Guns, Germs, and Postmodern veiws

Postmodern views of human life are all around us in everyday life, but no where else can you get such a heavy does of postmodern views then in recent novels. In the Yiddish Policemans Union one particular view stands out to me. That is that almost no one in the book has sympathy for people that have been killed. Landsman even takes offense when Berko tries to call Landsman out on him feeling sorry for Emmanuel Lasker. These veiws remind me of a book I read called Guns, Germs, and Steel. This book was about the fate of human societies and how the Europeans became the dominant societiey for the last 500 years. The book puts a negative spin on life like most scientific works do, but Diamond give us a simple, yet complex reasons on why some societies developed faster than others. Both of these books make me feel that were just here to live out or lives. While this is true I would like to have the feeling that life on the planet has a purpose. One of Diamonds main arguments to why Europeans became the dominant race is simply that the Eurasian continent had the most productive and largest population before the cultivation of crops. This led to technological advances by the masses. Comparing this to what the tribes of Malaysia had to live with; a small population, and a small area of production led to the people worrying more about how they are going eat instead of trying to innovate. These arguments make me feel that once you are born into a situation in which your not going to be able to better your way of life. I do not argee that people should go about their lives happy to be numb to the world, and the the societies we are born into will determine how our lives play out. Just like the people of Sitka to be a refugee's in Alaska, or the Malaysia's born into the hunting and gathering life in the jungles.

Novel to Film

When transforming a novel to a mainstream movie most of the time the very foundation upon what the novel is based on is totally restructured. The same theme holds true in the Devil in a Blue Dress. One scene in particular stood out to me and showed me that the movie was changed to be less offensive to certain people. One of the main differences I saw was how in the movie the race card was not as emphasized as in the book. The scene that stood out the most to me was when Easy went to meet Todd Carter. In the movie the scene with Todd Carter is business like and hostile at times. Carter does not give Easy answers to the questions he has for him and, there is no hint of racism Todd Carter just offers Easy some money to find Daphne. Compare that to the novel, the scene with Easy and Carter is much different. Carter is quick to tell Easy all of his problems and feelings. Easy says in the book it is the worst form of racism he had ever been a part of. Easy says Carter was so rich he did not even see Easy as a human any more.
Now the question is why would writers and/or director/producers choose to leave out on of the most controversial topics in novel. My answer is just that it is so controversial. The movie is geared toward mainstream American people and the majority of those people are white. The movie producers did not want any one to be offended by having troubling topics play a major theme in the movie.