Go See Benjamin Button, Unless…

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a great movie to see, unless you feel like you have already seen it. Or have already seen another schmaltzy/romantic time-traveling film like it. Or if you are in the mood for something funny. Or you’re on a date. Or you’re a teenager. Or you’re really old. Or if you’ve recently lost a loved-one. Or if you get emotional over hurricane Katrina footage. Or you’re kind of sleepy. Or you have anything else to do for the next 2 hours and 45 minutes.

I’m not saying I didn’t like it, because I did, I’m just saying that it is not a great movie for everyone to see. Disclaimer Moment: I am a marketer, not a movie critic; for a professional’s opinion, go here. IMO, the demographic for this movie is Middle-Aged Women. You know, the same people that loved The Notebook, The Lake House, or The Bridges of Madison County.

If you’re the kind of person that loves going to movies with the intent to cry through the whole second half, then this is a great movie for you. Or if you like the idea of seeing Cate Blanchett age before your eyes. Or if you love hummingbirds. Or if you are in the Somewhere in Time Fan Club. Or if you believe Brad Pitt is an Oscar-worthy actor.

Now, I’m not ruling out Brad and Cate for Oscars for this one, in fact, they’ll probably get Oscars for it the same way Charlize got one for Monster and Nicole Kidman for The Hours. We all know that getting ugly gets the Academy’s attention. I’m just saying I’ve seen better movies come out this year and I’ve definitely seen better film adaptations of books.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 24-page original story is here and it is a great story in its own right. However, besides the title and the lead character’s name, it has little in common with Fincher’s film. My wife says it borrows heavily from the 2003 novel The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I haven’t read it, so you’ll have to take her word for it. Or, if you don’t feel like reading it, you could just wait a few month’s and see it in theaters. I just read that Brad Pitt’s production company has picked up the title, which is set to release later this year. I, for one, won’t be going to see it. Unless I decide I’m in the mood for another romantic time travel film.

The World is Still Round…

In spite of Thomas L. Friedman’s best efforts to claim otherwise in his newly revised The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, Release 3.0. Just as in his previous books, Friedman showcases his journalistic forte for information gathering, analysis, and insight-laden extrapolation. He supports well his own previous arguments for free trade, market specialization, and classical economic theories regarding absolute and comparative advantage. (Smith, Ricardo, ... Reich)

I’ll pause here to acknowledge that I, too, am a strong proponent of globalization. I have seen first-hand the dissolution of geographic and political barriers to trade and the ensuing benefits to the local economy. I find no fault in Friedman’s historical observations, including his 3 eras of globalization, his 10 flatteners, and even his recommendations for new hybrid fields of study he calls “Mash-Ups.” These ideas are spot-on in our global economy of increasing convergence.

But why all the doom and gloom, Mr. Friedman? Instead of telling your readers how the new “flattened” world will make lives better—spurring the economy of our New America into a greater leadership role as the birthplace of ideas and a nation of entrepreneurs—he focuses on the bad. Friedman follows the M.O. of Lou Dobbs, crying wolf over foreign theft of US jobs and a general disappearance of the American middle-class. Rather than pointing to the strengths of our human capital as inventors, creators, and brand builders, he tells readers that the American sky is falling in competition with Indian and Chinese ITs and engineers.

Friedman leans toward the dramatic, but what do you expect from an Opinion Columnist? He opens with this quote from an Indian software CEO: “The global playing field is being leveled… and the US is not ready.” This is followed by other sensational statements of hyperbole. “Today, people in China and India are starving… for your job!” he warns his children. But then, you are given to flights of the inflammatory if you are to make your living as an op-ed writer. The Title The World is Friendlier to International Business because of Improvements in Technology and Transportation doesn’t sell books.
--Shawn Butler

U.S. Also Exports Dreams

The American Dream is no longer exclusive to America. During the past 20 years, 1.3 billion Chinese have also dared to dream as indulgently, as hedonistically, and as short-sightedly as our culture does. Long admirers of the reckless and materialistic American lifestyle portrayed in our Hollywood film exports, the rising core of the Chinese population is becoming free to pursue the American dream of self-indulgence and instant gratification of all their wants.

“Chinese dream of buying a car, a house, a first-class education for their children, and a range of consumer goods conferring status and convenience, just as they do to middle-class families in Europe and America. As disposable incomes rise, people are eating more protein and using more electricity to run their computers, televisions, and household appliances,” writes James Kynge in his book China Shakes the World (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). We are seeing China undergo in a very short period of time the changes that the U.S. and other developed countries underwent over the course of three centuries. China is being forced through this period of turbulence at an incredible pace because of the social, economic, and political pressures within and surrounding the country. The velocity of the change, rather than the change itself, is the root of the many ills currently plaguing the budding progress of China.

The rate of change in China has not allowed the nation to develop a mature social conscience and moral law. Chinese history is steeped in great thinkers, wise men and profound philosophical insight. This makes it all the more appalling that they have degenerated into a nation without a moral compass. The 1960’s rise of communism imposed atheism that undermined the current generation’s ethical foundation. Kynge states that “[t]he ideological vacuum that replaced communism undermines [trust]. The daily diet of propaganda disorients it. The venality of officials devalues it. The ascendance of a value system dominated by money hollows it out. What is left is a society in which describing someone as honest can just as easily be a gentle criticism as a compliment.”

Without a strong national moral compass, the country is rampant with instances of fraud, deceit and counterfeit. In many instances, these are only for the gain of wealth, but often the cost of the deception is human lives. We read from Kynge that “every time a Hollywood blockbuster was cut, it would appear on DVD in China before it had been released in the same format in America… A sixth volume in the series of Harry Potter novels appeared in China months before J.K. Rowling had written it… Kettles blow up, electrical transformers short-circuit, medicines have no effect, brake pads fail, alcoholic beverages poison those who drink them, and the use of inferior milk powder has caused several babies to starve to death.”

From our Western-centric point of view, it is simple to feel aloof from the morally remiss situations we read about in the East. However, we need to recognize that Americans are one of the leading forces causing the rapid changes to the Chinese nation. Kynge reports that “it is the advertising, marketing, and sales executives in Europe and the United States, as well as the shareholders of the brand-owning company, that take the lion’s share of the value from the product that the migrant workers create.” When we comment that the changes in China are happening too fast for the country to reasonably adapt, we cannot ignore the powerful influence that the demands and the unintentional export of the US culture have had on their current situation.

So it should be no surprise that the ambitions and appetites of its people are also following suit. China is adopting the same American dream of self-improvement, comfort and wealth that has been the calling card of immigrants to our country for so long. However, “in spite of the resemblance China bears to America in an earlier stage of its development, the chances that the Chinese will one day be able to consume at the same rate as Americans do today are close to zero. It is not that they will choose to be more frugal. It is simply that the world does not have the resources to cater to 1.3 billion Chinese behaving like Americans.” It should be added that the world in its current environmental situation does not have the resources for the 300 million Americans to continue behaving like Americans either. --Shawn Butler

Dead Languages: Requiescat In Pace

In the Good Ol' days, Latin was reserved for the elite. Between the First Century Anno Domini until the time of Darwin, Latin was an ironic common bond between Scientists and Clergy. Knowing Latin was a clear division between the educated noble class and the vulgar common folk. As of this Morning, August 1st, Latin's been a "Dead Language" for about a thousand years. Even the Vatican abandoned it as the official lingua franca in the '60s. It is time to let it take it's place in history.

This idea that Speaking Latin = Erudition in the year 2007 only leads to a lot of people looking stupid and sounding ridiculous. Exempli gratia- nobody would think you less of an idiot for saying, "I'll Help You if You'll Help Me" in Ancient Mayan or Proto-Latvian, but modern speakers are to be taken as geniuses for saying, "We'll do it Quid Pro Quo" (followed by a smug little wink). Communication is only useful if both parties understand what is being said, ergo, it is useless to say words in a language that no one understands.

Across the internet, bloggers affect intellectualism by spattering pseudo-latin phrases into places they don't belong. Nothing makes you look like a bigger idiot than trying to sound smart and then saying something nonsensical. Here are some tips:

Tip #1: Et Al. This is an abbreviation for "Et Alia" meaning "And Others." It is a useful phrase for writing about a bunch of people, and only having to name the most important one.
Sample Sentence- "Everything about Latin is known by Shawn Butler, et al."
Way to Look Like an Imbecile- Using the English word "All" as in- "I know everything about Latin, I've read Socrates, et all."

Tip #2: Per Se is the Latin phrase for "Through Itself." It should be used to express the idea that something does or does not support an argument in and of itself.
Sample Sentence- "Knowing Latin per se does not make one smart."
Way to Look Like an Imbecile- First, by NOT knowing what it means, as in - "I'm not a Latin Expert per se, but I know a few phrases." This happens when people are trying to sound intellectual, but they really mean the phrase "as they say" or "so to speak."
The Second is by mispelling it, as in - "I shouldn't have tried to use Latin, but now it's out of my hands, per say."
I've also seen these: perse, persay, and even pursay. Wow.

Tip #3: i.e. is the abbreviation for "id est" meaning "that is." It is really the most basic phrase ever created; the equivalent of "that is to say" or "I mean..."
Sample Sentence- "I love the Classics, i.e. Latin and Greek."
People say it all the time in English and never have a problem. "Yeah, I read Plato, that is, I read The Republic by Plato." See how it is getting more specific? That makes you sound smart!
How to Sound Like an Idiot- Now, try to use it to start a list, as in- "I've been to lots of countries, i.e. Italy and Greece." It's subtle, but trust me, it's WRONG. What they are after is another phrase in Latin:

Tip#4: e.g. is the abbreviation for "exempli gratia" meaning "for example." Another No-Brainer in English, but things get tricky when you don't know what you're saying and you're trying to sound smart.
Sample Sentence- "Cicero's best writings are actually speeches, e.g. On Behalf of Milo and Post Reditum in Senatu"

An interesting point just came to mind-- Why even bother putting down any of these terms? In most cases, we're saying the exact same words we would in English. You can't even say they are abbreviations to save space. In the case of Pro Bono (For Free), you're not even saving letters.

Here's the new rule: If you don't know what it means, don't say it/ write it/ type it/ blog it/ link to it. That's it. In fact, we are all just better off forgetting that Latin was ever a language at all. Let's just be honest about it:

Latin is Smart People Secret Code.

So, like any secret code, all the club members should have a little codebook that we can flip to in order to decode our encrypted messages. I suppose that could be next week's blog. Q.E.D.

Fun Fact: Latin is a Language Option on the Screens of the ATM Machines in Vatican City. This way the Cardinals can get some QuickCash. --Shawn Butler

Completely Necessary List of Books to be a Literate Member of Society

I was asked by a friend to compile a list of the books that were important for him to read in order to be a Literate and Contributing member of modern culture.
This is my first attempt -- The main criteria for this list was to cover the books that are referenced either directly or in allusion in the literary community. For obvious reasons, that turned out to include all the "staple" books that are required reading for middle school and high school students.
NOTE: This is not a listing of "great books," or even "good books," and not a list of my favorite books, which would be MUCH different. This list is designed to guide young readers in their desire to cover the [quote, unquote] literary basics.

In alphabetical order by the first non-“the” in the book title.

• 1984--George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer--Mark Twain
• A Farewell to Arms--Ernest Hemingway
• A Lesson Before Dying--Ernest J. Gaines
• A Separate Peace--John Knowles
• A Tale of Two Cities--Charles Dickens
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland--Lewis Carroll
• All the King’s Men--Robert Penn Warren
• The Ambassadors--Henry James
• An American Tragedy--Theodore Dreiser
• Animal Farm--George Orwell
• As I Lay Dying--William Faulkner
• Atlas Shrugged--Ayn Rand
• The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass
• Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman--Ernest J. Gaines
• The Awakening--Kate Chopin
• Beloved--Toni Morrison
• Bless Me, Ultima--Anaya Rudolfo
• Brave New World--Aldous Huxley
• The Bride Price--Buchi Emecheta
• Brideshead Revisited--Evelyn Waugh
• The Brothers Karamazov--Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• The Call of the Wild--Jack London
• Candide--Voltaire
• The Catcher in the Rye--J. D. Salinger
• Cat’s Cradle--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Catch-22--Joseph Heller
• The Chosen--Chaim Potok
• The Clan of the Cave Bear--Jean Auel
• The Color Purple-- Alice Walker
• The Count of Monte Cristo--Alexander Dumas
• Crime and Punishment--Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Deliverance--James Dickey
• Democracy--Joan Didion
• The Divine Comedy--Dante
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?--Philip K. Dick
• Doctor Zhivago--Boris Pasternak
• Don Quixote--Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
• Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde--Robert Louis Stevenson
• Ellen Foster--Kaye Gibbons
• Empire of the Sun--J. G. Ballard
• The End of the Affair--Graham Greene
• Ender’s Game--Orson Scott Card
• Ethan Frome--Edith Wharton
• Faust--Goethe
• Flowers for Algernon--Daniel Keyes
• The Fountainhead--Ayn Rand
• Frankenstein--Mary Shelley
• The Giver--Lois Lowry
• Go Tell It on the Mountain--James Baldwin
• Gone with the Wind--Margaret Mitchell
• The Grapes of Wrath--John Steinbeck
• Great Expectations--Charles Dickens
• The Great Gatsby--F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Grendel--John Gardner
• Gulliver’s Travels--Jonathon Swift
• Heart of Darkness--Joseph Conrad
• The Hobbit--J. R. R. Tolkien
• House Made of Dawn--N. Scott Momaday
• In Country--Bobbie Ann Mason
• The Invisible Man--H. G. Wells
• Invisible Man--Ralph Ellison
• Ivanhoe--Sir Walter Scott
• Jane Eyre--Charlotte Bronte
• The Jungle--Upton Sinclair
• Kindred--Octavia Butler
• The Kitchen God’s Wife--Amy Tan
• The Last of the Mohicans--James Fenimore Cooper
• The Left Hand of Darkness--Ursula K. Le Guin
• Les Miserables--Victor Hugo
• Less Than Zero--Bret Easton Ellis
• Like Water for Chocolate--Laura Esquivel
• Lord of the Flies--William Golding
• Love Medicine--Louise Erdrich
• Moby Dick--Herman Melville
• Moll Flanders--Daniel Defoe
• The Naked and the Dead--Norman Mailer
• Of Mice and Men--John Steinbeck
• The Old Gringo--Carlos Fuentes
• The Old Man and the Sea--Ernest Hemingway
• On the Road--Jack Kerouac
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest--Ken Kesey
• Out of Africa--Isak Dinesen
• Pride and Prejudice--Jane Austen
• The Prince--Niccolo Machiavelli
• The Red Badge of Courage--Stephen Crane
• The Remains of the Day--Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Return of the Native--Thomas Hardy
• Robinson Crusoe--Daniel Defoe
• Roots: The Story of an American Family--Alex Haley
• The Scarlet Letter--Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Screwtape Letters--C. S. Lewis
• Shogun: A Novel of Japan--James du Maresq Clavell
• Slaughterhouse Five--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• The Slave Dancer--Paula Fox
• Something Wicked this Way Comes--Ray Bradbury
• Song of Solomon--Toni Morrison
• The Sound and the Fury--William Faulkner
• The Stranger--Albert Camus
• Summer of My German Soldier--Bette Greene
• The Sun Also Rises--Ernest Hemingway
• The Sweet Hereafter--Russell Banks
• Ten Little Indians--Agatha Christie
• Tess of the d’Urbervilles--Thomas Hardy
• Their Eyes Were Watching God--Zora Neale Hurston
• Things Fall Apart--Chinua Achebe
• The Time Machine--H. G. Wells
• To Kill a Mockingbird--Harper Lee
• To the Lighthouse--Virginia Woolf
• Treason--Orson Scott Card
• Treasure Island--Robert Louis Stevenson
• V.--Thomas Pynchon
• War and Peace--Leo Tolstoy
• The Waste Land--T. S. Eliot
• Watership Down--Richard Adams
• The World According to Garp--John Irving
• Wuthering Heights--Emily Bronte

I was going to keep this list down to 100 books, but there are probably closer to 120. I would be interested to see submissions from readers, because I know I left off some that were important (i.e.: everybody's read them). Scan through and see if your favorites are on the list.