TV shows

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One TV show captured the existential horror, and subtle beauty, of 2017 — Quartz

The last 12 months have been marked by political upheavals, natural disasters, and a continuous string of scandals that plagued virtually every industry in the global economy. Though appraisals of 2017 vary depending on the person, it has been an ugly year from a purely objective standpoint—one so messy and brutal and eerie that the world might appear unfamiliar to you in a way you’ve never quite experienced before.

So that’s where TV comes in. People generally watch it for a brief respite from their lives. Who wants heartache or confusion when there’s already so much of that in reality? We want to laugh. We want superheroes to save us. We want to solve fictional mysteries. We want to have things we can’t have, feel things we can’t feel. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

BUT

One TV show captured the existential horror, and subtle beauty, of 2017 — Quartz—The Leftovers

https://youtu.be/tMOVSV7b2QY

Check it out. In the end it’s a love story, and, it’s what 2017 felt like.

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Yesterday’s Connections

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John Locke

John Locke was a 17th-century English philosopher whose ideas formed the foundation of liberal democracy and greatly influenced both the American and French revolutions. His birthday was yesterday, August 29.

Locke was the Liberal Classicist who also appeared in Lost, the TV show of some fame—at least it seemed that way to me. I thought the characters on Lost were a metaphor for others, John Locke being the most obvious. This worked for a while until it became too much to make the match ups. The connections between actions and philosophies of the characters. After all, I did have a job to go to.

mary-shelley1readAddicts

Mary Shelley-Posted by Reading Addicts

When I was teaching I had the kids read Frankenstein. “I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, at the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion.”

The thing they struggled with most was that a woman had written the story. It was the idea of such horrific thoughts coming from that beautiful woman. They were very young.

Mary’s birthday is today, August 30.