For the holidays I searched for BBC interludes, the small bits of completely inconsequential sequences that would be put on to fill a gap. We once had one of a dear kitten, Snowy, on, but I couldn’t find it. So instead I’ve put on a series of films about London Transport in the 1950’s. The films automatically transition from one to another.
The first film is rather horrifying. It is full of false declarative sentences that I think children can be deluged with. E.g., “you will enjoy our school. You will find our students never bully other students.” What you are in fact hearing is an echo of the Empire. Watching it is good practice if you have to listen to relatives, or friends of relatives, on various political or moral topics. I am hoping no one will be offended by the “Africans love children” remark.
The second in the collection is visually utterly and completely boring unless you are keen on 1950’s British automobiles. Sitting through it is good practice for enduring conversations about how to cook turkeys or trim Brussel sprouts.
(The transfer to the second film isn’t always automatic. It seems less boring the second time around, if one lets oneself realize that one is catching glimpses of lives and homes which are otherwise completely hidden. It is here.)
The third one promised to be worst of all, so I didn’t watch much. [later note: the third might be worth a look. It’s here. The visual experience of inconsequential bits of the past are oddly engrossing. For a very few mintues.]
Enjoy!
Feminist Philosophers 