On Movie Turning points and endings

So a few thoughts on movies and significant turning points and on ending strongly.

The song Tum Se Hi in Jab We Met. Till this song , the movie is a run of the mill Boy meets Girl and falls in love without realising it movie. However the song is what sets up the rest of the movie convincingly. When you see the song , you believe that Shahid Kapur's character does really love Kareena Kapoors character. The lyrics of the song fit perfectly with the picturisation. It also shows Shahid's character is willing to sacrifice his chance of happiness for Kareena's, without ever declaring his love. Beautifully sung, uplifting, great lyrics. This is what makes the movie.
You can see Kismat Konnection attempting the same thing , but not succeeding.

One of the things Hindi movies don't ever get right are endings. Perhaps storytellers and directors don't think the audience is mature enough, they feel that the audience must be spoon fed, not are they able to create open ended movies.

In Rocket Singh, towards the end the movie should end with Rocket Singh walking away from the antagonist. The antagonist has stated that he has lost the battle , but the war has begun and he will meet Rocket in the battle field. Rocket walking away with the paper in his hand would be the indication that he will meet him there. There really is no need to show the organisation formed along with the supporting characters.

In Hum Tum towards the end Saif Ali Khan states he believes life is long enough and he will meet Rani Mukherjee. That should be the end. There is no need to show her waiting for him

Rang De Basanti has a Khoon Chala song where the various protagonists life changes - the movie could end there. The people whose life had no purpose get a purpose. The communal character sees the problem in supporting communal policies and goes to aid his foe. The movie could end there instead of the filmi ending.

None of the proposed endings are satisfying to people who like to see a definite conclusion. But here's the thing - the endings would make you think about the characters, about what next. And that should be one of the goals of entertainment.

A humanist creed

Happiness is the only good.
The time to be happy is now.
The place to be happy is here.
The way to be happy is to make others so.
This creed is somewhat short , but it is long enough for this life, strong enough for this world.
If there is another world, when we get there we can make another creed

R.G. Ingersoll

Compare with any other creed.

On Gay Marriage

If the only thing I knew on this topic was that most (if not all) people opposed to gay marriage were religious, it would be sufficient for me to support gay marriage, but that's an ad hominem reason. So here goes.
Being allowed to marry obviously matters to gay people, not only for emotional reasons, but also for the rights that marriage automatically confers. Depriving the right to them, then does hurt gay people, whereas granting them the right hurts no one ( well except for those religious nuts who fell aggrieved when they are referred to as Party A and Party B instead of husband and wife). If we assume that in our lives we try to minimise hurt, then its clear we must support gay marriage.
Now that should convince most reasonable people, but religious nuts aren't exactly reasonable, and much energy and effort must be spent debating and refuting stupid stuff like(some strawmen , but hard to distinguish from real arguments , thanks to Poe's law)

• The traditional definition of marriage is a union between one man and one woman.

Now first this is a lie. Most cultures defined marriage as between one man and many women (and generally underage women). Women were traditionally treated as property and were sold. And if you go back far enough , you probably had no such thing as marriage. But even if it were true, that something is traditional doesn't make it right (slavery was traditional, sati was traditional, racism was traditional...)

• Gay people are recruiters!

Coming from religious people , this is a laugh. No baby is ever born religious or knows or cares about religion.

• The human race would end.

Uhh no.

• Being gay is a sin.

Only if you obsess about sex and sexual positions.

• My religion says this is a sin, I'm religious and so I must oppose gay marriage.

Well your religion also tells you to donate a good percentage of your money to charity, be a really nice person, don't judge anyone , love everyone, why don't you practise those first?

• God will punish us if we permit gay marriage. The world will end! Do you not know what happens in Sodom and Gomorrah???

Considering the number of truly evil people who exist in this world (a good percentage of them religious) about whom God has done absolutely nothing, this isn't really convincing. Also see above

• Our children will become gay.

Its quite possible, that even if you banned gay marriage, your children still might be gay. What are you going to do then? Are you going to abandon them? call them sinners? tell them how they are to burn in hell? or will you wish them happiness?

• I find it offensive to see gay people demonstrate their affection publicly

Close your eyes.

• People persecute us for our views on marriage

Uhh , straight people can get married any time, gay people can't. who is persecuting whom?

• Im religious , and I should be allowed to be a bigot.

Go see a psychiatrist

• Being gay is a choice

When did you choose to be straight? were you gay up till that time? And who cares whether its a genetic determination or whether its a choice?

Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar hit his 43rd century in a dead match against Sri Lanka and in the BBC message boards someone mentioned that Sachin Tendulkar is The Greatest Batsman and there was the usual debate no Lara is better , he hit more double hundreds against Australia, no Bradman is the greatest...
To compare Bradman to Tendulkar is silly. They played in different era's faced different opposition and it was a different game then. Who you call the greatest depends on what criteria you choose to define greatness. You can make it purely subjective ofcourse, but thats a wasted argument. You might say that the average is the most important factor in determining the greatest batsman in which case its Bradman, you might just as easily say its the number of hundreds. And that is what most people tend to do, choose the criterion that allows them to arrive at the conclusion they want. Dont like Tendulkar, say how many matches has he won for India singlehandedly (I can name four , all against Australia)? This is by far the most irritating question. Recently when India had to chase what was it 340 and Tendulkar made 150+ runs and we still lost, numerous people commented he couldn't finish the job, it's just like Chennai, he doesn't win matches for India. I'm not sure why people expect Tendulkar to overcome bad bowling and mediocre batting by the rest of the team? It is as good as saying that Bradman was crap in the bodyline series because England won the ashes. Besides you cannot determine how much of a contribution a batsman makes. Is 50 runs a match winning performance? What is statistically true is if Tendulkar plays well , more often than not, India wins.
The first memory of Tendulkar playing a match is when I was still at St Stanislaus. India were playing their old foe Pakistan, in Pakistan and the only two batsmen who were making runs were Sanjay Manjrekar and a 16 year old prodigy named Tendulkar. We weren't familiar enough to call him Sachin then. I dont remember whether it was that series or some other but Tendulkar was 80 not out, the Indian media was going ga ga over the youngest to be centurion, and the next day Tendulkar hit 2 fours and promptly got out.
We knew he was good then. The next time I got an inkling of how good was when in some one day series I think it was against New Zealand or in New Zealand he was sent to open to exploit the field restrictions , copying Mark Greatbatch , and our very own Krishnamachari Srikkanth. And he hammered the bowling. This was like watching Kapil Dev or Viv Richards. And then expectations were set. If Tendulkar didn't make a run a ball he was out of form. He kept making quick fire 40-60's and one day after he reached 80 he braked and just took singles till he reached his century. And it was I think Ravi Shastri who prophetically pronounced that now that he knows he can do it, there will be many more to come.
And they did.
It was somewhere along here that the Indians could conclude, here is the greatest batsman from India, atleast in his generation. Here was someone who could make it to the great West Indian team on merit (soon to be replaced by the not so great Australian team). Here was someone who was world class, and in a nation of 1 billion under achievers there are a precious few we can call world class in sports (Anand, Paes/Bhupathi and a couple other Olympic medalists).
Its perhaps this that makes us say Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest batsman of his time , yes there was Lara, some say Ponting, but no matter what , the amount of joy Tendulkar has given us, only made more so by the disappointments we have faced when he gets out when we need him , when he doesn't give the team the start it requires in a crunch match, in unmatched. When India is chasing 300+ there is noone who doesn't hope that Tendulkar gets off to a good start (no matter how many times they may lament he has failed), and whether or not he is the greatest, our greatest expectations have always been from him.

Whence evil

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/09/an-old-debate.html

Sigh.
Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent.
Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
- Epicurus

Andrew can talk as much as he wishes about paradoxes, suffering being a part of fallen creation, or of recognizing one's mortality, but I doubt he has an answer to Epicurus.

Argumentum Ad Populum

As someone who has been asked on multiple occasions whether I think I'm smarter than all the religious folks out there, this is hilarious
(From Jesus And Mo)

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

And do you think that unto such as you;
A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew:
God gave the secret, and denied it me?--
Well, well, what matters it! Believe that, too.

An interesting question

came across an interesting post along with comments
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/08/i_get_email_40.php#comments
Note that while most religious people say they want to have a discussion what they mean is Let me try to convince you , but there's nothing you can say that will make me change my mind.
But before I attempt to answer the question , lets draw some boundaries. Does God exist is a different question than Does the God of my religion exist. The former is a difficult question to answer. To paraphrase Carl Sagan , it all depends on what you mean by God, if for e.g. God is love then of course God exists. The latter God of religion is an easier question to answer because we do have a definition of the God and some of his or her properties. The God of religion also makes some in theory testable assertions. The God of religion also makes some demands of us , so it is easier to examine them. Of course some religions make this harder than others. Its easier to analyze Judaism, Christianity or Islam because there are fixed doctrines. Its more difficult to analyze Hindusim or Buddhism because the doctrines aren't that fixed. Don't believe in Vishnu? Thats ok, you can still call yourself a Hindu. Don't like Shiva? Worship Kali and your fine.
Back to Nikki's question and comments. various posters in the comments have all pointed out the contradictions, the inaccuracies , the errors and the problems in religion. So I wont reiterate those here, Ill just look at the things that don't seem to be covered

She makes a common request , Why should I not believe? - Thats the wrong question (People don't need a reason to not believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster). Bertrand Russel's Flying teapot analogy proving that the onus is on the believer. The question is why should you believe? What benefits do you get.?
Lets take a look at the common answers to the what benefits does religion provide? (And Ill look at only the positive reasons , not the You'll go to hell if you don't follow my religions instructions, which are really so pathetic that I can only shake my head)
a. It either provides a set of rules or a set of guidelines that help me determine what's right and whats wrong.
b. It makes me a better person
c. It's a social tool that people use to meet


a. Religion provides us a set of guidelines and rules to determine right from wrong
Suppose Religion has a guideline that after consideration you find feels wrong. What should you do? Its clear that most of us would follow what our brain decides is the right thing. In which case how is religion any different from Aesop's fables
b. It makes me a better person
If the religion is conclusively proven false(somehow) then do you lose the betterness?
c. It's a social tool that people use to meet
Well other social tools exist, the social bit that religion promotes is normally divisive. Meet people like you, be with people like you, marry people like you, let your children play with children whose parents are like you. I'm not sure how this is a positive.

Bachelors Recipe - Challenge

Use 1 tsp chilli powder, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp cumin cumin powder, 1 tbsp coriander powder, 1/2 tsp tamarind concentrate, 1 1/4 tsp salt, and any other ingredient in normal quantities along with any vegetable of your choice and come up with a totally bland and tasteless curry.
Go!

Google this!

Life Science Research
Clinical Diagnostics
Spectroscopy
Process Separations
Food/Animal/Environment Testing
Life Science Education

Grant Morrison

Just finished reading Batman : R.I.P. by Morrison. I have read most of morrison's stuff , the notable exception being Invisibles and SeaGuy. Invisibles isn't available in any library and it doesn't seem to be something I want to own. R.I.P. left me with the same feeling I have when I read most of Morrison works, brilliant for the most part but ultimately there isn't a satisfying conclusion. However there are almost always moments of such excellence that make the whole experience worth the time and money. In R.I.P. there is a moment when Batman (of zur en arrh) asks Batmite "Are you really a magical imp from the 5th dimension or are you a figment of my imagination" . Batmite replies "Imagination is the 5th dimension. Some world's greatest detective you are' . For a line like that , I'd buy the entire book. Elegant and new.
A common feature of most of Morrison's work is that there is always something new , some experiment or the other. Not all work , Not all I understand, but I'm happy he tries.

Bits and Pieces

via cricinfo regarding the IPL

Amar from India faces a conundrum. "My dad (an army officer) is from Rajasthan, my
mother is from punjab. I was born in Hyderabad, grew up in Chennai and Bangalore. Went to college in Kolkota and work in Mumbai.
Who do i support? Delhi?"

which summarises both the diversity and the love of cricket in India.

Watched Star Trek, loved seeing Nimoy even in his two bit role and wished that Kirk and McCoy could have both made cameos, except that McCoy has passed away. Didnt like Sylar's portrayal of Spock even though he looked like the spitting image of Spock, he played the role with too much arrogance and contempt. Whereas Spock was only logical. Spock had both impassivity and the hint of amusement in his eyes when he wished to display arrogance. Ah well maybe this is the start and Sylar intended to play Spock this well , and we will see the journey of Spock becoming Spock.
Chris Pine has none of the charm and the swashbuckling looks that Shatner had, nor does he ham as badly as Shatner, but what the heck i miss shatner hamming it too. And yeah Bones is sorely missed. But I still liked the movie as a start and I hope the next one is better, which reminds me , its time to put a hold on the wrath of khan!.

A lot of talk about Miss California having the right to her opinion. Ofcourse she does and ofcourse we have the right to laugh at her stupidity and judge her it. Wanton ignorance combined with prejudice , ah well, nature compensates.

And the Congress wins in India , hopefully will have some young uncorrupt folks who will do some good. One can hope

And more examples against a personal God, but the tragedy is not mine , so I will not mention it here. Suffice to say I wish all the remaining happiness in the world to a dear friend of mine, and I hope it doesnt happen to anyone else in this world.

The things God could do...

All religion (well almost all of them) involve God interfering umm interacting with humans in some form or the other. All religion also uniformly assert God is good and cares about you.
So note the video below applies to all religion's not just the one its targetted to.


I wonder how the religious justify a loving , caring God

Everybody has a Broken Link

True story
Tester : I need to get a report of broken links on the site
Lead : The report is available on WebTrends.
Tester : Ok, I need to verify the report is correct, Can I have a list of broken links?
Me : Umm , you can just type any url that doesn't exist like dev/web/XYZ and you should get a broken link that you can see on the report.
Tester : Ok, I see. So do you have a list of all the urls like /XYZ that I can use?

Who watches the watchmen

So I watched the movie, and even though it is a faithful reproduction of the book , it's nowhere near as great as the book. Also watched Hugh Laurie/Stephen Fry in Jeeves and Wooster which is also faithful and well enacted , but nowhere near as good as the P.G. Wodehouse book it has adapted and I wonder whats the difference?
And I guess, for me atleast , its because of the innate superiority of the book medium over the movie medium, which in no particular order are
1) You have to use your imagination. No matter how good a director or actor is, no matter how good the special effects are , your imagination can always beat them. And the visual drawn form will always be better than the real life actors. Ozymandias in the comics looked as he should. In the movie , he just looks weird/funny. They say in comics, whats not shown between the panels has to be as good as what is shown , because the reader fills in those gaps. However in a movie you are normally shown most of it. Some directors like Hitchcock excelled in what a good comic does so beautifully, what is not shown can be as terrifying or as beautiful as what is.
2) You can read at your own speed. You can read it again immediately, you can flip back anytime. Perhaps you can do this with a recorded movie but its not the same (and everyone knows to get the real experience , you have to go to a theatre). While reading watchmen , I had to pause and reread multiple pages. I didn't the significance of the Reverse symmetry chapter till I read the annotations online. I had to reread the Ozymandias dialog at the end. I had to reread the rorshachs origin. I had to reread Rorshachs death. Everytime I read a P.G. Wodehouse book, I would pause and laugh before continuing to read. Some of the scene descriptions are hilarious which are ofcourse absent from the serial.
3) Some books are serialized and continue for years, and are multilayered (like Sandman, Lucifer). While some movies can make the same claim , they rarely have the same scope. The multilayering aspect too is pretty much limited. TV series could have made the same claim , but there are precious few. Truthfully there are few books that do the above though.

100

(Not a sequel to Frank Miller's book)
And so a landmark post, which was meant to represent a new writing beginning. This blog originated as a way to write (based on Neil Gaiman's recommendation that the first thing any budding writer should do is actuall write) anything, so that I could see what I liked and disliked about my own writing. If I read the earlier posts , I find them much funnier than the latter ones (or atleast attempt to be funny). I see that most of time is spent writing about
a. Books especially Comics
b. Religion
c. Sports
d. Politics.
So a summary of what has been so far
Books! The only place where we get to see dialogue like
Monk : Seek not revenge, Seek the Buddha instead
Fox : the monk told me to seek the Buddha instead of vengeance
Dream King: That is good advice. Vengeance is a never ending path. And..?
Fox : I shall seek the Buddha....But first, I shall seek revenge!
And she does ofcourse.
Though in someways there are fewer good books and a lot more mediocre ones than what I remember. Perhaps I have read all the great ones already.
And there is no thrill of the hunt. When we had no money and had to raid the various raddi shops, a single book gave a lot of happiness (and rereads). But now when I can afford most books, the thrill of the search is gone , as are the rereads. There was a time I knew the number and cover of every comic I had, and now I cant remember which friend has my books.
But there is hope, I've introduced Lucifer to a new comics reader, which thrilled me.

Religion
I think the headline of my blog sums this up
while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Ive often been asked (by the same person) why I dwell so much on religion if I dislike it so. And the answer has always been because it affects me!. And among the major problems faced by society , religion is probably in the top 10.
Perhaps the thing that irritates me the most about religion is the hypocrisy. (e.g. oh our religion teaches us to be humble, but you'll are all wrong only my religion is correct, or oh you need religion to tell you what is moral, you disbelievers are immoral, and the followers of my religion who are immoral, well they aren't real followers,or oh look at that religion , its so funny , how could people believe in something so stupid, oh my religion? all of the funny unbelievable things are miracles. or oh look at all the violent stuff in that religion? the violent stuff in my religion? thats only descriptive/thats a metaphor/ dont take everything literally or...) That was meant to be one example.
Its also that some conclusions are inescapable. If your religious God is Good(any commonly accepted definition of good), and is capable of making a difference or a change and chooses not to (and we know from all the religious tomes that he is capable of making differences) , then he can't be Good. Whenever Im told of how some God actually healed the sick, Im reminded of a comment, So you have this omnipotent God, who can cure, actually cure people with a touch but chooses to do so only to a select few people, how good could he be?
Any road (thanks Robbo) to conclude with an anecdote
When Captain Sullenberger was asked whether he prayed during the Hudson river landing,he said something to the effect of "I was busy taking care of the plane. I was pretty sure that the passengers were taking care of the praying."

Sports
Being in a country obsessed more with the show then with the sport and with one of the absolute worst sports in the history of mankind, has dampened the enthusiasm for sports. Oh for the days of watching cricket and a little english premier league football, some golf, some NBA, and look there's even a kabbadi match, some tennis, some hockey .. sigh.. Im down to why the heck does cricinfo not refresh faster! how about some AJAX,you useless developer!!!

Politics
The only thing that leaves a worse taste in your mouth than religion (hey we aren't discussing my cooking so it doesnt count). It's sad to see that American politicians are as bad and in some cases worse than their Indian counterparts. If I ever approve of the death penalty, it will be because some politician is on trial.

Bachelors Recipe - 2 - Barbecue Flavored Aloo Bhindis

a) Step 1 Find a suitable recipe invoving aloo and bhindi using google. Bonus points for entries with terms like 'no recipes that require a lot of effort and hardwork' (http://thelaidbackcook.wordpress.com/2007/06/05/aloo-bhindi/)
b) Follow the steps in the recipe to the letter except use less oil and a slightly screwed up non stick pan.
c) Keep cooking till a thick black layer forms at the bottom. This will give the Bhindi its smoky barbecue flavor.
Enjoy!

Reviews

For a change the movies I have watched and the books that i have bought and read have turned out to be surprisingly very good beginning with

Mumbai Meri Jaan : A typical slice of life movie woven around the serial train blasts in Mumbai. Typical characters , cliched even but not completely typical or cliched. Sickeningly sweet in bits , the movie is still acted out very well and has a semi realistic story. And of course to hear at the end yeh hain BOMBAY meri jaan still pleases me.

Rock On : A movie that tries very hard to be Dil Chahta hain and doesn't succeed but is still very watchable and has a new look cast which has acted decently. Completely predictable but a polished execution and a friends apart coming back together for a competition story keeps your attention. Th music with its silly lyrics(kyon aasman hain neela , paani kyon lagta hain gila??) has a very authentic feel to it and you cant help but sing along. And it looks like Farhan Akhtar is always associated with quality products (I also just saw Positive on youtube).
Oh and I almost forgot , a first in Hindi movies(well except for Ardh Satya), there is a character who is named Shetty and who isn't a gangster. Will wonders never cease?

Star Trek : The Original Series : Season 1 : I remember Star Trek as this action packed , ultra cool sci fi adventure series that we eagerly looked to watch every week on doordarshan. It comes as a surprise then to see almost no action, William Shatner hamming all the time, great special effects which consist of tilting the camera to show the enterprise shaking, and a toy model of the starship every time it goes through space. Spock is not Spock yet. But the episodes are still charming and I still love seeing them because it's still better than the stuff that gets put out these days.

Jon Stewart on Comedy Central : It is a statement about America, that the best political reporting is coming out on a humor show. Watch Jon Stewart demolish Karl Rove, Bill O 'Reilly among other republican partisans and also the reformed maverick John McCain. And wonder why these aren't Democratric ad's on TV.

Hitman/ JLA : I remember reading the first Hitman / Bloodlines event and it being ho hum , till Hitman got his own series , and we got a copy of the first hitman collection through vicky. And oh wow, it was simply great. I picked up the other collections when I could and Garth Ennis easily tops Preacher in Hitman. And he returns to Hitman in this two parter and it has Action/Humor/Sentiment and all done very very well. What can I say , except , Tommy was here too!.

Married SuperMen

There is a storyline that just finished in the SpiderMan book's where they ret conned his entire marriage , as part of his attempt to save his aunt, Peter Parker cuts a deal with the devil of the marvel universe and is no longer married to M.J. and does not know that he was ever married to her(yes , some comics are still that silly). Anyway some of the fans were in uproar and since this seemed to be an editorial driven story, Joe Quesada said he doesnt like the concept of married super heroes, and that there is no story he can tell with a married superhero that he can't tell with an unmarried one, but there are plenty of stories he can tell with an unmarried superhero that he can't with a married one.
And I think , that he is ofcourse talking rubbish. When Clark Kent married Lois Lane, i had to get Craig's mother , then on a cruise, to stop at a port and buy me the wedding of Superman comic book , and it was too good. It was sentimental, mushy , it had all the writers and artists of the comic book present at the wedding , and it was fun. And now it is tough to imagine an unmarried Superman, and the stories havent suffered much (though there are still bad superman stories as there always were). And if you ever read Whatever happened to the man of tomorrow story, that really is a perfect send off for superman, the way superman should end, and what do you know, in the end he is married to Lois Lane with kids. Some things are just meant to be.
Batman though is a different character. You would never expect or want to see him married and settled down with kids. Batman is an obsessive character and remove the obsession and he no longer is the same character. Batman is the loner.
And so it's not a question of how many different types of stories you can tell (someone has said there are only 7 seven types of unique stories in the word and everything else is a mixture of the 7 in varying degrees) , but it is how well you can tell them. Keith giffen and J.M. de matteis used humour to depict The elongated man and Sue dibny and it worked, till Brad Meltzer , for reason's best known to him killed off Sue. But if you read the next mini by Keith and J.M. written after Identity Crisis but placed before Identity Crisis timewise (yes comics are still that confusing) where you as a reader know that Sue will die but the characters themselves don't , it was both funny and touching and bittersweet , and how many stories can claim to be all of those?
And if you read 52, with a suicidal Ralph, who is finally reunited with Sue, oh wow, what an end , and a new beginning,try telling that story , Mr Quesada, with an unmarried superhero.
the problem with the comics though is that they run for a long long time. and just like any soap opera that has outlived its welcome, the writers try to find new (old) ways to shock the audience and get them interested again. And unfortunately all are cliches (infidelity. misunderstandings over infidelity, death, divorce, memory loss, etc etc.) and all of these solutions taint the characters. Can you imagine clark kent divorcing his wife? No? how about we kill her off then? get a new romantic interest and a new wedding? would sure boost up sales!
and I guess that's why Vertigo with it's mostly finite in time stories which have a beginning middle and end , turn out to be written so much better than the unlimited batman/superman.

Kingdom Come

For those who have read Kingdom Come and marvelled(!) at the art , only to realise on subsequent readings that what made this book great was not (just) the artwork , but the writing and the story, here's a tale for us
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17538

Expect this article to make sense only after you've read Kingdom Come.