title: Martin Heidegger

text: According to Husserl, "Being and Time" claimed to deal with ontology but only did so in the first few pages of the book. Having nothing further to contribute to an ontology independent of human existence, Heidegger changed the topic to "Dasein". Whereas Heidegger argued that the question of human existence is central to the pursuit of the question of being, Husserl criticised this as reducing phenomenology to "philosophical anthropology" and offering an abstract and incorrect portrait of the human being.


title: Martin Heidegger

text: In 1929 the Neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer and Heidegger engaged in an influential debate, during the Second Davos Hochschulkurs in Davos, concerning the significance of Kantian notions of freedom and rationality (see Cassirer–Heidegger debate). Whereas Cassirer defended the role of rationality in Kant, Heidegger argued for the priority of the imagination.


title: Martin Heidegger

text: Dilthey's student Georg Misch wrote the first extended critical appropriation of Heidegger in "Lebensphilosophie und Phänomenologie. Eine Auseinandersetzung der Diltheyschen Richtung mit Heidegger und Husserl", Leipzig 1930 (3rd ed. Stuttgart 1964).


title: Martin Heidegger

text: Hegel-influenced Marxist thinkers, especially György Lukács and the Frankfurt School, associated the style and content of Heidegger's thought with German irrationalism and criticised its political implications.


title: Martin Heidegger

text: Initially, members of the Frankfurt School were positively disposed to Heidegger, becoming more critical at the beginning of the 1930s. Heidegger's student Herbert Marcuse (1928-1932) became associated with the Frankfurt School. Initially striving for a synthesis between Hegelian Marxism and Heidegger's phenomenology, Marcuse later rejected Heidegger's thought for its "false concreteness" and "revolutionary conservatism". Theodor Adorno wrote an extended critique of the ideological character of Heidegger's early and later use of language in the "Jargon of Authenticity". Contemporary social theorists associated with the Frankfurt School have remained largely critical of Heidegger's works and influence. In particular, Jürgen Habermas admonishes the influence of Heidegger on recent French philosophy in his polemic against "postmodernism" in "The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity" (1985). However, work by philosopher and critical theorist Nikolas Kompridis tries to show that Heidegger's insights into world disclosure are badly misunderstood and mishandled by Habermas, and are of vital importance for critical theory, offering an important way of renewing that tradition.


title: Martin Heidegger

text: Criticism of Heidegger's philosophy has also come from analytic philosophy (whose value upon clarity he seemingly did not share) beginning with logical positivism.


title: Martin Heidegger

text: In "The Elimination of Metaphysics Through Logical Analysis of Language" (1932), Rudolf Carnap accused Heidegger of offering an "illusory" ontology, criticising him for committing the fallacy of reification and for wrongly dismissing the logical treatment of language which, according to Carnap, can only lead to writing "nonsensical pseudo-propositions".


title: Martin Heidegger

text: The British logical positivist A. J. Ayer was strongly critical of Heidegger's philosophy. In Ayer's view, Heidegger proposed vast, overarching theories regarding existence, which are completely unverifiable through empirical demonstration and logical analysis. For Ayer, this sort of philosophy was a poisonous strain on modern thought. He considered Heidegger to be the worst example of such philosophy, which Ayer believed to be entirely useless. In his "Philosophy in the Twentieth Century" (1982) Ayer accuses Heidegger of "surprising ignorance" or "unscrupulous distortion" and "what can fairly be described as charlatanism."


title: Martin Heidegger

text: Highly eccentric in its terminology, his philosophy is extremely obscure. One cannot help suspecting that language is here running riot. An interesting point in his speculations is the insistence that nothingness is something positive. As with much else in Existentialism, this is a psychological observation made to pass for logic.


title: Martin Heidegger

text: Roger Scruton stated that: "His major work "Being and Time" is formidably difficult—unless it is utter nonsense, in which case it is laughably easy. I am not sure how to judge it, and have read no commentator who even begins to make sense of it".


title: Martin Heidegger

text: Apart from the charge of obscurantism, other analytic philosophers considered the actual content of Heidegger's work to be either faulty and meaningless, vapid or uninteresting. Positive evaluations include Gilbert Ryle's a critical yet sympathetic review of "Being and Time." And a remark attributed to Ludwig Wittgenstein by Friedrich Waismann: "To be sure, I can imagine what Heidegger means by being and anxiety" has been construed by some commentators as sympathetic to Heidegger's philosophical approach. Positive and negative analytic evaluations have been collected in, for example, Michael Murray's "Heidegger and Modern Philosophy: Critical Essays" (1978). Heidegger's reputation within English-language philosophy has slightly improved in philosophical terms in some part through the efforts of Hubert Dreyfus, Richard Rorty, and a recent generation of analytically oriented phenomenology scholars. Pragmatist Rorty claimed that Heidegger's approach to philosophy in the first half of his career has much in common with that of the latter-day Ludwig Wittgenstein. Nevertheless, Rorty asserted that what Heidegger had constructed in his writings was a "myth" of being rather than an account of it.


title: Martin Heidegger

text: Although Heidegger is considered by many observers to be one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, aspects of his work have been criticised by those who nevertheless acknowledge this influence, such as Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jacques Derrida. Some questions raised about Heidegger's philosophy include the priority of ontology, the status of animals, the nature of the religious, Heidegger's supposed neglect of ethics (Levinas), the body (Maurice Merleau-Ponty), the sexual difference (Luce Irigaray), or space (Peter Sloterdijk).


title: Martin Heidegger

text: Levinas was deeply influenced by Heidegger, and yet became one of his fiercest critics, contrasting the infinity of the good beyond being with the immanence and totality of ontology. Levinas also condemned Heidegger's involvement with Nazism, stating: "One can forgive many Germans, but there are some Germans it is difficult to forgive. It is difficult to forgive Heidegger."


title: Martin Heidegger

text: Heidegger's defenders, notably Arendt, see his support for Nazism as arguably a personal " 'error' " (a word which Arendt placed in quotation marks when referring to Heidegger's Nazi-era politics). Defenders think this error was irrelevant to Heidegger's philosophy. Critics such as Levinas, Karl Löwith, and Theodor Adorno claim that Heidegger's support for Nazism revealed flaws inherent in his thought.


title: Martin Heidegger

text: W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz states in the "Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy" that Heidegger's writing is "notoriously difficult", possibly because his thinking was "original" and focused on obscure and innovative topics. He concludes that "Being and Time" "remains his most influential work".


title: Martin Heidegger

text: Heidegger's collected writings are published by . The "Gesamtausgabe" was begun during Heidegger's lifetime. He defined the order of publication and dictated that the principle of editing should be "ways not works". Publication has not yet been completed. The current executor of Martin Heidegger’s Literary Estate is his grandson and a lawyer, Arnulf Heidegger (1969- ) [See the Klaus Held’s Marbach-Bericht Report (2020)].


title: John DiMaggio

text: John William DiMaggio (; born September 4, 1968) is an American actor. His various voice roles include Bender on "Futurama", Jake the Dog on "Adventure Time", Marcus Fenix in the "Gears of War" series, Dr. Drakken on "Kim Possible", Hak Foo in "Jackie Chan Adventures", The Scotsman on "Samurai Jack", Brother Blood on "Teen Titans", Shnitzel on "Chowder", Fu Dog on "", Hammerhead and Sandman on "The Spectacular Spider-Man", Aquaman on "", King Zøg on "Disenchantment", Wakka and Kimahri in "Final Fantasy X", Rath in the "Ben 10" franchise, Crosshairs, Leadfoot and Stratosphere in the "Transformers" film franchise, and Gonza in the English version of "Princess Mononoke".


title: John DiMaggio

text: Born and raised in North Plainfield, New Jersey, DiMaggio graduated from North Plainfield High School. He is of Italian parentage, and was raised in the Catholic faith. He attended Rutgers University. One of his schoolmates was political strategist Steve Schmidt.


title: John DiMaggio

text: DiMaggio is known for his roles as Bender on "Futurama", Marcus Fenix in the "Gears of War" franchise, Dr. Drakken on "Kim Possible", Jake the Dog on "Adventure Time", Wakka and Kimahri in "Final Fantasy X", and Niblet on "Pound Puppies". He is a former comedian, appearing on stage as part of a comic duo named "Red Johnny and the Round Guy" and has several on-screen credits, such as Steve Ballmer in "Pirates of Silicon Valley" (the docudrama about the history of Apple Computer and Microsoft) and as Dr. Sean Underhill, a recurring character on "Chicago Hope".


title: John DiMaggio

text: In 2013, he was the executive producer and narrator of "I Know That Voice", a documentary on voice acting, along with producer Tommy Reid and director Lawrence Shapiro.


title: John DiMaggio

text: In 2022, upon news that "Futurama" would be revived for a second time through Disney and Hulu, DiMaggio ran into conflict during negotiations while demanding more money to reprise the role of Bender, which he dubbed "#BenderGate". Fans supported DiMaggio's hold out for better pay, while DiMaggio stated that he felt the entire cast deserved better pay and that it reflected a corporate attempt to take advantage of voice actors. The effort also received support from DiMaggio's colleagues, including veteran voice actors Tara Strong, Kari Wahlgren, and Mark Hamill, while James Adomian noted that a casting call for a sound-alike of DiMaggio had been sent out by the studio. While it was initially reported that DiMaggio would not be returning to the role, he later announced his decision to return. He revealed that though he did not succeed in negotiating a pay increase, he felt the attention to the issue of proper compensation in the voice acting industry was worthwhile.


title: John DiMaggio

text: DiMaggio lives in Los Angeles and New York City. He has been married to actress Kate Miller since 2014.


title: Tobias Forge

text: Tobias Forge (; born 3 March 1981) is a Swedish singer, musician, and songwriter. He is the leader and primary songwriter of the masked rock band Ghost, performing live as their vocalist under the stage names Papa Emeritus and Cardinal Copia. Although the band was formed in 2006, Forge's identity as the Ghost frontman was only confirmed in 2017, following a lawsuit by former band members due to a royalty dispute. Prior to finding success, he was in several other bands, including Repugnant and Crashdïet, under the stage name Mary Goore.


title: Tobias Forge

text: For his musical accomplishments, Forge was awarded the 2019 Platinagitarren award from STIM, who explained "With one foot standing firmly on the metal floor, Forge is a composer pushing the boundaries of the genre." Jury member and journalist Jan Gradvall stated that Forge is among the "most visionary and creative in Swedish music history." Due to "Ghost's epic progression from underground doom favorites to an arena phenomenon" in the 2010s, "Loudwire" named Forge the Metal Artist of the Decade.


title: Tobias Forge

text: Forge was a member of the band Superior under the stage name Leviathan in 1996. He fronted the Stockholm-based death metal band Repugnant from 1998, under the stage name Mary Goore. They recorded their only studio album "Epitome of Darkness" in 2002, but it was left unreleased when the band broke up in 2004, only being published in 2006. Between 2000 and 2002, Forge was also a guitarist for glam metal band Crashdïet using the Mary Goore name. At some point he also played guitar for the punk rock band Onkel Kånkel. Repugnant reunited for the Hell's Pleasure festival in 2010.


title: Tobias Forge

text: From 2002 to 2008, Forge was vocalist and guitarist of the pop rock band Subvision. The group also included future Ghost members Martin Persner and Gustaf Lindström on guitar and bass respectively. They released two EPs and one album, "So Far So Noir" (2006), before disbanding.


title: Tobias Forge

text: Forge, Persner and Simon Söderberg, another future Ghost member, were also members of the Linköping-based alternative rock band Magna Carta Cartel (or MCC) from 2006 to 2010. Forge played guitar and bass, with Persner and Söderberg both handling guitar and singing duties. The band went on hiatus when all three began to focus on Ghost. Persner left Ghost in July 2016 and reformed Magna Carta Cartel.


title: Tobias Forge

text: Since 2006, Forge has acted as chief songwriter and business leader of the rock and heavy metal band Ghost, a project and role that contributed to a significant rise in his fame and popularity, following many years of involvement in other underground acts. During live performances with the band, he performs as its singer. Each album has a 'new singer': originally Papa Emeritus I through to III—a demonic anti-pope—and then Cardinal Copia, who became Papa Emeritus IV in March 2020. Peter Hällje, a former bandmate of Martin Persner, claimed he designed the Papa Emeritus character in 2005, prior to the formation of Ghost. Hällje never performed as Papa Emeritus and agreed with Persner to let him use the character for his then-new band. For recorded material, Forge seems to also play most of the other instruments in addition to vocals. For example, he claimed that the 2010 debut album, "Opus Eponymous", was recorded with a session drummer and nothing else.


title: Tobias Forge

text: In 2012, during a concert in the band's hometown of Linköping, Sweden, Papa Emeritus was seemingly retired and replaced by a new vocalist, Papa Emeritus II, but this was actually Forge in another costume. The band's second album, "Infestissumam", was released in 2013. Due to a legal dispute over the band's name, they were forced to release the album using the name "Ghost B.C." in the United States. Forge performed as Papa Emeritus II for this album, as well as the subsequent EP, "If You Have Ghost" (2013). Papa Emeritus III was introduced in 2015 to coincide with the release of the band's third album, "Meliora". Papa Emeritus III was retired at the end of Ghost's 2016–2017 Popestar Tour (being physically dragged off stage at the end of the final show), and a new character, Papa Emeritus Zero (now known as Papa Nihil), was introduced immediately afterward. Forge is credited as Papa Nihil on the two-track release "Seven Inches of Satanic Panic", which is purported by the band to have been recorded in 1969. For Ghost's fourth album, "Prequelle" (2018), Forge adopted another new persona, Cardinal Copia. During the final show of A Pale Tour Named Death, Cardinal Copia was anointed and introduced as Papa Emeritus IV.


title: Tobias Forge

text: Despite anonymity being one of Ghost's biggest themes, Forge's identity as Papa Emeritus was revealed following a lawsuit in April 2017 by former Ghost members over a royalties dispute. They also claimed he was trying to transform Ghost "from a band into a solo project with hired musicians" in an "underhanded and shameless way". Forge has disputed this, claiming that Ghost "was always sort of… I guess a Bathory sort of band, where there was people playing live, and the people playing live [were] not necessarily the same that played on the records." Forge claimed that "no legal partnership" ever existed between the other members and himself; they were paid a fixed salary to perform and execute the band's image as he instructed as "musicians for hire."


title: Tobias Forge

text: Forge, as Papa Emeritus III, appears as a guest on Candlemass's May 2018 vinyl-exclusive version of "House of Doom". As Cardinal Copia, he joined members of Candlemass and Vargas and Lagola for a live performance of "Enter Sandman" in front of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Queen Silvia of Sweden during a ceremony on 14 June 2018 honoring Metallica with the Polar Music Prize. Cardinal Copia also makes a featured appearance on the song "I'm Not Afraid" from Emigrate's November 2018 album "A Million Degrees". On 22 January 2021, Papa Emeritus IV joined the Hellacopters on the Swedish television game show "På spåret" to perform a cover of "Sympathy for the Devil". Papa Emeritus IV also appeared at Guaranteed Rate Field on 22 September 2022 to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Guardians baseball game. Forge also appeared in the last episode of Netflix series "Clark", that aired in May 2022.


title: Tobias Forge

text: Forge is married to Boel Maria Elizabeth Forge, and is the father of fraternal twins, Morris and Minou. His daughter sings "Ashes", the opening track to "Prequelle". His brother Sebastian, who was thirteen years his senior, had a large influence on Tobias and introduced him to film and music such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kim Wilde, Rainbow, Kiss, and Mötley Crüe at a very young age. Sebastian died from heart disease on 12 March 2010, the same day that Ghost released their first demo songs online. Sebastian was also a published author.


title: Tobias Forge

text: Forge stated that as an adolescent he "unquestionably [threw] [his] hands into the hands of Satan." He cited a strict stepmother, the alienation he felt at her home, and an even stricter religious schoolteacher for making him run "headfirst into the arms of the devil."


title: Toei Animation

text: The studio was founded by animators Kenzō Masaoka and Zenjirō Yamamoto in 1948 as . In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was renamed , doing business as Toei Animation Co., Ltd. outside Japan. In 1998, the Japanese name was renamed to Toei Animation. It has created a number of TV series and movies and adapted Japanese comics as animated series, many popular worldwide. Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Yasuji Mori, Leiji Matsumoto and Yōichi Kotabe have worked with the company. Toei is a shareholder in the Japanese anime satellite television network Animax with other anime studios and production companies, such as Sunrise, TMS Entertainment and Nihon Ad Systems Inc. The company is headquartered in the Ohizumi Studio in Nerima, Tokyo.


title: Toei Animation

text: Toei Animation produced anime versions of works from manga series by manga artists, including Go Nagai ("Mazinger Z"), Eiichiro Oda ("One Piece"), Shotaro Ishinomori ("Cyborg 009"), Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro ("Toriko"), Takehiko Inoue ("Slam Dunk"), Mitsuteru Yokoyama ("Sally the Witch"), Masami Kurumada ("Saint Seiya"), Akira Toriyama ("Dragon Ball" and "Dr. Slump"), Leiji Matsumoto ("Galaxy Express 999"), and Naoko Takeuchi ("Sailor Moon"). The studio helped propel the popularity of the Magical Girl and "Super Robot" genres of anime; Toei's TV series include the first magical-girl anime series, "Mahoutsukai Sally" (an adaptation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga of the same name), and Go Nagai's "Mazinger Z", an adaptation of his manga which set the standard for Super Robot anime. Although the Toei Company usually contracts Toei Animation to handle its animation internally, they occasionally hire other companies to provide animation; although the Toei Company produced the "Robot Romance Trilogy", Sunrise (then known as Nippon Sunrise) provided the animation. Toei Company would also enlist the help of other studios such as hiring Academy Productions to produce the animation for "Space Emperor God Sigma", rather than use their own studio.


title: Toei Animation

text: Toei Animation's anime which have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award are "Galaxy Express 999" in 1981, "Saint Seiya" in 1987 and "Sailor Moon" in 1992. In addition to producing anime for release in Japan, Toei Animation began providing animation for American films and television series during the 1960s and particularly during the 1980s.


title: Toei Animation

text: In October 2021, Toei Animation announced that they had signed a strategic partnership with the South Korean entertainment conglomerate CJ ENM.


title: Toei Animation

text: On March 6, 2022, an incident occurred in which an unauthorized third party attempted to hack Toei Animation's network, which resulted in the company's online store and internal systems becoming temporarily suspended. The company investigated the incident and stated that the hack would affect the broadcast schedules of several anime series, including "One Piece". In addition, "" was also rescheduled to June 11, 2022 due to the hack. On April 6, 2022, Toei Animation announced that it would resume broadcasting the anime series, including "One Piece". The following day, the Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that the hack was caused by a targeted ransomware attack.


title: Toei Animation

text: Animated productions by foreign studios dubbed in Japanese by Toei are "The Mystery of the Third Planet" (1981 Russian film, dubbed in 2008); "Les Maîtres du temps" (1982 French-Hungarian film, dubbed in 2014), "Alice's Birthday" (2009 Russian film, dubbed in 2013) and "Becca's Bunch" (2018 television series, dubbed in 2021 to 2022).


title: Toei Animation

text: Toei has been commissioned to provide animation by Japanese and American studios such as Sunbow Entertainment, Marvel Productions, Hanna-Barbera, DIC Entertainment, Rankin/Bass Productions and World Events Productions (DreamWorks Animation). In the 60's, they primarily worked with Rankin/Bass, but beginning in the 80's, they worked with Marvel Productions and their list of clients grew, until the end of the decade. Toei didn't provide much outsourced animation work in the 90's and since the 2000's has only rarely worked with other companies outside Japan.


title: Toei Animation

text: Between 2008 and 2018, Toei Animation had copyright claimed TeamFourStar's parody series, "DragonBall Z Abridged". TFS stated that the parody series is protected under fair use.


title: Toei Animation

text: On December 7, 2021, Toei Animation copyright claimed over 150 videos by YouTuber Totally Not Mark, real name Mark Fitzpatrick. He uploaded a video addressing the issue, claiming that they were protected under fair use, and that nine of the videos do not include any Toei footage. He also outlined the appeal process on YouTube, and estimated having the videos reinstated could take over 37 years. He then goes on to announce that he would not be supporting new Toei releases until the issue had been resolved, and also called for a boycott on the upcoming "" film. The dispute sparked discussion on YouTube on the vulnerability of creators against the copyright system and lack of fair use laws in Japan, with YouTubers such as PewDiePie and The Anime Man speaking out on the issue.


title: Toei Animation

text: On January 20, 2021, two employees have accused Toei Animation of overworking their employees and discrimination towards sexual minorities. The company had inappropriately referred to employees who identifies as X-gender (a non-binary identity in Japan).


title: George Lopez

text: George Edward Lopez (born April 23, 1961) is an American comedian and actor. He is known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American culture. Lopez has received several honors for his work and contributions to the Latino community, including the 2003 Imagen Vision Award, the 2003 Latino Spirit Award for Excellence in Television and the National Hispanic Media Coalition Impact Award. He was also named one of "The Top 25 Hispanics in America" by "Time" magazine in 2005.


title: George Lopez

text: Lopez was born on April 23, 1961, in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California, the son of Frieda and Anatasio Lopez, a migrant worker. He is of Mexican descent. He was deserted by his father when he was two months old and by his mother when he was 10 years old, but was raised by his maternal grandmother, Benita Gutierrez, a factory worker, and step-grandfather, Refugio Gutierrez, a construction worker. Lopez attended San Fernando High School, graduating in 1979.


title: George Lopez

text: In 2000, after several years of performing stand-up comedy, Lopez was approached by actress Sandra Bullock for Lopez to produce and star in a comedy. Bullock was concerned about the lack of Hispanic-oriented sitcoms on American television and pushed to get a sitcom on television that starred Hispanics without being exclusively about the Hispanic American community. Long criticized by Hispanic American groups for lack of Latinos on their television shows, ABC quickly picked up the television series. In 2002, Lopez became one of the few Latinos to star in a television comedy series, following in the footsteps of Desi Arnaz, Freddie Prinze, and John Leguizamo. "George Lopez" is an American situation comedy that originally aired on ABC from 2002 to 2007. Lopez is the co-creator, writer, producer, and star of the show.


title: George Lopez

text: On March 8, 2007, it was announced that "George Lopez" would join the Nick at Nite lineup. It first aired on Nick at Nite on September 10, 2007. On May 15, 2007, ABC announced that the series would be canceled after its sixth season. The show last aired on ABC September 7, 2007. The show also entered syndication in the fall of 2007. Never a big Nielsen hit in prime-time, the show became a surprise success in syndication.


title: George Lopez

text: After receiving the news that his show was canceled in 2007, Lopez criticized president of ABC Entertainment Steve McPherson for using racially motivated reasons for his decision. The actor told the "Los Angeles Times" that "TV just became really, really white again", and lashed out against ABC by saying, "So a chicano can't be on TV, but a caveman can?" in reference to the short-lived sitcom "Cavemen", which was replacing "George Lopez" on the schedule. "Cavemen" garnered a sharply negative reception from critics and viewers, and was canceled after 13 episodes. Lopez blamed ABC for causing over a hundred of his show's staff to become jobless.


title: George Lopez

text: Lopez was a cast member and commentator for HBO's hit sports show "Inside the NFL" for the 2003–04 football season.


title: George Lopez

text: On March 28, 2009, it was announced that Lopez would be hosting his own late-night talk show on TBS. Lopez hosted a late-night talk show entitled "Lopez Tonight" on TBS Monday through Thursday at midnight Eastern Time. The show debuted in November 2009. In November 2010, the show moved back to midnight ET to accommodate a new show with former "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien. Although O'Brien had reservations about the move and initially refused TBS's offer, Lopez supported and even advocated for it, making it different from the 2010 "Tonight Show" conflict that saw O'Brien depart NBC after a proposal to push "Tonight" back 30 minutes for Jay Leno to return to the 11:35 p.m. slot. On August 10, 2011, Lopez received a cancellation notice from TBS. The network decided not to renew "Lopez Tonight" for a third season. Lopez would later regret his decision to assent to the time slot change.


title: George Lopez

text: On April 18, 2013, it was announced that Lopez would be starring in his own sitcom on FX called "Saint George", which premiered on March 6, 2014. "Saint George" was produced under Debmar-Mercury and Lionsgate Television's syndication model, which states that if a show hits certain ratings thresholds in its first 10-episode run, it triggers an additional 90-episode order. Failing to do so, "Saint George" was canceled on June 25, 2014, after one season.


title: George Lopez

text: In August 2015, TV Land announced a straight-to-series order for "Lopez", a semi-autobiographical single-camera sitcom, which debuted on March 30, 2016.


title: George Lopez

text: Lopez was invited to be a guest judge on "America's Got Talent" in 2016. He was allowed to use his golden buzzer once, which made an act go straight to the live shows. He used his on the dance group Malevo.


title: George Lopez

text: In May 2022, NBC picked up Lopez's new series, "Lopez Vs. Lopez", where he co-stars opposite of his daughter, Mayan.


title: George Lopez

text: Lopez's HBO Films drama "Real Women Have Curves" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received the 2002 Audience Award. Previously, Lopez was featured in the 2000 drama "Bread and Roses". He starred in the ABC Wonderful World of Disney Christmas film "Naughty or Nice", and he appeared in the Robert Rodriguez-directed film "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D" (2005).


title: George Lopez

text: In 2010, Lopez appeared in "The Spy Next Door" with Jackie Chan, starring as a villain named Glaze. The following year Lopez reprised his role as Papi for "Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2", and was the voice of a toco toucan, Rafael, in the animated box-office hit "Rio", alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, will.i.am, and Jamie Foxx. In 2019, he played the role of Captain Gomez in the independent film "El Chicano".


title: George Lopez

text: Lopez's autobiography "Why You Crying" was published by the Touchstone/Fireside division of Simon & Schuster, and placed in "The New York Times" bestsellers top twenty. The book is co-written by Armen Keteyian.


title: George Lopez

text: In 1993, Lopez married Ann Serrano. The couple has a daughter, Mayan, born in 1996. On September 27, 2010, Lopez announced that he and his wife had decided to end their marriage. Serrano filed for divorce on November 23, 2010, citing "irreconcilable differences". The divorce was finalized on July 1, 2011.


title: George Lopez

text: Lopez has a genetic condition that caused his kidneys to deteriorate. His doctors had told him in April 2004 that he was going to require an organ transplant but he postponed the operation until finishing the fourth season of "George Lopez". In 2005, his wife Ann donated one of her kidneys to Lopez. The transplant was successful; Lopez lost after the operation due in part to the improvement in his health. He brought awareness to the issue on his show; his character's son Max was diagnosed with a similar illness.


title: George Lopez

text: Though he was raised Catholic, he is not religious, though he does believe in God and "the biblical themes of 'faith and love'".


title: George Lopez

text: Lopez was a featured celebrity golfer in the 2004 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and the 2004 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Lopez and his pro partner finished third in the Pebble Beach event. George was the top-ranking celebrity at completion of the tournament. Since 2006, Lopez has served as host of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. He is a member at Lakeside Country Club in Burbank, California, and has a 13 handicap.


title: George Lopez

text: A native of Los Angeles who grew up in the San Fernando Valley's Mission Hills, Lopez devotes much time to the community. He heads his own charity, The Ann & George Lopez Foundation (www.thelopezfoundation.org). He is a recipient of the Manny Mota Foundation Community Spirit Award and was named Honorary Mayor of Los Angeles for his extensive fund-raising efforts benefiting earthquake victims in El Salvador and Guatemala. In February 2004, Lopez was presented the 2004 Artist of the Year and Humanitarian Award by the Harvard Foundation at Harvard University, presented by its president and dean for his artistic work and charitable endeavors.


title: George Lopez

text: Lopez has received several honors for his work and contributions to the Latino community. In September 2004, George was honored with the "Spirit of Liberty Award", presented by People for the American Way. In August 2005, "Time" magazine recognized George as one of "The 25 Most Influential Hispanics in America". On October 18, 2011, Lopez's elementary school, San Fernando Elementary School, honored him for his beneficent efforts by naming their auditorium after him. Lopez has ensured through his annual toy giveaway that every child at the school receives a gift during the holidays.


title: Wasp

text: A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey.


title: Wasp

text: The most commonly known wasps, such as yellowjackets and hornets, are in the family Vespidae and are eusocial, living together in a nest with an egg-laying queen and non-reproducing workers. Eusociality is favoured by the unusual haplodiploid system of sex determination in Hymenoptera, as it makes sisters exceptionally closely related to each other. However, the majority of wasp species are solitary, with each adult female living and breeding independently. Females typically have an ovipositor for laying eggs in or near a food source for the larvae, though in the Aculeata the ovipositor is often modified instead into a sting used for defense or prey capture. Wasps play many ecological roles. Some are predators or pollinators, whether to feed themselves or to provision their nests. Many, notably the cuckoo wasps, are kleptoparasites, laying eggs in the nests of other wasps. Many of the solitary wasps are parasitoidal, meaning they lay eggs on or in other insects (any life stage from egg to adult) and often provision their own nests with such hosts. Unlike true parasites, the wasp larvae eventually kill their hosts. Solitary wasps parasitize almost every pest insect, making wasps valuable in horticulture for biological pest control of species such as whitefly in tomatoes and other crops.


title: Wasp

text: Wasps first appeared in the fossil record in the Jurassic, and diversified into many surviving superfamilies by the Cretaceous. They are a successful and diverse group of insects with tens of thousands of described species; wasps have spread to all parts of the world except for the polar regions. The largest social wasp is the Asian giant hornet, at up to in length; among the largest solitary wasps is a group of species known as tarantula hawks, along with the giant scoliid of Indonesia ("Megascolia procer"). The smallest wasps are solitary parasitoid wasps in the family Mymaridae, including the world's smallest known insect, with a body length of only , and the smallest known flying insect, only long.


title: Wasp

text: Wasps have appeared in literature from Classical times, as the eponymous chorus of old men in Aristophanes' 422 BC comedy "The Wasps", and in science fiction from H. G. Wells's 1904 novel "The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth", featuring giant wasps with three-inch-long stings. The name 'Wasp' has been used for many warships and other military equipment.


title: Wasp

text: The wasps are a cosmopolitan paraphyletic grouping of hundreds of thousands of species, consisting of the narrow-waisted clade Apocrita without the ants and bees. The Hymenoptera also contain the somewhat wasplike but unwaisted Symphyta, the sawflies.


title: Wasp

text: The term "wasp" is sometimes used more narrowly for members of the Vespidae, which includes several eusocial wasp lineages, such as yellowjackets (the genera "Vespula" and "Dolichovespula"), hornets (genus "Vespa"), and members of the subfamily Polistinae.


title: Wasp

text: Hymenoptera in the form of Symphyta (Xyelidae) first appeared in the fossil record in the Lower Triassic. Apocrita, wasps in the broad sense, appeared in the Jurassic, and had diversified into many of the extant superfamilies by the Cretaceous; they appear to have evolved from the Symphyta. Fig wasps with modern anatomical features first appeared in the Lower Cretaceous of the Crato Formation in Brazil, some 65 million years before the first fig trees.


title: Wasp

text: The Vespidae include the extinct genus "Palaeovespa", seven species of which are known from the Eocene rocks of the Florissant fossil beds of Colorado and from fossilised Baltic amber in Europe. Also found in Baltic amber are crown wasps of the genus "Electrostephanus".


title: Wasp

text: Wasps are a diverse group, estimated at well over a hundred thousand described species around the world, and a great many more as yet undescribed. For example, almost every one of some 1000 species of tropical fig trees has its own specific fig wasp (Chalcidoidea) that has co-evolved with it and pollinates it.


title: Wasp

text: Many wasp species are parasitoids; the females deposit eggs on or in a host arthropod on which the larvae then feed. Some larvae start off as parasitoids, but convert at a later stage to consuming the plant tissues that their host is feeding on. In other species, the eggs are laid directly into plant tissues and form galls, which protect the developing larvae from predators, but not necessarily from other parasitic wasps. In some species, the larvae are predatory themselves; the wasp eggs are deposited in clusters of eggs laid by other insects, and these are then consumed by the developing wasp larvae.


title: Wasp

text: The largest social wasp is the Asian giant hornet, at up to in length. The various tarantula hawk wasps are of a similar size and can overpower a spider many times its own weight, and move it to its burrow, with a sting that is excruciatingly painful to humans. The solitary giant scoliid, "Megascolia procer", with a wingspan of 11.5 cm, has subspecies in Sumatra and Java; it is a parasitoid of the Atlas beetle "Chalcosoma atlas". The female giant ichneumon wasp "Megarhyssa macrurus" is long including its very long but slender ovipositor which is used for boring into wood and inserting eggs. The smallest wasps are solitary parasitoid wasps in the family Mymaridae, including the world's smallest known insect, "Dicopomorpha echmepterygis" (139 micrometres long) and "Kikiki huna" with a body length of only 158 micrometres, the smallest known flying insect.


title: Wasp

text: There are estimated to be 100,000 species of ichneumonoid wasps in the families Braconidae and Ichneumonidae. These are almost exclusively parasitoids, mostly using other insects as hosts. Another family, the Pompilidae, is a specialist parasitoid of spiders. Some wasps are even parasitoids of parasitoids; the eggs of "Euceros" are laid beside lepidopteran larvae and the wasp larvae feed temporarily on their haemolymph, but if a parasitoid emerges from the host, the hyperparasites continue their life cycle inside the parasitoid. Parasitoids maintain their extreme diversity through narrow specialism. In Peru, 18 wasp species were found living on 14 fly species in only two species of "Gurania" climbing squash.


title: Wasp

text: Of the dozens of extant wasp families, only the family Vespidae contains social species, primarily in the subfamilies Vespinae and Polistinae. With their powerful stings and conspicuous warning coloration, often in black and yellow, social wasps are frequent models for Batesian mimicry by non-stinging insects, and are themselves involved in mutually beneficial Müllerian mimicry of other distasteful insects including bees and other wasps. All species of social wasps construct their nests using some form of plant fiber (mostly wood pulp) as the primary material, though this can be supplemented with mud, plant secretions (e.g., resin), and secretions from the wasps themselves; multiple fibrous brood cells are constructed, arranged in a honeycombed pattern, and often surrounded by a larger protective envelope. Wood fibres are gathered from weathered wood, softened by chewing and mixing with saliva. The placement of nests varies from group to group; yellow jackets such as "Dolichovespula media" and "D. sylvestris" prefer to nest in trees and shrubs; "Protopolybia exigua "attaches its nests on the underside of leaves and branches; "Polistes erythrocephalus" chooses sites close to a water source.


title: Wasp

text: Other wasps, like "Agelaia multipicta" and "Vespula germanica," like to nest in cavities that include holes in the ground, spaces under homes, wall cavities or in lofts. While most species of wasps have nests with multiple combs, some species, such as "Apoica flavissima", only have one comb. The length of the reproductive cycle depends on latitude; "Polistes erythrocephalus", for example, has a much longer (up to 3 months longer) cycle in temperate regions.


title: Wasp

text: The vast majority of wasp species are solitary insects. Having mated, the adult female forages alone and if it builds a nest, does so for the benefit of its own offspring. Some solitary wasps nest in small groups alongside others of their species, but each is involved in caring for its own offspring (except for such actions as stealing other wasps’ prey or laying in other wasp's nests). There are some species of solitary wasp that build communal nests, each insect having its own cell and providing food for its own offspring, but these wasps do not adopt the division of labour and the complex behavioural patterns adopted by eusocial species.


title: Wasp

text: Adult solitary wasps spend most of their time in preparing their nests and foraging for food for their young, mostly insects or spiders. Their nesting habits are more diverse than those of social wasps. Many species dig burrows in the ground. Mud daubers and pollen wasps construct mud cells in sheltered places. Potter wasps similarly build vase-like nests from mud, often with multiple cells, attached to the twigs of trees or against walls.


title: Wasp

text: Predatory wasp species normally subdue their prey by stinging it, and then either lay their eggs on it, leaving it in place, or carry it back to their nest where an egg may be laid on the prey item and the nest sealed, or several smaller prey items may be deposited to feed a single developing larva. Apart from providing food for their offspring, no further maternal care is given. Members of the family Chrysididae, the cuckoo wasps, are kleptoparasites and lay their eggs in the nests of unrelated host species.


title: Wasp

text: Like all insects, wasps have a hard exoskeleton which protects their three main body parts, the head, the mesosoma (including the thorax and the first segment of the abdomen) and the metasoma. There is a narrow waist, the petiole, joining the first and second segments of the abdomen. The two pairs of membranous wings are held together by small hooks and the forewings are larger than the hind ones; in some species, the females have no wings. In females there is usually a rigid ovipositor which may be modified for injecting venom, piercing or sawing. It either extends freely or can be retracted, and may be developed into a stinger for both defence and for paralysing prey.


title: Wasp

text: In addition to their large compound eyes, wasps have several simple eyes known as ocelli, which are typically arranged in a triangle just forward of the vertex of the head. Wasps possess mandibles adapted for biting and cutting, like those of many other insects, such as grasshoppers, but their other mouthparts are formed into a suctorial proboscis, which enables them to drink nectar.


title: Wasp

text: The larvae of wasps resemble maggots, and are adapted for life in a protected environment; this may be the body of a host organism or a cell in a nest, where the larva either eats the provisions left for it or, in social species, is fed by the adults. Such larvae have soft bodies with no limbs, and have a blind gut (presumably so that they do not foul their cell).


title: Wasp

text: Adult solitary wasps mainly feed on nectar, but the majority of their time is taken up by foraging for food for their carnivorous young, mostly insects or spiders. Apart from providing food for their larval offspring, no maternal care is given. Some wasp species provide food for the young repeatedly during their development (progressive provisioning). Others, such as potter wasps (Eumeninae) and sand wasps ("Ammophila", Sphecidae), repeatedly build nests which they stock with a supply of immobilised prey such as one large caterpillar, laying a single egg in or on its body, and then sealing up the entrance (mass provisioning).


title: Wasp

text: Predatory and parasitoidal wasps subdue their prey by stinging it. They hunt a wide variety of prey, mainly other insects (including other Hymenoptera), both larvae and adults.


title: Wasp

text: Some social wasps are omnivorous, feeding on fallen fruit, nectar, and carrion such as dead insects. Adult male wasps sometimes visit flowers to obtain nectar. Some wasps, such as "Polistes fuscatus", commonly return to locations where they previously found prey to forage. In many social species, the larvae exude copious amounts of salivary secretions that are avidly consumed by the adults. These include both sugars and amino acids, and may provide essential protein-building nutrients that are otherwise unavailable to the adults (who cannot digest proteins).


title: Wasp

text: In wasps, as in other Hymenoptera, sex is determined by a haplodiploid system, which means that females are unusually closely related to their sisters, enabling kin selection to favour the evolution of eusocial behaviour. Females are diploid, meaning that they have 2n chromosomes and develop from fertilized eggs. Males, called drones, have a haploid (n) number of chromosomes and develop from an unfertilized egg. Wasps store sperm inside their body and control its release for each individual egg as it is laid; if a female wishes to produce a male egg, she simply lays the egg without fertilizing it. Therefore, under most conditions in most species, wasps have complete voluntary control over the sex of their offspring. Experimental infection of "Muscidifurax uniraptor" with the bacterium "Wolbachia" induced thelytokous reproduction and an inability to produce fertile, viable male offspring.


title: Wasp

text: Females of the solitary wasp parasitoid "Venturia canescens" can avoid mating with their brothers through kin recognition. In experimental comparisons, the probability that a female will mate with an unrelated male was about twice as high as the chance of her mating with brothers. Female wasps appear to recognize siblings on the basis of a chemical signature carried or emitted by males. Sibling-mating avoidance reduces inbreeding depression that is largely due to the expression of homozygous deleterious recessive mutations.


title: Wasp

text: While the vast majority of wasps play no role in pollination, a few species can effectively transport pollen and pollinate several plant species. Since wasps generally do not have a fur-like covering of soft hairs and a special body part for pollen storage (pollen basket) as some bees do, pollen does not stick to them well. However it has been shown that even without hairs, several wasp species are able to effectively transport pollen, therefore contributing for potential pollination of several plant species.


title: Wasp

text: Pollen wasps in the subfamily Masarinae gather nectar and pollen in a crop inside their bodies, rather than on body hairs like bees, and pollinate flowers of "Penstemon" and the water leaf family, Hydrophyllaceae.


title: Wasp

text: The Agaonidae (fig wasps) are the only pollinators of nearly 1000 species of figs, and thus are crucial to the survival of their host plants. Since the wasps are equally dependent on their fig trees for survival, the coevolved relationship is fully mutualistic.


title: Wasp

text: Most solitary wasps are parasitoids. As adults, those that do feed typically only take nectar from flowers. Parasitoid wasps are extremely diverse in habits, many laying their eggs in inert stages of their host (egg or pupa), sometimes paralysing their prey by injecting it with venom through their ovipositor. They then insert one or more eggs into the host or deposit them upon the outside of the host. The host remains alive until the parasitoid larvae pupate or emerge as adults.


title: Wasp

text: The Ichneumonidae are specialized parasitoids, often of Lepidoptera larvae deeply buried in plant tissues, which may be woody. For this purpose, they have exceptionally long ovipositors; they detect their hosts by smell and vibration. Some of the largest species, including "Rhyssa persuasoria" and "Megarhyssa macrurus", parasitise horntails, large sawflies whose adult females also have impressively long ovipositors. Some parasitic species have a mutualistic relationship with a polydnavirus that weakens the host's immune system and replicates in the oviduct of the female wasp.


title: Wasp

text: One family of chalcidoid wasps, the Eucharitidae, has specialized as parasitoids of ants, most species hosted by one genus of ant. Eucharitids are among the few parasitoids that have been able to overcome ants' effective defences against parasitoids.


title: Wasp

text: Many species of wasp, including especially the cuckoo or jewel wasps (Chrysididae), are kleptoparasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other wasp species to exploit their parental care. Most such species attack hosts that provide provisions for their immature stages (such as paralyzed prey items), and they either consume the provisions intended for the host larva, or wait for the host to develop and then consume it before it reaches adulthood. An example of a true brood parasite is the paper wasp "Polistes sulcifer", which lays its eggs in the nests of other paper wasps (specifically "Polistes dominula"), and whose larvae are then fed directly by the host. Sand wasps "Ammophila" often save time and energy by parasitising the nests of other females of their own species, either kleptoparasitically stealing prey, or as brood parasites, removing the other female's egg from the prey and laying their own in its place. According to Emery's rule, social parasites, especially among insects, tend to parasitise species or genera to which they are closely related. For example, the social wasp "Dolichovespula adulterina" parasitises other members of its genus such as "D. norwegica" and "D. arenaria".


title: Wasp

text: Many wasp lineages, including those in the families Vespidae, Crabronidae, Sphecidae, and Pompilidae, attack and sting prey items that they use as food for their larvae; while Vespidae usually macerate their prey and feed the resulting bits directly to their brood, most predatory wasps paralyze their prey and lay eggs directly upon the bodies, and the wasp larvae consume them. Apart from collecting prey items to provision their young, many wasps are also opportunistic feeders, and will suck the body fluids of their prey. Although vespid mandibles are adapted for chewing and they appear to be feeding on the organism, they are often merely macerating it into submission. The impact of the predation of wasps on economic pests is difficult to establish.


title: Wasp

text: The roughly 140 species of beewolf (Philanthinae) hunt bees, including honeybees, to provision their nests; the adults feed on nectar and pollen.


title: Wasp

text: With their powerful stings and conspicuous warning coloration, social wasps are the models for many species of mimic. Two common cases are Batesian mimicry, where the mimic is harmless and is essentially bluffing, and Müllerian mimicry, where the mimic is also distasteful, and the mimicry can be considered mutual. Batesian mimics of wasps include many species of hoverfly and the wasp beetle. Many species of wasp are involved in Müllerian mimicry, as are many species of bee.


title: Wasp

text: While wasp stings deter many potential predators, bee-eaters (in the bird family Meropidae) specialise in eating stinging insects, making aerial sallies from a perch to catch them, and removing the venom from the stinger by repeatedly brushing the prey firmly against a hard object, such as a twig. The honey buzzard attacks the nests of social hymenopterans, eating wasp larvae; it is the only known predator of the dangerous Asian giant hornet or "yak-killer" ("Vespa mandarinia"). Likewise, roadrunners are the only real predators of tarantula hawk wasps.


title: Wasp

text: Social wasps are considered pests when they become excessively common, or nest close to buildings. People are most often stung in late summer and early autumn, when wasp colonies stop breeding new workers; the existing workers search for sugary foods and are more likely to come into contact with humans. Wasp nests made in or near houses, such as in roof spaces, can present a danger as the wasps may sting if people come close to them. Stings are usually painful rather than dangerous, but in rare cases, people may suffer life-threatening anaphylactic shock.


title: Wasp

text: Some species of parasitic wasp, especially in groups such as Aphelinidae, Braconidae, Mymaridae, and Trichogrammatidae, are exploited commercially to provide biological control of insect pests. One of the first species to be used was "Encarsia formosa", a parasitoid of a range of species of whitefly. It entered commercial use in the 1920s in Europe, was overtaken by chemical pesticides in the 1940s, and again received interest from the 1970s. "Encarsia" is used especially in greenhouses to control whitefly pests of tomato and cucumber, and to a lesser extent of aubergine (eggplant), flowers such as marigold, and strawberry. Several species of parasitic wasp are natural predators of aphids and can help to control them. For instance, "Aphidius matricariae" is used to control the peach-potato aphid.


title: Wasp

text: Wasps RFC is an English professional rugby union team originally based in London but now playing in Coventry; the name dates from 1867 at a time when names of insects were fashionable for clubs. The club's first kit is black with yellow stripes. The club has an amateur side called Wasps FC.


title: Wasp

text: Among the other clubs bearing the name are a basketball club in Wantirna, Australia, and Alloa Athletic F.C., a football club in Scotland.


title: Wasp

text: Wasps have been modelled in jewellery since at least the nineteenth century, when diamond and emerald wasp brooches were made in gold and silver settings. A fashion for wasp waisted female silhouettes with sharply cinched waistlines emphasizing the wearer's hips and bust arose repeatedly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.


title: Wasp

text: The Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes wrote the comedy play Σφῆκες ("Sphēkes"), "The Wasps", first put on in 422 BC. The "wasps" are the chorus of old jurors.


title: Wasp

text: H. G. Wells made use of giant wasps in his novel "The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth" (1904):


title: Wasp

text: "Wasp" (1957) is a science fiction book by the English writer Eric Frank Russell; it is generally considered Russell's best novel. In Stieg Larsson's book "The Girl Who Played with Fire" (2006) and its film adaptation, Lisbeth Salander has adopted her kickboxing ringname, "The Wasp", as her hacker handle and has a wasp tattoo on her neck, indicating her high status among hackers, unlike her real world situation, and that like a small but painfully stinging wasp, she could be dangerous.


title: Wasp

text: Parasitoidal wasps played an indirect role in the nineteenth-century evolution debate. The Ichneumonidae contributed to Charles Darwin's doubts about the nature and existence of a well-meaning and all-powerful Creator. In an 1860 letter to the American naturalist Asa Gray, Darwin wrote:


title: Wasp

text: With its powerful sting and familiar appearance, the wasp has given its name to many ships, aircraft and military vehicles. Nine ships and one shore establishment of the Royal Navy have been named , the first an 8-gun sloop launched in 1749.


title: Wasp

text: Eleven ships of the United States Navy have similarly borne the name , the first a merchant schooner acquired by the Continental Navy in 1775. The eighth of these, an aircraft carrier, gained two Second World War battle stars, prompting Winston Churchill to remark "Who said a Wasp couldn't sting twice?" In the Second World War, a German self-propelled howitzer was named Wespe, while the British developed the Wasp flamethrower from the Bren Gun Carrier.


title: Wasp

text: In aerospace, the Westland Wasp was a military helicopter developed in England in 1958 and used by the Royal Navy and other navies. The AeroVironment Wasp III is a miniature UAV developed for United States Air Force special operations.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: The Lost City of Z is a 2016 American biographical adventure drama film written and directed by James Gray, based on the 2009 book of the same name by David Grann. It portrays British explorer Percy Fawcett, who was sent to Brazil and made several attempts to find a supposed ancient lost city in the Amazon. It stars Charlie Hunnam as Fawcett; Robert Pattinson as his fellow explorer Henry Costin, Sienna Miller as his wife, Nina Fawcett; and Tom Holland as his son, Jack.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Its world premiere was on October 15, 2016, as the closing-night selection at the New York Film Festival. It was released in the United States on April 14, 2017 by Amazon Studios and Bleecker Street. It was praised by critics, but grossed only $19 million against a $30 million budget. Despite its lack of financial success, "Time" magazine listed it as one of its Top 10 Films of 2017.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: "Z" is pronounced "zed" by the characters in the film, as is done in British English; it is pronounced "zee" by the British actors in the film's U.S.-made promotional videos to suit the local market.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: In 1905, Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) is a young British officer who participates in a stag hunt on an Irish baronial estate for the visiting Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s benefit. A skilled horseman and marksman, he brings down the stag swiftly, but is snubbed at the after-hunt party.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: A year later, Fawcett meets with Royal Geographical Society (RGS) officials in London, where he’s informed that the governments of Bolivia and Brazil are nearly at war over the location of their mutual boundary. Directly affecting the region’s extremely lucrative rubber trade, they have asked the British government to survey it.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Fawcett leads the survey party, meeting Corporal Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson), who is familiar with the Amazon rainforest, aboard the ship to Brazil. At a large rubber plantation in the jungle owned by Portuguese nobleman Baron de Gondoris (Franco Nero), they meet Lance Corporal Arthur Manley (Edward Ashley), who tells them the British government advises against further exploration. Nevertheless, Fawcett and Costin, along with several guides and Amazonian scout Tadjui, complete the mission.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Tadjui tells him stories about a legendary jungle city covered in gold and full of people. Fawcett dismisses this as insane ravings, but he soon discovers highly advanced broken pottery and some small stone statues in the jungle, convincing him of the story’s veracity.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Upon his return, Fawcett is praised, and his wife, Nina (Sienna Miller), has given birth to their second son. In the Trinity College Library of Dublin, she discovers a conquistador text telling of a city deep in the Amazonian jungle, which Fawcett names “the Lost City of Z”. He also meets renowned biologist James Murray (Angus Macfadyen), who agrees to back his Amazon expedition to find that lost city. Attempting to convince RGS members for backing, he is initially ridiculed, but ultimately they concede to further exploration.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Murray, unfamiliar with the rigors of the deep jungle, greatly slows them down. Fawcett’s party is attacked along the river, but he makes peace with the natives. Murray’s leg injury becomes severely infected, and he begins to succumb to madness. Fawcett sends him off with a native guide and their last pack animal to find aid. The team must abandon the expedition after discovering that Murray poured paraffin on their supplies.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Murray survives and, in front of RGS trustees, accuses Fawcett of abandoning him in the jungle, demanding an apology. Fawcett opts to resign from the society rather than do so. When World War I breaks out in Europe, Fawcett fights in France. Manley dies in the trenches at the Battle of the Somme, and Fawcett is temporarily blinded in a chlorine gas attack whilst leading an infantry attack. His estranged eldest, Jack (Tom Holland), who had long accused Fawcett of abandoning them, reconciles with him as he recovers.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: In 1923, Fawcett is living in obscurity in England. American interest in exploring the Amazon has escalated, mostly due to Fawcett’s stories of the lost city. John D. Rockefeller Jr. and a consortium of U.S. newspapers finance a new Fawcett expedition. The RGS co-funds it at the last moment to maintain British pride. Fawcett shows Sir John Scott Keltie (Clive Francis) a compass, telling him that he will send it back to England once he finds the lost city.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Fawcett and his son go alone this time, traveling as light as possible for up to three years to find “Z”. Costin declines an invitation to join them. The Fawcetts are attacked by natives and escape, only to be ambushed by a second tribe which gives them a fair hearing. Stating out loud that their spirits aren’t wholly of their own world or of the Amazon, they declare their spirits “must belong” somewhere, so they will help them find their rightful place. The Fawcetts are drugged during a ceremony and carried away.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Years later, Nina Fawcett meets with Keltie at the RGS, claiming she has heard that Fawcett and Jack are still alive and living with tribespeople. The RGS, having sent over a hundred people to search for Fawcett over the years, refuses to do another search; and Keltie advises Nina to accept her husband’s death, but she refuses. Instead, she shows him the compass Fawcett had promised to send once he found the lost city. As Nina leaves, her reflection in a mirror shows her walking out into what looks like the Amazonian jungle.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: In February 2009, James Gray was hired by Paramount Pictures and Plan B Entertainment to write and direct the film based on David Grann's book, but the film remained in development for six years. Based on his experience on previous projects, Gray was not initially sure why Plan B sent him the book. He explained:When I was sent the book in the fall of 2008, it hadn’t yet been published. I didn’t know what it was and I hadn’t heard of the story at all. It takes place outside of New York, and it’s a period piece in the United Kingdom and the jungle. So I had no idea why the people at Plan B decided to send me this book, because nothing in my prior work had shown that I could do anything like this. Maybe it was an act of madness on their part.In a 2015 interview with IndieWire, Gray admitted that he had developed the script for a while before moving toward production. He explained that the film was a "very complicated production and the story is amazing, but it's a complicated story. And you want to get it right. It's a very, very scary proposition to go into the jungle and all that. But at the same time it's terrific. It's why you make movies."


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: The lead role underwent numerous casting changes. Brad Pitt was initially to star as Fawcett, additionally providing production duties through his company Plan B Entertainment. In November 2010, Pitt withdrew from the lead role due to scheduling conflicts, but remained attached as producer. On September 4, 2013, Benedict Cumberbatch came on board to portray Fawcett, along with Robert Pattinson, who joined the cast in the role of Costin. In February 2015, Cumberbatch dropped out also due to scheduling conflicts, and was replaced by Charlie Hunnam, while Sienna Miller was cast as Nina Fawcett.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Principal photography began on August 19, 2015, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and continued for five weeks until late September. On August 28, the production shot at Greyabbey Village and Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland. Hunnam and Miller filmed scenes at Ballintoy, County Antrim, on August 31, and further shooting took place at Craigavon House, East Belfast on September 2.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: On September 7, 2015, scenes were filmed at Belfast City Hall and on the grounds of Royal Belfast Academical Institution. Scenes were also shot at Bangor Castle leisure centre on September 13, 2015. Filming then moved to Santa Marta, Colombia, and continued through September and October.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Christopher Spelman composed the film's musical score. He had previously composed the music for Gray's 2013 film "The Immigrant", and had been arranger on "The Yards" (2000), "We Own the Night" (2007), and "Two Lovers" (2008). George Drakoulias and Randall Poster were music supervisors.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: The film's trailer featured "Tangled Earth" by audiomachine. The soundtrack was released digitally on March 24, 2017.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: The film had its world premiere as the closing night film on October 15, 2016, at the 54th New York Film Festival. Prior to that, StudioCanal acquired international distribution rights to the film, while Amazon Studios obtained U.S. distribution rights. Bleecker Street is partnering with Amazon on the film's theatrical release. The film was released in the United States on April 14, 2017. The film was released in France on March 15, 2017 and in the UK on March 24, 2017.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: In February 2017, the film was presented at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival in the "Berlinale Special" section. It also served as the opening night film of Boston International Film Festival on April 13, 2017.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: The film got a release date of June 2, 2017 in Mainland China, but was trimmed by 37 minutes, totaling 104 minutes. It is unclear if the move was due to a commercial decision, or a result of usual censorship by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: "The Lost City of Z" grossed $8.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $10.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $19.3 million, against a production budget of $30 million.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: "The Lost City of Z" was first released in France on March 15 where it generated $770,719 on its opening weekend. This was followed by the United Kingdom and Ireland on March 24, earning £270,139 from 282 theatres. It debuted at number seven on the box office chart.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: In the United States, the film grossed $110,175 from four theaters in its opening weekend. It expanded to 614 theaters the following weekend and made $2.2 million, finishing 10th at the box office. In its third weekend, the film added 252 theaters, and made $1.8 million.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 245 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critics consensus reads, ""The Lost City of Z"s stately pace and visual grandeur hearken back to classic exploration epics, and Charlie Hunnam turns in a masterful performance as its complex protagonist." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100 based on 44 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" described the film as "a rare piece of contemporary classical cinema." Dan Callahan in his review for "TheWrap" said that ""The Lost City of Z" feels like a clear artistic advance for Gray, who proves himself here as one of our finest and most distinctive living filmmakers." Owen Gleiberman, writing for "Variety", called the film "a finely crafted, elegantly shot, sharply sincere movie that is more absorbing than powerful." Joshua Rothkopf in his review for "Time Out" wrote that "the grandeur of this movie is off the charts ..." Mark Kermode of Kermode and Mayo's Film Review stated that while the film had numerous flaws, such as ineffective elliptical storytelling and Hunnam's uncharismatic performance, "it is a film which is haunting me more than I thought. ... it did feel like it was trying [to] break out of being just that narrative into something else".


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Explorer John Hemming criticized the movie's publicity for claiming that Fawcett was one of Britain's greatest explorers, arguing that this was an insult to the many true explorers, and that Fawcett was a racist, a "nutter", and a dangerous incompetent who "never discovered anything", but caused the loss of many lives.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Joe Morgenstern, a movie critic from "The Wall Street Journal", compares the book to the movie by stating "Mr. Hunnam's Fawcett is attractive, and animated when circumstances demand it, but thanks to a clumsy script, not very interesting." In contrast to the book being more interested in the facts along with David Grann's findings.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Peter Travers, a film critic for "Rolling Stone", rates "The Lost City of Z" three and a half stars out of four stars and describes the movie as "haunting and visionary, a potent provocation that gets under your skin." He then notes the complementary elements of "The Lost City of Z" being "exotic adventure, and the psychological terror that brushes Gray's metaphorical heart of darkness."


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Dan Jolin, a freelance journalist, rates "The Lost City of Z" a four out of five stars on "Empire". He states that though Fawcett's story is "a difficult story to end. ... Gray excels, going out on an oblique but elegant note." However he does note that "The Lost City of Z" may "test your patience" because of the scenes being prolonged to enhance the main character, Percy Fawcett.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Neil Soan, a reviewer, rates "The Lost City of Z" a three and a half stars out of five stars on "The Times of India". In accordance to the role of the main character, Percy Fawcett, Soan believes "Charlie Hunnam adds ample substance to Fawcett" but he also points out that some main personality traits were lackluster. He concludes in his review that though the movie falls short on important scenes, ""The lost City of Z" an unbalanced but fascinating watch."


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Manohla Dargis, a writer from "The New York Times," writes that Charlie Hunnam was "mesmerizing" upon his main role of British explorer, Percy Fawcett. She believes Mr. Gray has "Effortlessly expands his reach as he moves across time and continents and in the process turns the past into a singular life." She also notes the "lapidary details" that have helped polish "The Lost City of Z" into something more.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Anthony Lane, a film critic for the "New Yorker", believes that the "right person for the role" is actually Robert Pattinson. The way he presents himself in the film as an "Unlikely figure, yet you still follow his every move" which is similar to how someone could think about Percy Fawcett. Despite this, Lane believes "The Lost City of Z" to be "beautiful, mournful, and measured."


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: Robbie Collin, a film critic from "The Daily Telegraph", describes 'The Lost City of Z' as "a film transporting, profound, and staggering in its emotional power as anything I've seen in the cinema in years. He believes Charlie Hunnam suitably carries the role of Percy Fawcett with his "persuasiveness" demonstrated in roles prior to 'The Lost City of Z'.


title: The Lost City of Z (film)

text: David Sims, a staff writer at "The Atlantic," writes that ""The Lost City of Z" is a miraculous movie at once moving, intimidating, and gorgeous to behold."


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Seneca was born in Córdoba in Hispania, and raised in Rome, where he was trained in rhetoric and philosophy. His father was Seneca the Elder, his elder brother was Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, and his nephew was the poet Lucan. In AD 41, Seneca was exiled to the island of Corsica under emperor Claudius, but was allowed to return in 49 to become a tutor to Nero. When Nero became emperor in 54, Seneca became his advisor and, together with the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus, provided competent government for the first five years of Nero's reign. Seneca's influence over Nero declined with time, and in 65 Seneca was forced to take his own life for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, in which he was probably innocent. His stoic and calm suicide has become the subject of numerous paintings.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: As a writer, Seneca is known for his philosophical works, and for his plays, which are all tragedies. His prose works include 12 essays and 124 letters dealing with moral issues. These writings constitute one of the most important bodies of primary material for ancient Stoicism. As a tragedian, he is best known for plays such as his "Medea", "Thyestes", and "Phaedra". Seneca's influence on later generations is immense—during the Renaissance he was "a sage admired and venerated as an oracle of moral, even of Christian edification; a master of literary style and a model [for] dramatic art."


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Seneca was born in Córdoba in the Roman province of Baetica in Hispania. His father was Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder, a Spanish-born Roman knight who had gained fame as a writer and teacher of rhetoric in Rome. Seneca's mother, Helvia, was from a prominent Baetician family. Seneca was the second of three brothers; the others were Lucius Annaeus Novatus (later known as Junius Gallio), and Annaeus Mela, the father of the poet Lucan. Miriam Griffin says in her biography of Seneca that "the evidence for Seneca's life before his exile in 41 is so slight, and the potential interest of these years, for social history, as well as for biography, is so great that few writers on Seneca have resisted the temptation to eke out knowledge with imagination." Griffin also infers from the ancient sources that Seneca was born in either 8, 4, or 1 BC. She thinks he was born between 4 and 1 BC and was resident in Rome by 5 AD.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Seneca tells us that he was taken to Rome in the "arms" of his aunt (his mother's stepsister) at a young age, probably when he was about five years old. His father resided for much of his life in the city. Seneca was taught the usual subjects of literature, grammar, and rhetoric, as part of the standard education of high-born Romans. While still young he received philosophical training from Attalus the Stoic, and from Sotion and Papirius Fabianus, both of whom belonged to the short-lived School of the Sextii, which combined Stoicism with Pythagoreanism. Sotion persuaded Seneca when he was a young man (in his early twenties) to become a vegetarian, which he practiced for around a year before his father urged him to desist because the practice was associated with "some foreign rites". Seneca often had breathing difficulties throughout his life, probably asthma, and at some point in his mid-twenties (c. 20 AD) he appears to have been struck down with tuberculosis. He was sent to Egypt to live with his aunt (the same aunt who had brought him to Rome), whose husband Gaius Galerius had become Prefect of Egypt. She nursed him through a period of ill health that lasted up to ten years. In 31 AD he returned to Rome with his aunt, his uncle dying en route in a shipwreck. His aunt's influence helped Seneca be elected quaestor (probably after 37 AD), which also earned him the right to sit in the Roman Senate.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Seneca's early career as a senator seems to have been successful and he was praised for his oratory. Cassius Dio relates a story that Caligula was so offended by Seneca's oratorical success in the Senate that he ordered him to commit suicide. Seneca survived only because he was seriously ill and Caligula was told that he would soon die anyway. In his writings Seneca has nothing good to say about Caligula and frequently depicts him as a monster. Seneca explains his own survival as due to his patience and his devotion to his friends: "I wanted to avoid the impression that all I could do for loyalty was die."


title: Seneca the Younger

text: In 41 AD, Claudius became emperor, and Seneca was accused by the new empress Messalina of adultery with Julia Livilla, sister to Caligula and Agrippina. The affair has been doubted by some historians, since Messalina had clear political motives for getting rid of Julia Livilla and her supporters. The Senate pronounced a death sentence on Seneca, which Claudius commuted to exile, and Seneca spent the next eight years on the island of Corsica. Two of Seneca's earliest surviving works date from the period of his exile—both consolations. In his "Consolation to Helvia", his mother, Seneca comforts her as a bereaved mother for losing her son to exile. Seneca incidentally mentions the death of his only son, a few weeks before his exile. Later in life Seneca was married to a woman younger than himself, Pompeia Paulina. It has been thought that the infant son may have been from an earlier marriage, but the evidence is "tenuous". Seneca's other work of this period, his "Consolation to Polybius", one of Claudius' freedmen, focused on consoling Polybius on the death of his brother. It is noted for its flattery of Claudius, and Seneca expresses his hope that the emperor will recall him from exile. In 49 AD Agrippina married her uncle Claudius, and through her influence Seneca was recalled to Rome. Agrippina gained the praetorship for Seneca and appointed him tutor to her son, the future emperor Nero.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: From AD 54 to 62, Seneca acted as Nero's advisor, together with the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus. One by-product of his new position was that Seneca was appointed suffect consul in 56. Seneca's influence was said to have been especially strong in the first year. Seneca composed Nero's accession speeches in which he promised to restore proper legal procedure and authority to the Senate. He also composed the eulogy for Claudius that Nero delivered at the funeral. Seneca's satirical skit "Apocolocyntosis", which lampoons the deification of Claudius and praises Nero, dates from the earliest period of Nero's reign. In 55 AD, Seneca wrote "On Clemency" following Nero's murder of Britannicus, perhaps to assure the citizenry that the murder was the end, not the beginning of bloodshed. "On Clemency" is a work which, although it flatters Nero, was intended to show the correct (Stoic) path of virtue for a ruler. Tacitus and Dio suggest that Nero's early rule, during which he listened to Seneca and Burrus, was quite competent. However, the ancient sources suggest that, over time, Seneca and Burrus lost their influence over the emperor. In 59 they had reluctantly agreed to Agrippina's murder, and afterward Tacitus reports that Seneca had to write a letter justifying the murder to the Senate.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: In 58 AD the senator Publius Suillius Rufus made a series of public attacks on Seneca. These attacks, reported by Tacitus and Cassius Dio, included charges that, in a mere four years of service to Nero, Seneca had acquired a vast personal fortune of three hundred million sestertii by charging high interest on loans throughout Italy and the provinces. Suillius' attacks included claims of sexual corruption, with a suggestion that Seneca had slept with Agrippina. Tacitus, though, reports that Suillius was highly prejudiced: he had been a favorite of Claudius, and had been an embezzler and informant. In response, Seneca brought a series of prosecutions for corruption against Suillius: half of his estate was confiscated and he was sent into exile. However, the attacks reflect a criticism of Seneca that was made at the time and continued through later ages. Seneca was undoubtedly extremely rich: he had properties at Baiae and Nomentum, an Alban villa, and Egyptian estates. Cassius Dio even reports that the Boudica uprising in Britannia was caused by Seneca forcing large loans on the indigenous British aristocracy in the aftermath of Claudius's conquest of Britain, and then calling them in suddenly and aggressively. Seneca was sensitive to such accusations: his "De Vita Beata" ("On the Happy Life") dates from around this time and includes a defense of wealth along Stoic lines, arguing that properly gaining and spending wealth is appropriate behavior for a philosopher.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: After Burrus's death in 62, Seneca's influence declined rapidly; as Tacitus puts it (Ann. 14.52.1), "mors Burri infregit Senecae potentiam" ("the death of Burrus broke Seneca's power"). Tacitus reports that Seneca tried to retire twice, in 62 and 64 AD, but Nero refused him on both occasions. Nevertheless, Seneca was increasingly absent from the court. He adopted a quiet lifestyle on his country estates, concentrating on his studies and seldom visiting Rome. It was during these final few years that he composed two of his greatest works: "Naturales quaestiones"—an encyclopedia of the natural world; and his "Letters to Lucilius"—which document his philosophical thoughts.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: In AD 65, Seneca was caught up in the aftermath of the Pisonian conspiracy, a plot to kill Nero. Although it is unlikely that Seneca was part of the conspiracy, Nero ordered him to kill himself. Seneca followed tradition by severing several veins in order to bleed to death, and his wife Pompeia Paulina attempted to share his fate. Cassius Dio, who wished to emphasize the relentlessness of Nero, focused on how Seneca had attended to his last-minute letters, and how his death was hastened by soldiers. A generation after the Julio-Claudian emperors, Tacitus wrote an account of the suicide, which, in view of his Republican sympathies, is perhaps somewhat romanticized. According to this account, Nero ordered Seneca's wife saved. Her wounds were bound up and she made no further attempt to kill herself. As for Seneca himself, his age and diet were blamed for slow loss of blood and extended pain rather than a quick death. He also took poison, which was, however, not fatal. After dictating his last words to a scribe, and with a circle of friends attending him in his home, he immersed himself in a warm bath, which he expected would speed blood flow and ease his pain. Tacitus wrote, "He was then carried into a bath, with the steam of which he was suffocated, and he was burnt without any of the usual funeral rites. So he had directed in a codicil of his will, even when in the height of his wealth and power he was thinking of life's close." This may give the impression of a favorable portrait of Seneca, but Tacitus's treatment of him is at best ambivalent. Alongside Seneca's apparent fortitude in the face of death, for example, one can also view his actions as rather histrionic and performative; and when Tacitus tells us that he left his family an "imago suae vitae" ("Annales" 15.62), "an image of his life", he is possibly being ambiguous: in Roman culture, the "imago" was a kind of mask that commemorated the great ancestors of noble families, but at the same time, it may also suggest duplicity, superficiality, and pretense.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: As "a major philosophical figure of the Roman Imperial Period", Seneca's lasting contribution to philosophy has been to the school of Stoicism.  His writing is highly accessible and was the subject of attention from the Renaissance onwards by writers such as Michel de Montaigne. He has been described as “a towering and controversial figure of antiquity” and “the world’s most interesting Stoic”.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Seneca wrote a number of books on Stoicism, mostly on ethics, with one work ("Naturales Quaestiones") on the physical world. Seneca built on the writings of many of the earlier Stoics: he often mentions Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus; and frequently cites Posidonius, with whom Seneca shared an interest in natural phenomena. He frequently quotes Epicurus, especially in his "Letters". His interest in Epicurus is mainly limited to using him as a source of ethical maxims. Likewise Seneca shows some interest in Platonist metaphysics, but never with any clear commitment. His moral essays are based on Stoic doctrines. Stoicism was a popular philosophy in this period, and many upper-class Romans found in it a guiding ethical framework for political involvement. It was once popular to regard Seneca as being very eclectic in his Stoicism, but modern scholarship views him as a fairly orthodox Stoic, albeit a free-minded one.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: His works discuss both ethical theory and practical advice, and Seneca stresses that both parts are distinct but interdependent. His "Letters to Lucilius" showcase Seneca's search for ethical perfection and “represent a sort of philosophical testament for posterity”. Seneca regards philosophy as a balm for the wounds of life. The destructive passions, especially anger and grief, must be uprooted, or moderated according to reason. He discusses the relative merits of the contemplative life and the active life, and he considers it important to confront one's own mortality and be able to face death. One must be willing to practice poverty and use wealth properly, and he writes about favours, clemency, the importance of friendship, and the need to benefit others. The universe is governed for the best by a rational providence, and this must be reconciled with acceptance of adversity.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Ten plays are attributed to Seneca, of which most likely eight were written by him. The plays stand in stark contrast to his philosophical works. With their intense emotions, and grim overall tone, the plays seem to represent the antithesis of Seneca's Stoic beliefs. Up to the 16th century it was normal to distinguish between Seneca the moral philosopher and Seneca the dramatist as two separate people. Scholars have tried to spot certain Stoic themes: it is the uncontrolled passions that generate madness, ruination, and self-destruction. This has a cosmic as well as an ethical aspect, and fate is a powerful, albeit rather oppressive, force.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Many scholars have thought, following the ideas of the 19th-century German scholar Friedrich Leo, that Seneca's tragedies were written for recitation only. Other scholars think that they were written for performance and that it is possible that actual performance took place in Seneca's lifetime. Ultimately, this issue cannot be resolved on the basis of our existing knowledge. The tragedies of Seneca have been successfully staged in modern times.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: The dating of the tragedies is highly problematic in the absence of any ancient references. A parody of a lament from "Hercules Furens" appears in the "Apocolocyntosis", which implies a date before 54 AD for that play. A relative chronology has been proposed on metrical grounds. The plays are not all based on the Greek pattern; they have a five-act form and differ in many respects from extant Attic drama, and while the influence of Euripides on some of these works is considerable, so is the influence of Virgil and Ovid.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Seneca's plays were widely read in medieval and Renaissance European universities and strongly influenced tragic drama in that time, such as Elizabethan England (William Shakespeare and other playwrights), France (Corneille and Racine), and the Netherlands (Joost van den Vondel). English translations of Seneca's tragedies appeared in print in the mid-16th century, with all ten published collectively in 1581. He is regarded as the source and inspiration for what is known as "Revenge Tragedy", starting with Thomas Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy" and continuing well into the Jacobean era. "Thyestes" is considered Seneca's masterpiece, and has been described by scholar Dana Gioia as "one of the most influential plays ever written". "Medea" is also highly regarded, and was praised along with "Phaedra" by T. S. Eliot.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Works attributed to Seneca include 12 philosophical essays, 124 letters dealing with moral issues, nine tragedies, and a satire, the attribution of which is disputed. His authorship of "Hercules on Oeta" has also been questioned.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Various antique and medieval texts purport to be by Seneca, "e.g.", "De remediis fortuitorum". Their unknown authors are collectively called "Pseudo-Seneca." At least some of these seem to preserve and adapt genuine Senecan content, for example, Saint Martin of Braga's (d. c. 580) "Formula vitae honestae", or "De differentiis quatuor virtutum vitae honestae" ("Rules for an Honest Life", or "On the Four Cardinal Virtues"). Early manuscripts preserve Martin's preface, where he makes it clear that this was his adaptation, but in later copies this was omitted, and the work was later thought fully Seneca's work. Seneca is also often quoted as the author of the aphorism: "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful"; this is based on a translation by Edward Gibbon, but is disputed.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Seneca's writings were well known in the later Roman period, and Quintilian, writing thirty years after Seneca's death, remarked on the popularity of his works amongst the youth. While he found much to admire, Quintillian criticized Seneca for what he regarded as a degenerate literary style—a criticism echoed by Aulus Gellius in the middle of the 2nd century.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: The early Christian Church was very favourably disposed towards Seneca and his writings, and the church leader Tertullian possessively referred to him as "our Seneca". By the 4th century an apocryphal correspondence with Paul the Apostle had been created linking Seneca into the Christian tradition. The letters are mentioned by Jerome who also included Seneca among a list of Christian writers, and Seneca is similarly mentioned by Augustine. In the 6th century Martin of Braga synthesized Seneca's thought into a couple of treatises that became popular in their own right. Otherwise, Seneca was mainly known through a large number of quotes and extracts in the "florilegia", which were popular throughout the medieval period. When his writings were read in the later Middle Ages, it was mostly his "Letters to Lucilius"—the longer essays and plays being relatively unknown.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Medieval writers and works continued to link him to Christianity because of his alleged association with Paul. The "Golden Legend", a 13th-century hagiographical account of famous saints that was widely read, included an account of Seneca's death scene, and erroneously presented Nero as a witness to Seneca's suicide. Dante placed Seneca (alongside Cicero) among the "great spirits" in the First Circle of Hell, or Limbo. Boccaccio, who in 1370 came across the works of Tacitus whilst browsing the library at Montecassino, wrote an account of Seneca's suicide hinting that it was a kind of disguised baptism, or a "de facto" baptism in spirit. Some, such as Albertino Mussato and Giovanni Colonna, went even further and concluded that Seneca must have been a Christian convert.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Seneca remains one of the few popular Roman philosophers from the period. He appears not only in Dante, but also in Chaucer and to a large degree in Petrarch, who adopted his style in his own essays and who quotes him more than any other authority except Virgil. In the Renaissance, printed editions and translations of his works became common, including an edition by Erasmus and a commentary by John Calvin. John of Salisbury, Erasmus and others celebrated his works. French essayist Montaigne, who gave a spirited defense of Seneca and Plutarch in his "Essays", was himself considered by Pasquier a "French Seneca". Similarly, Thomas Fuller praised Joseph Hall as "our English Seneca". Many who considered his ideas not particularly original still argued that he was important in making the Greek philosophers presentable and intelligible. His suicide has also been a popular subject in art, from Jacques-Louis David's 1773 painting "The Death of Seneca" to the 1951 film "Quo Vadis".


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Even with the admiration of an earlier group of intellectual stalwarts, Seneca has never been without his detractors. In his own time, he was accused of hypocrisy or, at least, a less than "Stoic" lifestyle. While banished to Corsica, he wrote a plea for restoration rather incompatible with his advocacy of a simple life and the acceptance of fate. In his "Apocolocyntosis" he ridiculed the behaviors and policies of Claudius, and flattered Nero—such as proclaiming that Nero would live longer and be wiser than the legendary Nestor. The claims of Publius Suillius Rufus that Seneca acquired some "three hundred million "sesterces"" through Nero's favor are highly partisan, but they reflect the reality that Seneca was both powerful and wealthy. Robin Campbell, a translator of Seneca's letters, writes that the "stock criticism of Seneca right down the centuries [has been]...the apparent contrast between his philosophical teachings and his practice."


title: Seneca the Younger

text: In 1562 Gerolamo Cardano wrote an "apology" praising Nero in his "Encomium Neronis", printed in Basel. This was likely intended as a mock "encomium", inverting the portrayal of Nero and Seneca that appears in Tacitus. In this work Cardano portrayed Seneca as a crook of the worst kind, an empty rhetorician who was only thinking to grab money and power, after having poisoned the mind of the young emperor. Cardano stated that Seneca well deserved death.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Among the historians who have sought to reappraise Seneca is the scholar Anna Lydia Motto, who in 1966 argued that the negative image has been based almost entirely on Suillius's account, while many others who might have lauded him have been lost.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: "We are therefore left with no contemporary record of Seneca's life, save for the desperate opinion of Publius Suillius. Think of the barren image we should have of Socrates, had the works of Plato and Xenophon not come down to us and were we wholly dependent upon Aristophanes' description of this Athenian philosopher. To be sure, we should have a highly distorted, misconstrued view. Such is the view left to us of Seneca, if we were to rely upon Suillius alone."


title: Seneca the Younger

text: More recent work is changing the dominant perception of Seneca as a mere conduit for pre-existing ideas, showing originality in Seneca's contribution to the history of ideas. Examination of Seneca's life and thought in relation to contemporary education and to the psychology of emotions is revealing the relevance of his thought. For example, Martha Nussbaum in her discussion of desire and emotion includes Seneca among the Stoics who offered important insights and perspectives on emotions and their role in our lives. Specifically devoting a chapter to his treatment of anger and its management, she shows Seneca's appreciation of the damaging role of uncontrolled anger, and its pathological connections. Nussbaum later extended her examination to Seneca's contribution to political philosophy showing considerable subtlety and richness in his thoughts about politics, education, and notions of global citizenship—and finding a basis for reform-minded education in Seneca's ideas she used to propose a mode of modern education that avoids both narrow traditionalism and total rejection of tradition. Elsewhere Seneca has been noted as the first great Western thinker on the complex nature and role of gratitude in human relationships.


title: Seneca the Younger

text: Seneca is a character in Monteverdi's 1642 opera "L'incoronazione di Poppea" ("The Coronation of Poppea"), which is based on the pseudo-Senecan play, "Octavia". In Nathaniel Lee's 1675 play "Nero, Emperor of Rome", Seneca attempts to dissuade Nero from his egomaniacal plans, but is dragged off to prison, dying off-stage. He appears in Robert Bridges' verse drama "Nero", the second part of which (published 1894) culminates in Seneca's death. Seneca appears in a fairly minor role in Henryk Sienkiewicz's 1896 novel "Quo Vadis" and was played by Nicholas Hannen in the 1951 film. In Robert Graves's 1934 book "Claudius the God", the sequel novel to "I, Claudius", Seneca is portrayed as an unbearable sycophant. He is shown as a flatterer who converts to Stoicism solely to appease Claudius's own ideology. The "Pumpkinification" ("Apocolocyntosis") to Graves thus becomes an unbearable work of flattery to the loathsome Nero, mocking a man that Seneca groveled to for years. The historical novel "Chariot of the Soul" by Linda Proud features Seneca as tutor of the young Togidubnus, son of King Verica of the Atrebates, during his ten-year stay in Rome.