Weekly Insónia: Human Condition (Translation)
(This article is a translation of the original Insónia Semanal: Condição Humana published on April 10th, 2021)
With each passing day, we move forward in time, but do we move forward as a society? It is in looking back and defining what we will do on the road ahead that we establish our human condition.
QUOTE
Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.
Rosa Luxemburgo in Junius Pamphlet
BOOK
The Metamorphosis — Franz Kafka (1915)
The Metamorphosis presents itself as one of the greatest works in all of literature, and Kafka is the author of this masterful book. Gregor Samsa is a salesman who, one day, through fate, becomes an insect. As the family’s sole breadwinner, this affects not only his life but also the lives of his family. Initially, his family accepts Samsa’s transformation, but eventually a feeling of indifference towards the insect begins to grow.
The eviction of some new tenants to help pay for the house because of Samsa’s appearance one day makes the family decide to get rid of him. That’s the night the insect dies, after months of illness and starvation. The family moves house, and, on the journey, the father and mother realise that their daughter, Grete, despite all the difficulties, is becoming a healthy woman. Their concern now is to find a husband for her. Gregor was an insect, and his metamorphosis has turned him into a forgotten memory.
MOVIE
2001: A Space Odyssey — Stanley Kubrick (1968)
Stanley Kubrick is a genius, and 2001: A Space Odyssey is an ideal example of this. The film is a unique experience visually, narratively, and with a diverse soundtrack, but especially with the use of a classical music composition that has practically become a space anthem: The Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss II.
Humanity aims to discover the paths of evolution by also knowing what happened before, as demonstrated through the discovery of a monolith by an ancestral tribe. Millions of years later, David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) are sent on a mission to Jupiter to investigate a monolith.
It’s while they’re travelling there that the autonomous system on the Discovery One spacecraft, Hal 9000, begins to fail and kill the travellers to ensure its own survival. Hal is merely a voice in control of the ship, but it is this control that frightens the viewer. The end of the film is always a difficult experience to describe, but Kubrick’s direction alone is worth the journey.
RECORD
Animals — Pink Floyd (1977)
Animals by the British band Pink Floyd is an album that borrows many concepts and ideas from George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Animals is a very concise album in terms of its criticisms and its sound. It’s not an album with many tracks — it has five — nor is it very long — 41 minutes — but it makes the most of that time.
On the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tracks, lead singer Roger Waters sings and complains about the dogs, pigs, and sheep of this society. Each one makes up a section of society, and the dogs are the ruthlessly ambitious ones; the pigs are the heads of society, with no moral conscience but with the intent of controlling the blind and weak of society: the sheep, who eventually rise to the top but become even more ruthless compared to the pigs.
There’s a lot to explore sonically on this album, both in terms of punk and electronica. Gilmour expresses himself masterfully on this album, and there’s a lot to listen to here.
Oh, and of course, don’t forget the flying pig.
ARTICLE
Reeducated — Inside Xinjiang’s Prison State
This documentary, made by the New Yorker, uses Virtual Reality and tells the story of three men who were imprisoned in one of China’s “re-education” institutions. It’s worth seeing for the visual experience alone, but it’s important to learn more about this reality, which is probably the largest ethnic and religious concentration camp since the Second World War.
Good insomnia and until next week,
Pedro Barreiro
