Check This Out
Revolution #040, March 26, 2006, posted at revcom.us
From time to time, Revolution will run tips from our correspondents and readers on movies, art exhibits, books, plays, and other cultural events that readers should know about. No endorsement implied, but worth checking out.
A reader writes on: The books of Octavia Butler: "I'm black. I'm solitary. I've always been an outsider." - so wrote Octavia Butler. Sadly, shortly before International Women's Day a 58-year-old pioneering human female breathed her last. Octavia Butler had grown up in Los Angeles where her mother was a maid who collected cast-off books for her book worm child. Poor, bright, and large, hitting a height of 6 feet at age 15 and growing up in 1950s USA: it makes sense in hindsight that Octavia Butler became a science fiction writer. She knew how it felt to be alien-ated. If you want to start near the beginning read Kindred, where a woman in the 1970s is literally pulled into the past, the days of slavery. An introduction to Kindred reads, "Octavia Butler has designed her own underground railroad between past and present whose terminus is the reawakened imagination of the reader." But my current favorite of Ms. Butler's books is Parable of the Talents which won a Nebula award in 2000. It depicts an incredible and horrible possible future where people are forced to react and act when a Christian fundamentalist and fascist politician from Texas is elected president of the U.S. Read the full correspondence online at revcom.us
A reader writes on The Movie V: V takes place in 2020 when London is ruled by a theocrat named Sutler. Sutler rises to power by promising “Strength Through Unity. Unity Through Faith.” The parallels between the Sutler regime and what is happening in the U.S. today are unmistakable. People should check this movie out, and bring along a stack of Revolutions to share with the audience. People will want to talk after seeing this movie.
Correspondence to A World to Win News Service on Rang de Basanti: I am writing to tell you about Rang de Basanti, a new, politically charged Bollywood film with rebel music (by A.R. Rahman) and superb cinematography and action aimed in particular at today’s youth. (read the entire correspondence at revcom.us)