link to the story of the purple tricycle.

31 july 2003 thursday

It's not playing at every multiplex, indeed I have no idea how widespread it is outside LA, but everyone needs to go see Whale Rider if at all possible. Because the emotions are honest, and the characters are down-to-earth real, and the story is true (in the sense that all great fiction is true).

It's about (among other things) memory, the value of honoring the past. I was thinking about the Maori culture that Koro was teaching the boys, particularly the war chanting and intimidation. Those boys will (hopefully) not actually ever cut an enemy's head off and impale it on a stake. In a certain sense, that is an obsolete bit of culture. But I think it's valuable to remember all parts of one's history, to honor one's ancestors by remembering the way they lived, which helps you to feel connected to history as it continues through the present and into the future.

Everybody's ancestors at some point or another were big on some variation of cutting enemies' heads off and impaling them on stakes. I think it's much more interesting to remember that than to forget it or pretend it wasn't so; it can lead you to ponder why in some places it isn't like that anymore, and how that came about, and what sort of future we are moving towards through combinations of actions and inactions. Everything connects.


copyright 2003 carrie lynn king. new.