Well said, mon general
Today's gush is about my recently finishing Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik. Think Napoleonic wars fought with dragons as your air support. And the dragons are sentient!
There are many things to recommend these books, of which Ivory is the 4th of what I hear tell is to be 9 books. (I also hear tell Peter Jackson, producer of the Academy Award-Winning Lord of the Rings films, has optioned the Temeraire books for film.)
What component I often find moving (and memorable, as well as stirring) in many great books and films is the speech between antagonist and protagonist, meeting at last. It is during this ultimate moment the climax occurs, and a crystalization of intent becomes clear where resolution will be decided, and the ultimate rightness and wrongness of the conflict comes to the viewer.
Here I do not feel I will spoil too much of the book by giving the short but eloquent speech, almost Hemingwayesque in clarity in which Napoleon Boneparte speaks with Lawrence under flag of parley:
"...when money becomes the driving force of the state; there must be some moral power beneath, some ambition, that is not only for wealth and safety."
Napoleon was an ambitious man, power hungry - but I can't say that power and morals are compatible with each other. One rather requires that you abuse others in the name of war, destiny, etc., to achieve it.
Yet if you take these words at face value, a capitalistic system like what we see in the US (and other Republics and democracies e.g.) often are amoral - because of the design of corporations as legal entities (with the rights of human beings) but because they actually are a collective, do not posess a singular will, and de facto be bereft of any conscience which would lend a sense of shame, compassion, and moral compass.
It is difficult to embarrass or rebuff a corporation. In any means other than monetarily, matters that might affect a person toward good behavior is by design missing in corporations - and by extension, governments that issue corporate charters, where industry and government work hand-in-hand. QED.
Well said, Napoleon, and well said, Naomi. I had to puzzle over why the future Emperor of France might have said such a thing, with Marie Antoinette telling peasants to eat cake and all, but of course Napoleon will spoon feed them his own just dessert soon enough!
I fear for the events arising out of this meeting, for things do look dire. We only have foreknowledge of the famous palindrome which Napoleon is said to have muttered at Waterloo: "Able was I ere I saw Elba."
There are many things to recommend these books, of which Ivory is the 4th of what I hear tell is to be 9 books. (I also hear tell Peter Jackson, producer of the Academy Award-Winning Lord of the Rings films, has optioned the Temeraire books for film.)
What component I often find moving (and memorable, as well as stirring) in many great books and films is the speech between antagonist and protagonist, meeting at last. It is during this ultimate moment the climax occurs, and a crystalization of intent becomes clear where resolution will be decided, and the ultimate rightness and wrongness of the conflict comes to the viewer.
Here I do not feel I will spoil too much of the book by giving the short but eloquent speech, almost Hemingwayesque in clarity in which Napoleon Boneparte speaks with Lawrence under flag of parley:
"...when money becomes the driving force of the state; there must be some moral power beneath, some ambition, that is not only for wealth and safety."
Napoleon was an ambitious man, power hungry - but I can't say that power and morals are compatible with each other. One rather requires that you abuse others in the name of war, destiny, etc., to achieve it.
Yet if you take these words at face value, a capitalistic system like what we see in the US (and other Republics and democracies e.g.) often are amoral - because of the design of corporations as legal entities (with the rights of human beings) but because they actually are a collective, do not posess a singular will, and de facto be bereft of any conscience which would lend a sense of shame, compassion, and moral compass.
It is difficult to embarrass or rebuff a corporation. In any means other than monetarily, matters that might affect a person toward good behavior is by design missing in corporations - and by extension, governments that issue corporate charters, where industry and government work hand-in-hand. QED.
Well said, Napoleon, and well said, Naomi. I had to puzzle over why the future Emperor of France might have said such a thing, with Marie Antoinette telling peasants to eat cake and all, but of course Napoleon will spoon feed them his own just dessert soon enough!
I fear for the events arising out of this meeting, for things do look dire. We only have foreknowledge of the famous palindrome which Napoleon is said to have muttered at Waterloo: "Able was I ere I saw Elba."