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Thoughts on “thoughtcrime.” Is it a crime? Haha.

“Thoughtcrime” is a concept from George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984. I think the title just meant the future as it was written in 1948. Orwell just switched the order of 4 and 8. The novel is about a totalitarian state, and it seems to be the author’s response to the horror of World War II. There is a good movie version of it with brilliant English actor John Hurt as the main character, if you don’t have time to read or re-read it.

Here is the Wiki definition of “thoughtcrime”: “a person’s politically unorthodox thoughts, such as unspoken beliefs and doubts that contradict the tenets of Ingsoc (English Socialism), the dominant ideology of Oceania.”

In my personal life, I was recently severely punished for “thoughtcrime” in part. I was arrested, tortured, and inhumanely jailed for telling jokes in public. Yes, I guess society can decide what is legal and what isn’t. But we should have better responses to minor, social, nonviolent crimes that involve no theft. I don’t even think thieves should be physically brutalized, if they do not resist arrest. Let’s demolish “Room 101.”

Reading a bit more of Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary. He is horribly cynical but also sometimes wickedly funny. Bierce was a cynical journalist and Civil War hero who sadly had two of his three children basically commit suicide and divorced his wife.

Here are three entries. “Troglodyte, n. Specifically, a cave-dweller of the paleolithic period…” “Truce, n. Friendship.” and “Truthful, adj. Dumb and illiterate.”

Well, some of my past friendships seem like basically truces. People move on in their lives, and you sometimes just have to be at peace with them. As far as his entry for truth, I have heard it said that language developed as much to deceive people as to accurately communicate with them. I don’t think language matters much in romantic or friendly relations, as long as people love each other.

 

Just a kind of “close reading” or random comment today on the recent Stephen King novel The Institute, which seems to be mainly about the way institutions, organizations, and cultures can abuse individuals who are part of them.

From King’s text: “Sounds like that Cleveland deal. The cop who shot the black kid who was waving a pellet gun.”  “That was in my mind when I approached, but the cop who shot Tamir Rice swore he thought the kid was waving a real gun around. I was pretty sure the one I saw was real, but I couldn’t be completely sure.”

Just a few thoughts. The U.S. does have a gun culture that I think is a bit out of control. I don’t like guns at all, but I think if you want to have self-defense or hunt, you have the right to a pistol or a rifle. I don’t think anyone but the military or SWAT teams should have rapid-fire guns.  Rice was 12 years old and waving a toy gun when a policeman killed him in 2014. It was a tragedy. An investigation found the police officer who killed him had been deemed emotionally unstable. I think a lot of young police officers do have emotional problems and should not be in positions of authority with the potential to wound or kill people. Police academies need to do better jobs screening their recruits.

Some thoughts on NY Gov. Cuomo

I don’t really like politics and am not a Democrat, but I think N.Y. Governor Cuomo is right not to resign.

Frankly, ethnically Italian people can be physically affectionate because of their emotional warmness, and my impression is that is what Cuomo did. I also think it is wrong to wait years after the fact to make harassment allegations. Yes, it may take a few days to recover from whatever may have happened but not years. Women can over-react, be vindictive, and lie. I have experienced it in my own life. If you call that statement misogyny, well I don’t really mind it.

In art, I think a good example of this is Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.  I think it has to do with the idea of women sometimes having sub-conscious resentment for men and expressing it through lies and indirect torture by getting other men to hurt them physically. I know many of us have subconscious anger that comes out in our behavior sometimes. Witches are witches.

On Frank Miller

I was a comic book nerd as a teenager, and my favorite publication was the Frank Miller/Klaus Jansen versions of Daredevil. The hero is a blind lawyer, and while the law wasn’t my calling, my Dad is a lawyer, and I respect and love him for having been a good one in my opinion.

Miller seems to be good at portraying lonely, psychologically tortured men in a largely corrupt or evil world. He is known in Hollywood for his ultra-gritty, film noir Sin City movies. I got a copy of one of his Batman graphic novels recently.

Some lines from the Batman: Year One copy: “I am not ready… I have the means, the skill — but not the method… no that’s not true. I have hundreds of methods. But something’s missing. Something isn’t right. I have to wait. I have to wait.”

This is my proposal for one of the greatest pop songs ever. I know many think U2 is over-rated, but I think Bono has been a really good writer and singer. This song is supposed to be about what Judas said to J— C— It is poignant to me because it seems to me to be about betrayal and bitterness in general. You may not be Christian, but he was a real person. It is confusing for people because there are four official versions in The Bible of his story. I think the main thing to recognize is that he healed some people and was persecuted by the Romans, partly because his own people turned against him. Here are the lyrics:

Haven’t seen you in quite a while
I was down the hold just passing time
Last time we met was a low-lit room
We were as close together as a bride and groom
We ate the food, we drank the wine
Everybody having a good time
Except you
You were talking about the end of the world

I took the money
I spiked your drink
You miss too much these days if you stop to think
You lead me on with those innocent eyes
You know I love the element of surprise

In the garden, I was playing the tart
I kissed your lips and broke your heart
You, you were acting
Like it was the end of the world

Love, love, love
Love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love, love
Love, love
Love, love, love

(Love, love, love)
In my dream I was drowning sorrows
When my sorrows, they learned to swim
(Love, love, love)
Surrounding me, going down on me
Spilling over the brim

Waves of regret and waves of joy
I reached out for the one I tried to destroy
You, you said you’d wait
Till the end of the world

This is another brief and somewhat bitter poem (I did have a romantic breakup recently). I think it is good to get negative energy out of your system, as long as it is only artistic and not physically violent. I feel a kind of kinship to Emily Dickinson. I know my poetry isn’t as good as hers, but she also wrote brief and somewhat bitter stuff. Anyway, here it is.

“Man” by yours truly

Oh no! It’s Mister Man again.

And look: he’s dating a mannequin.

Because no woman would have him.

Something you can fathom?

On Lord Jim

Bought a hardback copy of Lord Jim recently. We analyzed it my senior year of high school with a good teacher. It deals with issues that are personal to me because, like the title character Jim, I had concerns about behaving cowardly and inappropriately in the West and may have moved to Southeast Asia for a while in part to escape from my past. I had been ostracized, or at least seemed to be, in the U.S.

The author, Joseph Conrad, is best known for his long “short” story Heart of Darkness, which I taught as a college professor. Some intellectuals say its treatment of Africa is racist. I disagree. The story seems to me to be mainly about the insanity of the character Kurtz, and the notion that someone as egomaniacal as he was needs to actually be killed. It seems to me to be one of the best fictional arguments against imperialism. It is the same as the idea of Apocalypse Now, which basically transfers the plot of Conrad’s story to the Vietnam War.

Conrad must have been extremely intelligent. English was not his native language, but he became one of the best English-language writers in history. Towards the end of the novel: “He passes away under a cloud, inscrutable at heart, forgotten, unforgiven, and excessively romantic,.. and the poor girl is leading a sort of soundless, inert life… while he waves his hand sadly at his butterflies.”

On an expressionist and a realist

Picked up a quote by Franz Kafka, an expressionist from the early 20th century: “You do not to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen, simply wait.” I think it is appropriate to the Internet age, when many people just sit in front of their computers. I haven’t read all of Kafka, but my judgment of him is that he was basically a brilliant paranoid. “Even paranoics have enemies.”

I am also still reading Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary.   “Bore: n. a person who talks when you wish him to listen,” and “Brain: v.t. To rebuke bluntly, but not pointedly; to dispel a source of error in an opponent,” and “Bride: n. A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her,” and “Brute: n., See HUSBAND.”

 

My proposal for the best James Bond movie is Die Another Day. Some may find it cartoonish and less gritty and realistic than the Daniel Craig Bond movies and less charming than the Sean Connery ones, but I think it had an interesting global perspective. An English spy is kidnapped and tortured by a corrupt Asian government, He then visits Cuba, meets a beautiful female U.S. spy, and spends time at a “crystal palace” hotel in Iceland made of actual ice, while confronting the only real communist country left in the world.

The movie also deals a lot with fictional or at least cutting-edge technology. The main villain changes his race from Korean to European through medical technology in Cuba. It also shows that James Bond can endure a lot of torture and is not just a playboy. The movie has the typical  violence and verbal quips of Bond movies. It incorporates Africa through both the beautiful African- American U.S. spy and the issue of conflict diamonds from Africa.

The main villain, who calls himself Gustav Graves after turning European in appearance, also has an Oedipal conflict with his father, a decent man in the North Korean senior military. The movie ends with climactic fights on a plane in the air, both between men and women.

The movie also has a soundtrack song performed by Madonna and written by Madonna and Ahmadzai Miruai. I  think the song is about ascetism and survival when life has been difficult. Here are the lyrics (it is the only Madonna song I still like):

I’m gonna kiss some part of
I’m gonna keep this secret
I’m gonna close my body now

I guess I die another day
I guess I die another day
I guess I die another day
I guess I die another day

I guess I’ll die another day
I guess I’ll die another day
I guess I’ll die another day
I guess I’ll die another day

Sigmund Freud
Analyze this
Analyze this
Analyze this…

I’m gonna break the cycle
I’m gonna shake up the system
I’m gonna destroy my ego
I’m gonna close my body now

I think I’ll find another way
There’s so much more to know
I guess I’ll die another day
It’s not my time to go

For every sin I’ll have to pay
I’ve come to work, I’ve come to play
I think I’ll find another way
It’s not my time to go

I’m gonna avoid the cliché
I’m gonna suspend my senses
I’m gonna delay my pleasure
I’m gonna close my body now

I guess I die another day
I guess I’ll die another day
I guess I die another day
I guess I’ll die another day

I think I’ll find another way
There’s so much more to know
I guess I’ll die another day
It’s not my time to go

I need to lay down

I guess I die another day
I guess I’ll die another day
I guess I die another day
I guess I’ll die another day

Another day
Another day
Another day
Another day
Another day
Another day
Another day