as an avid faithful of italo calvino, i agree that the fantastical is an adorable way to perceive our surroundings. basically there’re two reasons, i guess. first, the uneventful, the timid, and the awful all merge into the comedic under the perspective of the fantastical. second, the deprivation of a social-political background permits the narration to be fable-like, hence more likely to conform to the shared consciousness of world building.

hundreds of beavers is a movie of such.

i went to this ingeniously hilarious film last night at the michigan theatre. the energy in the auditorium was very special—the film made the entire fully seated auditorium laugh at least every 3 minutes. the movie lasts for 2 hours.

the storyline for the movie couldn’t be more simplistic—love, environmental concern, and animal ethics. a beaver hunter has to hunt 100 beavers to be granted the marriage to the daughter of a supposedly beaver-skin maker. the whole film is black-and-white. dialogue is absent in the movie.

the film’s special power: to anthropomorphize the animals—or, in the perspective of the beavers and the rabbits, maybe we people are, in fact, zoonomorphized bizarre creatures who think we are better than animals.

(i need to rehash my greek vocabulary once i’m done with school)

THE BEAVERS’ SECRET PROJECT. i name it as *BABEALON*.

and because they’re literally building a babylon tower ⬆️

ANOTHER HUNTER—WHO IS TRAGICALLY EATEN BY WOLVES AND WHO LOOKS AND MOVES LIKE A SANTA CLAUS.

HE MOVES LIKE SANTA CLAUS BECAUSE HIS TRANSPORTATION IS EXACTLY LIKE SANTA’S—EXCEPT THAT, IN HIS CASE, HIS MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION IS SLEDDING WITH 5 DOGGIES, INSTEAD OF SLEDDING TRADITIONALLY WITH REINDEERS. —FYI, THE DOGGIES ARE ALL SADLY EATEN BY WOLVES AS WELL.

BEAVERS’S RESENTMENT AGAINST THE ANONYMOUS BEAVER HUNTER

—anyway. i had a blast with the film, and i can’t emphasize more my feeling of light-heartedness after the film. this film truly made my friday night. i want to say thanks to this lovely project of midwesterners.

all pics credit to the instagram of hundreds of beaver AND THEIR WEBSITE.

WHEN I TRIED TO SUBSCRIBE TO THEIR NEWSLETTER:
**CONFIRM HUMANITY**
i imagine, maybe the website will some day show,
“so sorry, we cannot subscribe you to our email list because you’ve failed the humanity test. unfortunately, ruthless nonhumanities are not allowed to take the test again until 9,495,839,210,092 years (an arbitrary number i come up) later when the human race is wiped out by the oxygen-tank desert loners. or whoever those creatures are.”

(I FEEL LIKE I’M MAKING ADVERTISEMENTS FOR ARTS LIKE A SAINT WITHOUT GETTING PAID ANY MONEY)

i like the movie so much that i even drafted a little email to encourage *michigan theater* to screen it again.
yes, many friends’ve been surprised by my habitualization of *zero email* due diligence—a habit that i obtain during my undergrad time in the *lsa honors* (among the other great habits that the lsa honors have taught me, and that I will gladly/ hopefully carry through in the rest of my life.)
—shoutout to my honors advisor denise guillot who always speedily fills out annoyingly bureaucratic issues that belong exclusively to international students like me. also shoutout to our director mika lavaque-manty whose intelligence, wisdom, and sportiness lead all the honors students to the most fun community-related activities—aka cornfield walk, skiing, park walks, rock climbing, etc—and who manages to transform honors students from back-pain-laden people to sporty (and basically back-pain-free) people.

i compiled this bonus section:

“hundreds of beavers”

uncodified chopin

Are we dreaming the same dream