Review: Life of Galileo

Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



"My object is not to establish that I was right but to find out if I am."

Galileo Galilei has been always one of my favorite historical characters, and a source of inspiration at times, specially whenever a debate concerning reason took place. I have to admit, however, that I hadn't read that much about him in depth, just some essays in books discussing the humanity's struggle for freedom and reason, as well as web references here and there. I kind of enjoyed referring to him and creating my own idea about his character and recantation; my own Galileo Galilei. Here Brecht sheds light on Galileo's story from a new perspective to me.

The play was quite entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time, and I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. Several meanings can be read into the play; the need to doubt, the fight for reason, defying authorities, and science's moral obligation, where parallels can be easily drawn to today's world. The issue of Earth's rotation may be now settled (not for everyone, sadly) but Galileo's battle for reason hasn't ended since, the same struggle and debate take place almost everyday with different subjects; a struggle between reason and rigid ideas. The play's main concern in my opinion, however, is Galileo's recantation that, according to the writer, allowed science to deviate from its ideal path and lose connection with what's supposed to be its main aim, namely to lighten the burden of human existence. His recantation, in this view, merely helped deliver science to the arms of rulers and thus starting a new course for science that could lead eventually to the destruction of mankind.

Here you'll see science in its blooming youth
Also its first compromises with the truth (*)

The play brilliantly depicts the conflict between Galileo and the Church with splendid conversations with high-ranked church officials (the church here functions as authority in general), it also underpins the social aspect of the fight, which is consistent of course with Brecht's political views, between the ruling and the working classes. The penultimate scene presents Brecht's Galileo's conception of science for the people and emphasises the basic message of the play, where Galileo, imprisoned in his home by the inquisition, self-reproaches his human weakness that led to the decision to recant, refutes any suggestion of slyness in deceiving the authorities in order to proceed secretly with his research and finish his book "Discorsi", lectures about what science should be really about, and warns from a dark future ahead declaring that no achievement is valuable enough to make up for the damage caused by a betrayal of mankind.

The play doesn't idealise Galilei at all, on the contrary it blames him of wasting the opportunity to bring science to common people after he led science into social battle and abandoned it, and that by recanting and failing his supporters, he started the era where science would be a tool in the hands of rulers which eventually led to dropping that bomb that day in August, 1945. Brecht's play regards the atomic bomb as an end-product of Galileo's contribution to science and failure to contribute to society. The historical Galilei is quite controversial specially about what's behind his recantation, and some critics argue that the real Galileo was more speculative and less rational than Brecht's. I think I need to read more non-fictional history about him and some facts about the legal side of his trial as well.

According to the editor, this play is the most worked-over of all Brecht's plays. Its first version was written in German before the second world war and then it was re-written for the American stage emphasizing the message about the moral responsibility of science specially after the appalling results of the war. Then a third German version, an extended one, was written in the fifties for the East German stage. I've read the final one and then found myself reading the American version which was included in the appendix of the book edition I have got. the American one is much shorter and a bit lighter but quite entertaining as well. I recommend this play to everyone, I wanted to include in my review the quotes and scene's opening verses that I utterly enjoyed but then I would have included almost the whole book.

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Off-topic note:

After reading the play, I found myself returning to a couple of songs for the symphonic metal band "Haggard" that I some time ago during my university years and was quite interested in translating their italian and sometimes latin lyrics before the age of google translate (or at least I wasn't aware of at the time). The songs were of their album "Eppur Si Muove = And yet it moves". I find the album and specially the track "Per Aspera Ad Astra = A rough way to the stars" worth giving a listen.
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(*) from prologue to American production



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Review: The Trial

The Trial by Franz Kafka

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



What an interesting journey inside Kafka's absurd reverie; the existential tale that is, like great books, highly controversial and can be interpreted on many levels. The Kafkaesque surrealism and absurdity were quite gripping to say the least with their uncommon characters inside a bureaucratic totalitarian state in the modern industrial age. The novel is about the bleak tale of the protagonist, Josef K., who is caught in a labyrinth of incomprehensible circumstances after being prosecuted with a charge that he knows nothing about in a bureaucratic legal system that virtually no one knows for sure how it works. The story follows his futile efforts to prove his innocence and meanwhile we encounter the other secondary characters with their peculiar behaviour and surreal conversations. There are quite numerous interpretations for this nightmarish story; political, economical, and even religious explanations, for example, the trial might represent life itself, where we are under-arrest trying all the time to understand its meaning and escape our verdicts, the lawyer who claims to know the inner-workings of the court might represent religion in this sense and so on. The story also depicts the desperate life of the common people, and their fear, weakness, and inability which are by-products of the modern industrial age where fear of losing jobs controls peoples' lives.

Despite reading a lot about Kafka style's and for other writers who imitate this style and create similar worlds, this was my first encounter with any of his works and it surely won't be the last. Since I finished it days ago, I couldn't help spending hours and hours with the critical writings about this novel and the kafkian world in general.

I find it worth mentioning that the edition I read was Max Brod's one (Kafka's close friend who first published this incomplete novel after his death in contrary to what was stipulated in his will- to burn all his unpublished works), it came to my knowledge later that subsequent publications included six more chapters that Max Brod considered incomplete. In fact, arguably all the chapters in a sense are incomplete as they weren't revised by Kafka himself. There is also much dispute about the proper chapter sequence between scholars who studied in depth the character development, and some critics believe that it can’t be even described as a novel but should be rather treated as distinct unconnected chapters whose sequence can be left to the reader.

For me, the fact that the novel is incomplete, the different translations (as that of the final sentence), and the controversy about the proper sequence and the incomplete chapters, which brings to mind the controversy about old scriptures, played a part in my affection and fascination with the whole thing. I have a feeling that it will open the door to further and deeper readings of Kafka's legacy.



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"Sir" Brian Clough - I do believe in fairies

In the famous 1974 interview with arguably the top two English managers at the time, the great Brian Clough explained his football philosophy as opposed to that of Don Revie who had won the league with Leeds United with a pragmatic and physical approach to football. This is one of my favorite lines by football managers.

Review: Animal Farm

Animal Farm by George Orwell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



A timeless classic. It's always enjoyable to find out how the situation slowly moves in a circle to return to the same point where it started; how the animals don't feel but a slight change at a time that can only be noticed when we take a step back and look at the big picture, and how the great idols gradually devolved from "All animals are equal" to "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others".

It's one of the books that probably everyone should read but probably not everyone would appreciate it the same; I read it once many years ago but appreciated it infintely more after the recent Egyptian uprising and the colossal media machine that efficiently played the role of "Squealer" in our novel afterwards, brainwashing normal poeple and exploiting their fear, gullibility and volatile memory that can be easily manipulated by all the devil advocates around. I've seen the story events almost take place before my eyes more than once since January 2011.

Orwell was thought by some to be, simply, opposing socialism. In fact, it was the exact opposite, he believed in it so deeply that he wanted to protect it from the form of communism that was hailed by many at that time (after WWII). I've read someone putting it this way, for Orwell, "Capitalism is the disease, socialism is the cure, but communism will kill the patient". He believed in democtratic socialism and classless society, abd these socialist ideals were betrayed by the Soviet Stalinism.

Like 1984, it can be applied to any totalitarian regime not specific to the Soviet one. Yes, it almost directly refers to Marx, Stalin and Trotsky, but manipulating history and betraying the noble causes are around us all the time. It's depressing though seeing how wickedness ended in triumph, seeing how things went with the character "Boxer", but it's still worth reading by everyone as a warning cry for nations to beware of the wolves, to stick with "Snowball", to know their enemies, and to keep their memories alive.



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Greatest Movie Themes -- The Motorcycle Diaries -- De Usuahia a la Quiaca

The mesmerizing music by Gustavo Santaolalla from the soundtrack of "Diarios de Motocicleta"

You're just a kid -- "Good Will Hunting" Favorite Scene

A favorite scene from the great movie "Good Will Hunting" .. beautifully written, and brilliantly performed by Robin Williams:

Sean: Thought about what you said to me the other day, about my painting. Stayed up half the night thinking about it. Something occurred to me... fell into a deep peaceful sleep, and haven't thought about you since. Do you know what occurred to me? 
Will: No. 
Sean: You're just a kid, you don't have the faintest idea what you're talkin' about. 
Will: Why thank you. 
Sean: It's all right. You've never been out of Boston. 
Will: Nope. 
Sean: 

So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that.  

If I ask you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. 

And I'd ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, "once more unto the breach dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap, watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help. 

I'd ask you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn't know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms "visiting hours" don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. 

And look at you... I don't see an intelligent, confident man... I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you're a genius Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my fucking life apart. 

You're an orphan right? You think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are, because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally... I don't give a shit about all that, because you know what, I can't learn anything from you, I can't read in some fuckin' book. Unless you want to talk about you, who you are. Then I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't want to do that do you sport? You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief.

عين شمس وهليوبوليس -- مصر قبل الثورة

فيلمى "عين شمس" و"هليوبوليس" من أفضل ماشاهدت فى الفترة الأخيرة من الأفلام التى تعبر بصدق شديد عن مصر ما قبل ثورة يناير .. الفيلمان المستقلان يصلحان لتأريخ هذه الفترة وهموم جيلها .. وفيلم "هليوبوليس" ربما يكون فيه الرد على سؤال حير كثيرين عن سبب اشتراك طبقات مستريحة ماديا فى المظاهرات ورغبتهم الشديدة فى التغيير والتى لم تقل عن رغبة الطبقات المطحونة.

الكاميرا المستقلة تتنقل بحرية فى عين شمس ومصر الجديدة .. تحكى قصة مصر التى سرقت منا .. ترصد أحلام سكانها المجهضة ومشاعرهم المليئة بالحزن والإحباط والحيرة، وحتى الوحدة برغم الزحام الذى يخنق الجميع .. الفيلم البديع "عين شمس" كان أفضل ككل برأيى أما "هليوبوليس" فبرغم أنه قد عابه كثرة التقطيع فى المشاهد الا أن الحالة السائدة من رثاء مصر الجديدة ذكرتنى برثاء الاسكندرية فى فيلم داود عبد السيد الرائع "رسائل البحر".

أتمنى أن تعرض هذه الأفلام باستمرار فى المستقبل لتحكى كيف عشنا وعاشت مصر قبل الثورة، وتعالج ضعيفى الذاكرة وهم كثيرون.

Greatest Movie Themes -- Once Upon a Time in America -- Cockeye's Song

Cockeye's Song by the great Ennio Morricone

Then you win

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"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."

Mahatma Gandhi

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FREE WE ARE -- Glorious Feb11

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February the 11th was indeed the best day in my life, and the 18 days of revolution starting from January 25 leading to that day were my most remarkable and emotional days in my life. I don't expect to live such a period, witness such events and experience such feelings again soon, if ever, in my life. History was written and I'm very glad I was part of it.


Hope is the greatest treasure we found and now everything has a meaning; I appreciate my life more, the food tastes better, the water acquired a sweet taste, even the air smells better; polluted and all but we'll fix everything .. It's the feeling that anything is possible, the spirit is high that we can touch the sky, we can do anything, we can make our country one of elite of the world .. it's hope that's driving us now.


There were hundreds of stories within this period that can be told later .. there were moments where victory seemed to me unlikely, but astonishingly the revolution was able to hold and finally conquer the regime.






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