電影、書評、隨筆

We often conceive of the Trojan horse as a story of courage and trickery, but buried there too is a darker aspect. Cassandra, the princess of Troy, embodies the character of a classic Greek tragedy as she struggles against her own unalterable fate. As the royal heir to the city of Troy, Cassandra got her prophetic ability from Apollo, who offered the beautiful princess her prophetic flair in the hope of sleeping with her. When she refused his advances, Apollo was enraged and took away her ability to make people believe her prophecies. As the fighting broke out in Troy, the combination of an ability to see the future and an inability to convince people of what she saw, made a perfect recipe for a cursed fate. Well aware of the soldiers inside, Cassandra tried in vain to persuade her countrymen not to bring the wooden horse within the city's walls – and hence the famous consequence. Not only was she unable to convince her fellows of what was about to happen, it is also easy...

Author        Fred Magdoff, John Bellamy Foster Subject      Environmental economics Publisher   New York: Monthly Review Press Year           2011 ISBN          9781583672419 Another thought-provoking book criticizing  capitalism as the core of the current environmental disaster. It argues that the very notion of unlimited growth, as dictated by the doctrine of capitalism, is causing  relentless exploitation and pollution of the planet, leading to climate change and all other environmental disasters.  In short, the writer is skeptical about all sorts of technological solutions, thinking they either entail other negative effects, are not sufficient to tackle the scale of the problem, or  even if successful at improving efficiency, these solutions will simply increase resource consumption as spellbound by the underlying logic of capitalism. Hence the only roa...

Author          Al Gore Publisher    London: Bloomsbury Year             2006 Subject        Global warming ISBN            0747589062 Personally thought, this is one of the most important books of the contemporary era. Everybody should read it. Al Gore sums up a lot of sounded scientific evidence to prove to the audience the impact of human activity on global warming, and how imminent the crisis actually is.  However, as he mentioned in the foreword, the words "crisis" means both danger and opportunity. If people act promptly and towards the right direction, not only will we be able to save ourselves from disaster, but may also become a leading force in the world.  Also, intertwined within the theme are some personal yet touching stories of Al Gore, which reflect the humanistic passion of the former US vice president.