The Pensieve

This is the story of an autistic 15 year old boy, written from his point of view. sincerely speaking, I really liked the way he thought… it was all so logical. But I’m aware that in this world, logic isn’t everything. Logic can’t help us figure out emotions or feelings, it can’t help us to understand the subtle nuances… like the tone of sarcasm in a person’s voice, or perhaps, what a single lifted eyebrow might mean. People who function based on logic are often perceived as cold, emotionless, maybe even cruel.

Despite chris’ lack of ability to feel the normal range of emotions we all do, he did make a really interesting observation:

Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think primer numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.

I also liked this mathematical question a lot! a whole lot!!! It’s called The Monty Hall Problem.

You are on a game show on television. On this game show the idea is to win a car as a prize. The game show host shows you three doors. He says that there is a car behind one of the doors and there are goats behind the other two doors. He asks you to pick a door. You pick a door but the door is not opened. Then the game show host opens one of the doors you didn’t pick to show a goat (because he knows what is behind the doors). Then he says that you have one final chance to change your mind before the doors are opened and you get a car or a goat. So he asks you if you want to change your mind and pick the other unopened door instead. What should you do?

According to our intuition, there is a 50-50 chance, but according to Marilyhn vos Savant (with the highest IQ in the world in the Guinness Book of World Records), you should always change and pick the final door because the chances are 2 in 3 that there will be a car behind that door.

Here’s the reason why:

It’s a good book to read, especially for those who are in contact with autistic children. Such as the parents, teachers, friends… and so on…

Many copies of this book are available in libraries islandwide (gosh, now I sound like I’m advertising for the National Library Board…)

Scare factor: 2/5
Cinematography: 3.5/5

‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’ is a film chronicling the haunting trial of a priest accused for negligence of a 19 year old college student whom he believed to be possessed by demons. An exorcism was attempted but failed, subsequently, Emily died a horrible death. In an extremely rare decision, the Catholic Church officially recognised the possession. Interestingly, although the jury found Father Moore to be guilty of ‘negligence leading to the death of Emily’, they did not require him to serve time in jail. So in a way, he walked away from the trial as a ‘free’ man.

I like her hair! The gradations of colours and the curls!!!

The lawyer in-charge of the case, a woman who’s virtually an atheist, actually found her faith through this experience. By faith, I don’t mean faith in religion, rather, it’s the desire to ‘walk the right path’.

Can’t believe she was actually possessed by SIX demons! 2 of which I hadn’t come across much despite the voracious reading of horror stories and related trivial…
Here’s the info abt Belial and Legion

My favourite horror scene:
Jason, Emily’s boyfriend, wakes up in bed only to find that Emily has gone missing… and then… the camera pans to show the contorted body of Emily on the floor, with her looking catatonic and spastic, limbs awry and pupils dilated. oooh… great shock effect!
Unfortunately I can’t find a picture of it.

Most comic scene:
During the ghastly exorcism scene, the priest told the doctor:
Dr… please take her vital signs!
Dr: her pulse is 180 beats per minute, it’s going too fast!
-_-

Most ‘illogical’ fact:
If the demons/evil influences could prevent the Dr from becoming a witness at the trial (he was a very credible witness as well as eye witness) so easily by running him down by a truck (and ya, I was expecting that scene, but I can’t say that I wasn’t wowed by its swiftness and abruptness!) then why don’t they just kill off the lawyer or the priest?
Then again, if that was done, I suppose there wouldn’t be any more story and I wouldn’t be writing this review now. Heh.

The best soliloquy:
The closing statement done by the lawyer… It’s all about fact and possibilities… Can’t remember it in totality now, but it was really good and probably effective in helping to secure a favourable ruling eventually.

The aftermath of the film:
oooo close to 12midnight… walking home, and guess what were the scariest things I saw?
- a burning smell (heh heh… but I think was due to the haze, it’s not uncommon anywayz…)
- a Malay guy (at least I thought he was Malay, from his speech and appearance) drinking 8.4% ALOCHOL!
- a Malay woman who whipped out her mobile and started yakking loudly in perfect Mandarin and Hokkien!