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Here are some note-worthy quotes from this film:
"Perhaps no municipality can lay claim to greater achievements than the health, education and opportunity that it can provide for its future citizens."
"But the people who know and love Hamilton best are those who live there and take an active interest in its civic, its cultural, and its religious life. Those who call Hamilton home. For Hamiltonians are proud of their homes and the total absence of slum districts.”
"Here in the fire, smoke and thunder of a thousand moving forces, men toil and sweat for a brighter Canada and a better world. Yes, Hamilton is a city of industry, for beauty is as beauty does."
"But the people who know and love Hamilton best are those who live there and take an active interest in its civic, its cultural, and its religious life. Those who call Hamilton home. For Hamiltonians are proud of their homes and the total absence of slum districts.”
"Here in the fire, smoke and thunder of a thousand moving forces, men toil and sweat for a brighter Canada and a better world. Yes, Hamilton is a city of industry, for beauty is as beauty does."
Coincidentally, I watched this video via another source last night. In addition to the quotations you listed, I found it interesting that one of the reasons that the industrial glow that permeates the narration seems so quaint and naive to us is that it forces us to admit that there was a time in which the concept of "the future" still seemed applicable. At some point (when our temporal odometer rolled over at 2000 perhaps?) we started to develop a nostalgia for the future (which is to say, the future we once had in the past). Now we're in a movie after the credits have rolled. Cut? Print?
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree Hamilton is trapped by rolling movie credits, but I don't think that means the future is irrelevant... unless you know something I don't. As long as we're here, shouldn't we try writing another script? Part 2's, although never quite like the original movie, can still serve a purpose (and generate an income, which many people in Hamilton desperately need). Otherwise, I have nothing better to do with my time besides eating leftover, stale movie popcorn and I find that to be the less desirable option.
You make some excellent points, and I enjoyed how you've subverted my original movie metaphor. However, I wasn't arguing for the irrelevance of the future (which remains as relevant and vital as ever) but against the seductive but effacing temporal narrative of "post". Post-modern (po-mo to the hipsters), post-industrial, post-human, post-mortem, etc. Once we allow ourselves to become "post", then nostalgia becomes the only tenable position from which to try to find meaning.
ReplyDeleteOf course, "pre" has some issues as well. . .
Mmmmm, I think I understand. It's tricky business living in the present (not to be confused with pre-sent). I agree with you, words that begin with pre/post often suck. They suck because they offer little meaning for the hear and now, and perhaps even alienate us from it. I hope we are less about finding meaning, and more about creating meaning. That's kind of the whole purpose of this blog. I posted this video, not to trip over good old-fashioned sentimentality, but to maybe inspire us to be active agents within today's Hamilton.
ReplyDelete