Fever, The

Great storytelling/musings of Wallace Shawn, the short fat guy we remember from The Princess Bride as Andre the Giant's boss. Amazing half-lispy voice. Subject matter is pretty serious - WS is an upper class, bon vivant, but he is also acutely aware of the suffering and torture endured by others. He doesn't give opinions as much as describe what it is like to live with this awareness. It is a visceral and heartfelt monologue about subject matter most people talk about in a very intellectual/philosophical way. Above all stylistically sparkling, maybe a bit rambling and sometimes over the top.
FCC "fucking" CD2, #3.

CD1:
1-8:08) WS travels to a 'poor country'. He's sick in the bathroom....he explains how he got there->
2-4:37) WS describes his upperclass, sheltered upbringing. Also a trip to an office trying to collect evidence of state-sponsored torture and rape victims.
3-7:31) The experience of opening presents. Interesting similarities between sheltered children and presents.
4-9:06) "The rich are pigs". Popular communist thoughts in America. The fetishization of commodities.
5-5:09) Visiting a communist country and other poor countries. Cuba? "The ice cream was (pause) charming":) Witnesses idyllic countryside, communist rebels, and records of ghastly torture.
6-11:02) WS goes home, but life is a bit sickening now.
7-2:26) A beautiful scene in NYC that simultaneously captures disgusting overconsumption.
CD2:
1-2:04) Rich people having poor friends...it can be hard.
2-7:34) Upperclass have all these well formed political and social beliefs, but they are all meaningless and interchangeable. Charity. And what it means to experience economic inequality.
3-7:58) FCC "fucking" A surreal experience: WS is captured and beaten by rebels and given the "book of his life".
4-4:55) Brief account of how the strong beat down the weak who became the poor.
5-8:11) But the rich still must rely on the poor, and fear their retribution. So governments emphasize morality and promise future benefits to the poor. Upperclass people's unconscious fear is revolt by the poor.
6-5:47) How delicate, pampered we are.
7-6:30) The upperclass are people who've "gotten away" with something. And how they come to turn a blind eye to inequality.
8-2:58) Surreal scene.
9-7:03) What kind of choices WS can make with his life now?