About that debate...

I tend to read my news rather than watch news shows or channels or speeches or debates, but I figured the first Clinton v. Trump debate would be entertaining, at the least. Trump tried to repress his natural instincts for the first few minutes, but then gave in to his orangutang heritage and dutifully pounded his chest, flung shit from his cage, and masturbated his ego without shame. An hour and a half later—my voice hoarse from screaming at the television—it got even worse. Turning to groups of live viewers for aftermath interviews, most were utterly unaffected by the whole affair. Those who loved him still loved him, though were a little disappointed; those who don’t love him were “not surprised” by his behavior and shrugged their shoulders; those who are undecided had not yet decided…and shrugged their shoulders. 

Really?

Semantics — A to abattoir

[Words are units of metaphor, symbols strung together to convey meaning, the idea of something. Definitions are interpretations of meaning sussed out of usage—past, present, professional, colloquial, common and idiosyncratic. For the record, semantics means meaning, or the interpretation of meaning, specifically in relation to language. So yes, it is just semantics, but it is all just semantics.]

So...I am reading the dictionary (again), the New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD). I'm also transcribing part of it--not every word, abbreviation, place, or name, but those words/parts of words I find of interest, which is most of them. This is not a transcription of that transcription, but a sharing of words as NOAD shared them with me. There are, in addition, some links and media and random ruminations regarding certain words, or ideas of words, or ideas about language, or ideas in general. 

Sadly, the OED is only available online for a very hefty price (I am using a hardcopy), so I will reference the Merriam-Webster online dictionary for linked definitions. The Online Etymology Dictionary is also a dear friend, so I will link to her often as well. 

I don't expect anyone to get anything out of this but me, though I would love someone to prove me wrong.

Retrospect—Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

[Reviews from HexWhyZed are not in any way timely or culturally pertinent, just the impressions from a dimly-lit island in the distance and the flotsam jettisoned along its shores. They may also contain spoilers—you have been warned.]

It is a righteous fury I feel, and damn, it feels good.

I've always been an overtly sensitive person, emotions roiling just beneath the surface before erupting in sometimes inappropriate exhibitions of feeling. I was often chastised for this while growing up, creating a sensitivity to the condition of being sensitive. I've also had Depression for most of my life, and ten years ago I developed a chronic pain condition.

Invisible illness is inherently difficult to empathize with; humans believe what they can see, with the exception of old men in clouds and miracles burned on toast. Hearing voices? "Just ignore them!" Depressed? "Just decide to feel better!" In pain all the time? "Surely you're exaggerating." This is likely in defense of the fear each of us has of losing control—of our thoughts, our feelings, our very bodies.

While this fear may rationalize the segregation, imprisonment, and torture of the mentally ill throughout history, it does not excise the responsibility we bear regarding such treatment, especially its present persistence for profit. The origins, evolution, and current practices of "mad medicine" are the unsettling subjects in Robert Whitaker's Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill. 

Retrospect — Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

[Reviews from HexWhyZed are not in any way timely or culturally pertinent, just the impressions from a dimly-lit island in the distance and the flotsam jettisoned along its shores. They may also contain spoilers—you have been warned.]

For all of humanity's polarizing inclinations, we frequently fail to realize that others are Not Like Us—that they don't share our experiences or internal chemistry or preconceived notions, so when someone reacts to a situation in a way contrary to our presumptions of normalcy, suspicion often percolates before empathy.

This is the initial propulsion of Gone Girl, the story of a wife gone missing, her husband's inappropriate behavior as Sisyphean catastrophe, the internal realities we keep consistently to ourselves despite protestations of love and hate.

Retrospect — The Stranger Beside Me

[Reviews from HexWhyZed are not in any way timely or culturally pertinent, just the impressions from a dimly-lit island in the distance and the flotsam jettisoned along its shores. They may also contain spoilers—you have been warned.]

I meant to start recording my thoughts of the various media from which I imbibe quite some time ago, and yet...and yet....

The first sacrifice is an appropriate one, however: The Stranger Beside Me by true crime author Ann Rule. Stranger recounts the career of serial killer Ted Bundy, but is more about the unique and shocking circumstances Rule found herself in writing it--old friends with Bundy,  hired to write a book on the Washington murders before he was ever named a suspect, her emotional ambivalence regarding his guilt or innocence.

Adaptation — Translation of Form and Effect

Adaptations come in many forms—painting to song, song to poem, poem to picture--but the ones we are most familiar with are adaptations of written literature to film, be it for television or movies. Many still seem to believe that an adaptation should be a simple visual illustration of the text and that any change to character, event, or plot is an affront to the integrity of source material (ASoIaF fans, I'm lookin' at you).

But adaptation is not illustration; it is much more akin to translation—you begin with one language (the novel) and must translate it into another (film). Writing and film are indeed separate languages, with functionalities, tropes, devices, strategies, tricks, and tools, some of which translate well into the new language and others for which no translation is possible.

The Necessity of Graphic Sex and Violence in Game of Thrones

Aside from various book readers complaining about barking dogs or intact noses, the most frequent gripes I've read concern the incessantly graphic nature of both sex and violence in HBO's rendition of Game of Thrones. "Why did they have to stab her in the stomach? Over and over and over??" "Is it necessary to show whores playing with each other in the background of this-or-that scene?" "Did they HAVE to show him cut that horse in half?" 

Did they have to? No, of course not. Should they? Abso-freakin-lutely.