[lit-ideas] Re: Here's a new spin on preventative medicine
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 10:49:25 -0700
Dear Mike and Irene,
I recently discovered http://www.entertainment.msn.com/video/ It contains
many of the episodes of old TV series. I just finished watching the
episodes of Total Recall, 2070. As I watched I thought of Irene more than
once. The series assumes that gasoline powered vehicles are a thing of the
past; although the matter isn't discussed or philosophized about. Rickshaws
have come back into their own and bicycles proliferate. The impression I
often got was of Bladerunner - that sort of look. One of the episodes had
to do with a family that wanted to keep it's "genetically flawed" child.
Society has become logical and prudent. It isn't prudent to allow children
to develop who will turn into criminals. That is not the point of this
episode, merely an assumption. It turned out that the "flawed" gene had to
do with leadership. The child would be a born leader and competing corrupt
businesses wanted to get that gene. The main characters are detectives who
solve crimes.
The Bladerunner/Total Recall look is common in many of the SF movies and
series I've watched. It is pessimistic to say the least. If there is a
"pathology" involved it isn't a personal one, in my opinion, but a societal
pathology. We are "too many" as we read in Jude the Obscure so we seek to
pull the plug, or rather we think we ought to and just go on living and
feeling guilty about it.
I've often puzzled about the "genre" term "Science Fiction/Fantasy." I've
never read a formal description of it, but it seems to me that it is Science
Fiction if it is pessimistic like the movies and series I've mentioned. If
it is optimistic then it is fantasy, the implication being that pessimism is
reality and optimism is wishful thinking.
Early in my life I was influenced by William James Varieties of Religious
Experience. In it he concludes that there are two sorts of religious people
whom he terms "sick souls," and "healthy souls." The sick souls dwell upon
their sins and feel God's ultimate punishment will be well deserved. They
are regularly in prayer asking God to forgive them, but they never expect
him to and wouldn't respect him if he did. The healthy souls are very
different. Yeah they've sinned too, but so what, everybody does, God said
forgiveness was available and they readily accept it and move on.
I think James' designations can be applied to society as well. Yes, the
pessimists, whether pathological or not, seem to have the upper hand. They
seem to have a cornered "reality" at the present time, but we optimists will
never see things their way. Think of the very pessimistic 1984. Hey,
George, you were wrong. Your society hasn't come into existence - neither
has Fahrenheit 451. I don't really want to hear any quibbles about this.
Yes, there is more capability for observance possible, but a 1984 can't
exist in a democracy, at least not in any democracy we know at the present
time. The slightest little intrusion and you will hear the offended
screaming 1984, but 1984 never came to pass, nor book burning, etc., etc.
I'm not expecting a return of the rickshaw either. I am optimistic about
these things. Just think of the computer. Do you remember what sort of
computer you owned ten years ago? Now look at it. Do you really think we
won't be able to do the same thing with transportation? Well, of course you
do. Sorry.
Irene, you'll probably love Total Recall 2070 if you haven't already seen
it. The only vaguely optimistic element in it that I can recall is the
colonization of Mars, but that is bad and ugly just as it was in the
Swarzenegger movie.
Irene may be the "sickest soul" (in the William James sense of the term)
that we have on Lit-Ideas, but do we even have any "healthy souls." I am
more optimistic than Irene, but so is everyone. If we scaled "sick" at the
left end and called that "1"; and "healthy" at the right end and called that
"100," I might give myself a 60. William James was a psychologist so he
uses the terms "sick" and "healthy," but if I recall correctly, we are not
sick or healthy as a matter of choice. It is something we have grown up to
be. In the Total Recall 2070 sense, perhaps we have been allotted a "sick"
or "healthy" gene, or perhaps our attitude is a result of our experiences.
If Irene continues into the New Testament as she reads the KJV she will come
across Jesus telling his followers something like, "In this world, ye shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world." It
is a belief that moves some of us out of a pathological sickness and into a
sort of health, albeit one most of us don't hang onto or practice with any
consistency.
Lawrence Helm
San Jacinto
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Mike Geary
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008 9:12 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Here's a new spin on preventative medicine
Dear Irene,
Pay no attention to the stalking tigers. Let me be your shining city on the
hill, emulate me. Many, many times on old Phil-Lit I was accosted by
various and sundry souls who hated my guts. "Shit-head", they would scream
and "Snot-nosed know-nothing". I would react with fury and immediately sign
off the list. But every time I'd say to myself, "So you're going to let
them win? That's just what they want you to do." After ten or fifteen
times of signing off then humiliating myself by signing back on, I finally
resigned myself to the reality that some people just don't like me. OK.
Accepted. They're not my problem, I'm their problem. There's no one on
this list that I wish weren't here. There are many that I wish would
contribute more often. There are some that I disagree with philosophically,
politically, aesthetically, but I actually enjoy reading their posts the
most. Some posts can irritate me, so do many of mine irritate others I
know. Perhaps they're the ones we need to read most carefully.
I hope your last post wasn't a Lister's suicide note. You have many, many,
many more people to piss off. Who will speak for the bad-childhood reared
souls if you leave, who will speak for the doomed earth, who will speak for
the vegans and vegetarians and the trees. Who will excoriate humankind for
its stupidity? Stay, Irene. Pay no attention to Phil Enns. He is lost in
the jungles of Borneo. He's forgotten what it's like in sit at table with
fine wine and knives and forks and discuss topics with people he dislikes.
He's all loin-cloth now and dancing around a fire, calling on the gods to
send some mercy his way. Just give him room and he'll just have to make
room for you.
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: Andy <mailto:mimi.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas <mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2008 9:47 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Here's a new spin on preventative medicine
I've been thinking about this post below, and have decided that I need to
take some time off from posting on this list. I'd like to thank you all for
listening to my no doubt misdirected rants and I'd like to wish you all a
nice summer. I just thought I'd mention that the Seekers took their melody
for the Carnival is Over from the song Stenka Rasin. I've pasted the only
link Youtube seems to have. The fact that it's from their farewell concert
is sheer coincidence. The words from S.R. superimpose perfectly but
needless to say the Carnival is Over is not S.R. I listened today to, talk
about a rant, Marshall Goldman carrying on about Petrostate Russia. The
U.S. does exactly the same things they do (our Veep is straight out of
industry, etc. etc.), but that's different. It's so sad that he spends his
life studying something that he can't find one good thing to say about. Why
not find another country to study? Anyway, no Persian princesses being
thrown overboard here (BTW, Iranian beluga caviar is golden today because
beluga sturgeons rescued the princess and brought her home):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nze8B39OB0k
Here is a musical tango version of S.R., put your dancing shoes on; the
writing on the record is Polish from what I can tell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN-tNwcJosg&NR=1
Then pour a nice drink and try a jazzy, pretty version of Dark Eyes (Ochi
Chernye):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itbJkf74z24
And with that, have a nice summer all.
--- On Sun, 6/1/08, Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Here's a new spin on preventative medicine
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sunday, June 1, 2008, 2:21 AM
Robert Paul wrote, in response to someone's little rant:
"Noted."
Someone is doing their 'Andy' routine again. I think of it as
watching a psychodrama. Sometimes farce, sometimes tragic, always
pathological.
Sincerely,
Phil Enns
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
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