Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Gee LP (A) on December 26, 2005 at 15:25:50

In Reply to: Re:"Not very good"? Well, like you patrickU... posted by patrickU on December 26, 2005 at 05:15:09:

Although unlike you and Victor I have not visited a slaughterhouse, I used to frequently visit my grandparents who lived in rural Oklahoma. There I would feed the chicken I would be served the next day. I also heard one grandfather complain about minks tearing up his garden, and how, if it weren't for their coats, there would be no good reason for them at all. Except for beef and seasonings etc, my grandparents got almost everything they ate and served from their small acreage.

Today there is a Tyson chicken processing plant behind one grandfather's home. Yes, one can smell something there...

There seems to be an enormous disconnect between us and what we eat today...certainly between me and what I eat (the closest I've been to a cow in years is picking up my beef at the supermarket)! Our ancestors hunted and fished and did things to meat that make us swoon today and were grateful for the opportunity to do so (especially during and after the Civil War and during the Depression). But what will happen to vegans if we discover plants "feel" and feel pain the way animals do? At what level do we close our eyes to the fear and suffering of other creatures and justify our own existence?

It is not that I "look forward" to seeing the Franju film...rather...it is rare that any work really allows for the generation and expression of these thoughts.

But I am a huge fan of "Eyes Without a Face"...the poetry in the horror of the scientific method repeated over and over again without success. The eyes with such pain in them...

Again, thanks for the tip on the Criterion DVD!