We talked for hours

Over coffee in the harbour

Rain endless

Shedding
                                                           
Crying at the prospect

Of abandoning this city

Don't leave

I don't want you to go

Not today

We are together

 Married in this weather

 A ceremony over latte

Cappucinos

And long blacks
                               
And time unmeasured by these cups
                       
Nor the wasted litres of water

Nor our flow of words

But in the possibility

And the unspoken thoughts

Between us





By Launcelot Roma

Angry/negative people can be bad for your brain

Everyone's favorite A-list target, Robert Scoble, announced the unthinkable a few days ago: he will be moderating his comments. But what some people found far more disturbing was Robert's wish to make a change in his life that includes steering clear of "people who were deeply unhappy" and hanging around people who are happy. The harsh reaction he's gotten could be a lesson in scientific ingorance, because the neuroscience is behind him on this one.

Whether it's a good move is up to each person to decide, but I've done my best here to offer some facts. [Disclaimer: I'm not an authority on the brain! I have, however, spent the last 15 years doing research and applying it, both in my work and also because I have a serious brain disorder, and my brain knowledge could be a matter of life and death. Another disclaimer: I haven't spoken with Robert about this; I'm simply offering some science that supports the decision he may have made for entirely different reasons.]

A few things I'll try to explain in this post:

1) One of the most important recent neuroscience discoveries--"mirror neurons", and the role they play in a decision like Robert's

2) The heavily-researched social science phenomenon known as "emotional contagion"

3) Ignorance and misperceptions around the idea of "happy people"

Mirror Neurons

Mirror neurons have been referred to by scientists like V.S. Rmachandran as one of the most important neuroscientific breakthroughs of recent history. This Nova video is a great introduction, but here's the condensed version:

There is now strong evidence to suggest that humans have the same type of "mirror neurons" found in monkeys. It's what these neurons do that's amazing--they activate in the same way when you're watching someone else do something as they do when you're doing it yourself! This mirroring process/capability is thought to be behind our ability to empathize, but you can imagine the role these neurons have played in keeping us alive as a species. We learn from watching others. We learn from imitating (mirroring) others. The potential problem, though, is that these neurons go happily about their business of imitating others without our conscious intention.

Think about that...

Although the neuroscientific findings are new, your sports coach and your parents didn't need to know the cause to recognize the effects:

"Choose your role models carefully."
"Watching Michael Jordan will help you get better."
"You're hanging out with the wrong crowd; they're a bad influence."
"Don't watch people doing it wrong... watch the experts!"

We've all experienced it. How often have you found yourself sliding into the accent of those around you? Spend a month in England and even a California valley girl sounds different. Spend a week in Texas and even a native New Yorker starts slowing down his speech. How often have you found yourself laughing, dressing, skiing like your closest friend? Has someone ever observed that you and a close friend or significant other had similar mannerisms? When I was in junior high school, it was tough for people to tell my best friends and I apart on the phone--we all sounded so much alike that we could fool even our parents.

But the effect of our innate ability and need to imitate goes way past teenage phone tricks. Spend time with a nervous, anxious person and physiological monitoring would most likely show you mimicking the anxiety and nervousness, in ways that affect your brain and body in a concrete, measurable way. Find yourself in a room full of pissed off people and feel the smile slide right off your face. Listen to people complaining endlessly about work, and you'll find yourself starting to do the same. How many of us have been horrified to suddenly realize that we've spent the last half-hour caught up in a gossip session--despite our strong aversion to gossip? The behavior of others we're around is nearly irresistible.

When we're consciously aware and diligent, we can fight this. But the stress of maintaining that conscious struggle against an unconscious, ancient process is a non-stop stressful drain on our mental, emotional, and physical bandwidth. And no, I'm not suggesting that we can't or should'nt spend time with people who are angry, negative, critical, depressed, gossiping, whatever. Some (including my sister and father) chose professions (nurse practitioner and cop, respectively) that demand it. And some (like my daughter) volunteer to help those who are suffering (in her case, the homeless). Some people don't want to avoid their more hostile family members. But in those situations--where we choose to be with people who we do not want to mirror--we have to be extremely careful! Nurses, cops, mental health workers, EMTs, social workers, red cross volunteers, fire fighters, psychiatrists, oncologists, etc. are often at a higher risk (in some cases, WAY higher) for burnout, alcholism, divorce, stress, or depression unless they take specific steps to avoid getting too sucked in to be effective.

So, when Robert says he wants to spend time hanging around "happy people" and keeping his distance from "deeply unhappy" people, he's keeping his brain from making--over the long term--negative structural and chemical changes. Regarding the effect of mirror neurons and emotional contagion on personal performance, neurologist Richard Restak offers this advice:

"If you want to accomplish something that demands determination and endurance, try to surround yourself with people possessing these qualities. And try to limit the time you spend with people given to pessimism and expressions of futility. Unfortunately, negative emotions exert a more powerful effect in social situations than positive ones, thanks to the phenomena of emotional contagion."

This sounds harsh, and it is, but it's his recommendation based on the facts as the neuroscientists interpret them today. This is not new age self-help--it's simply the way brains work.

Emotional Contagion

Steven Stosny, an expert on road rage, is quoted in Restak's book:

"Anger and resentment are thet most contagious of emotions," according to Stonsy. "If you are near a resentful or angry person, you are more prone to become resentful or angry yourself. If one driver engages in angry gestures and takes on the facial expressions of hostility, surrounding drivers will unconsciously imitate the behavior--resulting in an escalation of anger and resentment in all of the drivers. Added to this, the drivers are now more easily startled as a result of the outpouring of adrenaline accompanying their anger. The result is a temper tantrum that can easily escalate into road rage."

If you were around one or more people with a potentially harmful contagious disease, you would probably take steps to protect yourself in some way. And if you were the contagious one, you'd likely take steps to protect others until you were sure the chance of infecting someone else was gone.

But while we all have a lot of respect for physical biological contagions, we do NOT have much respect for physical emotional contagions. (I said "physical", because science has known for quite some time that "emotions" are not simply a fuzzy-feeling concept, but represent physical changes in the brain.)

From a paper on Memetics and Social Contagion,

"...social scientific research has largely confirmed the thesis that affect, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour can indeed spread through populations as if they were somehow infectious. Simple exposure sometimes appears to be a sufficient condition for social transmission to occur. This is the social contagion thesis; that sociocultural phenomena can spread through, and leap between, populations more like outbreaks of measels or chicken pox than through a process of rational choice."

Emotional contagion is considered one of the primary drivers of group/mob behavior, and the recent work on "mirror neurons" helps explain the underlying cause. But it's not just about groups. From a Cambridge University Press book:
"When we are talking to someone who is depressed it may make us feel depressed, whereas if we talk to someone who is feeling self-confident and buoyant we are likely to feel good about ourselves. This phenomenon, known as emotional contagion, is identified here, and compelling evidence for its affect is offered from a variety of disciplines - social and developmental psychology, history, cross-cultural psychology, experimental psychology, and psychopathology."

[For a business management perspective, see the Yale School of Management paper titled The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion In Groups]

Can any of us honestly say we haven't experienced emotional contagion? Even if we ourselves haven't felt our energy drain from being around a perpetually negative person, we've watched it happen to someone we care about. We've noticed a change in ourselves or our loved ones based on who we/they spend time with. We've all known at least one person who really did seem able to "light up the room with their smile," or another who could "kill the mood" without saying a word. We've all found ourselves drawn to some people and not others, based on how we felt around them, in ways we weren't able to articulate.

So, Robert's choice makes sense if he is concerned about the damaging effects of emotional contagion. But... that still leaves one big issue: is "catching" only positive emotions a Good Thing? Does this mean surrounding ourselves with "fake" goodness and avoiding the truth? Does surrounding ourselves with "happy people" mean we shut down critical thinking skills?

Happy People

The notion of "Happy People" was tossed around in the Robert-Lost-His-Mind posts as something ridiculous at best, dangerous at worst. One blogger equated "happy people" with "vacuous". The idea seems to be that "happy people" implies those who are oblivious to the realities of life, in a fantasy of their own creation, and without the ability to think critically. The science, however, suggests just the opposite.

Neuroscience has made a long, intense study of the brain's fear system--one of the oldest, most primitive parts of our brain. Anger and negativity usually stem from the anxiety and/or fear response in the brain, and one thing we know for sure--when the brain thinks its about to be eaten or smashed by a giant boulder, there's no time to stop and think! In many ways, fear/anger and the ability to think rationally and logically are almost mutually exclusive. Those who stopped to weigh the pros and cons of a flight-or-fight decision were eaten, and didn't pass on their afraid-yet-thoughtful genes. Many neuroscientists (and half the US population) believes that it is exactly this fear != rational thought that best explains the outcome of the last US presidential election... but I digress.

Happines is associated most heavily with the left (i.e. logical) side of the brain, while anger is associated with the right (emotional, non-logical) side of the brain. From a Society for Neuroscience article on Bliss and the Brain:

"Furthermore, studies suggest that certain people's ability to see life through rose-colored glasses links to a heightened left-sided brain function. A scrutiny of brain activity indicates that individuals with natural positive dispositions have trumped up activity in the left prefrontal cortex compared with their more negative counterparts. "

In other words, happy people are better able to think logically.

And apparently happier = healthier:

"Evidence suggests that the left-siders may better handle stressful events on a biological level. For example, studies show that they have a higher function of cells that help defend the body, known as natural killer cells, compared with individuals who have greater right side activity. Left-sided students who face a stressful exam have a smaller drop in their killer cells than right-siders. Other research indicates that generally left-siders may have lower levels of the stress hormone, cortisol."

And while we're dispelling the Happy=Vacuous myth, let's look at a couple more misperceptions:

"Happy people aren't critical."
"Happy people don't get angry."
"Happy people are obedient."
"Happy people can't be a disruptive force for change."

Hmmm... one of the world's leading experts in the art of happiness is the Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Just about everyone who hears him speak is struck by how, well, happy he is. How he can describe--with laughter--some of the most traumatizing events of his past. Talk about perspective...

But he is quite outspoken with his criticism of China. The thing is, he doesn't believe that criticism requires anger, or that being happy means you can't be a disruptive influence for good. On happiness, he has this to say:

"The fact that there is always a positive side to life is the one thing that gives me a lot of happiness. This world is not perfect. There are problems. But things like happiness and unhappiness are relative. Realizing this gives you hope."

And among the "happy people", there's Mahatma Gandhi, a force for change that included non-violent but oh-most-definitely-disobedient behavior. A few of my favorite Gandhi quotes:

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

But then there's the argument that says "anger" is morally (and intellectually) superior to "happy". The American Psychological Association has this to say on anger:

"People who are easily angered generally have what some psychologists call a low tolerance for frustration, meaning simply that they feel that they should not have to be subjected to frustration, inconvenience, or annoyance. They can't take things in stride, and they're particularly infuriated if the situation seems somehow unjust: for example, being corrected for a minor mistake."

Of course it's still a myth that "happy people" don't get angry. Of course they do. Anger is often an appropriate response. But there's a Grand Canyon between a happy-person-who-gets-angry and an unhappy-angry-person. So yes, we get angry. Happiness is not our only emotion, it is simply the outlook we have chosen to cultivate because it is usually the most effective, thoughtful, healthy, and productive.

And there's this one we hear most often, especially in reference to comment moderation--"if you can't say whatever the hell you want to express your anger, you can't be authentic and honest." While that may be true, here's what the psychologists say:

"Psychologists now say that this is a dangerous myth. Some people use this theory as a license to hurt others. Research has found that "letting it rip" with anger actually escalates anger and aggression and does nothing to help you (or the person you're angry with) resolve the situation.

It's best to find out what it is that triggers your anger, and then to develop strategies to keep those triggers from tipping you over the edge."

And finally, another Ghandi quote:

"Be the change that you want to see in the world."

If the scientists are right, I might also add,

Be around the change you want to see in the world.

Remember the flight attendant's advice... you must put on your own oxygen mask first.

[UPDATE: I had seen so many blog posts painting "happy" as equivalent to any-synonym-for-brainless, that I didn't really care who used which word--and word "vacuous" was just one more example of what's been said about Robert and the Happy People. But, the author of the post that first used that word was Shelley Powers, who feels this to be a very bad move on my part, so, I'd like to correct that the original post with the word "vacuous", and Shelley's response to my post here.]

Posted by Kathy Sierra on April 17, 2006 | Permalink

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Comments

Love this post Kathy. The number one Ben-tested, non scientific and totally experiential reason to hang out with happy people... it actually feels good!

Posted by: Ben Askins | Apr 17, 2006 11:38:40 PM

I loved this.

If you feel crappy when you eat or drink a particular thing then you should not eat or drink that thing.

Being with some people is energising. Being with others is draining. It doesn't seem harsh to me to pick from column B, say, the salads, instead of Column C, the fatty appetizers. And who we decide to spend time with has more impact on our lives that what we eat.

Posted by: Rich Gibson | Apr 18, 2006 12:25:03 AM

Hm... So are we going to start discriminate on the basis of happiness? Are we going to have separate buses for happy and for unhappy people? Will there be tests to determine if someone is actually unhappy (and perhaps should be treated)?

And of course: how can an unhappy person become happy if they're not allowed to hang out with happy people?

Sorry, Kathy -- I like most of your posts, but this one is just ridiculous, simplistic and short-sighted.

Posted by: Berislav Lopac | Apr 18, 2006 12:40:54 AM

Wow.

Posted by: Michel Parisien | Apr 18, 2006 12:56:50 AM

I know what you mean. I myself have gone through a phase of listening to angry people. I guess this is only a problem if you're naturally angry.

Posted by: Michael | Apr 18, 2006 1:25:50 AM

Mr. Lopac seems a bit... unhappy. :)

But I feel his point of view, too.

I think... well, first, you have to want it. Scratch that, first you have to know and _feel_ in every fiber that there is a better way to live.

Once you realize this, you must decide to reach for that change. And I promise you, it's going to be you and you alone to start out with. And it will take time, and it will be very difficult.

And the hardest part of all I think is that there's no such thing as a "decision." Whether a decision to be happy or any other decision.

I decide to not eat french fries anymore! There! Done!

Not.

A decision isn't made once; it's made every time the decision made comes into question. So again, you must be stoic in your want.

Then comes life... throwing you the same baddies you attracted in the first place because you're so pissed off all the time. Well WTF?!

I dunno... still figuring it out myself.

But hey look it's the Internet! We have people like Kathy! *hugs!*

Posted by: Rabbit | Apr 18, 2006 2:24:42 AM

I'm wondering, what if you are a negative, unhappy or angry sort of person? Are you unchangeable? If you hang around with happy people hoping to get some of their buzz, will you just infect them with your malaise? Should we herd the malcontents into a ghetto & let 'em rot, lest their eeyore spirit take hold in the minds of the happy?

Maybe we're better off substituting the words mindful and unmindful in place of happy and unhappy? Everyone has their bad moments, their "Argh, it's 6AM, I'm freezing and you got me out of bed for *this*?!" times. The same person could, 5 minutes later, be laughing and joking. An unmindful person will let the hot flash of anger cloud their face, and instantly vent their feelings, where a mindful person would try to find reasons why things are not as expected or why they've been turned down etc, and return to a state of calm equilibrium without inflicting rage, rudeness or negativity on anyone.

Entry 1

Week 8, Sonnet 66

http://launcelotroma.livejournal.com/25604.html

Entry 2 – Creative Response

Week 9, “Advance unAustralian Fair”

http://launcelotroma.livejournal.com/25976.html

Entry 3 – Response to fellow livejournal user

Week 10, “Views of Tragedy – Response to Dan Cummin’s Wk 10 entry”
http://launcelotroma.livejournal.com/26305.html

We had an interesting tutorial at the Shakespeare Room at the State Library today.  Being in this room which was constructed in the 1940s with its tudor rose carvings, royal emblems and Queen Elizabeth’s coat of arms which was emblazoned in latin, “Semper Eadem seemed to transport us back into time and made me wish I had a library such as this!  It is the kind of library where maybe one book in it held the key to a secret door opening to a passage somewhere hidden.

The wood carvings were definitely amazing. There was the masks of comedy & tragedy which obviously symbolized Shakespeare and his work and it’s interesting to note that both masks are connected, maybe symbolizing the unity of both elements ie. There is comedy in tragedy and tragedy in comedy.  This in line with the double tudor roses carved on the ceilings symbolizing unity.. The windows were stained with the seven ages of man from “As you like it” and it co-exists with mythical creatures of merman and mermaids carved on the walls. 

The most interesting part of the room was the original book of Shakespeare’s works containing all his plays.  The unique and beautiful font of the text was a sight to see, so was the excitement on everyone’s face in being able to touch and hold something that was so old. We also got to touch and hold a 16^th Century copy of Ben Johnson’s works.

This was a very good ending to a great course this semester.


State Library of NSW

Volpone

The concept of the FOOL which we have been studying, is present within this play.  The play however, seems to question just who exactly is playing the fool? And who is being made a fool.  This is coherent with the theme of disguise and deception. Volpone is a master of this, disguising himself and fooling people around him to get what he wants purely to feed his greed and sensual desires.  The play is a satirical comment on the foolery of people, using each other to try and get ahead in life. This theme is still very relevant in this day and age.

Having traveled to Venice, it is easy to visualize the decadent setting of this play and the culture which surrounds the play’s storyline. It is also interesting to note how the play’s setting would have an effect over an English audience at the time, considering the view of Italy as being the place to indulge in all your sensual pleasures and the place for sophisticated “sinning”.

I wish I was there at the lecture when our guest speaker came to talk about the play.. I would have been able to gain better insight into this play. 

(week 10 entry, response)

Response to Dan Cummin’s Wk 10 entry

In his entry, Dan discusses Shakespeare’s “King Lear” and the different viewpoints in regards to the aspect of tragedy.  He mentions Tolstoy’s criticism of King Lear who believes the play is rather gloomy.  Well, shouldn’t it be? It is a tragedy after all.

Needless to say that Tolstoy’s best work, “The Death of Ivan Illych” is a tragedy in itself, focusing on the nature of life and death and coming to terms with one's own inevitable ending. Not as “bloody” as Shakespeare’s but nevertheless, an honest (and some say brutal) depiction of life.

Well, it is believed that Tolstoy felt that King Lear (and its representation) was a little too close to home and perhaps it is why he viewed it in such a way.  This is why I love King Lear.  It has all the elements that make it “personal” for its audience because the core of the story revolves around family, loyalty and love intertwined with greed, betrayal and revenge. These are all universal themes with resonance.

Dan says of King Lear, “As fleeting as this may appear, eventually some of us come to understand that a tragic ending can co-exist with positive elements”.  I’d like to take this statement and place it alongside German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s comment about tragedy in which he says, “we must remember the enormous power of tragedy, exciting, purifying, releasing an entire life…”

When I think about all the deaths in these tragedies, King Lear, Dr Faustus, Ivan Illych, Vivian Bearing (Wit), it seems to me that a new realization is born. It releases something within us, something powerful and energizing.   It is as if their lives are made to strengthen us in our own. Can this be the positive elements that co-exist with tragic circumstances? What a strange paradox.

Advance unAustralian Fair.

You say it is unAustralian to not speak English

And to cover my hair with a piece of cloth

And to be offended by Christmas carols in shopping malls

And to step on this red earthed land without a passport

And to bring drugs in from overseas to our innocent children

And for carrying the flag of your people at the Games

But it is true blue to stick the Australian flag on your car

And to tattoo the stars of the Southern Cross on your shoulder

And by fist make it known that you are a proud Aussie

And truly a patriot for fighting the war against terrorism

And a “fair go for all” says those in parliament

And the good old dole to those who deserve it

And to assist fellow countrymen imprisoned in a foreign land

And to buy their book if it helps them get out of jail

And to jail me for coming with my parents on a boat without a passport

And to send me back to my war-torn country where I came from

Can you send me back to Dreamtime where this country came from?

Australians all let us rejoice.

By Launcelot Roma

Links

http://www.unaustralian.com.au/

http://www.theage.com.au/news/hugh-mackay/just-who-is-unaustralian/2005/06/19/1119119722702.html

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/14/1110649126449.html

Week 8 Response

I really like this sonnet.  In the true Shakespearean style, it is full of similes and metaphors and vivid imagery..

“to behold a desert a beggar born”. – an artist’s life is like a beggar.. Always asking or pulling favours..  This reminds of something.. About 3 weeks ago, I did this dance workshop in North Sydney being taught by a well known choreographer from LA.  After the grueling workshop we had the opportunity to be able to speak to him at the Q&A.  I asked him how he gets his jobs or his next dance gig. This choreographer stated that he had to go around and network with people in the industry and pretty much score all the jobs himself.  This means buttering people up even begging for work. He stated that his talent agent did not do any of the work and that all his jobs came from very hard work on his behalf.  The competition is also very tough, where the jobs are few and the talent is rich.  Hence, a “beggar born” is quite descriptive about the life of an artist

When MG showed us the video of a playwright who spoke about what this sonnet means to him and how this sonnet reflected his life as an artist it just reaffirmed in me what it means to be passionate about your art.. And with passion, in the array of emotions within the artist - comes bitterness, cynicism, depression and anger.  This sonnet reminds of this.

When I see big Hollywood studios finance a silly movie full of pointless humour, unworthy violence and with no plot or substance, this to me is “needy nothing, trimmed in jollity”.

When I see a band get ostracized by the public and the government for saying their thoughts and feelings about war through their music, this to me is “Art made tongue-tied by authority”.

This is a sonnet that somewhat represents the artist’s life in every aspect, through their work, their art as well as the influences that shape them.

But then again, sonnets can be viewed by people in different ways.  Here’s another viewpoint on Sonnet 66.

 This a pic of some the places quoted in Shakespeare's works...

“The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus” by Christopher Marlowe is a story about a man who sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge.  The play is a tragedy, where the protagonist dies in the end as a result of his own actions.  The audience does not actually see his “death” as this event is implied and occurs off-stage and they are left to see his severed limbs and parts of his body strewn on-stage.   In relation to the study of Greek tragedy, the off-stage death of the protagonists follows the format of a “sacrifice” with  “great symbolic importance” and relates to a purification of the playing area (Wiles, 1997). In this instance, the sacrifice of Doctor Faustus’ life is the actual bargain he made with the devil purely for his own selfish reasons, thus resulting in his death. This would indicate that Doctor Faustus is a tragic victim; however, as defined by Aristotle in “The Poetics” a tragic hero is imperfect whose major flaw is often pride or arrogance resulting in his downfall due to his fault and the free will of his actions rather than the outcome of fate. Can a man like Doctor Faustus who sells his soul to the devil be a hero of any sort?   Due to his experiences and sense of self-discovery through his ordeal and ultimately his sorrow for his flaws as well as the outcomes it has produced,  it is arguable that Doctor Faustus is indeed a tragic hero whose punishment (ie. The sacrifice of his life) far exceeded the crime.  
 Oedipus, a tragic hero..

US uni gunman left violent writings

Related Video: Massacre gunman's motive unknown

The Korean-American gunman responsible for the massacre at Virginia Tech university kept a low profile but left a trail of violent writings before killing 32 people and then committing suicide.

The Chicago Tribune interviewed a neighbour who described 23-year-old student Cho Seung-Hui as a loner. A former classmate, writing on an AOL news blog, said Cho was obsessed with violence.

Cho left a note lashing out at "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus, the Tribune said on Tuesday. A citizen of South Korea, Cho spent the last 14 years in the United States.

                                         

                                                                            To Read FULL ARTICLE click here

Week 6 entry
michaelyuen

Hollywood seems to have an obsession with creating films that show the end of the world and we (the audience/the masses) seem to relate very well to them, via the following themes;

• Spiritual/demonic warfare -  seen in such films like “End of Days” (one that Michael mentioned), “Seventh sign”, “Rosemary’s Baby”, “Omen”
• Through global disasters caused by nature (or the power of God’s wrath, depends on your point of view) - “The Day After tomorrow”, “Deep Impact”, “Armageddon”
• Through nuclear war or men destroying themselves – “The Terminator”, “War Games”, “The Dead Zone”, “Mad Max II: Beyond the Thunderdome”
• The end of the world through Alien invasion – “War of the Worlds” , “Independence Day”, “Star Wars”, “Starship Troopers”, “The Puppet Masters”
• End of the world via monsters, large, small, viral or human-like – “28 Days later” a movie about a viral outbreak that turned men into flesh eating zombies, “Jurassic Park” which depicted a threat to human existence by the resurrection of the dinosaurs, the 50s & 60s saw a rise in cult monster movies that depicted a threat to humanity such as “Godzilla”.

These are all represenations of evil in a variety of foms.

As we know, early cinema borrowed a lot of its narrative, structure, content and material from established popular media whilst maintaining commercial publicity and cultural expectations of representation. The movie studios churned out hundreds of biblically themed films, cowboy/Westerns, comedies which endorsed and capitalized upon the mass audience’s fascination of old and familiar themes. Whilst film-making has evolved, these influences still occur today.

Thus, the socio-historical (as well as the economic) considerations are fundamental to the functions of the genre in movies. And it seems that world events, happenings within society and the current “mood of the times” have a lot to do with what we see in cinema.  For example in the forties, the stereotypical imagery of the Nazi threat translated to spy movies and propaganda film-making.

How does this relate to Dr Faustus?  Well considering Dr Faustus sells his soul to the devil, there have been a number of films since this 1967 movie release with a similar theme. Such as “The Devil’s Advocate” where an idealistic young lawyer is seduced by the devil, “Bedazzled” a modern take on Dr Faustus ,  “Devil wears Prada” where the world of fashion is personified as the devil/evil world that corrupts a young and innocent girl. The most recent movie with this theme is “Ghost Rider” where a motorcycle stuntman finds out his father has cancer and sells his soul to the devil in a bid to save his dad.

These films have one thing in common and that is man’s search for meaning and realisation through evil.  It is through evil that they begin to understand what it means to be human with all our faults and weaknesses. Ultimately, these films show the victory of good versus evil in the end, however, they warn that the presence of evil still lurks which alludes to the continual battle of good versus evil. This is certainly the case with Dr Faustus.  It is also interesting that a lot of Dr Faustus struggle happens internally and the concept of evil is inherently contained within him and not necessarily an outer influence.  In the end, Faustus does come to a realisation and seems to repent for damning himself but then is dragged to eternal damnation and then his friends discover his body parts which leave them to conclude he has been damned. And so the presence of evil continues to linger.

Whilst we continue to have religious conflict and wars throughout the world, it isn’t a surprise that films with themes such as these portray the social “consciousness” of our times.  How much of a product of man’s evil is through an outer influence and how much of it is within him?  Are the seven deadly sins a manifestation of evil or a characteristic human trait that we are born with?  And although the movies keep portraying good as the winning party, is evil eventually going to catch up – if it hasn’t already done so..

  Sketch of Dr Faustus by artist

Babette Adrian

(week 5)

Amidst the swamped crowd you are standing still;

It is but a year that I loved you last.

The pictures in thy mind framed to fulfill,

Like living borne hologram of our past.

Fool me with your ghost that I laid beside,

Fool me more with thy detached soul nearby.

Out of reach, near at hand fooled hearts reside,

For pride and thy pride in our love deny.

And you may try to veil behind your eyes,

Blank canvass your face and pretense provide;

A hollow shield for yearning’s enterprise

And a living carcass of hidden pride.

            Yet to fool a Love’s fool with foolery,

            Is to fool thine own self with trickery.

            By Launcelot Roma

(week 3)

 Have modern attitudes changed very much on the subject of love?  Personaly,  I don't think views have changed very much at all. We all may have become more cynical, a bit more realistic (or maybe negative?) about LOVE in general but essentially the core views on love are still the same.  They haven't really changed.

Popular culture is inundinated with "love".  Everyone sings and writes about it.. The only difference is that nowadays, people write lines such as;

"Love hurts, love scars"

"Love is a bitch"

"Who needs love?"  or the succinct.. "FUCK love!"

But essentially when you break down what they are trying to say in the song and in the lyrics, it all boils down to them needing that "love" or love being this powerful force that has affected them.. and even something they can't live without.

Back in the 16thC, they were a little more "nice" in their expression of love, apart from it being a totally male dominated viewpoint. All the men were writing about it, like it was going out of fashion!  At least Shakespeare had the decency to somehow encapsulate a female viewpoint, however, was it and is it enough? 

Despite the materialistic procalamations and the symbolism used which most of us see as cliched.. I think a common theme which unites their views and ours (or I should say, mine..) is that  Love is still a mystery to most people.. and personally I don't think humans can ever fully understand it.. If we did, we would stop writing about it.

In Orsino's peice, he talks about "music being the food of love".. And what do most people still sing about and write about now?  LOVE.. ..in all it's different forms..

It may have been a very tacky & soppy movie.. But "LOVE ACTUALLY" really encapsulated the different types of love that people have for each other in a modern context.  At the end of the day, love was a force that  influenced all the characters motives in their relationships. And all the characters in that movie craved and hungered for love in their life, like most people these days....People do nice things for love and people do shitty, stupid and hateful things as well...  We all want to be loved..  Don't we?

Maybe our avenues of expression and possibly certain attitudes have changed, but LOVE is still the same. We write about it, cry about it and essentially, can't get enough of it.

Week 2

 There were three poets we studied today that had three views of love. One of the poets even wrote a poem to argue the view of another.  The three poets were;

Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593)
Sir Walter Ralegh (1552 - 1618)
Andrew Marvell ( 1621 - 1678)

A quick background on all the poets..

Christopher Marlowe lived at the time of Shakespeare and was his exact contemporary.  He left uni before finishing his degree but was given a service grant by the queen, pardoned from further study and obtained his degree.  He worked as a spy on the dissident Catholics for the Queen.  There was a rivalry between Marlowe and Shakespeare and sadly, Marlowe died at age 29 in a pub brawl.  He wrote a major play called "Doctor Faustus" and his poem we studied is called;

"The Passionate Shepherd to his Love".
This poem comes under the category of pastoral poetry where the usage of nature and the country-side was applied.  Here, Marlowe uses the nature and the country-side as a symbol of his love.  The poem conjures imagery of beautiful mountains, valleys and flowers - all the pretty things which are offered to his love;
"I will make thee beds of rose" (line 9)

"A gown made of the finest wool" (line 13)

"A belt of straw and ivy buds,
with coral clasps and amber studs" (lines 17-18)

He declares his wishes by the repeating line "Live with me and be my love".  
This poem is a declaration of a man's love to the woman of his dreams as he offers her the simplicities and beauty of nature in order for her to be with him.  The poem conjures a utopia or a paradise of heavenly love.  All the finest things that nature can bring are simple and therefore beautiful, like love.

Some viewed this poem to be idealistic and also, unrealistic.. Another poet who also had these same thoughts about Marlowe's poem is Sir Walter Ralegh;

Sir Walter Ralegh discovered potatoes and tobacco!  (imagine that..)  He was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth 1, however, when she discovered him in a compromising position with one of her chamber maids, his favourableness with the Queen quickly disappeared.  Before he was excuted (after many years of imprisonment) he wrote a poem which argued Marlowe’s view of love;

“The Nymph’s reply to the Shepherd”

This is a bit of a cynical poem where he agrees there is love, however, it soon fades or doesn’t last very long..  He often equates beauty with love, but when that beauty fades or goes.. so does the love;

“The flowers do fade, and wanton fields

To wayward winter reckoning yields;

A honey tongue, a heart of gall,

Is fancy’s spring, but sorrow’s fall.”

(lines 9 -12)

Perhaps he was bemoaning the fact that he was once the favourite of the queen, the “apple of her eye” and unfortunately over time and through the thick of it her love for him faded and turned into resentment..

He elaborates on his point, using the very examples of Marlowe’s declaration of love and stating that these displays of love become forgotten, almost ridiculous that one wouldn’t know why they were in love to begin with;

“Thy gowns, they shoes, they beds of roses,

They cap, thy kirtle, and they poises

Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten-

In folly ripe, in reason rotten.”

The third poet, Andrew Marvell wrote a poem about the pains of seducing women, commenting on the cat and mouse game men and women play in courtship. In the poem “To his Coy Mistress”, he delves on the notion of time and love.  That by playing coyly with him, that is, shy and stand-offish then they are delaying and wasting time when they could be delving straight for love.

I really like this poem…

This guy is not a time waster – or tries to convince the object of his affection not to be.

He starts off the poem with his declaration of love and how he can continue on longing for the woman of his dreams to give in to him, but then rationalizes the fact that there isn’t enough time for that and that;

“your quaint honor turn to dust,

And into ashes all my lust..”

So indeed he is saying that their love will die or his love for her won’t be there if she doesn’t accept or act on it.

So there it is... three views of love

1)       the ideal utopia of heavenly love in all it’s simplicity and beauty

2)       the idea of beauty and love fading over time and that love cannot exist without beauty

3)       the idea of love and time and that in the game of love, time is of the essence!!

I really liked the following lines of the poem;

The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.  
(lines 31 - 33)

Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
(lines 36 - 40)

Week 1, Sem 1 07 entry

 
painting called "Henry VIII introducing Anne Boleyn to the Court" by William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

“Circa regna tonat”

-         Let him keep himself unknown

The Renaissance seems to be a very interesting period in history.  High art and culture were in abundance. So was political and religious turmoil. Needless to say, the corsets, the flowing gowns, the courts are all part of the image most of us have of the Renaissance..

An interesting poet of this period was Sir Thomas Wyatt.  We read about him at our tutorial today.  He wrote a poem called “Who list his wealth and ease retain”, which was written around the time of his imprisonment in 1536.  Thomas Wyatt had a very good career as a diplomat, working for Henry VIII.  Ironically, working for the king had caused him a lot of trouble in his life.  Wyatt wrote a letter to his son explaining about the “thousand dangers and hazards, enmities, hatreds, prisonments, despites and indignations” in regards to his role as a diplomat.. Well he certainly wasn’t kidding, because the paranoid king imprisoned Thomas Wyatt for allegedly having an affair with his queen, Anne Boleyn along with a few other men who was thought of having an illicit affair with the queen as well.

This poem was written in the Bell tower prison as he witnessed the beheading of Anne Boleyn in the courtyard below.

Apart from the obvious connection and reference to the Queen Anne Boleyn, the poem serves as a warning to anyone with fame, popularity or fortune.  Yes, I call this the “tall poppy syndrome” poem.  This very sentiment is expressed in the following lines of the poem;

Fortune with Health stands at debate

The fall is grievous from aloft.

And sure, circa regna tonat.

This is basically saying that having and fortune and well being at the same time would always be in conflict and the fall of someone in a high position is always going to be a hard one.  Hence the repeating mantra at the end of the verse translating to; “Let him keep himself unknown” is quite succinct in relation to the tragic ending of the Queen.

Furthermore, the last two verses hones on the fact that no matter how powerful, innocent or well-off you may be that you are still at mercy to things that are totally out of your control – the higher powers that be.

Bear low, therefore, give God the stern.

In some ways, this is a humbling poem for all of us, regardless of our position in society. Obviously LIFE can and will throw things at you, which will shake the very core of who you are.  Wyatt did not expect to be imprisoned by the paranoid dictator on a hunch.  Apparently Anne Boleyn was a very “proper” lady and the alleged affair was a way for the King to get rid of her through beheading!  Both held very high positions in the court and their fall from grace was very public.

This makes me think about all the public scandals and shames of well known people in society and their “grievous fall from aloft”.  The newspapers, tabloids and media love these sorts of stories – they seem to not get enough of it and in many ways their antics are like a public beheading..

Its amazing to see "humour" in the face of human adversity...  Why is it that humans laugh or feel the need to when they see pain or conflict?  When my aunty was undergoing chemo for breast cancer, she used to joke around about her hair falling out and her looking like " Elizabeth - the virgin queen" losing her eyebrows from the therapy.. When she eventually lost her breasts, she would joke about being "flat chested" and finally getting her wish of having a breast reduction - literally. She would always makes us laugh at her expense.  And the funny thing was - it was FUNNY.  We would always laugh along with her.. It  was a humour that came from a deep, painful place..  I don't know how to explain it, but it was a laughter that would come along on the brink of tears..  A laugh that would almost turn into a cry.. And strangely enough, her humour would make me laugh hysterically and reduce me to tears.. God bless her. I loved my aunty.

The sad irony - she used to say -  is that I'm a doctor and I never really expected that one day I would become a patient.. a terminally ill one, at that.

I spoke about this with a friend.. and he mentioned that people laugh during painful situations because it's a "defense mechanism".  Its a way to detract from the actual situation itself - to shed some "lightness" to the stress.  I'm wondering whether this was something that my aunty did - in "defense" to detract from her painful situation.. But looking back on it, she didn't do that.  She was funny - because she was true. 
It was funny because it was the TRUTH. 

"It's not WIT. It's TRUTH"

These words from the play WIT ring true for me on so many levels.

When Vivian  Bearing in the play said that she's been asked, "How are you feeling today? Whilst throwing up into a waste basket".. It brought back the memories of laughing along with my aunty.  She would always find a way of making the stupidity (and absurdity) of reality perfectly lucid with her words..just like Vivian Bearing..  "Cancer's fucking hilarious".. My aunty used to say after coming out of the bathroom for the fifteenth time in a span of an hour.

"Nothing but a breath, a comma, separates life from life everlasting.." (from WIT)
"Death shall be no more, Death thou shalt die." (Death be not proud, by John Donne)

The truth of the matter is, my aunty and everyone around her needed to believe in the above two lines to make the whole thing bearable. The crux of John Donne's poem... Before she died, she said to her daughter that she was only a "sleep" away, a breath away..  That was a TRUTH she wanted to believe and wanted her daughter to believe..  Whether or not she truly believed it herself is another thing.  

Maybe that in itself, is the sad truth of the whole thing.