Welcome to Post Modern Zen

Welcome to Post Modern Zen: "With the rise to dominance of science, technology, and capitalism as a unified perspective, the materialistic, creative ecology of American society dramatically changed. Many people compartmentalized what gave meaning to their life; commitment to a particular religion gave spiritual meaning and commitment to scientific, democratic, capitalism gave material meaning. Other people defined meaning for themselves totally in terms of satisfying materialistic goals. Often these goals could be achieved via a work ethic and/or via other means, e.g., the robber barons of the early 20th century and the recent scandal of Enron going bankrupt, independent of personal transformation. Thus, I distinguish between creative and non-creative utilitarianism. Those who chose non-creative utilitarianism found meaning in a non-creative ecology, and those who chose creative utilitarianism found meaning in a creative ecology. Throughout the 20th century utilitarianism progressively overshadowed the message of traditional religions. After 1958, when scientific capitalism came to dominate public education and undermine to various degrees private, religious education, materialistic meaning progressively overshadowed spiritual meaning. Also, scientific capitalism with its emphasis on mechanistic thinking converted postsecondary education into a non-creative, book-learning project to obtain entrance into the marketplace in order to achieve money, status, and power. "

EngineeringEthicsBlog: Tesla and the Secret of "The Prestige"

EngineeringEthicsBlog: Tesla and the Secret of "The Prestige": "The job of the artist in a culture is not so much to solve moral problems, although they can sometimes help, as Harriet Beecher Stowe tried to do with Uncle Tom's Cabin, which she wrote explicitly to expose the horrors and wrongs of slavery. The artist should bring our attention to things we either do not see out of familiarity, or out of unfamiliarity, or for some other reason. The recent debates over so-called 'therapeutic' cloning and embryonic stem cell research, frankly stated, involve the question of whether we should duplicate existing human beings and kill them for some purpose of our own. That is exactly what Angier did with his duplicated magicians. In the movie's system of justice, he died for his wrongdoing at the hand of his enemy. "

The Magic of The Prestige

Review: The Magic of The Prestige @ Blogcritics.org: "Houdini would often disguise himself and attend a rival escape artist's show. When the proper time came, he would either reveal himself, or get invited onto the stage so he could sabotage the act. In the cinematic equivalent, Borden disguises himself and attends one of Angier's performances to sabotage his version of the Transported Man. With glee, and with uncharacteristic panache, he reveals the secret to the audience, reveals himself triumphantly, and implores them to come and watch his much better magic show coincidently playing in another theatre."

Shooting "The Prestige."

Page Title: "Throughout, Nolan and Pfister went after a more hand-made, old-school aesthetic - emphasizing organic camera movements and minimalist opticals over elaborate effects. Explains Pfister: 'Chris and I wanted to really minimize the technical and equipment idea of this picture. We followed as much as possible the notion that you just put the camera on your shoulder and run in there and capture the scene. It was a very exciting way to shoot for all of us - for me, for Chris and for the actors, who were freed of the usual technical restrictions. It actually put me much more in the story-telling process than if had been sitting back by a monitor with someone else operating the camera and was much more efficient and spontaneous. It's a liberating, unconventional way to shoot and it gives the film a naturalistic style that makes it very different from how any other period film has been captured in our current era.' "