Robert Gale Ongley

Month: May 2021

  • THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN: STAR-CROSSED BRILLIANCE

    It’s time for a film review. The film has spoken to me and I feel compelled to write about it. Panned by many, praised by others, The Professor and the Madman seems to at least inspire strong opinion. There has been in-fighting, legal battling and disowning. Yet, with all the dysfunction surrounding it, The Professor and the Madman presents as a striking work of art.

    I do not hold myself out as a film critic. I occasionally do a book review and I have written a few blog posts on movies, but I don’t claim to know the nuts and bolts of film critique. I’m doing this one because I recently watched it solely because a friend happened to pick it from a Netflix menu and I was moved by it. There’s room for a difference of opinion and I recognize there is probably a more informed basis for film analysis than I have at my off-the-cuff disposal, but I hope to at least make a few valid points in breakdown of the film.

    Overview

    The Professor and the Madman is based on a true life story, centering on the ambitious project by Oxford University Press to create a comprehensive dictionary of the English language, including all the words, all their various definitions and complete etymology. Eventually, it was titled The Oxford English Dictionary. I think of it as the King of Dictionaries.

    Professor James Murray, played by Mel Gibson, was appointed in 1879 to be the editor of the new dictionary. He is a family man who is now going to be virtually consumed by this lengthy, daunting task of pulling together the complete language from all the people and places where English is spoken and tracing the usages past and present. He is given a small team to work with him. Murray sends a letter to all English speaking countries, asking people to send the Press any words they can contribute on slips of paper. After it becomes painfully clear that the team is far too small and their pace at working through even the “A” section is far too slow, they receive an offer of help from an unlikely volunteer.

    William Chester Minor, a former surgeon in the United States Army played by Sean Penn, sends in 1000 slips with words and states he can provide definitions on the most challenging words to properly enter into the dictionary. The most interesting part of Minor’s backstory is that he had been committed to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum in 1872 for killing a young husband and father who simply answered his door when Minor beat on it. Minor had been running through the streets in terror because he thought he was being pursued by a man who was intent on killing him.

    The Thickening Plot

    Minor is granted the right to use the library of rare books owned by the asylum’s doctor. He is highly productive in his role of providing complete word entries for the dictionary and is considered a valuable member of Murray’s team as well as a friend. He seems to be making excellent progress mentally as well. He has a guard at the asylum offer his army pension to the widow whose husband he killed in his insanity. Despite her reluctance to accept the pension, bleak prospects for survival for her children and herself make her reconsider. A unique friendship develops between Minor and the widow which takes an unexpected turn.

    The Appeal of This Film

    On a personal note of minor consequence to many, I started to really enjoy this movie when I saw the work being put into this project by Murray and his team. I have a healthy respect for dictionaries and what goes into a definition. If I had room for the full Oxford English Dictionary, I would own and proudly display one. To watch these dedicated men work their way through the entries, word by word, gave me great joy. It’s a quest worthy of recognition in a film and Murray’s dogged pursuit of a product to be proud of made my respect for him soar.

    The Real Professor Murray

    While I’m mentioning characters, I have to say Minor is one of the most compelling I’ve ever seen. Penn’s portrayal of him is riveting. Gibson turns in one of his best performances as Murray, who appears to be a true professional while also being humble and loving as a father and husband, though overly distracted.

    Natalie Dormer as the widow displays more of her depth as an actress. Eddie Marsan plays a familiar role as a person keeping order as a guard, policeman or even as a criminal. He is simply fun to watch and I don’t think I’ll ever tire of him.

    The visual quality of this movie is outstanding as well, seemingly true to the period with its grit and simultaneous classy warmth.

    Summing it Up

    I’m not going into the problems that occurred behind the scenes. It’s unfortunate, but as a viewer I knew nothing of that and I saw it as it was on screen. The quality of this story, the memorable characters with heartfelt performances and the production value prompt me to say it’s the best movie I’ve seen in quite some time. My thanks and respect to all those who contributed what they did and those who refused to do what they didn’t want to do. It all turned out fine from my humble perspective.

    The Real William Minor

  • WRITING: DO WE REALLY NEED IT?

    When the first set of symbols took hold to bring a city or kingdom the written word in Sumer around 3500 BCE, it was likely met with resistance. “What do we need this for? This is going too far. We’re going to lose our oral tradition, and then where will we be? Our civil order will be destroyed.” Sounds ridiculous, you say? Well, reactions by communities then weren’t that different from citizenry now to media we have made part of our everyday lives.

    Before Language Was Written

    Obviously, humans used speech to communicate prior to written language. From its humble beginnings of grunts and defensive yelling, language became sophisticated to the point of being a medium of education. In Will Durant’s masterpiece, The Story of Civilization, he refers to primitive peoples as the natural man. Education among those folks was mainly “the transmission of skills and the training of character.” By the age of 10, in the Omaha tribes, a boy had learned all he needed for life. Among the Aleuts, the boy of 10 had moved out of the parents’ sod-covered house, found his own place and sometimes a wife.

    Children were taught verbally and by showing. Their memories were strong, learning happened and the information they needed was retained for the sake of survival. The people recited the stories of their culture and personal history, passing them on to generation after generation. Presumably, they didn’t forget what they needed to know and they didn’t lack for knowledge. At least, that’s how they felt about it.


    And Along Came the Writer

    Durant speculates on the possibilities of writing’s origin. Pottery was being crafted before language sought a tangible medium, so perhaps the potter needed to identify his work with “trade-marks.” Commerce and trade very well may have created the necessity to label the work and make records of transactions and such. Numerals may have been among the earliest intentional markings. Fingers drawn to denote numbers may have led to a symbol for a hand showing five fingers that eventually became a “V” in Roman numerals. Two “V’s” made ten, thus an “X.”

    Durant wrote, “Doubtless the invention of writing was met with a long and holy opposition, as something calculated to undermine morals and the race. An Egyptian legend relates that when the god Thoth revealed his discovery of the art of writing to King Thamos, the good King denounced it as an enemy of civilization. ‘Children and young people,’ protested the monarch, ‘who had hitherto been forced to apply themselves diligently to learn and retain whatever was taught them, would cease to apply themselves, and would neglect to exercise their memories.’ ” Sounds like parents’ concerns over TV, video games and screens in general.

    Attitudes were not all negative, though. Written material was thought to have magical powers. There’s a story about Naneferkaptah, who was a son of Pharaoh Mernebptah, in which Naneferkaptah uses a method for memorization of content of a book. To start, he obtained a sheet of new papyrus. The following quote is a from a later book titled, Setne Khamwas and Naneferkaptah. “He wrote on it every word that was in the book before him. He soaked it in beer, he dissolved it in water. When he knew it had dissolved, he drank it and knew what had been in it.” This was not an uncommon belief that ingesting the written word was how to fully internalize its power.

    Sumerian Writing

    The theory that writing was invented by gods or God has been quite popular down through the centuries. Some would say that Moses was the first to introduce it with his tablet containing the Ten Commandments. The Israelites passed it on to the Canaanites or Phoenicians north of them and the Egyptians to the south and it was spread throughout the world from there. Interestingly, some of these gods were identified as the world’s first scribes. I like that. It’s such a lofty position for a writer back in the day.

    Languages With No Writing Today

    I find it surprising that there are approximately 7000 languages spoken on this planet currently. Approximately 50 percent of them have no written form. Half the population speaks 23 of those languages. Nearly 3000 are considered endangered. In areas where there are many languages used among a relatively small number of people, it is found they also have tremendous biodiversity. It would seem these are tropical climates and industry has not really flourished there. In those places, writing has not been found necessary. They have a great deal of impressive knowledge about their plant life and habitat that has not been recorded. Each generation is trusted to pass the information down to the next one orally. From all indications, they have been doing an outstanding job of it.

    Conclusions

    As commerce grows, there is a bigger need for keeping track of your stuff. Markings identified merchants’ stuff. Numerals and pictographs and symbols all helped get writing started. Communication across distance became appealing and chronicles lent importance as well as status to individuals right on up to kingdoms. For a piece of clay or stone or parchment to convey ideas was seen as magical. Later, it was considered a foundation of civilization and later still a form of lofty art. Where would we be without it? I’m not sure about that, but I would be missing one huge purpose in life.

  • DOES EVERYTHING HAPPEN FOR A REASON?

    Everything happens for a reason. That age-old saying has been used as a comfort and a thought provoking statement for longer than I know. It has a weight of mystery that bids us to plumb its depths and a lightness that makes us question whether the speaker is even thinking at all before speaking. Magical thinking is what comes to mind when some hear it while others sense a truth that needs no explanation.

    Come with me on a little journey here. Find out what some very bright people think about this adage and see what you think after tossing it around a little.

    Pro

    “Eventually all things fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moments, and know EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON.”— Albert Schweitzer

    “I trust that everything happens for a reason, even if we are not wise enough to see it.”— Oprah Winfrey

    “I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. So you asked, ‘When things get really, really difficult in your life, what keeps you going?’ For me, it’s always that the most difficult moments in my life, the moments in which I believe I’ve completely failed or hit bottom, I can actually directly link them to something later that is either a true success or a dream come true. So, I do believe that if you can maintain that everything happens for a reason, you can find the strength and the lesson in those difficult moments and grow stronger.”–Troian Bellisario

    Con

    “I’ve never had a tremendous amount of peace with the sentiment. I think it gives the terrible stuff too much power, too much poetry; as if there must be nobility and purpose within the brutal devastation we may find ourselves sitting in. In our profound distress, this idea forces us to run down dark, twisted rabbit trails, looking for the specific part of The Greater Plan that this suffering all fits into.“–John Pavlovitz

    “The fact is that we’ve colloquialized the notion of there being a reason for everything to the point of absurdity. It’s not that “reason” is completely absent from our lives, or that it should be, but that we use it as a crutch for avoiding growth and often look for it in all the wrong places; a higher power, fate, a preordained script for our life, a greater purpose, or some omnipotent force of the universe that knows what’s best for us. What if it’s none of the above?”–Thomas Koulopoulos 

    “All it takes is to discard the vain notion that everything happens for a reason is to imagine one small way that one small thing could be better. It would be better if everyone suffered a little less. It would be better if Lisbon and Port-au-Prince were not subject to hauntingly similar and equivalently tragic natural disasters on either side of modern history.”–Nicholas Clairmont

    Reasonable Doubt

    To declare that everything happens for a reason might seem completely unreasonable. I mean, come on, there’s a vast if not infinite universe out there where an incomprehensible number of things large and small are happening every instant. There are desolate places void of life where whatever happens would appear to be inconsequential. Is there significance in the longevity of a rock on an asteroid hurtling through space which will continue to do so until a supernova vaporizes it out of existence? Taking it to a higher level, does the unheard fall of a deceased tree in the forest happen for a reason?

    It doesn’t take much to cast doubt on a sweeping theory that is mind bending to the average person. It’s used mostly as a matter of faith to comfort those who have suffered a loss of some kind or to bring order to a limited human mind that is understandably bewildered by the workings of the universe.

    On the Other Hand

    Despite the many logical arguments to dismiss the suggestion that everything happens for a reason, I’m inclined to believe in this theory. To begin with, I subscribe to the theory of intelligent design. Recurring patterns in nature, the ingenious course of evolution, and the presence of complex and specified information in natural objects are seen by many scientists as evidence of design as opposed to accidental development.

    Secondly, I refer to my own intuition and my own experience. I can’t prove that my perceptions are accurate and rooted in truth, but we can only interpret our experiences for ourselves and accept them or reject them as we see fit.

    It was approximately 15 years ago when I was in a spiritually transformative phase of my life that I perceived more than ever my connection to all that is. I had a heightened awareness of the natural life force within, often manifesting in love and joy. At some point during this period, I came to understand that every minute occurrence was significant. It was as though the Omnipresent was speaking to me always and if I could but listen attentively with an open heart and mind, I would be able to glean meaning from it all, even the whisper of the wind. In a sense, everything that happens is a long, ongoing glorious song, or better yet, symphony. It’s not always beautiful, at least in the traditional sense, but it all fits together in a mosaic that is truly beautiful in its esthetic complexity. Each piece has a reason for being there, though when perceived solitarily, its existence is not fully understood.