So what is my favourite moment? Too complex. I'm a libra! But surely one such is the great library of Alexandria.
This is an attempt to reconstruct it.
Carl Sagan described it this way.
And here too.
Here is a short history of the ancient one and here of the modern one.
Anyways. I am also very fond when I am not only going through History but als through Herstory. That is when I find women that get historical attention. Plenty of them when you look closely! See here, and here, and here, and here, and here.
So in Alexandria several things combine. My craving for books, my craving for people doing worth while things (Archimedes, Eurippedes, and more), my craving for Herstory all combine in Alexandria. Who is she? Hypatia the mathematician. And now they have made a movie about her! (web for Agora here).
Its Spanish and its not a cartoon like Gladiator or 300 and its fabulous. Well directed and conceived, great actors, true to many things in what really happened, dramatic, entertaining, educating. You have to see it. It even has a strong referense to religiously based politics of the modern day.
So what if the movie Hypatia discovered the laws of Kepler, the Copernican theory, the heliocentric theory and so on. Rachel Weizz does this well and basically - see it and think about its message.
If you want to get a better view on Burke go here - don't be afraid...
I saw Agora when it first came out in NYC and loved Weisz' performance as Hypatia. I thought the film was beautifully shot, a bit uneven, but a wonderful exploration of modern themes in a historical context. However, this is a fictionalized version of Hypatia's life. Many folks forget that this is the artist's way of making a point and believe it's all true. For more about the historical Hypatia, I recommend a very readable biography Hypatia of Alexandria by Maria Dzielska (Harvard University Press, 1995). I have a series of posts on the historical events and characters in the film at my blog - not a movie review, just a "reel vs. real" discussion, as well as a post on the history of the Great Library.
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