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Richard Jernigan -> RE: Ferdinand (Jan. 7 2018 18:44:30)
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When I was five years old I received a copy of the original book, "Ferdinand." It must have been a present from my mother and her mother, who lived with us during World War II.
My grandmother had buried three husbands, due to illness and an accidental injury. She raised eight children on a family farm in northwestern Oklahoma. All five of her sons were in combat in the war. I had a father and two more uncles overseas, fighting the enemy. Both women were patriotic supporters of the war.
At age five I found the book fascinating: Ferdinand was presented in such a favorable light, and I was personally familiar with the aggressive character of bulls. But I didn't understand the message of pacifism. Even at that young age I could sense that the country was united in its support of the war effort, at home and overseas, as it never has been since. We boys hated the Germans and Japanese who were trying to kill our fathers and uncles. To play with the older boys I had to correctly identify all the airplane silhouettes, ours and the enemy's, in the plane spotters' deck of cards.
So "Ferdinand's" pacifist message was lost on me, just as I was unconscious of the great pre-war majority's support of isolationism and non-involvement, before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized the country to revenge.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Paul Magnussen
quote:
"Si no quieren ser aficionados a los toros, que no lo sean; pero que no los engañen: un toro bravo es un animal y no una persona."
So it’s not wrong to torment an animal, because animals don’t count? This is exactly (what was originally meant by*) begging the question:
quote:
The fallacy of founding a conclusion on a basis that as much needs to be proved as the conclusion itself.
Not being Spanish, I doubt that I share the reviewer's cultural context, be it pro- or anti-bullfight. But then I doubt that half of Spaniards do either, since a majority of younger Spaniards seem to be anti-torismo, and at least a sizable minority of older ones seem still to favor los toros.
I read the account of the film not as a lie, but as an allegory, asking the question, "How would the world be if bulls (or humans) refused to fight?"
But in reality, people fight. Children learn this on the schoolyard. Most male children and many females learn that they have to fight back.
I wonder what the reviewer thinks of John Lennon's "Imagine?"
RNJ
P.S. Thanks for the definition of "begging the question" which few seem to know these days.
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