Imitation Game is a very good movie that follows a very traditional Hollywood model. Many changes might take place in the world but it’s comforting to know that Hollywood movies will not deviate even by a hair’s breadth from the tested and true model.  I’m not entirely happy that I went, though, because N had no idea why Turing had killed himself and now that he’s found out he is extremely sad.

On the positive side, the actor who plays teenage Turing is truly talented. I hope he sticks with acting because he has a great future in it.

In what relates to the collapse of the nation-state  (what, did you think it wasn’t going to make an appearance?), the film offers a very curious retelling of WWII from today’s understanding of war not as a series of grand battles but, rather, as a game played by complex
machines operated by nerds who never see any military action. The actual soldiers have descended from their pedestal of heroes and have become unimportant pawns who will only live if the nerds allow them to. The true war heroes are now gadgets and those who know how to use them.

Of course, in order for such a plot to make any sense at all it has to be pinned together rather inelegantly from very incongruous elements. The Soviet spy crammed into the middle of everything in quite a jarring manner allows the story to remain somewhat believable  (but only if you flunked history in high school). It doesn’t matter, however, because the movie isn’t about history. It’s about a new vision of warfare trying to colonize the past and impose itself over previous narratives.

Highly recommended but with a warning that the ending is very tragic.

N and I decided to go to the movies.

“There is this movie Selma that everybody says is great. It’s about MLK and the Civil Rights movement, very topical. And there is a movie about some guy called Tubing or Turing. . .”

After hearing the name “Turing”, N started making incoherent but happy noises, indicating an immediate readiness to be reunited with a movie about this fellow. He also delivered a small lecture on something called “Turing machine”, from which I gathered that Turing is very meaningful to programmers.

So the Turing movie it is.

Blatter said he had spoken with Putin during a visit to Russia on Friday and was assured “there is no intention to ask FIFA to change anything in the pattern and the program of the World Cup and we trust Russia will find a solution.”

Oh, I  wouldn’t worry either. The oligarchs are getting restless, and Putin needs the World Cup to give them a chance to compensate themselves for the pain and suffering of the sanctions. The Olympics were a phenomenal opportunity for the lucky few to siphon off an enormous portion of the state money set aside for the Olympics. Now the same thing will happen during the preparations for the World Cup.

Of course, this will impoverish the people of Russia even further but that’s OK. They are ready to go hungry in return for everybody noticing their existence. If you want to understand what a narcissistic trauma on a collective level looks like, observe the Russians.

Imagine a situation when somebody brushes you slightly with their shopping cart, opens the door without seeing that you are there, cuts in front of you in the line by mistake and says, “Oh, I’m sorry” or “My apologies.”

What is your response?

The reason I’m asking is that in this region people invariably respond with, “Oh, you are fine.” Not “I’m fine” or “it’s fine”, which would make sense to me but “You are fine.”

Example:

“I’m so sorry!”

“You are fine!”

I haven’t been able to get used to this in six years. The response sounds so bizarre to me. My question is: is this a regional thing or is it more wide-spread?