Captain Underpants and The Philosophy of Humor! Edwardo Pérez One of the best scenes in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas is when Joe Pesci’s Tommy berates Ray Liotta’s Henry after Henry told Tommy “You’re really funny.” As Tommy repeatedly asks Henry: “How am I funny?” What’s great about the scene is that as funny as Pesci’s Tommy…
Finding The Better Angels Of Our Nature in The 100 Edwardo Pérez There are two things we need to survive: pain and fear. When they work right, they motivate us to preserve ourselves. But, if we let pain and fear overtake us, then the opposite happens and instead of fighting to live we convince ourselves…
Unnatural Selection in The 100 Edwardo Pérez Death is a fate we all share. And yet, we do whatever we can to give ourselves and our children an advantage over death, anything to increase the odds of survival to cheat death and prolong life, because most of us aren’t willing to accept its inevitability.…
The Gift of Death in The 100 Edwardo Pérez How do we want to die? It’s not a question most of us want to contemplate. We don’t want to think about the end of our lives much less plan them. End-of-life planning is something we put off or don’t do (or we buy stock in…
Choosing Smurfette Edwardo Pérez What’s a Smurfette? That’s the question that frames the narrative of the Smurfs: The Lost Village movie. In the film’s backstory (rooted in the Smurf mythology from the comic books and the 80’s television show), Smurfette – the only girl Smurf we’ve ever known (and in Lost Village, she’s voiced by…
Why Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Ghost In The Shell’ Remake Is Such A Failure “After the opening weekend, ‘Ghost in the Shell’ is a significant failure for everyone involved: actress, studio, and the Japanese anime genre. It’s not just a financial, but an artistic and imaginative failure.” Read more here.
Paradox of The Force III Rogue Redemption Edwardo Pérez Why do we need to be redeemed? What’s the point of redemption, atonement, or salvation? Why do things need to be made right? And, is one act enough to redeem a lifetime of doing wrong? Most religions incorporate redemption into the precepts of their respective faiths…
Learning from David Bowie “It was his life’s work to show us that we are unknown to ourselves, and that being thrown into question by this alien dimension of ourselves is really a message, as if from on high, that there is freedom and joy and perhaps even peace to be found in being otherwise…
Hair and Hedonism, Trolls the Movie By Andrea Zanin Originally cave-dwelling cretins roaming the annals of Scandinavian folklore, trolls – dense in constitution as well as intellect, unchristian and dangerous – were ripped from their mythological home by Thomas Dam in 1959 and ejected into the Danish town of Gjøl. Too poor to afford a…
Choosing Humanity in The 100 Edwardo Pérez How do we define humanity? Borrowing from feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (who suggested that women are made, not born), we might ask: are we born with our humanity or is it something that society creates for us? If it’s the former, why is it so difficult to…
The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series 