Opinion essay: the selective forbidding of culture

"You're going to fly
High in the sky
You want your place in the sun"
"Place In The Sun" - Chris Child

Everybody should have the right to earn a living out of what they like to do. I think denying that would be far  away from following my own argumental line and even further away from advocating for human freedom. However, when it comes to culture, I think there is an ethical black hole in the way this aspect is being treated.

Yes, before you ask, I endorse piracy. It is illegal, and it harms the people I admire the most, but it has that effect because of reasons far from the grasp and control of those commiting that illegality. Let me be clear about it, if an artist is known enough, the fact that their content is available for free makes them even more known by system: everyone can know them without paying a cent; and also makes those who already know the artist able to enjoy all of their content regardless of their economic position. And, if the artist is good enough, a big enough fraction of their fanbase will voluntarily want to pay of that content in order to support its creator: I have bought music myself, but the same tracks I acquired by paying are tracks I had downloaded for free previously so I could be sure they were good enough.

I advocate for culture, and I sure do advocate for those enjoying it to support their creator, but I also do advocate for freedom and sharing of ideas, concepts and feelings, and I think that is what art is. The reason why artists are suffering from piracy is no other than the unnecessarily overgrowing comission promotors, record labels and other parasites inherently super-necessary structures are taking. Of course those structures do help artists considering how art industries work, but in a perfect world they wouldn't even exist.

The closing of goear for Spanish computers and devices, for example, comes to my mind. I've always used goear as a reliable source for audios, music and other platforms I'm happy to use in my blog. It's not forbidden in many countries, and it appears as obvious to me that if our government was based on any other pronciple than money greed it wouldn't even be so here.

Film review: Alice Through the Looking Glass

"The normals, they make me afraid
The crazies, they make me feel sane"

"Mad Hatter" - Melanie Martinez 

Last week, it was the second time I went out with my brother to see a movie at the cinema. Since we did it for the first time with Ratchet & Clank the week before, I find it a nice, fun and good habit to keep up with, and I'd certainly do it again, without a shadow of a doubt.

This time that I'm talking about we went to watch Alice Through the Looking Glass, the second part of the venerated and revered version of Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton. Regarding that first movie, I must say it definitely holds a special place between my favourite films of all time: the way the story is gracefully changed in order to make an original and epic new plot, the ellegantly redesigned characters, everything introduced by the movie was awesome, surprising and thrilling.

However, when it comes to the second part, I found it was a bit disappointing at times. Don't get me wrong, the concept, the figure represented by a strong main character refusing to play the social role given by her time and social estate, the way the element of Time is personalized and represented, the replenishing of dark spots in the story by the exploration of the characters' past, every main characteristic was just wonderful and amazing.

The thing is, the target public this time seemed to be even younger, and being a sixteen-year-old with a twenty-year-old by my side felt even a bit unconfortable at some times. It was not an important flaw, but it added some imperfections to the artistic-narrative side of the film. The incoherence of, for example, Time, when he is super-friends with Alice after everything that happens, as an example, makes me cringe, and even my brother pointed that same detail out when we were getting out of the cinema. The first movie, at least from our perspective, was more enjoyable also for older watchers, and it shone precisely because of that artistic faction.

Though, I think that element of approaching younger viewers also gives good points to the film: if you've seen it, I'm pretty sure you can refer to a spot or two where you laughed! Ratchet & Clank had the same "flaw," to say it somehow, and it was still a great movie!