Hugo Santander

And truly, we only care for those we love
Hardly standing those who love us

This affection in turmoil, unbalanced
Casts light on the sadness of this world
Valley of tears where we desire far-away hearts
While scorning those we have

And on God, everlasting giver
Who loves us far beyond the grave
And whom we torment day and night
As a father who lost all

«She» in Poetry Magazine

Link

She was the water, the air, the fire,
A rock under the furious wind
Misguided by the ill-fated love,
I was a Sailor taken ashore by her stream

On a tree she carved the happiest days
Of a sordid life led by deceit
My eyes dismissed her beauteous face;
But my thoughts were simply absorbed by hers

Meditations

23/06/07
Hollywood cinema is an iconic cinema. Spectators see images that tell the tale. Their connotation is unique. Poor cinema is indexical. Spectators see images that suggest multiple images. Wise producers might save money by triggering imagination. Not surprisingly, independent cinema, third-world cinema and European cinema appear to be more creative.

The Essentials of Philosophy & Ethics

“That we conceive a narrative in terms of causes and consequences, recreating non-uttered conflicts and identifying with the characters of each conflict, is evident by our interest to know the resolution of a puzzle , a sport contest or a nightmare. Nonetheless, some narratives—such as Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, excel by virtue of their deliberate incompleteness. Although the boundaries between knowledge and narrative are tenuous—the etymology of the term refers to the Latin gnoscere (knowing), narrative is distinguished from discourse on account of its intention. Whereas narratives do not intend to prevail over each other, a discourse attempts to regulate meaning under the façade of objectivity.”

On Narrative

“The sudden discredit of the Scriptures, which until the raise of communism had been the ethical reference of millions of workers and peasants, left an ethical gap that was fulfilled with the writings of Lenin, Mao and Hitler…”

On God

Hugo Santander has provided the key entries on Narration and God for The Essentials of Philosophy & Ethics, published by Hodder Arnold (London), distributed in the United States by Oxford University Press

Essays

... Vladimir and Estragon are tortured by the evidence that Godot won't ever come, and yet they maintain their faith in him. Both characters, however, avoid any direct reference to faith...

Scepticism and faith in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

Book reviews

... Salman Rushdie belongs to that unfortunate group of writers and filmmakers who after a premature success find themselves in the quagmire of Status Quo complacency. Rushdie's characters do not utter a single line without taking their eyes off from the whimsical discourse of the Media... Not surprisingly, Fury is a melodramatic account of a love affair... in which the voluptuous heroine dies asserting that Galileo was right in affirming that the earth spins around the sun. The melodramatic effect of her final words is sadly spoiled by physics (the earth spins around the sun as the sun spins around the earth and both around the Milky Way: Galileo was not as right as we would like to believe), but by the lengthy reflections of Professor Malik Solanka. Rushdie captures in his hero the decadent discourse that most University Professors are forced to display in order to achieve their dubious reputation.

Rushdie, Salman, Fury

MANATI
Showcased in UK Channel 4

Link

"A Colombian film, that appears to become a 'trailer' for a longer, more personal documentary. To start with the dignified voice-over 'thought track' counterpoints the surrealist festive pictures so we apparently experience two stories in one, until a man in the crowd with a megaphone suddenly combines them into one powerful message & then the trailer starts"

FOURDOCS EDITOR

Art

Academic papers

... One of the greatest misconceptions of aesthetics is that poetry corresponds primarily to emotions: «There is no question, then, that a work of art is presented to sensuous apprehension» Thoughts appear to be the private privilege of philosophy. But emotions cannot exist by themselves. They require the assistance of the mind, or―as Kant pointed out in his third critique, they must be subordinated to the mind in order to become sublime.

Ascendancy of Poetry over Philosophy

Link

Theatre plays

Ali

My mother. She still lives. Every Friday she brings me groceries. And she cleans my house. I don’t like it. My Dad has not died as yet. I no longer have hopes to get his inheritance. You know. I know I will die first than him. My family owns eight buildings. And look where I live! I heard you are a drug-addict.

Faithfulness

Satires

All titans were sent by Zeus into the entrails of the sea. But you Titanic, a shipwreck as presumptuous as the gods, were made, sank and rescued by the uninformed

Theatre_reviews

Amongst all the greatest playwrights of the 20th century, Arthur Miller might be remembered as the most emotional writer of an unemotional milieu. Let’s put aside his repetitive discourse on inhuman capitalism, his stubborn or one-dimensional characters and his shallow and uninventive dialogues; only then we’ll be able to appreciate the emotional outpouring of opposite personalities or social forces: father and son, wife and husband, boss and employee, brother and brother.

Screenplays

Lucrecia walks through the Church corridor, circling around the various statues of the saints and martyrs.

She perceives pain in their faces: one has the eyes in his hands; another has her breast chopped on a dish; San Jeronimo's groin bleeds; San Sebastian's head is pierced by arrows.
She enters into the chamber. There, Jesus, bearing his thorn crown, stands at the confessional gate...

The Prophetess