Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

11 September 2003

In This World

2002, U.K.

director: Michael Winterbottom

In This World is a movie that Michael Winterbottom made on a shoestring about a pair of Afghan refugees who set out for London from Pakistan to find a better life. The movie follows Jamal and Enayat, played by non-actors, through Iran, Turkey, Italy, and France, using digital cameras to capture real locations and events that it uses to augment its fictional story. The story is so worthwhile and relevant that I almost feel guilty for thinking that the movie is a little shallow. We learn very little about the places that Jamal and Enayat pass through, which is probably true of fleeing refugees, too, but we also don't get a sense of the life they're leaving in Pakistan. This is an important omission for narrative reasons because someone facing constant danger is probably constantly asking himself whether it's worth it, and we can only assume that it is because the two keep pressing on. But it's also an important omission because the value of a movie like this is that it can reveal lives that we're ignorant of. The Iranian movies of Samira Makhmalbaf and her father Mohsen cover similar ground with greater depth, but the best comparison I can think of is La Promesse, the Belgian movie by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne about the lives of immigrants and the people they rely on for food, shelter, work, and transportation. La Promesse paints a clear picture of the pressures applied to all of the people involved. In This World does have some chilling sequences, and both of the main characters are likable and expressive, but the story's potential is far greater than what the movie has accomplished.

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