I know I read a lot of books most people out there will never read. I am not doing it to point that I have an intellect. I am not saying that I am necessarily a smart person even. As I said, I need to keep reading to help the writing. I need to apply my reading to what I am writing. One of my favorite writers is David Mamet. A few weeks ago, I read his book entitled Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and the Practice of the Movie Business. I also found an interview with him on the Internet. I was struck by how he was able to apply his vast readings to the interview.
I need to read books about the human condition and its nature. It helps me to flesh out better characters for my writing. The thing I have been coming to realize more and more is that people are strange interlocking of positive and negative traits and actions. The essence of a good character is that the person has strengths balanced on flaws. It is also why many of our public figures intriguing and annoying at the same time.
The other thing is that I have amassed a wide range of books over the years. Once again, let me say I am not trying to show off my intellect. I am just trying to reveal the works that have gone into my own. The one type of book I try to avoid is any that would be considered a textbook. Here is a warning. If you ever walk into a person’s office and all he has on his bookshelves is textbooks you should run away. One way to save money on education is to throw away all the textbooks. I was once a professional student. I had to buy a lot of textbooks. There is maybe 2-5 of them I still have for reference. They are for the most part useless. The only reason people write textbooks is to impress other idiots who write them too. I have a conspiracy theory about textbooks too. The textbook industry is secretly being funded by bed makers and chiropractors. If you read one you will need a place to sleep and you will eventually need a spinal realignment from hauling them around. One more comment on education. I have been around long enough to realize people have always been complaining about how we DO NOT spend on education. It is never enough. The reason is society on a whole really does not value education. We do not put enough effort into it at the beginning and we then overprice it at the end.
I want to point out a book that I have just read that has made me look at people and their actions different. It had the same effect on me as the book Freakonomics did on me. The book is Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions by Zachary Shore. It is about how people fall into various cognitive traps. I have two quotes from this book I want to point out.”…Expertise is a very good thing, but it is not the same thing as sound judgment regarding strategy and policy.” The other quote is, “History is an unforgiving laboratory. Its experiments can be only run once, and never again under precisely the same conditions.” They are both good reminders for our times. Just remember that ever crisis throughout history has had an “expert” in charge when it was happening. The captain of the Titanic had 30 years of experience.
We are flawed and we find extraordinary ways to fail.
This week, I learned that an idiot used the 911 system for customer service complaints.
I know our present economy is more of a challenge than a crisis for most of the people in this country. I also know the entire economy will never turn around based on my personal spending. In fact, my personal finances make me seem insignificant on a whole based on macro economics. It almost led me to have a personal existential identity crisis. I can only go forward regardless. The economics of today were the results of many, many years of various policies. One stimulus bill put together in a couple of weeks is not going to undo things in the matter of weeks. Economies take a lot of time to adjust. I am not sure where I heard this from. There is an old cavalry quote, “When in doubt…gallop.” And guess what a lot of horses leave behind.
The world is hard to comprehend. People create fiction whether it is a book or movie so they can make sense of our present world. An example I think is the movie Gladiator has more to say about American politics than it does the Roman Empire. I was trying to think about a character that embodies our fear of the future and the confusion of our present moment.
This is the character and the situation that I think that represents American society today. Play the clip. (It was the best example I could find. Quality was a distant second.)
Godzilla was a creature created by the atomic bomb. (The mistake of our past) It come back to reap destruction on man. Godzilla represents the future because it is big and scary. It is also an unknown force. And nobody knows if in any sense of reality its existence is inevitable. The future is basically the unknown monster. In the movies, no one knows how to really how to deal with it. The population runs around in mass panic. No one has a good plan of action. Sound familiar? Watch the evening news. They are basically broadcasting a “monster movie”. And being able to “Beat the monsters” does not make for good evening news. News outlets need to sell the problem not the answer. It is also the mantra behind any political campaign.
Somehow, knowing all of this (I think) I will try to be a bit more optimistic.
Maybe there is an “innocent” than can beat the “monster”. Like possibly Bambi.
I now have to re-read Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.
I just wish someone could express the purpose to all of this.
