Oops

Last night we watched The Newsroom. 

We like the show; but we're a bit behind.  I thought it was time we start getting back on track.

There was a mention of a death threat towards the end of the episode. The show acted as if I should totally know what they were talking about.  

I was confused.  Because I didn't know.  

What death threat?

What are they talking about?

I sometimes daydream a bit and miss stuff.  But I felt I did a good job paying attention this time.

I must have blinked and missed it.

I decided to clear things up by asking Tim.

He didn't know either.

It felt good knowing I wasn't the only lost one.

Then he checked the episode list and we realized there's good reason we were both lost.

We had watched the wrong episode!

We missed not one; but TWO episodes.

Yikes.

Tim thought we should catch up by watching those two episodes; then watch the finale.

I'm not keen on going back in time.  I told him to watch them without me; and I'll watch the finale with him.

If later I'm craving the show; and the next season hasn't yet appeared; I'll watch the episodes I've missed. 

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Immunity to Mind Control

Warning: This post has spoilers about the Harry Potter series, the Twilight Series, season 2 of True Blood, Stephanie's Meyer's The Host and Veronica Roth's Divergent. 

Last night I started thinking about some of the characters in current popular literature; and how they have something in common.  

They seem to have some immunity to brainwashing and/or mind manipulation.

In Harry Potter's world, wizards are able to control other wizards with the imperius curse.  Harry Potter is able to resist the curse to some degree.  He doesn't easily become a puppet.

In the Twilight series, Bella Swan has a strong resistance to the powers of the vampires.  Edward Cullen can read minds; but he can't read hers.  Jane tortures people with some kind of mind trick.   She's unable to torture Bella.

In season 2 of True Blood, the townspeople of Bon Temps become zombie-like while under control of a Maenad.  Sookie Stackhouse is able to resist the control.  

In The Host, Melanie Stryder's mind's so strong; she's able to resist losing herself when an alien body snatcher takes over her body.

In Divergent, Beatrice Prior's fellow Dauntless member factions are controlled by injections and a powerful computer program.  They're made to do horrible things. Beatrice is able to resist.

The immunity to mind control.  It's a good trait for a hero to possess.

I think it also works well in fiction, because the reader and/or viewer can imagine they might possess this trait as well.  Really. How likely is it that their hypothesis will be tested?

I can imagine that I'd be like Sookie Stackhouse....keeping my wits about me while everyone else is involved in wild mindless orgies and blood sacrifices.  Who's going to prove me wrong?

I'm guessing though that this type of extreme mind control can be symbolic of less extreme examples.

The fictional stories might push us to ask realistic questions about ourselves.

If everyone else picked on that particular co-worker, would we join the fun?

If everyone in our book club spoke out against a current bestseller; would we automatically decide it's awful; or would we read it and form our own independent opinion?

If everyone believes a headline murder suspect is guilty; will we assume the same? Or would we consider other sides to the story? 

Are we the type of person to follow fashions because we're told that they're in right now.   Or are we the type of person who wears what we genuinely enjoy wearing?

I'd say if we're free-thinkers in the real world; there might be a chance that we're able to resist when the wizards, vampires, and/or aliens take over.   

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Which Faction?

I just finished reading Veronica Roth's Divergent. 

I'm guessing most readers of the book do what I did while reading the book....obsess over what faction they belong to.

The book takes place in a dystopian version of Chicago.

The population is divided into five formal factions. 

1. Amity (kind and peaceful)

2. Dauntless (brave)

3. Candor (honest and upfront)

4. Abnegation (self-sacrificing)

5. Erudite (intelligent)

These groups live separately from each other. 

Then there's those who fail to be initiated into any of the five groups.  They become homeless and/or have menial jobs. They're called the factionless.

Another group of people provides the title of the book.  Divergent. They don't fit neatly into any of the five categories.  They're rare. They're special.  They're dangerous.

By the time I got to the end of the book, I realized something.   I'm divergent.

I like to be kind; and I think I often am.  But sometimes I get angry and mean things pop out of my mouth. 

I can be dauntless at times...in certain situations.  Other times I'm a coward.  

I'm sometimes selfless. Or at least I TRY to be that way.  Well, I act that way....perhaps a bit grudgingly.  

On my blogs, I have been very open at times.  I can imagine fitting into the candor group.  Yet I couldn't really, because sometimes I'm awfully secretive.  

I like to read and learn.  I could sort of fit in with the Erudites.   But though I like to learn; my power of retention is quite weak.

So yeah....

I fit in each group at least a little bit.

And I don't fit into any of the factions perfectly.   

Am I special?  Rare?

I doubted it.

First of all; it's not just that I can't put myself into any faction.   There's no one in my life that would fit easily into a faction.

I feel they're all like me.  They'd fit into each faction a little bit; but not a lot.   

One of the Divergent online quizzes agreed with my assessment of myself.  Yes.  I am divergent. 

And guess what....

So is most everyone else.

Divergent got the highest ranking for all the quiz takers.  

My personal second highest ranking is Amity.

The same goes for the quiz overall average.

Although I enjoyed reading the novel; I do think there's an obvious fault.

The author took what's quite common and tried to make it look rare.

Unless we're supposed to believe human beings mutate in the future; and become individuals who can easily be pigeon-holed.   

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Seeing Seryozha (Spoilers)

I was reading my daily chapter of Anna Karenina; and got to the part where Anne reunites with her son Seryozha.

I was so touched by the scene.  As soon as I finished the chapter; I rushed out of the room, insisted that my son pause his video game; and I gave him a big hug.

I can't imagine being forced to separate from my child.

Those types of scenes really get to me.   

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Penny and Leonard (Spoilers)

Tonight we watched the 2nd episode of The Big Bang Theory season 6.

I liked this one much better than last week's.

I like the Penny and Leonard storyline; although it's sad.

If you're the type of person who hates to hurt another person's feelings; it's really painful and hard to fall out of love. 

I may be talking out of my butt here; but I don't think that type of issue is often shown in fiction relationships.

Is it?

I think love drama is usually caused by exterior factors.

I love you, but you cheated on me.   

I love you, but my family members hunger for your blood. 

I love you, but I can't deal with your addiction to heroin.   

I love you, but I've been tricked into hating you because Sammy switched the DNA tests.  

I'm trying to think of a fictional relationship that failed because one person fell out of love; or was lacking the needed passion. 

I'm sure there is one.  

I just thought of Harry Potter and Cho Chang.

But no. That was different, because we (and Harry) began to see the negative aspects of her personality.  As we got to know her, she was a bit less charming than she was when we hardly knew her at all.

Cho Chang is more lovely from afar.  

This is different from Leonard who we know very well.

We're pretty intimate with the guy.   

Has he done anything in particular to make Penny love him less?

Not really.

I guess there's the fact that he proposed to her during sex.

But some women would like that.

So it really is more about Penny than Leonard.

I think she loves him.  But it's an uneven relationship.  Leonard loves her much more...and always has.  His intensity repels her and her love-volume gets turned down.  

I'm trying to guess what's going to happen there....over the years.

I think they're going to break up.  I think one or both of them is going to end up up with alternate partners that make them happy.  At least for awhile.  Then in the end, eventually Penny and Leonard will end up together.

Like Ross and Rachel.

As for the rest of the episode.

We got laughs from Bernadette's advice for dealing with the astro-bullies. 

I've always liked Stuart the comic guy; and I loved the storyline with him being a replacement for Howard.   Sheldon had some funny lines regarding that.  

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Helping Others

Warning: This post has spoilers regarding Carla Buckley's The Things That Keep Us Here.


One of the themes of Carla Buckley's novel, The Things That Keep Us Here is the decision of whether or not to help others when there is risk to our own lives or our family lives. 

The book deals with an avian flu pandemic. 

For the Brook's family, this happens during a winter storm.  So not only are they dealing with a dangerous virus, but also cold weather and a long-term loss of electricity.

One of their neighbors ends up being a survivalist.  He has lots of food in storage and a generator.   He has internet access.  He can find out what's going on in the world.

He is violently opposed to sharing.

A part of me could understand his viewpoint.

I think many of us look at survivalists with scorn.  They're nuts. They're paranoid. They're over-prepared.

Many of us have an ability to prepare for disaster.  How many of us actually do that?

If we don't; should we expect the well-prepared to come to our aid?

Later in the novel, Ann Brooks (the mother) refuses to take in the baby of her dying best friend.  Her friend insists that the baby already had the flu and recovered.  He's immune.

Still Ann refuses to budge.  She doesn't want to risk the lives of her own children.

Her husband intervenes and brings in the baby.

Another spoiler warning..... (because this deals with the ending)

In the end of the story, the survivalist neighbour is found dead.  Somehow the flu got to him.  Being prepared didn't help.

The little baby ended up being healthy. He survived and we see in the epilogue that he's become a son in the Brook's family.

The underlying message is that if you reach out to others, even when there's a risk, the universe will reward you.

If you act selfishly, the universe will punish you.

I'm torn about the whole thing.

Peter Brook (the father) saw his wife's actions as being very selfish and horrible.

I saw it as a mother desperate to do whatever she could to keep her own children safe.

Yet what if I was the other mother?   What if I was desperate for someone to save the life of my child?   I definitely would want them to do that.

The other day I was reading about the Australian outback.   There was mention of an area that has cars driving by fairly frequently.  If you breakdown...no worries.  A car will soon pass by to pick you up.

I felt relieved, because one of my fears is one day we'll go to the outback.  And we'll get stranded.

It's nice to know we might be rescued.

But then I pictured us being the ones in the car that still worked.

What if we passed by a stranded driver?

What if he or she looked scary?  Dangerous?

What if he truly WAS dangerous?

What if it was a serial killer or a robber?

What if it was all a set-up?

It's like Silence of the Lambs.  The serial killer gets his victim by pretending to need help.  

I guess in the end, it's about balancing our paranoia with altruism.

What amount of risk are we willing to take to help someone?

As the saying goes...no good deed goes unpunished.  But hopefully, if that's true, the punishment is not always severe.

And sometimes good deeds are rewarded.   Maybe with money.   Maybe by Karma.

Or like with the Brook's family, you end up with a new beloved member of your family.  That's a pretty big reward. 

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Thoughts on Education in Anna Karenina

As an unschooling mom, I love these words from Anna Karenina.  

In his father's opinion, he did not want to learn what he was taught.  In reality he could not learn that.  He could not, because the claims of his own soul were more binding on him than those claims his father and his teacher made upon him.

Those claims were in opposition, and he was in direct conflict with his education.  He was nine years old; he was a child; but he knew his own soul, it was precious to him, he guarded it as the eyelid guards the eye, and without the key of love he let no one into his own soul.  His teachers complained that he would not learn, while his soul was brimming over with thirst for knowledge.  And he learned from Kapitonitch, from his nurse, from Nadinka, from Vassily Lukitch, but not from his teachers. The spring his father and his teachers reckoned upon to turn their mill-wheels had long dried at at the source, but its waters did their work in another channel. 

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Spreading Sickness

I'm reading The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley.

It's about a pandemic.

I don't think I'd like a pandemic in real life.

But I sure do like them in fiction.  

I wonder what would be worse (in real life) a viral pandemic; or a zombie apocalypse? 

I'm tempted to go with zombies, because they'd tear you apart.  That would hurt.

But maybe a few minutes of extreme pain is better than several hours or days of extreme illness.

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Smart?

I'm feeling empathy for Penny today; the woman from The Big Bang Theory.

She hangs out with four guys who are much smarter than her.  They're nice to her; but sometimes there's that air of superiority.  Well, and sometimes it's much more than air.  It's quite blatant.

I live with two men now; and they both make me feel like I'm dumb.

I feel like Penny.  

Is it because these guys are truly smarter than me?

Or do they just assume they're smarter than me?

I don't know.

Well, they're definitely smarter than me when it comes to certain subjects.

But I will have to assume I'm smarter than them on other subjects.

Both these men talk and talk.

I listen.

They rarely ask me any questions about myself or the subjects I know about.

They assume things about me.

I don't like a certain show because it has become too political.

I must not want to be part of a scientific project that the three males in the family are going to do together.  Right?  Let's not even ask HER.   She's a girl.

Why don't they just build a clubhouse and hang up a sign.  No Girls Allowed.

During an Apples to Apples game I pick Bill Murray as the funniest card.

Why?

Well, it's because of Zombieland.   That's why she likes him.

What?

Do they think I was born ten years ago?

Yes, I liked Zombieland.  But that's not what I think of when I think of Bill Murray. 

You know....I've actually lived for a few decades.

I think the men in my life forget I was born in the 1970's and imagine I was born in this century. 

It's ridiculous.

One of these guys think he's so woman-friendly because he opens doors for them.    

No, seriously.  I understand some women like this; and that's fine.  Really.

For me personally, it gets on my nerves.

I want to say, Instead of opening doors for me; why not open YOUR mind?  Treat me like an equal.  Don't assume things about me.   Realize I'm a multi-faceted interesting human being; and ACT like you know that.  Don't treat me like I'm your pet duck.  

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