Hugo got interested in Leonardo da Vinci's inventions recently (triggered I believe by a back issue of Calliope Magazine he was reading) so I dutifully put some books on hold at the library. (Note, this is one of the fundamental duties of a homeschooling parent: observe child intently for any sign of any interest in any subject, scour the library catalogues for that subject, and pick up at least 10, but preferably 20+ resources within a week of the first interest observation being made. If you wait longer than that, you run the real risk of the child having 'moved on'. If your child is less than 7 and/or ADD, you only have 48h to accomplish this task. You get bonus points if you manage to arrange a related craft/field trip/lego model within that same time period.)
I can heartily recommend this one:
We're still waiting for this one:
And when I was searching the catalogue, this popped up:
So I promptly requested it, it arrived next day, and Hugo barely made it through dinner that day in anticipation of the Leonardo video.
Mix one part history, with one brain from whoever came up with Junkyard Wars, and one part 'every reality tv type thing out there', and you get this.
All the melodrama.
Bob wants to use hickory. Steven wants to use oak. Will John be able to find a solution?
All the tension.
Jane isn't happy. The project is in jeopardy (cut to camera panning out of scene in a poignant moment, everyone looking sad and dejected).
The false sense of impending doom.
(narrator whispering) Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.
The terrible dilemmas.
(hushed narrator, in concerned tone) Bob is in a lumber yard. Looking at logs. Will there be a suitable log here?
And what is it all about? What matter of life and death is being determined here?
Um. Well, we have a couple groups of nerdy people who are building full scale projects of a) a giant crossbow and b) a glider, from drawings made by Leonardo. (Yes, that's how you refer to him. Leonardo. Not Da Vinci. Not Leonardo Da Vinci. Well, maybe just the first time. After that, it's just Leonardo. With an Italian accent please.
So apparently these teams have to use materials which would have been available in Leonardo's time and I think they're supposed to stick to the methods which would have been in common use at that time as well. Right away the crossbow team makes a decision to use laminated strips & I'm guessing they're using some fancy schmancy high tech glue so you can see how it goes.
You know, the show wasn't as bad as I'm probably making it sound but at one point, some director clued in that you could only show these wonderfully, plain, normal, nerdy, and very sweet but nevertheless rather dull people only so much on the screen before the viewer would change the channel. I mean, they're mostly sitting around thinking. And hammering. And looking at logs. With concerned faces.
So, off the director goes on a quick side trip of educational wonder to teach us all about how wonderful Leonardo is. And ooooooh, Leonardo was interested in anatomy. That will keep the audience glued! In fact, Leonardo was so interested in anatomy that he dissected corpses and made very detailed anatomical drawings of people! That's the ticket! Let's show the audience Leonardo hacking away at a really good imitation of a cadaver! Let's show him cutting up what looks remarkably like a human heart (& is therefore probably a pig heart). Yeah!!! That's the ticket!
The kids and I mostly missed the squelchy, blood spattery bits by hiding our faces.
Then it was finally over. But the boring teams were still doing quietly dull building so the director remembered:
For part of his anatomical studies, Leonardo sketched nudes!
Look! A modern art class sketching the human body. An old man standing in front of the classroom. He's nude. He's just standing there.
And from waist to knees he's pixelated.
Because you know how the jiggly man thingies might offend the viewer!
A cadaver with a partially dissected arm being hacked at by a bloody saw - bring it on!
But no naked flaccid penis! No naked old man buttocks!
No naughty bits at all, please. That would be too sensationalist.
Thanks PBS!
So. Which do you prefer? Dangly old man bits or squelchy dissection of a cadaver? Which (if either) would upset your kids more?
4 comments:
I have a pretty high viewing tolerance. My kids on the other hand will clap their hands over their eyes at the slightest thing - especially male nudity. But they're girls, and ewwwww, it's gross!! It'll be interesting to see how Sarabelle handles a life drawing class : P
Great, Great post!! And it is SO TRUE about watching your kids for any sign of interest and then basically buying out the section at Barnes and Noble that has ANYTHING to do with that! H-schooling moms are just too funny!! But I wouldn't have us any other way...
Loved the post. I remember a friend of mine turning red when I used the mere word 'nudity' in front of her kids, and then allowed them to watch 'Robocop.' wherein a man has his hand blown off with a shotgun. Troubling.
Cheers, Richard
oh neither would have my girls looking away - they love anatomy and watching surgeries, and they might blush at seeing naked man parts, or naked woman parts even, but they don't say a word or look away. in fact they'd look at is as if it were a strange bump on someones nose.
my dad would have fast forwarded or changed the channel if it were nudity or kissing even - but violence or gore was a common tv and movie theme in his house. he wouldn't be able to watch tv in Europe. LOL
Post a Comment
Go on! Say something!