Wings of Desire

Dorian and I watched 'Wings of Desire', the original German movie behind 'City of Angels'. It was remarkable how Hollywood could take such a nuanced film of the joy and fragility of life, set against horror and tragedy, and turn it into a sentimental love story. A good sentimental love story, but with as much depth as your average puddle.

I was talking at the shop today with a sales assistant, about kids and the dangers facing them as they grow up. She seemed to think that one of the main problems is a lack of discipline, that kids just aren't disciplined either by teachers or parents the way they should be. The papers seem to back her up - the dangers of treating children like 'little adults'. Hm. I wonder. Personally, I've never gone for the disciplinarian approach, either as a lecturer or as a bossy elder sister. I've gone for the idea that children (and young adults) are 'little adults'. This doesn't mean they should be exposed to all the nastiness of the world, or that there aren't things that are beyond their understanding - though I did explain basic atomic theory to my youngest sister when she was about three. She seemed to grasp the basics.

What it means is that I've always (tried to anyway) treated children with the respect I'd treat an adult - explaining why things are not right and so on. Whether I'll manage this when I'm a parent remains to be seen - but I think that the problem is not that we're treating our children like adults. I think the problem - as exemplified in 'City of Angels' vs 'Wings of Desire' - is that adults are treated as though they are children, unable to cope with anything deeper than sentimentality and/ or violence. Hardly suprising, if this is all that we're expected to be capable of, that we fail to pass on any meaningful values to our kids.

Yes, this is another rant against the commercialisation of the media, and the dumbing down of the populace. But at least I managed to smuggle *some* personal details about what I'm doing in here .