Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam – inspired the remarkable film with Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke - 9 out of 10

 

Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam – inspired the remarkable film with Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke

9 out of 10

 

 

Leave The World Behind may sound like the prompting of lunatics, prophets of the Apocalypse that we better ignore (if only they did not have enough votes to put ignoble creatures like Trump and surrogates in power) but it turns out to be a terrifying, pertinent, powerful message that warns of the dangers of the over dependence on the internet, satellites, the trappings of modern life, that could end with a bang

 

If anything, the criticism I found myself proposing to my daughter, Hannah, who watched with me last night, on Netflix, this memorable adaptation, was that ‘it has too much of everything’, it could feel crowded, or exaggerated, but then with hindsight, it is way better to be challenged with a lot of issues, that have your mind dumbed by the likes of Diesel, The Rock, with senseless chasing, fighting, kickboxing and whatever else they do

Besides, we live in a complex world, and this film is looking at very plausible scenarios, with the clever proposal that we try and figure out what happens, it is not inviting you to wait till the end  and then bingo, the grand finale will let you know the secret, the why and what will happen, it is for the audience to imagine

 

The spoiler alert should have come ahead of the last paragraph, maybe, something otherwise easy to do with copy/paste, but this is not a method I condone, especially given that the Number one place in my realm has been stolen from me by this ruffian from Bacau, who has launched a barrage of some five thousand false reviews, all copy and paste, without anything from him, and yet Goodreads keeps him King of Land

Warning, disclaimer – these lines are not worth the trouble, for the perspective is biased, it could amount to ‘spam’, this is what Goodreads told me recently, when they took down my take on Cleo from 5 to 7 http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/cleo-from-5-to-7-aka-cleo-de-5-7-by.html and thus I use every chance to show spite and bile, and put the link wherever it makes sense or does not, show me the money!

 

I mean, you attack one lousy (admittedly) note and wipe it out, but at the same time you make a sort of Trump, as in a bogus leader, straw man with any abilities except loud mouth, big fraud, incredible cheat and Con man, out of a fellow that just acts like a copy machine, a Xerox that is using the digital space to be…Number One

Really?

 

Now back to something more serious – Leave The World Behind has the force, panoramic look, skill, vision to captivate audiences and make them see that the danger is real, if not imminent, there would be those that dismiss the alarm as exaggerated, and there are elements that indicate hyperbole, but there is common sense also

 

Terrorism and hacking are regularly on the news, indeed, we are in the middle of a war launched by Israel in Gaza, following the worst terrorist attack in its history, and one of the most devastating anywhere, if we consider the size of the population, this was worse than 9/11, and a calamity any way we look at it

It is conceivable that a huge hackers attack could wipe out the internet, satellite communications, and this is happening in areas of the world, as a routine measure, the example of Kashmir, and what am I saying, the whole of China is actually under a cloud, and only what Xi et co allow penetrates through the shield

 

The explanations given by Leave The World Behind are legitimate, if they need to use emphasis and the aforementioned hyperbole, to make the audience grasp the calamity, the three steps towards anarchy are more than plausible, we see them operating, cutting information, prompting internal division and civil war, benefiting from self-destruction, the foe of sophisticated actors can use its own people to plunge into oblivion

My conviction is that Trump is such an apocalyptic threat that watching Leave The World Behind feels like the regular news – exaggerating, yes, but by how much – and if the Orange Jesus aka OJ returns in 2024, then we are fucked, we will not see the long line of Teslas crashing into each other, or the odd tanker sailing into the beach, as we get from the trailer…caution is not mandatory here, you have had your alert, warning…

 

What makes this work dazzling is that aside from the major theme, the Armageddon that we see there, you have brilliant insight into a variety of issues – take what Amanda says in the first couple of sentences (well, maybe there were five before) when she states that she ‘fucking hates people’ and later we see why

She aka Julia Roberts works in advertising, at the highest level we could presume, otherwise she would not be able to afford a vacation in a stupendous abode, with a husband who is a professor, and not at Harvard or similar – her job is to understand what humans want, so that she can advertise to them

 

Or else, to sell them what they do not need, which brings me to…Bhutan, the country I somehow tend to remember when we talk of Mad Men http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/mad-men-creator-matthew-weiner-with-jon.html a country that appears to have a negative Carbon emissions input, has measured and insisted on Happiness and less on GDP and was the last to introduce television and hence advertising, only to see a negative impact on its inhabitants, who have started craving what…they do not need – the Dalai Lama has reportedly walked into a supermarket and exclaimed ‘oh, so many things I do not need!’

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world   – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”