Today I saw Gavin Wood's Tsotsi. And yes, I do know that this is not a Grade 2 Daily News entry.Annnnyyywaay...I saw Tsotsi, rather late, but I've been busy. It was good, very good, deserves every little bit of that Oscar dearest. It was so good that people clapped at the end and that just does NOT happen in South African cinemas.

So that's life here in SA, apparently. Far more South African than Charlize's little Oscar bitty. But the strange thing is that no one was gasping at the violence at times. I'm comparing this now to Munich where people gasped when something horrendous happened. We were all kinda blase about it. It's sad. Perhaps because we know it's our reality, it affects us less, or maybe we're trained not to flinch. We're a hardy and sturdy people us Seffrikins. We shouldn't be underestimated. But Tsotsi is a reflection of a slice of life but we're not a nation of criminals, criminal activity, maybe... but remember it's a story of one Tsotsi. It's not the story of all South Africans. However the story behind the story(the whole family history do-dah) that, my dears, is an integral issue in the lives of many South Africans and it's a very common theme in the literature(well by and large the short stories of the Protest years eg To Kill A Man's Pride).

So there's my little disclaimer in place for the preservation of tourism in and to South Africa. It's a beautiful country, fascinating history, lovely people, amazing weather, breathtaking sunsets and it's cheap (unless you're Zimbabwean, then you might just have a problem...).

I guess that's my treatise on Tsotsi, give it a see, it's well worth it, even and if only for the cinematography. The storyline is basic and simple, the acting is compelling (correct me if I'm wrong, but I think some of the actors are amateurs), the pace is perfect, and it touches a nerve and leaves you with shivers. You come outta there with a sense that there is some humanity left after all in the species YOU call the human race.

I am off course removed from the implications of the above last sentence for I am something between an Elve(the Tolkien variety, not the midgety garden gnome kind) and a Vampire...I suppose a Dhampir, but that's too human and I didn't like the game all that much anyway...

Namarie
rah*

Soooooo my adoring fans, never fear, your Queen has not abandoned you. She's merely been on a thought sabbatical of sorts. Well that and trying to condense all the experiences of the last while into a few coherent sentences is no small feat!! I've been in India (yeah, yeah those of you that know me yeah, yeah) but just for the record... HINDIA IS NOT BOLLYWOOD, it's a complex land of mythology and history and culture and literature which is unfathomable.

I've seen people with such humility and perserverance. I mean the traffic is chaotic, but the person in the bicycle next door to the man in the Mercedes Benz is content and not envious of the Merc man. The general philosophy seems to be, "O well I'll get to the next corner faster than you can in your flashy car". Life is relative in India and us spoilt brats need to realise that. We take lots for granted and we're granted lots. We live an anomaly where we have everything and yet nothing and they have nothing and yet everything. Seems like I'm not the only one, Apollonius Tyanaeus, an early theosophicalist said "In India, I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it, inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything, but possessed by nothing".Mark Twain, one of my favourite authors also felt that India was the greatest land on earth. Extraordinary in every way.


And after all of this, my mind's now as clear as chocolate mousse. I'm somewhat altered...
Anyway enough of the transcendental/existential battle for (control of my)middle mind. I need to devote a few lines to my own sense of self indulgence.

I think Lestat is becoming too pop-ish. Rice had him down to a science and now in the new chronicles he's all Blaaaaah. She's sorta taken a chunk of his intelligence and culture out and replaced it with a semi-sorta stereotypical American Idiot (Greenday don't sue, it's just out of a lack of a better phrase...). He's becoming childish, or maybe I'm just growing up.

O yes, I begin to ramble now, however, we down here in South Africa are not Indians. We've been born here so we're Africans (except for those who choose to be Charos and typical one's at that). Yes it was Charlotte of the Family Bronte who said "Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns. ..." Big up to you deary!! You're an Augustan/Romantic (*befuddled right now*) but daaaaaamn woman, you've said gospel right there.

Take heed my minions, take heed!

mwah!
rah*