project 2025 presents an apocalyptic vision of a United States whose dark problems can be fixed only by a minority assuming power under a strongman and imposing their values on the rest of the country. And yet the authors of the document assert that it is not them but their opponents who do ‘not believe that all men are created equal—they think they are special. They certainly don’t think all people have an unalienable right to pursue the good life. They think only they themselves have such a right along with a moral responsibility to make decisions for everyone else.’
Listen to it here.
Finally, Heather Cox Richardson on the realignment of the Republican Party. How
Under Trump… the party has turned away from global leadership to the idea that strong countries can do what they like to their neighbors, and from small government to big government that imposes religious rules. Far from protecting equality before the law, Republican-dominated states have discriminated against LGBTQ+ individuals, racial and ethnic minorities, and women. And, of course, the party is catering to Trump’s authoritarian plans. Neo-nazis attended the Conservative Political Action Conference a week ago.”
Listen to it here.
A New (to me) Political Voice
I have really been enjoying reading Jess Piper’s Substack after encountering it recently. Here is her perspective on Katie Britt, the senator from Alabama who provided the rebuttal to the State of the Union Address - she writes from an evangelical background. I found it to be respectful and helpful to my understanding.
Gratitude for the Interminable Jane
This New York Times interview with Jane Goodall, who is turning 90 this year, is a gem. Thanks, Renae. What she learned from her dog, what it means to be labeled an icon, and her decision to use it. A quote in response to Elon Musk and concerns of “involuntary population control” -
You must never use control. Never. Control is wrong. You can’t control people like that. It has to be voluntary.
Around Gombe, we introduced this program, TACARE, to help people find ways of living without destroying the environment. It includes restoring fertility to overused farmland without chemicals, and then we introduced scholarships to give girls a chance at secondary education. And also family planning.
Yet Another Thing to Re-see
On a flight back from Seattle in February, I watched The Eyes of Tammy Faye - a documentary/fiction movie about Tammy Faye Bakker, the televangelist and singer of the ‘80s who is purported to be a supporter of queer rights. I only remembered Tammy Faye as the icon that our 80s media made fun of for over-the-top make-up, so it makes sense that RuPaul has something to do with this story. And as I have become older and wiser and seen through my past assumptions, I no longer trust the media that indoctrinated me in the ‘80, so I found this retelling to be very refreshing. Here are two articles about the movie. This one gauging the truth of the story. This one on how she became a gay icon.
Can Economics Be Entertaining?
This illustration of wealth to scale is really entertaining and enlightening. Spend some time scrolling and enjoy the commentary the whole way through. Thanks to Sebene Selassie for the link. As Bernie Sanders (Thanks, Kara) says “The average billionaire on the Forbes 400 list could spend $10,000 every single day for 274 years and still have billions of dollars left in the bank.” If those 400 people gave a person a day 10K, that’s over 40,000,000 people. Then read about “How money became the measure of everything” from The Atlantic. Plus Kyla’s newsletter: subscribe here for her low-key conversational style that makes economics interesting and accessible. She also does some great YouTubes and TikToks, if you prefer that kind of diversion.