Christian Bale and World Events

Thursday 24 July 2008, The Press, CHCH.

No, I’m not going to blog about Christian Bale and his life; that’s his business. Truth be told, I’m more interested in the newspaper itself. It’s very interesting actually. Notice how the headline about Mr. Bale has a bigger font than the one about the man who did something nasty with a bulldozer? Moreover, the former is higher than the latter, and the fact that they’re on the same page in the world news section really does say a lot.

The newspaper tells us that as a society or a species, we are very nosy. We want to know other people’s deepest darkest secrets. That’s why the headline about Mr. Bale is very big. The editors of the newspaper probably want people to see it, get interested, and buy the paper. And if they didn’t know that we would be more interested in Christian Bale than, say, the plight of the Palestinian people, why would they give him a bigger headline?

It also shows us how trivial we have become. Since when did gossip about famous actors become worthy headlines in world news? Not that I don’t read gossip, but the world news section is presumably for news which has some sort of world impact. As good an actor as Christian Bale is, I highly doubt he has any effect on world events which can influence the fate of the human species. Lots of people assault others, and if every person who was accused of assaulting someone was mentioned in the news, we’d have newspapers as thick as the Oxford Dictionary. So really, world news should be saved for those really important things, such as the rebirth of the Taliban in Afghanistan, or the state of affairs in Iraq, or Israel and Iran’s latest confrontation and another rise in oil prices…you get my idea.

It’s a sad world, isn’t it, when people are more interested in the private business of actors than things which could actually affect their lives. ‘How?’ you say. ‘Iran and Israel are really far away. I live all the way in Australia/Brazil/the United States/Japan/New Caledonia/England. It’s not going to affect me.’ The fact is, the world is like a row of dominoes. One domino toppling over will hit another domino, causing it to fall, and so on and so on…you know, the Domino Effect. Israel and Iran going to war would cause oil prices to soar, and since most things in this world need oil, your wallet is going to be a lot lighter. Now, perhaps obesity is a bad thing, but I’ve never heard of anyone complaining that their wallet is too heavy.

As for Christian Bale’s business? Well, it’s his business. Let’s leave it at that.

On the Social Heirarchy

When I was eleven, I realized I was living in a social heirarchy; one which had been passed down from generation to generation ever since the time of the ancients. And I hated it. As a girl, growing up in a rather traditional Chinese family, I came to realize that respect is dealt out according to age, gender and status. Being of the younger generation, and a female, I was looked down upon. There were so many things that I couldn’t do. Swearing, or even talking in a less than ‘lady-like’ manner was a no-no. I wasn’t even allowed to say ‘Ew’ because it sounded similar to some cuss word in Cantonese. Women’s business was kept in the dark. Once my father saw sanitary pads in the bags of shopping, and then he did something which equated to making the sign against the evil eye in the Middle Ages. When he saw those, he said “Good fortune be on us!” I told him off soundly for that. Father or not, he had no right to hold the view that women were somehow lesser than men. It’s the twenty-first century! If not for us women and our menstrual cycles, there would be no more homo sapiens sapiens.

Perhaps this blatant male chauvinism is something which draws me to the Crusades. During that period, there were a lot of strong woman. Most famous of them all, Eleanor of Aquitaine, mother of Richard I of England. If not for her, England would’ve been in shambles, and Henry II wouldn’t have been quite so powerful either. Then there was Eschiva of Tiberias, who defended her castle against Saladin’s attacks, knowing that her husband would not willingly send troops to rescue her, no matter how much he loved her. (Raymond of Tripoli is also a character I’m quite fond of. He loved his stepsons, and his wife. That’s not really normal for a man of his time.) Even Sibylla of Jerusalem, although foolish, was a strong woman, because she braved the anger of the nobles to marry the man she loved. Subsequently, that led to the downfall of her kingdom, but that’s beside the point.

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As a member of the younger generation, I could not speak out of turn, although that as a rule I broke often, and for my pains, I would be told ‘not to mind the business of adults’ when obviously, I knew what was right and wrong. And legally, I was an adult, just not of the right generation. I had to respect my elders simply because they were older, and not because they had done anything to merit my respect and admiration. Of course, I’m not that sort of obedient perfect daughter. These unfair expectations made me angry, and certainly did not improve my view of the male gender.

The thing was, when I talked to other adults, not Chinese, they didn’t seem to have this sort of heirarchical system. I was able to have proper discussions, and they would listen to my ideas. Whether they accepted them or not was another matter, but at least they listened.

This social heirarchy is one of the things which I feel is wrong in Chinese culture. Respect is all very well, but I believe that respect and status needs to be earned, not expected, as it seems to be with a lot of Chinese adults.

To believe in the supernatural

So, erm, *cough cough* I should be working, but I’m not. I’m just playing around on the computer, feeling the need to type, but having nothing specific to type. I did write over one thousand words this morning for my latest chapter of Chance Encounter: Return to Middle Earth, so that’s pretty good. I couldn’t find anything particularly interesting to put in my journal, but what’s new? There is never anything very interesting to write first thing in the morning, especially Monday morning.

It occurred to me as I was sitting in my Medieval European History lecture that modern society views science the way Europeans in the Middle Ages viewed Christianity. Science in our world is unchallenged; it is everything, and if it’s not scientific, then it’s probably not worth seeing/listening to. But I must say that I want to believe that there are things which are outside scientific theory. I want to believe in the supernatural, because that way, the world would be so much more interesting. Instead of learning the laws of physics (which bore me to death), I would probably be studying the supernatural.

The problem is that everything has to make sense. For a fantasy writer, it gets very very frustrating when people say ‘it’s just fantasy. It doesn’t make any sense’. That’s the attitude my dad has towards what I write, and it annoys the hell out of me. He thinks that writing fantasy is a total piece of cake because everything goes. It doesn’t work like that. Writing fantasy is about establishing a world with a different set of rules, and following those rules. It’s actually more difficult than real life because in life, you know those rules whereas in fantasy, those rules haven’t been drilled into you so it’s easier to make mistakes.  

So now, I’m missing linguistics again. It’s a relief, actually, to not have to fall asleep in class. I should be working on my essay plan at the moment, but I feel the resolute and unyielding need to procrastinate. Maybe it’s because it’s Monday, and also possibly because the essay is not related to the year 1187.