Primo Levi said, “The bond between a man and his profession is similar to that which ties him to his country; it is just as complex, often ambivalent, and in general it is understood completely only when it is broken: by exile or emigration in the case of one’s country, by retirement in the case of a trade or profession.”

What do you think?

We’re all about movies here at Brandywine BOOKS . . . Ahem . . .

I’m having trouble with my mic here . . . are we live already? Can you hear me now?

All right. We’re all about movies here. As Orson Scott Card said, when modern Americans read a great book, they often say it would make a great movie because when a story succeeds as a movie, it has been perfected. Don’t deny it. You know it’s true.

So I watched the 1931 film Arrowsmith last night. It was great. I think the end could have had more to it. Maybe I needed Ronald Coleman to monologue a bit at the end. “Here’s why I’m going to leave my success and wealth behind. This is the reason I will cut ties with this place. I did make the right decision back in the West Indies. I’m not turning back! I’m am American. We never turn back!” Or something like that.

It’s a sad story overall. It’s based on a Sinclair Lewis novel about a young scientist who marries a nurse in his hospital, begins his career as a doctor in South Dakota, and distinguishes himself enough to be invited to join a research institute in New York. He’s a good man, but he may not make the best decisions throughout the story. Feel free to rent it and judge for yourself. Dr. Arrowsmith’s poor little wife puts up with a lot and I’m not sure he understands her sacrifice in the end. The viewers do understand his devotion to her, which is a strong point for the film.

More importantly as far as movie news goes, Disney has released a trailer for its new princess movie, The Princess and the Frog. I wish them all the best for this one. I hope they do it up right.

Also from Disney (What? I have four girls at home who love this stuff. Is that the reason you’re looking at me that way? Stop it. Here’s a Tootsie Roll, so chill.) comes a good-looking cartoon called Bolt. Could be a strong film, even though my sweet wife couldn’t get over the fact the dog looked like a bear to her at first.

Favorite author of the week Andrew Klavan writes about the common ground between Batman and George W. Bush (favorite president of the century).

There seems to me no question that the Batman film “The Dark Knight,” currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. . . .

Why is it then that left-wingers feel free to make their films direct and realistic, whereas Hollywood conservatives have to put on a mask in order to speak what they know to be the truth? . . .

Leftists frequently complain that right-wing morality is simplistic. Morality is relative, they say; nuanced, complex. They’re wrong, of course, even on their own terms.

Left and right, all Americans know that freedom is better than slavery, that love is better than hate, kindness better than cruelty, tolerance better than bigotry. We don’t always know how we know these things, and yet mysteriously we know them nonetheless.

(Thanks to Deborah H.)

Did you see the news that looting reports in Southern Iraq were fabricated, exaggerated, or otherwise untrue–I’m sorry, I mean inaccurate? Well, M.A. Orthofer of the Literary Saloon was in Iraq several years ago and saw some of the places reportedly looted. He suspects that some, maybe a lot, of art and history destruction occurred just because we’ve been fighting over there. Armies break things. Better to break something and save a life than avoid breaking it while failing to save that life.

Orthofer’s main point is that the first press reports of this did not link readers to the original report, from which Orthofer quotes. Make your judgment on that report, but I think we could easily read that quotation as a confession of the surveyors desire to confirm that looting did occur, despite their lack of evidence.

If this story is true, it’s a good example of the need for Christianity around the world. Africans in the Congo and Rwanda are fighting over control of a mineral used to make certain electric capacitors which are used in Sony Playstations. Children are reportedly being sent into the mines to collect a mineral that has increased in price 500% due in part to demand for Playstations. It is just as unacceptable for the miners to abuse themselves and their progeny for this as it is for Sony to refuse responsibility for helping to create the situation. Everyone must do what he can reasonably do to love his neighbor as he would himself. Though Sony is the big name in this story, everyone in the market handling this product is responsible to understand what’s going on to the best of his ability. But I’m not telling you anything new.

In New Mexico’s Fort Stanton Cave, surveyors have discovered unique formations. “The few who have walked on the formation say they’ve seen nothing else like it. Early studies point to its uniqueness: Already, some three dozen species of microbes previously unknown to science have been uncovered,” reports Susan Bryan. Though it may be closed to the public, I hope they have some photographs taken.

In these troubled times, I don’t often have good things to say about judges anywhere in the world.

Judge Rob Murfitt of New Zealand is an exception.

One small candle in the cultural night.

The Thinklings are blogging about Batman. Jared and Philip have excellent, thoughtful reviews of what apparently is an excellent, thoughtful movie.

Jared notes: “The whole thing about nihilism or whatever just isn’t in there. It’s just not. The Dark Knight is specifically about goodness and evil, virtue and ethics, individuality and the social animal. These aren’t things one has to stretch to find in the movie to make it redemptive; they are actually in the film.”

Philip writes:

This the Batman the world has been deprived of for so long by all the other attempts. Batman is not a superhero, so much as he’s the anti-anti-hero. Batman, as we fanboys know him, is a dark, conflicted character that escorts us into a journey into human nature that is so scary that we’re glad to have him as a guide, even though we know he’d never let any of us actually be friends with him. . . . This is a movie that grapples with original sin and the nature of evil. What makes us good? What makes us bad? The Joker, like Satan in the book of Job, says that good people are only good as long as the circumstances are right. But if you change their circumstances… they’ll be evil like him. His motive for his badness (and there’s A LOT of badness) seems to be to force humanity to look at itself in the mirror only to find the Joker’s face (as a symbol of evil) staring back.

Chattanooga has not had a facility for abortions since 1993. We have had women’s health services, and people who care about all kinds of mothers and children, but no place to encourage getting rid of the children. Now, the owner of abortion clinics in three other cities will reportedly open one here this year. The website mentioned in the article isn’t available as I write this post, and this article from a local new station said they could not contact anyone through the website. I wonder if this is a publicity stunt.

Sentinel’s Michael Jacobson says there’s an upswing in terrorists giving up the cause. Some terrorists have become “disillusioned” with the death of innocients, particularly Muslims, and the character of their leaders.