Here is mom’s amaryllis plant. It was a gift from a friend, but I can’t remember who.
She says it reminds her of something from Dr. Seuss, with the bloom-within-a-bloom. I say it’s kind of like Alien, with a mouth-within-a-mouth.
Mom’s amaryllis
Tag: Aliens
I just remembered
I just remembered why it is that I posted my review of District 9 under bioethics.
[There is a medium-grade spoiler in this post, so if you want to know nothing about the film before you see it, stop reading.]
I realised while watching the movie that my bioethical training has been having an effect on me. There is a scene toward the beginning of the film, where the main character is about to be cut up and his organs harvested for scientific experiments, against his will, while he is still conscious. When I saw that, I was struck with the horror of the idea of that happening to someone, but in my mind, all my objections were couched in the language of academic bioethics:
“He has not given informed consent for this research!”
“They are breaking the Dead Donor Rule!”
“That action is contrary to all four of Beauchamp and Childress’s principles of medical ethics!”
If you can name all four of Beauchamp and Childress’s principles, then you get 8 points. Two for each one.
It was much better than I thought it would be
District 9 was a very good movie. I was surprised. I didn’t think that I would like it, but Pickles and I went to see it and it was certainly worth our time.
There is certainly violence in this movie, but the violence wasn’t gratuitous—it always serves the storyline.
The story itself is engaging and I found the characters convincing. The story also serves to make a commentary on human nature, generally.
This is very grown-up sci-fi, in that the aliens are not there just because it’s cool to put funny make-up on people. (To be honest, I think they were computer-generated anyway.) The way that they look is an essential part of the telling of the story. One immediately has a gut reaction against the “prawns,” due to their physical appearance. The way that one comes around to see things from the perspective of the aliens by the end of the film is a very clever bit of storytelling, and it’s worth the time to watch it.
I liked the way that it ended, with a bit of mystery. As much as I liked this film, I don’t think I would want to see it again, though. It was really quite graphic.