R. I. P. MICHAEL SPORN

A few days ago I discovered that animation blogger Michael Sporn died, a victim of Pancreatic Cancer. It was a real shock. I knew he'd been away from his blog for a few weeks but I had no idea his problem was life threatening.

I never met Michael but I was a frequent visitor to his blog and over the years I came to think of him as a friend. The news of his passing is very sad. I wish Michael had confided his condition to his readers. He did it in order to spare us, of course, but a person as thoughtful and aware as Michael was...you want to know what he was thinking near the end. 

Anyway, the man will be greatly missed.

THE UPPER CLASS BRITISH ACCENT

I'll take this opportunity to respond to a British commenter (name witheld by request) who said that he couldn't stand to hear upper class accents on the BBC. I love that accent myself, but then again I live in America and have never had it used against me in the form of a class weapon. I thought it might be fun to put myself behind his eyes, and try to see the language war the way he sees it.

The commenter must go nuts when he sees short films like the one above. In the film Peter Sellers is a twit, but he's confident that his accent and upper class bearing will get him a date with a girl he doesn't even know, and it does. This arrogant, aristocratic confidence drives the commenter crazy. It's as if the accent was deliberately devised, not just to insult and exclude working people, but to rub their noses in the insult in as many ways as possible. Well, maybe it was, at least in part. Even so, I can't really agree that Britain would be better off without it (the commenter never said that it would, but I'll pretend that he did)



Listen to Dylan Thomas (above) read "Do Not Go Gentle." Does anyone seriously think that poem would sound as good if it were read by a cockney? Does anyone imagine that the reader (Thomas) had the intention of suppressing anyone when he read it? My guess is that Thomas talks the way he does mainly because it strikes his poet's ear as beautiful...which it is...and because it connects him to Chaucer, Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Milton. If Britain ever exterminates that language, and the best part of the culture that goes with it, then Britain won't be Britain. It'll just be another tube stop at the edge of Eurasia.

 Let me digress to talk about what language and accent is. It's more than a conveyor of text. At the level Thomas uses it, it's layered with ideals of intellect and civilized behavior, of self-discipline, dignity and compassion, of manliness and efficacy. It's amazing that an accent was forged that can convey so much information, and can attach these qualities to whatever idea is being expressed. It's a language that attempts to improve the speaker and listener alike. I regard it as nothing less than miraculous...even if it is misused by people like the character Peter Sellers played.

"CONFESSIONS OF A SOCIOPATH"

Here's  what I've been reading lately..."Confessions of a Sociopath," by M. E. Thomas, a clinically diagnosed sociopath. The book cast a pall over my holiday because it was so interesting that I couldn't put it down, even when I was forced to read by the light of the Christmas tree. It wasn't exactly holiday reading. My family must have thought I was nuts.

The author is unusual in that she actually likes being a sociopath. She says it confers advantages. She says her inability to experience emotional attachment allows her to be objective, to consider things on their own merit without emotional bias. She thinks the world wouldn't work without people like that. And besides, given the choice of being a wolf or a sheep who wouldn't prefer to be a wolf?

That's not to say that this condition doesn't have big disadvantages. Sociopaths get bored easy and will turn to mischief just for something to do. In Thomas's case she hinted that she filed sexual harassment complaints against innocent men she didn't like, just to watch them squirm. As a consequence she had to change jobs every two or three years because she'd get a reputation as a troublemaker. I get the feeling that sociopaths are frequent job changers.

BTW: bored easy can be a surprisingly dangerous trait. Lots of us fill in the gaps during the day with random thoughts about social relationships. Sociopaths aren't interested in things like that and the void that results sometimes drives them to do wild things to fill it. Geez, maybe thinking of social trivia keeps normal people sane. But I digress....

Another disadvantage is that sociopaths never seem to learn from bad experiences. They're driven to do what they do, sometimes with slight regard to consequences.

They're also born manipulators. They can be good listeners, but that's because they hope to discover your vulnerabilities. Sociopaths are users. Someone on the net said their true goal is to make their acquaintances into zombie slaves. They don't believe that harms us much because in their eyes the rest of us aren't fully human anyway. We're just... goldfish. It's not like they were hurting a real human being...like themselves.

Sociopaths are said to be more likely than normals to be drug abusers. Maybe that comes from being bored easy. They also have violent tendencies but many manage to keep them in check, largely by avoiding situations where they'd lose control. One commenter on Thomas' blog "Psychopath World" says he steers clear of prostitutes because their high risk life style makes them perfect victims, and he'd rather not be tempted.

Lots of psychologists subscribe to the famous list of seven sociopathic attributes found below. You can have only five and still be diagnosed as a socio, but four or less apparently disqualifies you.

Thomas says she'd add one more attribute: a lack of a sense of self. Socios are shape shifters who tailor their personality to fit the unique need of each person they're trying to manipulate. The downside of all that role playing is that sociopaths may not have a default personality. They don't have a clear idea of who they really are.

How do you spot a sociopath? Thomas offers her own list of twelve relatively minor behaviors that might serve as a tipoff (below).

It's kind of funny that sociopaths are appalled when they're confused with psychopaths. In their eyes psychopaths are just plain crazy.  Psychopaths hear voices or see visions...they're delusional. Sociopaths aren't delusional at all. They take in information the same way the rest of us do, they just have different values, or at least that's how they see it. Haw! It's funny to think that in the world of psychological disorders each group has its own niche, which is strenuously defended. 

What's my take on all this?  I think Thomas may be right about the benefits to society of certain disorders, provided the sufferer has some self restraint. At the top of the heap are the obsessive compulsives. We all benefit from what those guys do, though they don't seem very happy and I wouldn't want to trade places with them. Sociopaths are scary because at the extreme end they can lapse into absolute evil, but a mild case...mmmm, maybe there's some benefit there, I'm not sure.

I do think that too many normal people cheerfully identify themselves as sociopaths based on the fact that they have disdain for the people they meet. That doesn't sound right. Disdain alone isn't sociopathy, it's just...I don't know...misanthropy. If the book is right, sociopaths aren't just down on people; they have no personality, are chronic manipulators and shape-shifters, are potentially violent, and never learn from experience. It's a whole package.

BTW: A commenter doesn't agree that there's a difference between psychopaths and sociopaths. I've read differently, but he cites a reputable source. Read what he says and judge for yourself. 

NOBODY LETS ME TAKE THEIR PICTURE!

Yikes! I misspelled "Photographer" in the headline, and I can't change it. I guess I'm stuck with it.

THE NEW CAROL BURNETT DVD SET

A new set of Carol Burnett TV shows came out recently and my library got a copy. What a gold mine! Gee, I miss that show. Burnett played a host of characters that were just hilarious. Here (above) she parodies Norma Desmond from Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard." 

And who's she sitting with? Is that Daddy Warbucks? No it's Harvey Corman playing Max, Norma Desmond's manservant.  Thanks to Mike for identifying these characters. 

I think this character (above, right) is called Eunice. Burnett played the role so well that you can't help but speculate that she grew up with a real Eunice in her life.

Haw! Eunice's mother (far right) sits with her legs far apart, which was strangely common among grannies of my grandmother's generation. Maybe that was a Flapper thing to do. 

Older women of that generation also stood up in an awkward way, like Carol does above. I wonder why. 

  

This (above) is from a flashback showing how Eunice was courted by her husband.

She wiggles out of his clutches and springs to her feet, as if she were delivering a manifesto. Note the see-through blouse...pretty racy stuff for 60s TV.

She did a great parody of beach movies. How do you like the way she dances the Hully Gully?

Here's (above) Burnett doing a dim-witted secretary, Miss Wiggins.

Tim Conway was her boss. I like the pot belly.

To get his secretary's attention he says, "Read my lips," and she does....diligently.

INTELLECTUAL PLAYHOUSE

EXT. SCANDINAVIAN TOWNHOUSE:

GUNNAR (VO): "Admit it, this talk we're having isn't going anywere is it? You'll come away from this visit disappointed, thinking I've let you down."

GERTRUDE: "You haven't let me down. Worse things will happen before the day's over.  They always do."

GERTRUDE: "I've come to the conclusion that life is essentially meaningless."

GUNNAR: "I'm going to get half a glass of water. Can I get you some?"

GERTRUDE: "Will the glass be half empty or half full?"

GUNNAR: "Er...half full."

GERTRUDE: "Then count me out. I don't believe in mindless optimism."

LATER, IN THE PARK: 

SVEN: "Gertrude, come away with me. You know me. I'm just a starving student and I have nothing to offer but squalor, but think of it...we'll be young together. There'll be wine and song and, well.....gusto."

GERTRUDE: "Gusto? What place does gusto have? At some point we'll be struck down by death and all our achievements will wither."

SVEN: "Then I guess this is good bye, Gertude. Good-bye."

GERTRUDE: "What's good about it? We're fallen creatures. Humans are fallen creatures."

LATER:

GUNNAR: "So you're back. I've been staring at a spot on the wall while you were gone. 

GERTRUDE: "Maybe I'll stare with you. Outside there's nothing but despair and hopelessness, just like in here."

GUNNAR: "Let's drift into the bedroom and have boring sex. There's at least a miniscule chance that it'll go well.

GERTRUDE: "Alright. I'll get the Abilify."

FIN

HOW CRIME COULD SAVE NEWSPAPERS

That's a real life crime scene above. This bathroom was the scene of a murder.... I don't know the particulars. If you're like me you won't be able to resist staring at it, maybe in the superstitious belief that a location can have a malevolent personality and can be a collaborator in violent crimes. Isn't that what Stephen King was getting at in "The Shining?" 

I covered up the gory part of the photo with scrap paper. That's because I want to demonstrate that even an empty room can be interesting if it's known to be the locale of a crime. Still pictures can be an amazingly effective medium for things like this. A newspaper might devote a whole 20% of a page to an empty crime scene photo like this.

  Newspapers are always looking for a way to stay relevant and one way to do that is to up their game by making their crime reporting more exciting. Big cities are plagued with crime and this is a way to turn a liability into an asset...well, sort of.

   

Newspapers can't compete with TV for breaking news, or with computers for quick summaries, but they're great for pictures people want to study, like the mugshots above. Readers like to linger on the faces of people in the news, even if those people are criminals. We're all interested in life's other side.

Newspapers also have the advantage that line drawings have more impact on pulp paper than on computer screens. I'm not sure why. Maybe the tactile grit of the paper has something to do with it. Maybe McLuhan's theory that imperfect definition increases viewer participation explains it.

I've long believed that newspapers should have an artist sketch what the police speculate happened at a crime scene. Of course the sketch only illustrates a first impression and may be made irrelevant by new facts as they emerge.

Lots of readers are amateur sleuths and they'd appreciate diagrams like the ones above.

Here's (above) a police shootout. No doubt the photographer risked his life to get the picture. Police should allow news photographers the freedom of movement necessary to get pictures like this.

Of course there's always the possibility that exciting crime reporting may inadvertently encourage wrongdoing. To counteract that the paper would generally show things from the point of view of the police. The worst kind of sociopathic career criminals would be treated in print as rats and predators.

Better crime reporting should be supplemented with daily photo essays emphasizing ordinary life in the big city. Here's an excerpt from a Life magazine essay in which a cameraman followed a doctor, a general practitioner, as he made his rounds during the day.

From a different essay here's (above) two women getting ready for a day at the beach. Good photographers can find a lot to shoot, even in surroundings as common as this one.