Friday, March 24, 2006

The big questions

Saw a reading of a new play last night: All of the Above. The playwright, Tom Sime, is a theater critic-turned-playwright. He dares to ask some big, strange questions in his play. Like, how would a man with no hands make love to a deaf-dumb-blind-from-birth woman? It's Helen Keller meets a double amputee (he's had his paws surgically removed as punishment for thievery -- yes, the near future is America under the Christian Taliban). Bigger even is what the play asks about the Divine. The man gets two new hands transplanted from a dead religious figure (Dalai Lama? Pope? Evangelist? We never know) and starts getting messages from God. Then he begins to channel messages from the mind of the Helen Keller woman. It's a little weird, oddly sexy and quite provocative. I liked it, even though act two needs a big rewrite to make it make sense.

If you're interested in Big Questions, here's a great site: The World Question Center. Philosophers, professors and other lofty thinkers weigh in with questions such as "What Do You Believe Is True Even Though You Cannot Prove It?"

Hmm. Good one. For me, I believe that food eaten in the car has no calories and that women over 50 become invisible in crowds (when you get there, you'll know what I mean). But those are smaller questions, albeit vexing.

The World Question Center also explores "What Questions Have Disappeared?" and "What Is Today's Most Unreported Story?" Good reading. Check it out.

I'll be back next week with some news.

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Had his hands removed by the Christian Taliban"? Man, the lefties just keep projecting their own behaviors on others. Repeat this: The Christians in the world do NOT go around cutting off folks hands (or heads, for that matter). Now if you're looking at the Muslims of the world, then you would see that behavior.

The author of that fantasy needs to get into therapy ASAP!

Garry K

5:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

*facepalm* She never said that the Christian Taliban cut off his hands. She was comparing the religious radicals of American Christianity to the religious radicals of Islam. Repeat this you close-minded ill-informed twat: Not all Muslims go around cutting off folks hands. Get your head out of your arse and learn something about the world around you.

What I'm most surprised about is that the one thing you got from this entry is the supposed leftist views being foisted upon you. The whole entry was interesting and thought-provoking (for those of us who can think). Try to say something valid next time.

2:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Forcefed leftist views are standard fare around here. This blog is operated commie-style, which also explains the dwindling participants.

** This post has been removed by the blog administrator **

7:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Surgical amputation "seems" more humane (implies use of anesthesia) but the end result is the same. Since the state imposes penalties for wrongs of this sort, I also took it that the theme of the play was to draw a parallel between a radical islamist government and a Christian Taliban government in the US. That part seems like lunacy to me.

Christians seem to be the usual recepients of mockery, disdain, and ridicule rather than the leaders of a movement to implement swift and sure punishment to offenders of religious or civil laws. How near in the future could something like the hand-wacking happen (See 8th Amendment to US Constitution) when currently convicted felons sentenced to the death penalty get to have about 20+ years of appeals before the sentence may be implemented.

Maybe I need to read more of the comments, but I like the Professor's stories and writing style. While I do not have as much indignation as she for the Ashleys, Brads, or the well-to-do, this is a big tent. If I had to label the Prof, she may have a socialist tendencies, but she's probably not a commie.

11:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

strange americans.. if it is a commie it's bad.. and most of them never read anything about what communism is about.. it's alsmost like any religion.. teaches good things how to get along, but fails in real life..
get this straigth.. communism denied existance of god - hence pissed of Roman Catholic pope and his multinational corporation. Made a big enemy also of every capitalist by saying that all means of production ( factories ) don't belong to only one fat cat but to the people that work in it... it made a lot of enemies and eventually the system got paranoid..

commie

3:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

A few other things commies did were murder millions of their own citizens, murder millions of citizens of neighboring countries that were then added to the communist confederation of countries, block their citizens from leaving their own countries, and severely restricted visitors to those countries, kept their citizens in a state of perpetual servitude, rarely getting the benefit of their individual efforts to improve their life conditions. The only good thing I can find in communism is most of it's demented leaders are dead.

11:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

well.. at least it killed it's own... capitalism kills others... (see Bush example.. ) and don't forget.. capitalism works for some people, but makes everybody else work..
and as i said... the system got really paranoid seeing everybody as enemy or potential enemy.. does it ring a bell??

1:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

this doesn't have anything to do with this post, but when does your book come out?

11:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

silly non-americans. commies also censored any communication that was incongruent with the party line (past tense since communist regimes have all failed or are circling the drain).

I think that was the point that you somehow missed.

7:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

best regards, nice info

8:58 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home