{"id":111,"date":"2011-07-01T12:02:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T12:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lidaprypchan.org\/?p=111"},"modified":"2015-07-19T21:38:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-19T21:38:00","slug":"the-man-eating-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lidaprypchan.org\/?p=111","title":{"rendered":"THE MAN-EATING MACHINE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Lida Prypcha<\/b>n<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As though guided by a time machine, I was ready in thirteen minutes to visit Juan, who was sick. \u00a0\u201cThe noise of those machines is driving me crazy!\u201d \u00a0Juan yelled to me as I was going in. \u00a0They gave me a seat on the terrace, across from which there was some construction going on. \u00a0The workers observed me with curiosity, noting mine as I watched their tedious labor: they were feeding rocks, cement and sand into a wide-mouthed machine that narrowed toward the other end where it spewed out concrete. \u00a0The mixer kept on turning, thousands of times, As those tired, sweating men came and went along the same path, just so they could sit down at a bar a the end of the month and drink away their despondence, thinking of the house they would like and didn\u2019t have, let alone a stimulating job. \u00a0They stopped the machine, suspecting a blockage and one of them stuck his arms inside. \u00a0Deaf to his screams, the machine began turning again! \u00a0Two workers managed to drag him out and took him to the hospital, where both his arms had to be amputated \u2013 his life forever changed, in a mere instant! \u00a0The surprising thing is that even in the worst of circumstances the instinct for survival prevails. \u00a0Our bodies may give out when we least expect, yet we take care of our hides as if we\u2019ll last forever! \u00a0Resignation and the drive to somehow be useful is what that man\u2019s future will depend upon, for people who can paint with their feet or mouths don\u2019t live useless lives. \u00a0We sometimes acquire our skills under duress!<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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When I see what the will ban accomplish in the midst of great difficulties, I sense the desire to survive and am even more convinced that perseverance is stronger than fate. \u00a0On the other hand, it\u2019s sad to see a gifted person not taking advantage of his talents. \u00a0For someone gifted with intelligence not to use it, is as bad as if he never had any to start with; or, pursuing this idea, a person who wastes his intelligence proves that he lacks it, because if he\u2019s had any idea, a person who wastes his intelligence proves that he lacks it, because if he\u2019d had any, some day he would have become aware of the fact. \u00a0Anyway, it\u2019s one thing to have the ability to appear intelligent and quite another to be intelligent. \u00a0When I left the hospital I went back to Juan\u2019s house. \u00a0I sat down, staring into who knows what. \u00a0That whole incident seemed like a dream, a nightmare. \u00a0Instinctively, I turned on the television, where a documentary was showing shots of a huge car factory. \u00a0The men fitting the parts and screws together looked like puppets. \u00a0I switched it off, got up and drove to the movie theater. \u00a0When I arrived I found myself watching a movie about a man pursued by a machine, tightening its nuts up faster and faster\u2026I began to laugh without knowing why, whether from sorrow or mirth. \u00a0I believe it was more from sorrow, because my head was reeling with a mental image of blood-stained stones, cement and sand intermingled with two mutilated arms that had been ground into mincemeat, some forlorn moans and in the center of the action, that infernal mixing-machine, spinning round and round like a drunken prom queen, and I was there too \u2013 incapable of action and conscious of my impotence.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The movie was Modern Times, filmed in 1936, with Charlie Chaplin (born April 16, 1889, died December 1977). \u00a0To top it all, it was Tuesday the thirteenth. \u00a0Modern Times is an extraordinary vision of man being devoured by machinery. \u00a0It deals with the social problem of the working classes, the pariahs of life, about how the machine is turning man into an object, forcing him to his knees and becoming his executioner. \u00a0But implicit within, and carried off with humor, one of the best teaching methods, there is also a very human message. \u00a0For example, when Chaplin confronts the authorities in their attempt to jail the girl who stole a loaf of bread, he incriminates himself to protect her, and then cleverly extricates himself afterwards with his comic antics. \u00a0How winsomely she convinces the restaurant owner to hire Chaplin as a singing waiter, and how charmingly she writes the words of the song on his sleeve \u2013 which he later loses \u2013 then encourages him from a distance to sing whatever comes to mind, with quite an outcome! \u00a0It is the story of a beautiful relationship, rich in complexity, friendship and tenderness. \u00a0The couple doesn\u2019t experience the type of confrontation and competitiveness sometimes seen among couples today. \u00a0On the contrary, they assume their roles naturally, without affection, encouraging and accepting each other on a mutual basis. \u00a0Moreover, even though the movie is a comedy, it is not immune to the pathos characteristic of Chaplin\u2019s work.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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What finesse Chaplin had! \u00a0He would graze with a fingernail the thin curtain separating joy from sorrow to prove that they are but different acts of the same play, for indeed, without sorrow one could not feel joy. \u00a0In fact those who suffer the most intensely are able to experience the most joy. \u00a0Since we are on the subject of acting, I should also point out the similarity between the expression of pain and that of pleasure. \u00a0By adding the element of \u201cintensity\u201d, it could be said that extreme pleasure eventually causes pain just as extreme pain eventually causes pleasure.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 By Lida Prypchan \u00a0 As though guided by a time machine, I was ready in thirteen minutes to visit Juan, who was sick. \u00a0\u201cThe noise of those machines is driving me crazy!\u201d \u00a0Juan yelled to me as I was going in. \u00a0They gave me a seat on the terrace, across from which there was … <\/p>\n

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