I spent last evening cleaning out my bookmarks. I also listened/watched Aquarius. The posts based on my bookmarks started this morning. Since they are hodgepodges, that is how I have titled them
I started Aquarius two days ago. It got me thinking about Charles Manson. I read Helter Skelter back in my high school days. It seems that Manson has loomed in the background over the years: the Helter Skelter miniseries, the innumerable reports of his parole violations, Squeaky Fromme trying to assassinate President Ford, Mindhunter, newspaper reports of Manson's "girls" over the years, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Manson as a symbol of the dark underside of the Sixties is the usual theme. He seems to have overtaken Altamont as proof the counterculture was fake, even murderous. Aquarius seems to be going in the same direction.
I want to disagree. Manson and his Family were just another symptom of what was wrong with American culture. Remember, even before the conviction for the Tate-LaBianca murders, Manson had spent most of his life in prison. He had been a pimp, and he knew how to manipulate women. Prison teaches skills emphasizing manipulation and the hierarchies of power. Also, prison is a bubbling stew of racism. The American criminal justice system created Charles Manson. Hippie culture gave him a place to operate - mostly middle-class kids without any experience of a predator like him.
I think his female followers are far more interesting, and more telling of American culture, than Manson. They were far deadlier than he was. They seem to all have been looking for some sort of spiritual peace, or, at least, the idealistic utopia that seems to be America's promise. Why did so many of Manson's followers become born-again Christians? In my mind, Patty Hearst is tied to these women. What made all them susceptible to a life of crime has less to say about the Sixties counterculture than about the horizons of women's lives in the Sixties. Janis Joplin was not out robbing banks. Grace Slick was not out murdering people. Aquarius seems to be getting at this point.
Elevating Manson by the press, and even by his followers, makes his female followers into victims rather than willing participants. We have become a nation of victims, thumb sucking our way into a moral blamelessness, which may obscure more than it heals. Taking the Manson women as willing participants, with their own agency, means examining what absence in their lives Manson fills. That would mean looking at the wider American culture and its treatment of women. It is far too easy to leave the examination at the doorstep of free love and drugs.
Not that Aquarius does not do its own aggrandizement of Manson, even to denigrating the stories that could be told about Los Angeles in 1967–69. Leaving aside the Manson element, I thought about James Ellroy. The TV show's cops smell very much of Ellroy. Why has there been so little of his work filmed - I can think only of Brown's Requiem (of which I read only the novel and a review of the film that is not a positive one, as I recall) and L.A. Confidential. Another example coming to mind is Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins novels (of which only Devil in Blue Dress is only one filmed). Both Ellroy and Mosley do much better what Aquarius was trying to do - give a history of Los Angeles through its crimes.
I should have read more Ellroy. His only novels I did read were Black Dahlia and Brown's Requiem.
End of the year lists! There have been many I have ignored, but these caught my attention last night:
The Best International Crime Fiction of 2024
The Article, Stephen Rand's Ten Predictions for 2025 has seven predictions that apply to us in America.
From Unruly Figures (a Substack for you history buffs to sign up for) Best of History & Biography of 2024
Rejections to end the year with from.
First, The Fifty & Up Writer Awards:
Thank you so much for entrusting us with reviewing your work for The Fifty & Up Writer Awards at table//FEAST Literary Magazine. I am sorry to inform you that your work will not be progressing to the next round. We wish you the best with your writing.
All my best,
Colin James Sturdevant
I am not surprised at that, "The Revenger's Tale" is more than a little grim. Maybe next year.
I do not think I will ever crack the Southern Indiana Review, or "No Ordinary Word" is not very good.
Thank you for your submission for an upcoming issue of the Southern Indiana Review. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept your work for publication at this time.
Sincerely,
SIR
I have spent much of the day working on this post when I was supposed to be doing real work! So it goes.
It did not help that I put off getting up until 8 and that turned into 9:30. I was in bed last night by ten. That is usual for me on New Year's Eve. I think the last time I was up late was about 19 years ago, maybe 18, when my wife and I went out with her friend Jennifer.
When I did have enough energy yesterday, I went out and did my laundry, collected my new inhaler at CVS on Tillotson, and paid rent. All told, I was out for three hours. I cannot recall what I had for dinner.
I did get half awake around midnight from all the noise. Pretty sure it was all just fireworks, even if I thought it sounded like gunfire. However, I was fully awake at 1:35. Weird that it was that exact time. It has been 40 years since TJ and I went through our final separation. I did not get back to sleep until around 4. The time was spent with Aquarius and looking things up on Wikipedia.
Now, about brain rot, which I did not know was the phrase of the year, but which explains much of what has bothered me and some of my friends this past year. What opened my eyes was A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO BRAIN-ROT: OXFORD’S 2024 WORD OF THE YEAR By Frank Marangos, D.Min., Ed.D., FCEP (Orthodox Christian Laity).
DM and KH have mentioned the different behaviors that eludes our understanding. The last time KH and I spoke of this, last week, I said I think it is because we are not enmeshed in social media. The following makes me think I was onto something:
According to Oxford University Press, “brain rot” describes the “impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media.” The Dictionary’s lexicologists define the phrase as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging.” According to the publisher’s monitoring tools, the term increased in usage frequency by 230% between 2023 and 2024, thanks, in part, to its traction on platforms such as TikTok by Gens Z and Alpha.
Oxford’s President, Casper Grathwohl, notes that “brain rot speaks to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life and how we are using our free time. It feels like a rightful next chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology.” “Brain rot” gained new prominence in 2024 as a term used to capture concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online media. As such, Grathwohl is not surprised that so many voters endorsed the term as their choice of the year. Previous annual word awards presented by Oxford included: “Riz” (2023), “goblin mode” (2022), and “vax” (2021).
I went through this in 2009, I spent a lot of time clicking links in Wikipedia while chatting on Yahoo Chat. In one sense, my criminal behavior was a by-blow of all this activity. This was a pulling in like a vortex, and at the same time a blurring of the reality outside.
The solution proposed in the essay is one I can endorse. After all, I kind of fumbled into it 14 years ago.
Like deep plowing, “deep thinking” might, respectively, be used to mitigate the infectious effects of brain rot! In his article, 4 Ways to Combat Digital ‘Brain Rot’, Psychologist Dr. Mark Travers suggests that brain rot has five negative consequences: (1) reduced attention span, (2) increased anxiety and stress, (3) emotional fatigue, and (4) social isolation. Travers’ fifth and, for purpose of this article, most alarming effect of brain rot, is “diminished critical (deep) thinking.”
Travers describes the brain as “a high-performance tool that thrives on diverse challenges.” He, therefore, recommends that the best way to keep it sharp “is by balancing intellectual tasks in ways that demand both focus and creativity.” He suggests the following three routines for avoiding the rot of shallow thinking.
- Switch focus to recharge. After consuming mindless content, refresh mental energy with challenging activities that stimulate the brain, enhance critical thinking.
- Diverse intellectual workouts. Add variety to mental routine by alternating tasks that engage different cognitive skills and broaden mental agility.
- Stretch the mind with reflection. Shift from passive consumption to active learning by reflecting on complex ideas that sharpen memory and deepens thinking.
Apart from the deterioration of an individual’s mental or intellectual state, neither Thoreau nor Oxford’s lexicologists could have imagined the negative effects of spiritual languor. Like the physical brain, the psyche may also fall victim to the “spiritual rot” of religious shallowness which exhibit many of the same toxic characteristics of brain rot outlined by Travers, namely: (1) lack of mental agility, (2) mindless adherence to routine, (3) unreflective thinking, and (4) passive consumption of information.
Tony Martin, editor of The Baptist Register, suggests that “brain rot” should not be dismissed as an ailment that only affects younger generations. “Let’s be honest with ourselves,” he writes, “brain rot isn’t just their problem. Who among us hasn’t fallen into the endless scroll, losing an hour to cat videos, clickbait articles, or watching someone deep-fry a peanut butter sandwich? We’ve all been there.” In his article, Avoiding Brain Rot in a World Full of Distractions (2024), Martin firmly contends that brain rot includes a spiritual dimension as well. “God designed our minds for so much more than passive consumption. He calls us to use our intellects for creativity, problem-solving, and loving others well. Our minds need nourishment, too,” he insists, “and that means feeding them with things that uplift, inspire, and draw us closer to Him.”
Sorry about the length of that quote in a post getting ever longer, my excuse is that while I want you to read the original, I have doubts you will heed my opinion that this is Important Stuff. My own brain rot deepened my depression
Humility arrives in many ways. One way that it came to me was by rediscovering what I had known and ignored as a defense to nihilism and depression. Creativity was the path pointed out to me decades ago by Friedrich Nietzsche and Albert Camus. I dove into my writing and have not stopped - even if you, dear reader, wish I would! When I quit writing, you will know my depression has returned.
In order to avoid “online junk food” from polluting our spiritual diet, Martin encourages readers of all ages to protect their minds, according to scriptural prescriptions, and, in particular, the New testament directives of Saint Paul. “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable,” insists Saint Paul, “think on these things” (Philippians 4:8). While fully in support of the prudent use of technology, Martin accordingly suggests five (5) habits for combating spiritual rot: (1) setting boundaries, (2) choosing wisely, (3) creating instead of consuming, (4) remaining physically connected to others, and (5) praying for discernment.
Are you creating or consuming? All that time spent with your smartphone is consuming, not creating.
Thoreau is mentioned in the essay. So is the need for reflection. Although not an Orthodox Christian, perhaps not even a Christian, Thoreau's stay at Walden Pond allowed him time and space for reflection. I find this apartment, even with this computer and its connection to the outside world, allows me time and space for reflection. Try to find your own Walden Pond, think, create, live.
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