Word: precious
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...Watching your precious kid sister get killed and eaten might well turn you into a psychopath who kills and eats people. The argument is plausible: the bitten becomes the biter, and takes his revenge by making sure the biters get bit. Plausible, yes, but a lot less interesting than the grownup spectacle of the super-Mensa, super-crazy Hannibal in the first two books...
...There's precious little light in Iceland during the winter, which makes the upper latitudes ideal for viewing the northern lights--especially on New Year's Eve. In Reykjavk, Icelanders gather around dozens of massive bonfires to sing traditional folk songs accompanied, according to local legend, by trolls, fairies and elves. (Iceland's Tourist Board claims that 80% of Icelanders believe in little beings.) At midnight the city explodes in a massive fireworks display. The dancing and partying that follow last until the sun comes up, which in Iceland is at about lunchtime...
From a modern, workaholic perspective, our partying ancestors were wasting precious time. Even supposedly nonjudgmental anthropologists can get a little antsy when they contemplate the caloric expenditure that went into assembling costumes, cooking up treats, crafting musical instruments and rehearsing dance steps, not to mention the festivity itself. In 15th century France, 1 out of 4 days of the year were given over to festivities, usually honoring saints' days, while the English had, in addition, their "church ales," wakes and fairs. Work was something you did when you had to. Holidays were what you lived...
Implacably pierced and outfitted in jewelry ranging from precious stones to human bones, the actors and actresses that populate the screen do so beautifully, in particular the lead Rudy Youngblood. The casting, unconventional and far from stereotypical Hollywood, is impeccable, as is the decision to have the characters speaking a Mayan dialect (no worries, this, like “The Passion of the Christ,” has English subtitles). In English, the movie would be ludicrous, but in Mayan the alien words contribute to the recreation of this long gone world...
Under their constant gaze, a black-market slowly emerged of minors who traded money, foods, or maybe the odd sexual favor for precious beer. I have no doubt that had the tailgate continued through the fourth quarter, a currency of cigarettes would have evolved...