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Sunday, March 9, 2014

Hypatia of Alexandria

Tonight I watched "Agora", a 2009 Spanish film by director Alejandro Amenabar starring Rachel Weisz as Hypatia of Alexandria, a 4th century pagan mathematician sometimes credited (probably inaccurately) with inventing the astrolabe and hydrometer, but whose work on conic curves is well established.   Hypatia was brutally murdered by Christian zealots (depicted in the scene below).

The film has been criticized for being historically inaccurate.  Although Hypatia is considered "one of the mothers of mathematics", none of her work survived her death and the only information we have is from secondary sources.  Regardless of liberties taken, the film is worth watching, especially if you enjoy ancient historical dramas as I do, simply for the recreation of ancient Alexandria in the moments before the collapse of the Roman Empire (the film was shot in Malta), and for the poignant performance by Rachel Weisz.

Rational thought quashed by fundamentalism, the distrust of education and intellectual achievement (particularly of women), sexual violence as a means to intimidate an entire gender...  Is this what the 21st century proponents of the "Dark Enlightenment" advocate?

 

3 comments:

  1. "Rational thought quashed by fundamentalism, the distrust of education and intellectual achievement (particularly of women), sexual violence as a means to intimidate an entire gender... Is this what the 21st century proponents of the "Dark Enlightenment" advocate?"

    Basically. If you get the chance, check out radish mag. They have a 'heroes of the dorm entitlement' section complete with trading cards of their blogger heroes. It's actually kind of adorable :p

    And even though I'm kind of a nerd myself, the dork entitlement is so much of a 'revenge of the nerds' charicature it makes me lololol.

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    Replies
    1. Ella, I just took a quick peek. This is a parody, right, like The Onion? This can't be for real!!!

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  2. Is your final question in the bold type rhetorical? Because the answer is obviously yes.

    Normal Pap

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