I seem to be encountering a lot of sentiment-provoking stuff these days. Les Choristes is a brilliant, heart-rending (French!) movie. Moutain -Moutain, not mountain- is a psychological fascination and I like the eye colour of Pierre Morhange. All of them are good actors. And Boniface is cute. (Boniface is that small boy with really really really curly blond hair and lopsided specs) So is Pepitot, or however you spell his name.
Their voices are so brilliant! - but too bad it's not really them singing, they're backed by a "brilliant boys choir". Sigh. For a while I thought Pierre Morhange was really a brilliant soloist. Oh well, but a girl can dream, can't she? AND I AM A GIRL. Okay, that was uber lame.
AND, I've just finished reading Anne Frank's diary - the unedited version. Her English isn't all that brilliant, but god...she'd write fantastic newspaper reflections. What a philosopher. How could they actually believe that Jews were inferior people? Anne is anything but inferior. Oh, I think I'll quote something from her diary:
'Men presumably dominated women from the very beginning because of their greater physical strength; it's men who earn a living, beget children and do as they please...Until recently, women silently went along with this, which was stupid, since the longer it's kept up, the more deeply entrenched it becomes. Fortunately, education, work and progress have opened women's eyes. In many countries they've been granted equal rights; many people, mainly women, but also men, now realize how wrong it was to tolerate this state of affairs for so long. Modern women want the right to be completely independant!
'But that's not all. Women should be respected as well! Generally speaking, men are held in great esteem in all parts of the world, so why shouldn't women have their share? Soldiers and war heroes are honored and commemorated, explorers are granted immortal fame, martyrs are revered, but how many people look upon women too as soldiers?
'In the book Men against Death I was greatly struck by the fact that in childbirth alone, women commonly suffer more pain, illness and misery than any war hero ever does. And what's her reward for enduring all that pain? She gets pushed aside when she's disfigured by birth, her children soon leave, her beauty is gone. Women, who struggle and suffer pain to ensure the continuation of the human race, make much tougher and more courageous soldiers than all those big mouthed freedom fighting heroes put together!
'I don't mean to imply that women should stop having children; on the contrary, nature intended them to, and tem of values and the men who don't acknowledge how great, difficult, but ultimately beautiful women's share is society is.
[...skipping some paragraphs here...]
'It's easy for men to talk - they don't and never will have to bear the woes that women do!'
Taken from page 314-315 of The Diary of A Young Girl: The Definitive Edition.
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I 'bolded' and underlined some parts myself. Those I put in bold I particularly agree with, those I put in bold AND underlined I really really really truly truly truly agree. Maybe her statements seem more like statements made in a fit of anger, especially the last line, but it IS easy for men to talk. They don't and never will have to go through 'cramps' (heh), suffer the pain of birth or undergo the feeling of being dominated and humiliated.
Anne Frank was determined not to become an ordinary housewife like most girls did - exactly how I think. Only of course she's a lot mentally stronger than me. She mentions that she can't imagine anyone 'saying that "I'm weak" and not doing anything about it'. I admit that I'm guilty of that...
Do you have any idea how studious she is? She studies the family trees of royal families (it's more of her hobby, actually), knows French, Latin, German, English (gawd. multilingual) and she studies geography and stuff...history being her fav. subject... oh, freaking gosh.
We are alike in the sense that we both love to write. Yayness. And we both do not like people 'leaning' on us.
And, gosh, you should really read about her tragic demise, as well as that of those who went into hiding together with her family...
The typhus epidemic that broke out in the winter of 1944-1945, as a result of the horrendous hygienic conditions, killed thousands of prisoners, including Margot and, a few days later, Anne. She must have died in late February or early March. The bodies of both girls were probably dumped in Bergen-Belsen's mass graves. The camp was liberated by British troops on April 12, 1945.
'Dumped in mass graves'. Sad, ain't it? If you sympathize with her just because she's famous, please think of the other equally innocent lives lost. Anne is a figure to be greatly admired, but there are other people who have suffered more grievious woes.
But that's not to say that she hasn't. I mean, don't sympathize with her. Agree with her and admire her for her bravery, stuff like that. I bet she'd prefer being respected to being pitied. I know I would. At least she wasn't gassed to death or something, like one of her hide-mates (Mr. van Daan) was. Poor guy. Gas. Horrid.
Oh, and her father survived. He remarried - how could he?! Hmph. He has the right to, I guess. They say he never really loved her mum.
Peter van Pels (van Daan) - he's the Mr. van Daan's son - was forced to take part in the January 16, 1945 "death march" from Auschwitz to Mauthausen (Austria), where he died on May 5, 1945, 3 days before the camp was liberated.
Pity. Peter van Daan was Anne's sweetheart, though the two weren't really in love. It was more affectionate than passionate.
It's so sad. Innocent people being culled like chickens in the flu epidemic recently. Just because they're Jews. If you think they deserved it, well, how would you like being gassed to death or shot or something because you're Chinese and people have the impression that you guys are traitors, betrayers, etc.? It'd be so unfair, yeah?
It's like discriminating mudbloods. Ha. (note sarcastic humor)
If you say that the Jews were a different case because they are traitors and betrayers, you're wrong. The Jews were judged based on only the actions of a few Jews. It's impartial, judging the entire population of Jews just because of a few of them.
The whole thing is so freaking stupid and unnecessary!
And so touching.
Sniff.
Hitler sucks.
