Willy nilly a willow

"William saw her home as usual and cuddled her a little in the darkness of the doorway. All of a sudden, she felt that his face was wet. He covered it with his hand and groped for his handkerchief. 'Raining in Paradise,' he said... 'the onion of happiness... poor Willy is willy nilly a willow.' He kissed the corner of her mouth and then blew his nose with a faint moist squizzle. 'Grown-up men don't cry,' said Anne. 'But I'm not a grown-up,' he replied with a whimper. 'That moon is childish, and that wet pavement is childish, and Love is a honey-suckling babe...' 'Please stop,' she said. 'You know I hate when you go on talking like that. It's so silly, so...' 'So Willy', he sighed. He kissed her again and they stood like some soft dark statue with 2 dim heads. A policeman passed leading the night on a leash and then paused to let it sniff at a pillar-box. 'I'm as happy as you', she said, 'but I don't want to cry in the least or to talk nonsense.' 'But can't you see,' he whispered, 'can't you see that happiness at its very best is but the zany of its own mortality?' 'Good night', said Anne. 'Tomorrow at 8,' he cried as he slipped away. He patted the door gently and presently was strolling down the street. She is warm and she is pretty, he mused, and I love her, and it's all no good, no good, because we are dying. I cannot bear that backward glide into the past. That last kiss is already dead and The Woman in White [a film they had been to see that night] is stone-dead, and the policeman who passed is dead too, and even the door is as dead as its nail. And that last thought is already a dead thing by now. Coates (the doctor) is right when he says that my heart is too small for my size. And sighs. He wandered on talking to himself, his shadow now pulling a long nose, now dropping a curtsey, as it slipped back round a lamp-post. When he reached his dismal lodgings he was a long time climbing the dark stairs. Before going to bed he knocked at the conjuror's door and found the old man standing in his underwear and inspecting a pair of black trousers. 'Well?' said William... 'They don't kinda like my accent,' he replied, 'but I guess I'm going to get that turn all the same.' William sat down on the bed and said: 'You ought to dye your hair.' 'I'm more bald than gray,' said the conjuror. 'I sometimes wonder,' said William, 'where the things we shed are- because they must go somewhere, you know- lost hair, fingernails...' 'Been drinking again,' suggested the conjuror without much curiosity. He folded his trousers with care and told William to quit the bed, so that he might put them under the mattress. William sat down on a chair and the conjuror went on with his business; the hairs bristled on his calves, his lips were pursed, his soft hands moved tenderly. 'I am merely happy,' said William. 'You don't look it,' said the solemn old man. 'May I buy you a rabbit?' asked William. "I'll hire 1 when necessary,' the conjuror replied drawing out the 'necessary' as it it were an endless ribbon. 'A ridiculous profession,' said William, 'a pick-pocket gone mad, a matter of patter. The pennies in a beggar's cap and the omelette in your top hat. Absurdly the same.' 'We are used to insult,' said the conjuror. He calmly put out the light and William groped his way out. The books on the bed in his room seemed reluctant to move. As he undressed he imagined the forbidden bliss of a sunlit laundry: blue water and scarlet wrists. Might he beg Anne to wash his shirt? Had he really annoyed her again? Did she really believe they would be married some day? The pale little freckles on the glistening skin under her innocent eyes. The right front-tooth that protruded a little. Her soft warm neck. He felt again the pressure of tears. Would she go the way of May, Judy, Juliette, Augusta and all the rest of his love-embers? He heard the dancing-girl in the next room locking the door, washing, bumping down a jug, wistfully clearing her throat. Something dropped with a tinkle. The conjuror began to snore."

This is an excerpt from a fictitious book by Sebastian Knight. Chapter 10, "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight"- Vladimir Nabokov. 

The similarity between Sebastian Knight and Seymour Glass is indeed striking. 






























I'm currently reading this book. 
Yesterday whilst walking on Karl Johans gate with my mom and looking at passers-by, I was attracted to a bookstore and came in. It had loads of books. And it's not just the number of books, but the way the books were put on the shelves and the shelves were put beside each other that overwhelmed me really, and I was filled with joy, immense joy, especially when I, to my surprise, found 1 of the 3 books that I had been thinking and talking of buying, "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction" by J. D. Salinger (since reading it last year, I have always wanted to own it), I was, literally, ecstatically happy, and remained so for the rest of the day. 









Edit- 8/8/2012: 
Another passage in the book: 
"...Time and space were to him measures of the same eternity, so that the very idea of his reacting in any special "modern" way to what Mr Goodman calls "the atmosphere of postwar Europe" is utterly preposterous. He was intermittently happy and uncomfortable in the world into which he came, just as a traveller may be exhilarated by visions of his voyage and be almost simultaneously sea-sick. Whatever age Sebastian might have been born in, he would have been equally amused and unhappy, joyful and apprehensive, as a child at a pantomime now and then thinking of tomorrow's dentist. And the reason of his discomfort was not that he was moral in an immoral age, or immoral in a moral one, neither was it that cramped feeling of his youth not blowing naturally enough in a world which was too rapid a succession of funerals and fireworks; it was simply his becoming aware that the rhythm of his inner being was so much richer than that of other souls..." 
Doesn't that sound exactly like Buddy talking of his brother Seymour- the poet, the true artist, the seer? 

I finished the book last night, and no need to say, I love it, and Vladimir Nabokov is indeed a monster and a master. 










Edit- 10/8/2012: 
Milena Jesenska, on Kafka: 

“He was shy, timid, gentle, and kind, but he wrote gruesome and painful books. He saw the world as full of invisible demons, who tear apart and destroy defenseless people. He was too clear-sighted and too wise to be able to live; he was too weak to fight, he had that weakness of noble, beautiful people who are not able to do battle against the fear of misunderstandings, unkindness, or intellectual lies. Such persons know beforehand that they are powerless and go down in defeat in such a way that they shame the victor. He knew people as only people of great sensitivity are able to know them, as somebody who is alone and sees people almost prophetically, from one flash of a face. He knew the world in a deep and extraordinary manner. He was himself a deep and extraordinary world.”

"We are all capable of living, because at one time or another we have taken refuge in a lie, in blindness, enthusiasm, optimism, a conviction, pessimism, or something else. But has never fled to any refuge, not one. He is absolutely incapable of lying, just as he is incapable of getting drunk. He lacks even the smallest refuge; he has no shelter. That is why he is exposed to everything we are protected from. He is like a naked man among the dressed."

"I was born in a land..."

An excerpt from the fictitious book "The Doubtful Asphodel" by Sebastian Knight in "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight" (Vladimir Nabokov):

"What can I tell you of my past, gentlemen, I was born in a land where the idea of freedom, the notion of right, the habit of human kindness were things coldly despised and brutally outlawed. Now and then, in the course of history, a hypocrite government would paint the walls of the nation's prison a comelier shade of yellow and loudly proclaim the granting of rights familiar to happier states; but either these rights were solely enjoyed by the jailers or else they contained some secret flaw which made them even more bitter than the decrees of frank tyranny... Every man in the land was a slave, if he was not a bully; since the soul and everything pertaining to it were denied to man, the infliction of physical pain came to be considered as sufficient to govern and guide human nature... From time to time a thing called revolution would occur, turning the slaves into bullies and vice versa... A dark country, a hellish place, gentlemen, and if there is anything of which I am certain in life it is that I shall never exchange the liberty of my exile for the vile parody of home..."

Oscar Wilde's quotes

To be honest, Oscar Wilde isn't 1 of my favourite writers, simply because I haven't read anything by him except quotes. Yet, with sensitivity, insight, intelligence, wit and humour, the ability to know truth and to express simply and beautifully, he's 1 of the persons that I quote most often.

Therefore today, I'd like to publish here some of my favourite quotes by Oscar Wilde.

“A good friend will always stab you in the front.”

“A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.”

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”

“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”

“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”

“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”

“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”

“I can resist anything except temptation.”

“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”

“Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.”

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”

“Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.”

“The world is a stage and the play is badly cast.”

“To define is to limit.”

“Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success.”

“Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.”

“There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.”

“Men always want to be a woman’s first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about these things. What (women) like is to be a man’s last romance.”

“I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do - the day after.”

“Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.”

“I don't like compliments, and I don't see why a man should think he is pleasing a woman enormously when he says to her a whole heap of things that he doesn't mean.”

“A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.”

“Popularity is the one insult I have never suffered.”

“The most terrible thing about it is not that it breaks one’s heart—hearts are made to be broken—but that it turns one’s heart to stone.”

“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”

“Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else.”

“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”

“They've promised that dreams can come true - but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too.”

“If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want.”

How to criticise a religion

I've just read this article:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/hallq/2012/07/30/how-to-criticize-islam-russell-blackford-and-david-silverma/
Which leads to 2 others that have some important points.
The 1st one is here: http://freethoughtblogs.com/wwjtd/2011/12/14/defending-horrors-to-build-bridges/
Of course, you should read the whole thing before continuing to read this post, if it interests you at all, but here I quote some passages:
"Jesus Christ, I can’t stand when people try to sell themselves on how nice they are and how eager they are to build bridges by complaining about those who criticize irrationality and its fruits. It gives the worst qualities of humanity as well as the irrationality demanded by faith a pass. I’m not ok with that. Chris is, of course, not the only person who does this. But in this case, stepping in and defending the worship of a pedophile by suggesting it’s not dehumanizing is not nice, it’s fucked up to the extreme. One may build a bridge with moderate Muslims by catering to their fantasies and by failing to point out the glaring moral shortcomings of the Islamic faith (or by just not criticizing it in general), but they’ve burned the bridge with anybody who gives a damn about honesty or the truth in the process, and that includes any bridges remaining with me."
"Build bridges, but not by assuming people need to be lied to or that evil must be tacitly endorsed (or treated like it’s not shitty)."
And most importantly, "If we’re wrong about Islam being false or about Islam having some anti-human ideas, tell us why, but don’t act like we’re being “dehumanizing” by pointing them out."


The 2nd article is here: http://freethoughtblogs.com/hallq/2012/05/25/daring-to-state-the-obvious-the-dark-side-of-sacred-scripture/
"One of the clearest examples of religious privilege is this: no one would think it rude to describe an overt racist or tract as “hate-filled.” That’s just being accurate. It’s only wrong to call a book hate-filled if it is not, in fact, hate filled. But far too many people are quick to dismiss accuracy as rudeness when the book being talked about is somebody’s holy book."
"A defender of Islam can protest that there is more to a religion than the contents of its holy book, and that religions often find ways to ignore the nastier bits of their scriptures. Saying that, however, does not make Maher’s statement about the Quran any less true. Berlinerblau, then, is condemning Maher for saying something that everybody with a basic knowledge of the subject knows to be true, and the specific complaint, “incivility,” is one that no one would make if the book in question were not a religious text. Even then, though, the mistake could have been avoided if Berlinerblau had focused on the question, “is this true?”"
"But Plantinga is a respected scholar of religion who has spent much of his career defending Christianity from its critics. Surely, when he read the BBQ, he realized that Dawkins could quote verses to back up every item in his list. Jealous and proud of it? See Exodus 20:4-5. An ethnic cleanser? See Deuteronomy 20:16-17. Homophobic? See Leviticus 20:13. Misogynistic? See the various laws that treat women more as property than human beings, including a law that would, in many cases, require a rapist to pay money to his victims father and then marry the victim (thus applying the “you break it you buy it” principle to rape) (Deuteronomy 22:28-29).
[...]
I suppose as an Evangelical, he might want to argue that the law from Deuteronomy is not really misogynistic, that imposing the death penalty for gay sex is not really homophobic, and so on. But at least he should be able to understand how a thoughtful person could disagree. Plantinga can treat the BBQ as evidence of non-thoughtfulness only because he writes from a perspective of religious privilege."

Arguments for and against Kafka's marriage

1/ Inability to endure life alone, which does not imply inability to live, quite contrary, it is even improbable that I know how to live with anyone, but I am incapable, alone, of bearing the assault of my own life, the demands of my own person, the attacks of time and old age, the vague pressure of the desire to write, sleeplessness, the nearness of insanity- I cannot bear all this alone. I naturally add a 'perhaps' to this. The connexion with F will give my existence more strength to resist. 

2/ Everything immediately gives me pause. Every joke in the comic paper, what I remember about Flaubert and Grillparzer, the sight of the nightshirts on my parents' beds, laid out for the night, Max's marriage. Yesterday my sister said, 'All the married people (that we know) are happy, I don't understand it,' this remark too gave me pause, I became afraid again. 

3/ I must be alone a great deal. What I accomplished was only the result of being alone. 

4/ I hate everything that does not relate to literature, conversations bore me (even if they relate to literature), to visit people bores me, the sorrows and joys of my relatives bore me to my soul. Conversations take the importance, the seriousness, the truth of everything I think. 

5/ The fear of the connexion, of passing into the other. Then I'll never be alone again. 

6/ In the past, especially, the person I am in the company of my sisters has been entirely different from the person I am in the company of other people. Fearless, powerful, surprising, moved as I otherwise am only when I write. If through the intermediation of my wife I could be like that in the presence of everyone! But then would it not be at the expense of my writing? Not that, not that! 

7/ Alone, I could perhaps some day really give up my job. Married, it will never be possible. 

Written by Kafka himself in his diary on 21/7/1913. 

I came across this passage as I flipped through the pages of his diary and looked for something else, and the 1st thought that popped into my mind was to put it up here on my blog, for no particular reason. 

The importance of things

Then, as it happens, when something's important to somebody only that person is aware of its importance and most people, especially people who aren't very close, fail to realise its significance and thus are likely to consider it as trash and trifle and in some cases, disregarding what that person has said, might even tear it off, destroy it to pieces and throw it away without a thought. 

Oh well, of course the importance of something to somebody is recognised by that person alone, particularly when its importance is due to some memories associated with it. 

But, if only people, when arranging and packing other people's stuff (since the ones who should do it are either sick or far away), bothered to ask "Is this important? Should/ Can we throw it away?" 

Kevin and callous-unemotional children

On 30/3/2012 in the entry "2 films and 2 books" I wrote about "We Need To Talk About Kevin", a film I'd watched a few days earlier.

"... It's quite a painful and thought-provoking film, with some haunting scenes, and after watching it last Friday I still think a little about it, but my feeling now, after about 1 week, is different from how I felt that day. As you've probably known, I'm fed up with films and books about serial killers whose brutal and inhumane acts are simply explained, or decoded, by traumatic events in their childhood..."

"... I don't really like the creation of the character Kevin. It sounds simple. Why does he become a murderer? Because he has always been like that, evil, since birth? Isn't that boring? He has always had an instinctual aversion to his mother, which has no apparent reason, but is a reason for his acts. It develops over time. I of course like the message of the film that the parents should have talked about it and come to a solution before it's too late, because his inhumanity develops over time, because it's so often in real life that people just postpone important things and directly or indirectly cause something that should have been stopped, or changed, for a long time. But it's predictable..."

After 4 months, I've changed my mind.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/magazine/can-you-call-a-9-year-old-a-psychopath.html?_r=2&smid=FB-nytimes&WT.mc_id=TM-E-FB-SM-LIN-CYC-051412-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click

A rather long but very interesting piece.

1st we have to start with callous-unemotional traits: "Callous and unemotional (CU) traits are distinguished by a persistent pattern of behavior that reflects a disregard for others, a lack of empathy and generally deficient affect. The interplay between genetic and environmental risk factors may play a role in the expression of these traits as a conduct disorder (CD)." (wiki)

It must be clarified right from the beginning that those are traits. There are various levels, and having some callous-unemotional traits doesn't mean a child is a callous-unemotional child. (Just like we all have various levels of selfishness but not everybody is called a selfish person).

"Children with CU traits have distinct problems in emotional and behavioral regulation that distinguish them from other antisocial youth and show more similarity to characteristics found in adult psychopathy. Young adolescents with higher levels of CU traits were more likely to engage in direct and indirect forms of bullying. In general, children or adolescents with CU traits exhibit more severe and instrumental displays of aggression than individuals with non CU conduct disorder." (wiki)

Children and adolescents with callous-unemotional traits up to a certain level can be described as aggressive, insensitive, sadistic, who might inflict pain upon weaker kids or animals and enjoy it, for instance, but beyond it, they are more unlikely to change and have the potential to develop into psychopaths.

"Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has been variously described as characterized by shallow emotions (in particular reduced fear), stress tolerance, lacking empathy, coldheartedness, lacking guilt, egocentricity, superficial charm, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, nonplanfulness, impulsivity, and antisocial behaviors such as parasitic lifestyle and criminality." (wiki)

"The concept of psychopathy should be distinguished from the DSM-IV concept of antisocial personality disorder. While diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder is heavily dependent on a record of criminal behavior, psychopathy is more geared to the actual personality traits associated with criminal behavior. Such traits include callousness, superficial and shallow emotion, lack of empathy, irresponsibility, lack of remorse or guilt about harming others, and the tendency to exploit, manipulate and engage in predatory behavior towards others. Psychopathic prisoners commit more serious and violent crimes than non-psychopathic prisoners. They are also more likely to recidivate (commit another crime) after they are released from prison. Moreover, psychopaths are more likely to commit premeditated rather than impulsive crimes. In Michael Woodworth and Stephen Porter's 2002 study of 125 prisoners convicted of homicide, the 34 psychopathic prisoners were much more likely than the 91 non-psychopathic prisoners to have committed premeditated murders (93.3% vs. 48.4%)." (Psychology Today)

"The diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder focuses primarily on observable or documented long-standing patterns of behavior such as disregard for social norms, lying, impulsivity, irresponsibility, recklessness, cruelty, violence, law-breaking, lack of guilt or remorse, etc. Psychopathy or Dissocial Personality Disorder emphasize somewhat more subjective, qualitative and inferred traits like lack of caring or empathy, easily formed but superficial interpersonal attachments, low tolerance for frustration, chronically irritable mood, absence of conscience, failure to learn from negative consequences, and defensive projection of blame onto others." (Psychology Today)

Note: "The knee-jerk reaction of calling all violent offenders "psychopaths" is inaccurate, irresponsible, misleading and unethical. According to the Handbook of (Forensic) Psychology (2003), "there are many ways that someone can be at high risk for violence that are unrelated to psychopathy.. . . This is especially true," it continues, in cases of "spousal assault, stalking and sexual violence, where violence may be related more to disturbances of normal attachment processes rather than the pathological lack of attachment associated with psychopathy." Indeed, there are a multitude of mental disorders associated with violent behavior, including substance abuse or dependence, bipolar disorder, dissociative disorders, narcissistic and paranoid personality disorder, and psychotic disorders. Violent behavior is multi-determined, and cannot be simplistically reduced to or conveniently explained away by glibly dismissing all such offenders as "psychopaths."" (Psychology Today)

Of course, "The idea that a young child could have psychopathic tendencies remains controversial among psychologists. Laurence Steinberg, a psychologist at Temple University, has argued that psychopathy, like other personality disorders, is almost impossible to diagnose accurately in children, or even in teenagers — both because their brains are still developing and because normal behavior at these ages can be misinterpreted as psychopathic. Others fear that even if such a diagnosis can be made accurately, the social cost of branding a young child a psychopath is simply too high."

But, "The benefits of successful treatment could be enormous. Psychopaths are estimated to make up 1 percent of the population but constitute roughly 15 to 25 percent of the offenders in prison and are responsible for a disproportionate number of brutal crimes and murders."

In this article, 1 man says "This is uncharted territory. People are worried about labeling, but if we can identify these kids, at least we have a chance to help them. And if we miss that chance, we might not get another one." 

Callous-unemotional children here are defined as "those who exhibit a distinctive lack of affect, remorse or empathy — and who are considered at risk of becoming psychopaths as adults".

As written before, there's a difference between callous-unemotional children and children with callous-unemotional traits, which is clarified here:

"Currently, there is no standard test for psychopathy in children, but a growing number of psychologists believe that psychopathy, like autism, is a distinct neurological condition — one that can be identified in children as young as 5. Crucial to this diagnosis are callous-unemotional traits, which most researchers now believe distinguish “fledgling psychopaths” from children with ordinary conduct disorder, who are also impulsive and hard to control and exhibit hostile or violent behavior. According to some studies, roughly one-third of children with severe behavioral problems — like the aggressive disobedience that Michael displays — also test above normal on callous-unemotional traits."

"Most kids, if you catch them stealing a cookie from the jar before dinner, they’ll look guilty. They want the cookie, but they also feel bad. Even kids with severe A.D.H.D.: they may have poor impulse control, but they still feel bad when they realize that their mom is mad at them. Callous-unemotional children are unrepentant. They don’t care if someone is mad at them. They don’t care if they hurt someone’s feelings. Like adult psychopaths, they can seem to lack humanity."

"They’re not like A.D.H.D. kids who just act impulsively. And they’re not like conduct-disorder kids, who are like: ‘Screw you and your game! Whatever you tell me, I’m going to do the opposite.’ The C.U. kids are capable of following the rules very carefully. They just use them to their advantage." Or "Hot-blooded kids tend to act out very impulsively... Coldblooded, callous-unemotional children, by contrast, are capable of being impulsive, but their misbehavior more often seems calculated. Instead of someone who can’t sit still, you get a person who may be hostile when provoked but who also has this ability to be very cold. The attitude is, ‘Let’s see how I can use this situation to my advantage, no matter who gets hurt from that.’"

In short, their behaviour is "a mix of impulsivity, aggression, manipulativeness and defiance", among which the most significant is manipulativeness- they say what they know should be said and create a healthy, ordinary image of themselves to make people (who are not very observant) think that their parents have imagined/ exaggerated, or to convince psychologists that they've improved.

"In another study, the researcher Mark Dadds found that as C.U. children matured, they developed the ability to simulate interest in people’s feelings. They have no emotional empathy, but they have cognitive empathy; they can say what other people feel, they just don’t care or feel it."

So, such children do exist. Kevin perfectly fits the descriptions of callous-unemotional children:

- Defiance: resists toilet training; thought to be slow, dim-witted or hearing-impaired because he refuses to throw the ball back at his mother or count numbers albeit remarkably intelligent and perfectly capable of understanding the demands; continues to masturbate when caught by his mother, and glares at her defiantly. 

- Aggression: gets angry at times and might also be the one who does harm to his sister, though it isn't very clear. 

- Constantly full of contempt and hatred for his mother for no particular reason, in spite of her attempt to get close to him. 

- Possible sadism: as already said it's no more than suspicion and isn't revealed in the film, if it's true that he's the one causing his sister's blindness, he seems to take pleasure in hurting others. 

- Calculated calmness: terrifyingly calm in a calculated way. Talks in an icy cold tone. 

- Manipulativeness: appears healthy, ordinary and perfectly OK and reveals his true nature to his mother solely; touches the bandaged arm or the scar and looks intently making his mother follow his wishes; makes his father think of him as totally harmless. 

- No indication of empathy and humanity since a very young age. No indication of love for any particular individual. Later, kills father and sister. The person for whom he has some feelings is his mother, but it's complicated, ambivalent, hard to express in words.

And Kevin does officially become a psychopath. 

On stupidity and the 2 sexes

I have just watched "The Godfather" the 3rd or 4th time and am wondering why that girl Connie is so stupid. 
From my point of view (probably on account of my upbringing), it's less acceptable for a woman, than a man, to be stupid. 
There are various reasons. For example, women are physically weaker. For example, when an unwanted pregnancy occurs, the girl's the one who has to deal with it, to ask herself whether to tell her parents, whether to give birth to the child or to get an abortion, if not getting an abortion, whether to keep the child or give it up for adoption ... and in some societies there can be more, much more serious consequences for the girl, whereas the guy can get away with it and have no responsibility (as long as she's a consenting adult), at least he hardly has to struggle with it within himself the way a girl does. Etc. 


When a woman lets her husband beat her once, she's stupid level 1. 
After the 1st beating if she lacks the determination to go away but, blinded by love, stays and believes he can change, she's stupid level 2. 
If she lets him beat her the 2nd time, she's stupid level 3.
If she lives with him even when it can be deduced that he's involved in the murder of her brother, she's stupid level 4. 
And after everything she still loves him and worships him, yells at and hates another of her brothers for killing her husband, like Connie does, she's stupid level 5, she's incomprehensibly, extremely, unmeasurably and unacceptably stupid, and there's no more I can say. 

Daniel Day-Lewis at "Movies 101"

Daniel Day-Lewis is certainly the best living actor. Since last year I've been looking forward to watching his new film "Lincoln" directed by Steven Spielberg, which will come out in December, and somehow I have a feeling that he will, soon if not this time, win his 3rd Oscar and break the record. 

After watching this interview I feel the strong urge to share it, even though it's very unlikely that anyone here bothers to watch, I still want to keep it, perhaps to watch again later, for in this interview he reveals lots of things I didn't know before, and I didn't know he was such a great and inspiring person. 

100 latest films I've watched

August 2011- July 2012. 

1/ Audition
2/ Bushi no ichibun (Love and Honor)
3/ Shall we dansu?
4/ Shall We Dance?
5/ The Tree of Life
6/ Sekai de ichiban utsukushii yoru (The Most Beautiful Night in the World)
7/ Boku to tsuma no 1778 no monogatari (1778 Stories of Me and My Wife)
8/ Kokuhaku (Confessions)
9/ Cowboys&Aliens
10/ Oldboy
11/ Premonition (Yogen)
12/ The Recipe (South Korea)
13/ Dead Poets Society
14/ Contagion
15/ In Time
16/ Dream House
17/ L'appartement
18/ Irréversible
19/ Hors de prix (Priceless)
20/ Paris, je t'aime
21/ The world is not enough
22/ Amélie
23/ Coco avant Chanel
24/ L'étudiante (The student)
25/ The girl with the dragon tattoo (American version)
26/ Keitai kanojo (Cellular girlfriend- Japan) 
27/ Män som hatar kvinnor (The girl with the dragon tattoo- Swedish version)
28/ Indochine
29/ Pour elle (whose remake is "The next 3 days")
30/ Colombiana
31/ Birthday girl
32/ La haine (Hate)
33/ Agents secrets (Secret agents)
34/ Les rivières pourpres (The Crimson Rivers)
35/ Amen
36/ Caché
37/ Brutus no shinzo
38/ Un cœur en hiver (A heart in the winter)
39/ Night on earth
40/ Certified copy
41/ Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis
42/ Krótki film o miłości (A short film about love, by Krzysztof Kieslowski)
43/ À la folie... pas du tout (He loves me... He loves me not)
44/ Sarah's key
45/ Ne le dis à personne (Tell no one)
46/ Jeux d'enfants (Love me if you dare)
47/ Les choristes (The chorus)
48/ Les 7 jours du talion (7 days)
49/ Nóż w wodzie (Knife in the water)
50/ יוסי וג'אגר (Yossi &Jagger- Israel)
51/ Einayim Petukhoth (Eyes wide open- Israel)
51/ Adama Meshuga'at (Sweet mud- Israel)
52/ L'Auberge Espagnole (Pot luck)
53/ My week with Marilyn
54/ Ensemble, c'est tout
55/ Hjem til jul (Home for Christmas)
56/ J. Edgar
57/ Buna! Ce faci? (Hello! How are you?- Romania)
58/ La Moustache
59/ The descendants
60/ The iron lady
61/ Mission: impossible- Ghost protocol
62/ The artist
63/ Hugo
64/ Intouchables (Untouchable)
65/ Domovoi (The ghost- Russia)
66/ We need to talk about Kevin
67/ The hunger games
68/ The best exotic marigold hotel
69/ Fanfan
70/ 4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile (4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days- Romania)
71/ Engelen (The angel- Norway)
72/ The color purple
73/ The great Gatsby (1974)
74/ Titanic (3D)
75/ Okuribito (Departures- Japan)
76/ Lara Croft Tomb raider (2001)
77/ The quiet American
77/ Lara Croft Tomb raider: The cradle of life (2003)
78/ The lady
79/ Haywire
80/ Romeo and Juliet (1968)
81/ Dark shadows
82/ Wir sind die Nacht (We are the night- Germany)
83/ Cracks (2009)
84/ Men in black 3 (2012)
85/ Café de Flore
86/ The avengers
87/ Moonrise kingdom
88/ Prometheus
89/ Snow White and The Huntsman
90/ Ai no Korīda (In the realm of the senses- Japan)
91/ Unrelated
92/ Archipelago
93/ Sherlock Holmes: A game of shadows
94/ 3 idiots (India, 2009)
95/ The illusionist (2006)
96/ The wings of the dove
97/ The incredible Hulk
98/ Iron man (2008)
99/ Iron man 2 (2010)
100/ To Rome with love 


The ones in bold are those I consider good or enjoyable or both.