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Suswatibasu (1703 KP) rated Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind in Books

Nov 20, 2017 (Updated Nov 20, 2017)

A good effort to tackle this mammoth subject but ends a little disappointingly

I am slightly on the fence about this book. No doubt, it's no mean feat to attempt to describe the beginning of civilisation, but I feel the author Yuval Noah Harari may have overstretched himself.

What begins as a scientific exploration in to the separation or perhaps merging of the distinct human genuses ie. Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals, quickly becomes a political and social study. As a result, the book begins well but deteriorates as he moves away from a more analytical approach.

As the story moves towards times that we are more familiar with, it's not enough for the writer to tell us what happened, and perhaps share some of his pet theories on the sweep of history. Instead, we get increasingly speculative interpretations of what the author thinks are the big ideas in history. He takes no care to qualify these grand statements of opinion, but instead presents them as facts.

While I agree with his anthropological assertions surrounding religion as a method of homogenising populations and allowing flow of information, many reviews seem to be quite antagonistic towards this point of view and as a result there are definitely two camps of thoughts in regards to this book.

However, his whitewashing of colonialism and imperial rule is disparaging, literally explaining the benefits reaped by colonised countries from such destructive regimes, glossing over partition and genocide. Overall, I think that it is written well, but there are too many opinions and not enough evidence-based arguments.

Kudos

Ross (3284 KP) rated Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) in Movies

Nov 28, 2017

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

2013 | Horror, Mystery

6.7

(21 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Closes the loose ends from the first film (0 more)

Opens more at the end (exasperated emoji) (0 more)

This follow on film stays with the family after the events of the first film left the family reunited but with something decidedly not right about Josh, the father (played by The Conjuring's Patrick Wilson, who I really can't take to).
Everything seems to get back to normal for a short time with the family reunited and moving on from the trauma they've been through. But this doesn't last long and soon strange things start happening again, this time focused around the baby.
For me, this film fell down a little as many horror sequels do, trying to build on tiny parts of the original story rather than carrying on from it. I found the parts where the reality and past of the presence that haunted Josh in his childhood really engaging and exciting and creepy, but felt this should have been explored so much more.
Rose Byrne is good again, somehow keeping the family together through all the unpleasantness.
One thing that did spoil this for me was when, after a particularly creepy scene in which a ghost child's foot steps were heard running through the house, my 3 year old son decided to get up and run through to my bedroom so I suddenly heard footsteps eerily similar to those on the film directly above my head.
A decent follow on with some interesting exploration of small aspects of the first film, but largely more of the same.