Bassel's Blog

“A small fact: You are going to die.... does this worry you?” Death ⛰ What It's About  Death narrates the story of a girl living in Nazi Germany:  Liesel Meminger, a 9 year-old orphan who has never seen her father and is taken to her foster parents after her brother's death and her mother's endangerment. Her accordion-playing foster father, Hans, who is the best and kindest foster father ever according to my readings, quickly becomes close to her by teaching her how to read and write. Her foster mother, Rosa, has a big heart although she swears a lot, often calling everyone "Saukerl" or "Saumensch". We get to know how Liesel's life progresses as she makes new friends in the neighborhood such as Rudy, Jessie Owens' keenest fan, and how she jump-started her career in book thievery after her foster father taught her reading. The plot begins when Max Vandenberg, a Jew whose father saved Hans' life before, asks Hans a favor; he asks Hans to hide h...

  ⛰ What It's About Twelve people are chosen to be jury members in the trial of a son who supposedly murdered his father. Eleven jurors are convinced, without even discussing the matter together, that the boy is guilty; one isn't. This controversial juror slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as clear as it seemed in court and tries to carefully consider the evidence before jumping to conclusions. 🧠 Thoughts This movie is a dialogue-focused movie that takes place in a single room! Every juror in this movie presents a different character with a unique set of traits. I'll analyze each juror starting from juror 8 who's the protagonist of the movie. Juror 8 He's the one who started it all! When the rest of the jurors were all convinced that the kid's guilty, juror 8 thought that a human's life, which lies between the hands of the jurors, requires more attention and discussion. Juror #8: I'm not trying to change your mind. It's just ...

  ⛰ What It's About It's a Harry Potter fanfiction book written by Eliezer Yudkowsky, an AI researcher and decision theorist. In Yudkowsky's parallel universe, Petunia is married to a famous biochemistry professor at Oxford university and Harry is a nerdy genius kid who was brought up as a science-minded child. Harry goes on to explore the magic world from a rationalist's point of view; trying to apply scientific method to the study of magic. HPMOR adapts the story of Harry Potter to explain complex concepts in cognitive science, philosophy, and the scientific method. 🧠 Thoughts This is not going to be a conventional review; I will provide extracts from the book with my own comments or with further explanation from trustworthy sources (referenced at the end of the blog post). I decided to do so for two reasons; first, I thinks these extracts offer a glimpse of the book that's enough to make you decide whether you want to read it or not. Second, I believe that the...

⛰ What It's About Lou Bloom, a petty thief who is desperate for a job, finds his real passion which is being a "nightcrawler", a journalist who works at night to look for occurrences on the streets to capture using his camera and then sell to the channels. As soon as his reputation as a stringer starts to improve, he gradually loses his humanity to make more money. Instead of becoming an observer of the crime, he becomes a participant in the crime! 🧠 Thoughts Overview Lou Bloom is a selfish creep in this movie; Gyllenhaal (the actor) plays a nearly perfect sociopath: audacious, extremely intelligent, selfish, and completely lacking of any emotions at all. He'd do anything to make his business grow even if that comes at the expense of innocent people. This movie shows us how one selfish jerk may make a whole city like LA fearful of a crime that isn't real or a crime that Lou himself caused one way or another. It also shows us how man can be driven by money and how...