tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post8718481621069395460..comments2024-03-28T17:53:43.541-04:00Comments on DarwinCatholic: Most People Weren't in the Resistance Darwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-52376751783371936382013-10-23T09:25:24.436-04:002013-10-23T09:25:24.436-04:00Anon,
Fair point.
At a strictly terminology le...Anon,<br /><br />Fair point. <br /><br />At a strictly terminology level, I guess part of the question is whether "holocaust" should be used to refer to all of the mass killings during the period, all the German mass killings during the period, or just the mass killing of Jews during the period. I'd kind of been assuming the latter, but unquestionably when they attacked Poland in 1939 the Nazis intended to start a race war. They didn't manage to kill nearly as many non-Jews as they meant to, but even so the enormity of what happened in the bloodlands of Central Europe is underscored by the fact that a Jew living in Berlin in 1936 was more likely to be alive ten years later than a Gentile living in Warsaw.Darwinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-70022974598521713722013-10-23T08:04:59.651-04:002013-10-23T08:04:59.651-04:00Just a clarification. Rather than call the holocau...Just a clarification. Rather than call the holocaust "an event in which over six million people were killed", it's an event in which about 11 million people were killed including 6 million Jews and 5 million "other" (including 3 million Polish Catholics). The media usually focuses on the 6 million Jews as the largest group. But let's not forget the other 5 million that were also targeted and killed - there were 11 million humans that died. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-56026852345790844592013-10-22T21:28:31.882-04:002013-10-22T21:28:31.882-04:00This focus on the resistance might explain why so ...This focus on the resistance might explain why so many people ask, "Why didn't the Germans try to stop Hitler and save the Jews?" I'm sure many would have tried if, you know, getting shot wasn't an issue.Kristinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-17924067747037161202013-10-22T16:41:30.632-04:002013-10-22T16:41:30.632-04:00That's a really good point.
Thinking about ...That's a really good point. <br /><br />Thinking about things in terms of virtues rather than "manliness" I think helps underscore something else: Glory definitely deals with real virtues (courage, fortitude, etc.) but from the reviews it sounds like 12 Years a Slave does <i>as well</i>. The issue is not so much that movies tend to highlight people who show given virtue over those who don't, but rather tat there seems to be an emphasis on big, showy (and particularly violent) examples of virtue over quieter ones.Darwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-1749065105327789952013-10-22T14:52:22.570-04:002013-10-22T14:52:22.570-04:00Aw, you beat me to today's post!
Leaving Glor...Aw, you beat me to today's post!<br /><br />Leaving Glory out of the discussion (which I think Noah Berlatsky would have been wiser to do), I think the revenge fantasy genre which Tarantino has taken as his metier recently is almost worthless because it is so unchained, if you will, from any mooring in reality. It says nothing about how people actually survive tragedy and rebuild lives; it's not even all that cathartic because that much revenge violence doesn't actually purge emotions but key them up; unlike the original perpetrators, the characters taking revenge don't have to deal with the consequences of their actions (unless they're part of that increasingly tired genre, the troubled superhero/vigilante/tough guy). <br /><br />Solomon Northup has to survive his ordeal (a little word for such a horrific experience) and rebuild his life without being a Tarantino character. Like most people, he doesn't get to open up a six-pack of whup-ass on those who've wronged him. He has to figure out how to live without revenge or justice in this world. Even Christ, who had the ultimate justification for getting even with those who wronged him, didn't go beat the tar out of the Roman soldiers, Pontius Pilate, and the Sanhedrin; he had to content himself with defeating sin and death itself.<br /><br />Also, Berlatsky's jaunt into a feminist reading of Twelve Years a Slave vs. Glory is, like most feminist readings of anything, tiresome, because it assumes that people can't take anything of value from the experiences of the other sex, and indeed must feel diminished by them. His assumption that bravery (which here seems only to apply to combat) is an example of "manliness" rather than courage or fortitude or discipline -- attributes that either sex can cultivate and appreciate in either sex -- assumes that women are too parochial to appreciate these qualities unless expressed by other women. By all means, let's have more stories about women, but because those stories are part of the broader human experience, not because we need to pit power vs. powerlessness in gender terms, or because either sex has a lock on particular virtues. mrsdarwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03446744635277205867noreply@blogger.com