G is for Gag Order

If I had my own entertainment company, I think I'd call it "Show Me Pictures".

ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH - GOOGLE LINKS:

1. Background 1

2. Background 2

3. Background 3

4. Background 4

5. Background 5

MORE NEWS

Lots of breaking news all day. Google "News" or Go to Bing.com and type "News". BTW what is Bing.com saying about fake news?

What has it been saying traditionally?

Life would be so much easier if people would just mark news as news and fake news as fake news and leave writers of fiction trying to make a living alone.

S is for SHREW

Another name for my film production company, something I think about everyday - Recently Tamed Shrew Pictures.

I started with Tamed Shrew, then decided to get very specific thanks to how that likely already exists, as I learnt when I went shopping for a matching domain name.

My first movie could be titled - Blare Wizard Project. It could be about the strange phenomenon of rising politicians all hailing from South Africa. (Yes there are a great many, especially in the UK). No, it’s not about Gandhi, the Mahatma. I checked. That cult is only rumored to exist. By the way TAME SHEW is an oxymoron.

RANDOM (NOT)

Entering the third week of the Writer's Strike (WGA) and of course I have an opinion. Writers are the backbone of all entertainment and more. There is no movie, no TV Show, no Song, not even a jingle without words. Writers link the world with words. To treat them shabbily is to disrespect the skeletal backbone.

Thank You.

Critical Face Theory #Random

We have all heard of critical race theory but what is critical face theory?

It is what I call this rarely discussed but commonly observed phenomenon of people with similar facial features ending up with similar lives. I say this is rarely discussed because it has been visited by mainstream media just once and by David Lynch or is it Sir David Lynch and if not why not?

In part two of Twin Peaks he concludes that seeking to draw similarities this way and trying to extrapolate that into a crime solving formula would be a mistake.

I agree.

End of Discussion.

People opposing me in the past have turned out to be adults on minimum wage, and/or white-collar adults who believe in witchcraft.

Thank you.

Why am I talking about this right now? No reason. It’s Random.

NO CONTENT THIS WEEK

Try June 7th

THE QUESTION ABOUT RACE AND WRITING

Should you be allowed to write about another race? The answer is always yes. But for many it is a qualified yes.

Why is that the case?

FEAR. IMHOP it is about fear of being misrepresented and misunderstood. Also, for writers who attack competition this way, it is about getting unwritten ‘exclusive contracts’ that should not exist in any form in the first place.

Both debates are moot. Why? The people are able to decide for themselves. If you do not have faith in people as readers, as consumers of entertainment, you cannot then allow them the responsibility of electing leaders. This goes straight to the question of democracy itself.

From the POV of the marginalized, when they fight to keep white people out of this cache - that is writing about the problems of other races - I can see how they’re striving to achieve a balance of power. In this situation, in this domain, white people are like the proverbial camels. They WILL inch into that tent, and you WILL be left with nothing. This has happened time and time again.

Power is like that. Remember Basmati? Only another white person could halt that hijack. This again feels unfair to many. The Basmati train became currency for marginalized people trying to hack Hollywood and then it got ugly in another space. The competition was all about which person this ‘benevolent white entity’ picks and then the whole thing got corrupt in the end. (By the way, I am not one such person.). The benevolent entity cannot stay benevolent for too long. Soon the power gets to his/her head and defaults to the same old, “Everything written in English is white and I say who gets it as the owner”. By this logic, all rice is Indian and only Indians get to say who eats rice and what rice itself is called. [ No, no. Not really. I am not that thing I write about. Ever.]

But back to my original saga.

I wrote a book, a novel, called “Gemma’s Dilemma”. This was about a woman described as - ‘of mixed race’ that is in a love hate relationship that is entirely of her doing. Therefore, when the case of alleged rape by her partner gets to court she gets little sympathy.

This itself is just subtext in this novel that then goes on to solve an impossible case of rape.

All the questions discussed above came at me.

“Why are you writing about white people?” Was the top of the list.

Second one, “Who authorized you?” (This person I do pity and you should too. Why does he or she imagine these things are authorized? Does she/he mean ‘enabled’? I soon learned not.) Also, the setting. I set it in a fictional Peekskill, New Jersey. There is no such place. But after the hoopla I found myself gravitating towards this until then unheard of place called “Peekskill, New York”. I currently live close to this place. My son goes to university here and this question still lingers as a threat.

The white power that threatens this way is my first encounter with American racism.

I have lived in America for over twenty years. Apart from rude ignorant people whom I ignore (Like that lady who watches the rent check drop area and only questions nonwhite people as they leave to make sure they weren’t there doing the opposite, or the ones who are on your tail the second you enter a department store while white people are robbing them blind at the same time shoplifting everything and never getting caught) , there were a couple of minor incidents not worth reporting. But this is big. This one is huge.

So why did I write about white people problems? Ans: I did not. I make it very clear it is a ‘mixed race person’.

Also, if people still want to call this a white person problem and take me to kangaroo court over this, are they saying, “Rape is white only” or that “this lifestyle is white only”? Both assumptions are very wrong and total misinformation.

And that brings me to the fictional location. When the above is clear, why try to find the location and hold me to it? What is that even about?

Finally, about writing in general. See something, say something applies. This does not even extend to ‘snooping’ like many do for stories. This is about something you see out there in real life, an issue.

An issue like false rape allegations plagues society.

While the story, set in the psychological crime genre, solves this one way or the other, it makes it clear that it is a commentary on such real-life social evils. Why is it up to me is the next question. Which is not anything but harassment of the writer. And yes, no one cares, not especially about me. While that is something that happens to many writers, the point here is - they also add reasons for why this is justified in my case. A million different reasons including something about how a real person did this to another real person that is something a journalist is already working on and how dare I hack her brain? [ And this is how I keep getting fodder for articles on the topic of AI]

And of course I have answers. These questions, annoying as they are, aren’t unanswerable. But should I even be encouraging them? I didn’t. I don’t. And then it turns out your son thinks the only college on earth that is good enough for him is in a place called Peekskill in New York. He got into all the colleges in the state and more. And he chose to come here. And he has no idea I wrote this story. This life he is leading is, has become, his existential fact. But this article is not about that per se.

This article is about writing, and writers, and the life of writers and their relatives.

And one answer to the question – Why, why, why…is this – precedents are set by laws and those laws are based on crimes, new and complex crimes. We can help the process along, by coloring outside the box engaging in healthy dialogue. Coloring outside the box is what fiction is all about. Moving on, all crimes are equal under the law no matter who commits them. Laws aren’t based on race. That’s a good enough reason. But there are so many more reasons. I am not getting into that here.

This should be inspiring enough and destabilize any deterrent already.

Advanced Degree In –

“The Rising of the Sun”

(University of S, School of The Sun Rises in the East)

Education is important, don’t get me wrong. But so much is wrong about this system world over.

Education shouldn’t stifle creativity. The best of the latest modern thinkers have said this repeatedly. We however live in an era where people beat up billionaires in witch hunts over lack of education that signifies according to them a sinister thought process involving metaphysics.

Writers too face this issue.

I sometimes liken a writer to an architect. With simplistic tools both create the promise of new worlds like magic. But today no one would go to an architect with no education and let him design structures, permanent structures that anyone would certify as safe

An ancient architect was an inventor of many things, the basic building blocks that went into any modern structure. What they built still stands, even today. No one invents anymore, not really. They just put together new dishes from the same old ingredients. Sometimes it is just about creative presentations.

According to me, “creating” should never be in the same sentence as “taught”. Here is a satirical bit about the state of education and how it is crafted, delivered, perceived, used, and abused.

    From the University of S, School of - The Sun Rises in the East 


    "Here is our first batch of graduates. 
    Please tell us in your own words a little something about your experience?"  

    “It was easier than I thought. The years flew by just like that. 
    We learnt…well…of course…that the sun in fact does rise in the east…” 
                              
    “Oh did you? So you got your money’s worth.” 
              
    “We sure did. And let me tell you this degree is everything it promises in the catalog.” 
              
    “Apart from the core as mentioned what other courses did you have to take?” 
              
    “It varies. For example I took this elective - The sun also sets.” 
              
    “Oh and you learnt a lot about that too?” 
              
    “The basics. To get more knowledge you know like where does it set? When does it set, 
    and so on, I will need to do a masters.” 
              
    “Oh they kill us with all those books and subjects, don’t they? 
    But not everyone is Copernicus.” 
              
    “Oh to be him we need a PhD. I am not even going to. Between the earth is a sphere 
    and eclipses bicklipeses, phew that was the hardest.” 
              
    “But it’s over now. Time to celebrate. Any jobs lined up?” 
              
    “I do have a job lined up yes. Nothing fancy and it pays just enough. 
    I am a recruiter for the Sun Force starting Monday.” 
              
    “That’s niche. And is everyone in your graduating class employed as of today?” 
              
    “Almost. Some are starting their own ventures. Like Sandy. 
    She has invested a tidy sum in a startup that spots and reports 
    sunrise and related anomalies on a daily basis. “ 
              
    “Good thinking what with global warming.” 
              
    “Global what? Is that something you did?” 
              
    “No. Let’s move on.” 
              
    “Oh the rest you know. Similar. Some are getting that master’s and will 
    eventually become scholars. Others have branched out like Tim here, 
    into the mathematics of it all.” 
              
    “Well good chatting with you. 
    And thank you for letting me know the sun rises in the east! Ha ha.” 
              
    “Oh no. Now. You do need a license to go around saying such things. Not 
    everyone can just blurt that out you know.” 
              
    “They can’t?” 
              
    “No way. And some of us are working on making that a law.” 
              
    “Well, good to know. Good luck with that, bye now.”                             
                    
    

TOP SECRET

So they've declassified those documents Trump illegally declassified to take home to Mar-a-Lago.

You know what documents should be declassified? The “Chopstick Documents". Why won't they make that public knowledge? Why are only some chosen individuals outside of Japan experts in handling tiny morsels of rice using these implements?

On an unrelated note, picture this -

A woman at a culture fusion event. Her offering - Indian Dessert. Her demons - Shakespearean Puns.

        W: This one is called "Barfi".
        Wannabes: Oh? Who barfed.

        CUT TO

        W: This dessert item is all milk and sugar. "Mysore Pak".
        Wannables: Mysore Pak? Who're you looking to pack off to Mysore?
        Mysore. Close to Bangalore but not Bangalore. Clever.

        CUT TO:
        W: Let's try this again. This is a sweet dish made with Semolina. 
        "Kesari", some call it... 
        Wannabes: It's Que Sara Sara. And why is it orange? That might be racist.

        CUT TO:
        W: This is yet another syruppy concoction. Universal favorite - "Gulab Jamun". Pun
        this evil Shakespears!!
        Wannabes: (nudge, wink) Hey she took pictures of your testicles!

        CUT TO:
        C.I.A. - Culinary Institute of America.
        
    

More later.

RANDOM (NOT)

Life is a series of intentional torts.

I haven’t committed a single crime. Yet people “see” my confessions all over my personal space.

The spreading of fake news is now an art form. Manipulation of the impressionable is how you rise on social media. Clout is just one word for "super manipulative personality".

This spawns other industries. People who justify the use of dubious tech for doing good like - issuing strange alerts over your choice of clothes. What you are wearing is a red pullover.

What is playing somewhere is the movie "US" by Jordan Peele. No matter how much you paid for it, you cannot wear that red sweater to that interview. Not now. Maybe never. (Where was this cult when I was at the store buying this sweater?) And BTW, this is too silly to be a tort. Sadly.

They have a job.

Is this the future for humans?

People who launch false narratives, and go with “What I imagine to be the truth is the truth, especially if they ignore me”, are going to rule the world?

Pick Your Battles

The best arguments are won in a courtroom. Arguments in a courtroom must be argued. Solid logic and proof to aid that logic need to be presented.

But not everyone knows that everywhere else arguments can be won by just walking away. Outside of a real courtroom, everyone assumes every argument is valid. All one needs to do is state it out loud. Why is this the case? Because there is no grand jury process. Such impossible to resolve logic is usually best dealt with by walking away. But so many people keep going long beyond any reasoning. My opinion on that is this is the reason we have wars in the world.

Social media can be useful that way. People who feel the need to express themselves this way find an outlet. The comments go on with people taking sides. Everyone has a laugh, or not. Yes, some do get angrier. Either way, this is highly entertaining. The above despite mock courts like Judge Judy etc.

But absurd is when you write a script set in a courtroom, and real lawyers, or fake ones who have established themselves in that genre, get all worked up. Also, the arguments are attacked by some like this could percolate onto the real world, and that spells doom for whomever.

A, that is kind of the point. Sometimes, I ask myself why no one is arguing a certain point when that seems like the only way to go. Then, I go and write that plot.

B, competition in writing world that plays out in this fashion is hindering the whole point of writing such stories.

C, the paradoxical nature of allowing anyone to have their say on social media while curbing speech individually attacking that script-by-script points at the motive - which is pure greed. On social media someone is profiting. A script written by me that gets noticed, cuts into someone else's sale per these protesters. (I normally assume there's room for everyone). This is just one more way the rich keep getting richer.

"Be Not That Judge..."

"...For Yee Might Be Judged Alike" (Or Something)

Inside a certain conference room, a man threatens another with a banana. ( I don't intend for this to be a metaphor. To be clear, this is not a penis.)

A crowd gathers. Is this a new sport corporate has thought up? What is going on? Can we laugh? People who love this sort of thing are already there in spirit.

But this just escalates in another direction. “This is a gun!” he exclaims, like he believes it.

Confusion

So what is up with this dude? Is this even an official meeting? Do we need to call security?

As the confusion grows, so does fear. Meanwhile, what is threatened guy doing? Mr. Confident stays confident. This does not seem to worry him a lot.

NEXT...

Pics sourced from Pixabay.

Pics sourced from Pixabay.

"Be Not That Judge..." (Page 2)

Perhaps playing to a crowd, maybe appeasing the more bewildered, as he gets deeper into this situation

After all this is a corporate suit. He's going to try to milk it. He's assessed this and tries to make the best of it. Everybody is with Mr. Hated-by-Banana-Man, Mr. Confident. Soon everyone is certain Banana man has gone insane. But Banana man stands his ground. He yells louder and reiterates his threat.

Some have had enough. They begin walking away from whatever this is.

“Me and my corporate ladder are both out of here” - Corporate Guy that matters.

Others that care, try to calm him down, chase away the blues.

PREV...

NEXT...

Pics sourced from Pixabay.

"Be Not That Judge..." (Page 3)

This seems to enrage him more. He moves closer, menacing, and…yeah!

But just when people get ready to haul him off, something changes. Something really unexpected happens

Mr. Confident is suddenly acting like Banana Man is to be taken seriously.

Mr. Confident is now Mr. Super Scared.

This makes even less sense!!! Why would anyone be scared of a banana even if pointed at someone like it IS a weapon? Has everyone gone mad? Or. well, at least these two? The people stay put. In fact, more come by to watch. The crowd is growing.

It's like everybody is here now. Confident man eyes the audience. He loves playing to a crowd, everyone knows that. That is why it seems odd that he's so upset. Why is he hiding under the table? Why is he afraid of a stupid fruit? Meanwhile, Banana Man declares victory. “This guy is done. I rule.” He proclaims.

PREV...

NEXT...

Pics sourced from Pixabay.

"Be Not That Judge..." (Page 4)

“Won what?” Everyone wonders.

Someone higher up the corporate ladder shows up. He informs Mr. Confident-Not-Anymore that he is done. “Can't wait to kick you out.”

For the crowd things just got crazier.

This story could end in many ways. This is just a point about perspectives.

Rules rule. In a world where the craziest get ejected, the craziest will get ejected.

PREV

The Mentalist is Real

No one asked, but one of my top favorite Crime Thrillers is “The Mentalist”.

The writers put forth the argument that psychics do not exist in the definition as stated. Rather, they're very clever data analysts processing huge amounts of human related information in just a few seconds. It's either that or total frauds, scam artists.

The lead character then proceeds to demonstrate this theory, episode after episode, also dipping into the fraud theory as necessary to solve crimes.

I have often been accused of being 'psychic'. I don't care for that label which got stuck, when at the age of twenty-two after reading a book or two on palmistry and numerology, I went and predicted a few things for some willing stooges that all came true.

Although none of it was bad, this actually frightened me, and I quit this 'practice' soon after I began. I never spent the money one of them came back to give me, thrilled that my prediction had come true for him. He insisted I must have it, claiming the prediction might get "undone" if he didn't pay. So I took it, realizing later that that made me very uncomfortable indeed. So I quit.

Not long before Mentalist was conceived, I was analyzing how this had happened. One of the predictions was about a wedding that I said would happen out of the blue. This seemed unlikely for various reasons - no bride had been picked and that takes time, the man was way too young, and so on.

But, the other information around it that I had obviously processed - I had heard of a wedding he was attending- was likely the reason why I got such a premonition.

I had heard of that village's reputation for nabbing eligible bachelors the second they were spotted. They'd charm the men and wine and dine them and send them back with a wife.

This village soon earned a notorious reputation when they got increasingly desperate and began nabbing men off the roads as they went by in buses, usually on their way home from universities. [In their defense, the place was in the heart of dowry belt. This is where the dowry demands were the worst.]

Another close friend was nabbed and forced into groom attire and locked up in a bathroom while they went looking for a priest. He escaped and lived to tell the harrowing tale.

This, while a sacksful of mirth, had been playing on my mind obviously when I just went with this "prediction". Linda Goodman certainly had nothing to do with that!

At least, my client was happy unlike the friend who felt like he'd been given a new lease on life. That's just how it goes. I firmly stand by this theory about psychics.

Random (Not)

Shake-Up Week in Publisher World

Something's going on here. Began with layoffs at Random House

This one is about an acquisition.

But wait, there's more...

Something is going on, but not sure what.

Filing this here. Will chew on this cud later.

Also this - I think this belongs here as well. Just a hunch.

Crowd Sourced Censorship

I have been complaining historically about the hardships of independent authors. It's a jungle especially over the lack of security for eBooks. The content, the formatting, etc, everything is messed with.

Occasionally someone gives you a hint. My guess would be they are caring souls wondering about all the hoo-ha.

Recently, I received this feedback over an independently published novel (penname). Apparently, I came off as "evil" thanks to how I make a character refer to another by the language he speaks. The characters are all of Indian origin as in from the country of India. The setting is an "office space".

Fact. This satire captures the whole situation in a true to life manner. The impressions are rarely caricatures and nothing is added or enhanced for comedic effect. In that story, I combine incidents adding to general angst and mayhem, and uniquely perplexing incidents that challenge the characters. The humor is in the paradox that ensues, inevitably, as the mostly honorable characters struggle to fit.

Like I always say, a book is as good as its characters. Shunning this, is like shunning your own behavior.

I am not to "allow fictional tropes" that "depict a community in a negative light". Apologies again if it seems like I am splitting hairs. But the opposition was loud and fatalistic.

I tweeted about this today. A social trope of any kind cannot be censored at the time that it is recognized as an inherent trait of that social group by a writer of any kind. Fiction or non-fiction or documentary, I sincerely believe a writer must be true to his profession. Even fantasy is teethered to some reality. Bowing to brute force censorship of this kind would not be professional. Suffice to say, the depiction is not "profiling". Rather, characterization of this nature in my book, and in general, is usually fair to all. Indians are an eclectic group, and this is also made abundantly clear - in my works especially. People are not homogeneous. The end.

Such censorship must be called out and every such instance must be dealt with.

It is not okay to sit complacent in the idea that such censorship must be second-guessed. It is not about "wanting representation in fiction". That's where it heads next when they peddle another book in the same context while flagging this one. "This book is about that poor man who could not get a job" and it is written by this millionaire actress, picked by Hollywood, (Yeah!). A woman who never had that issue a single day in her life thanks to her dad's illustrious career! (And more such nonsense). These days I even read about how a millionaire writer met a poor man on a passenger* train...wait...when did they take that train? Or on a hike in the remote corners of a village...wait, they didn't get mauled like the media reports every time someone takes off on such an adventure? Or on an undercover office mission - like that is not at all entirely fabricated! I would "second guess" that all such claims are fabricated.

Should I just hang up my boots over this illogical conclusion after a clever attempt at fooling the masses? [ This is not even about eerie alchemy. That horror I will reserve for a later time.]

*In India a passenger train is the slowest of all trains and the tickets are dirt cheap.

Closed Room

Ever get the odd sense that everybody is looking at you when they shouldn't be?

You walk into a room full of people, and say the usual things like hi, hello, etc. A few people respond as always. By the time you get to thirty or so, this is set to a beat. You know your normal in a social setting. There's too much attention, and too little, and just right, and you make this call for yourself even if you never share your self-assessment.

When this first happens, I assume anyone would react like I did. You try humor, nervously at first. Like "Hello" in another language say, or "Do I have a cabbage on my face?"

This is likely to work in most scenarios. The usual reason - you are late, and the interruption of an interesting discussion got you some glares. You get them back on track quickly, apologizing and making light of it.

There are so many such scenarios. For example, a person dealing with culture shock. Rarely does this go to the next level. Yes, there is not only a next level, it goes high on a stack of absurd, as high as you can imagine.

As a writer, I always like to explore more. How could it be that a large group of people found certain very routine things objectionable, and overnight?

You cannot blame anyone in this situation for imagining a larger plot. And yes, I would imagine this is happening a lot lately. That is where the word "woke" was born.

Being Woke is defined as becoming aware of a higher level of sensitivity when dealing with issues related to social science and humanities. To me it sometimes feels like aggressive coaching for a generation of nascent sociopaths. [ I am sure it is not simply about culture awareness.] And paradoxically, a movement opposes this. Sociopaths are usually very intelligent, and they catch on and retaliate.

Someone assumes sociopaths can benefit from a color by number scheme. Coach to elevate their sensitivities, so they seem closer to human. That is why you see odd things like -This color and this number in a combination means only one thing about how to deal with this particular person. I know it all! And like zombies they stick to that, creating a new normal. This escalates quickly as social media memes make such tropes popular. The leaders, the "it" crowd somehow always wins. There is that group that leads and the other one that follows. Try as you might, these same cues fail to make leaders of the right kind of people. Or at least that's what I see so far. But I have a lot of hope for the future.

But what is woke really? Did I need a woke lesson? I don't hate people for any reason. We are all put off by certain deeds. That is the maximum nature of my angst on any given day. I could never be a groupie, and not even that person is a candidate for woke training.

Is this about anti- a whole list of "isms"? How is that possible? I only see that getting worse. The sexist who thinks I should always only have fewer worldly pleasures than my husband is getting stronger thanks to modern implements. He is not getting weaker.

The current trend is so pathetic, I'm afraid they'll reintroduce Sati, the old, outlawed East Indian practice of burning the surviving wife on the husband's pyre and no, not in India, rather in America.

And there are indications of other attempts to rein in the crowds. After a lot of noise about birth control pills and their availability, the push from the other side ended up at the supreme court and soon abortion was entirely outlawed!

At the ground level, such things send the masses into a hysteric stupor.

Back to closed room experiments to control the population - When you see this play out, you may take solace in how "free will" exists in the world and how beautiful that is. This is my idea for peace as a die-hard optimist. When you see that ordinary word not working anymore, you know you're the outsider. But not just the normal not woke kind. This is a special kind of outsider. That's the retaliation I see in my case.

How long will this last? The idea that one culture must "display" or provide an immersive simulative experience for another, so they will become truly "woke"? I think that is being over done now. They've gone through the entire lot and have come back to me - a person who at the outset was a suspect as the chief motive why someone felt enraged enough to launch such a scheme! (No I am sure those are just rumors. I don't know who did this.)

I want to go, "Are you talking to me?!". Finally fully understanding that emotion to the T.

Single-Source Censorship

There's a huge rock on my head and shoulders, maybe a thousand puppet strings pulling me in different directions and away from this task of panning HBO's White Lotus. I can just sense the discord.

I watched both seasons, and I did enjoy the series for its entertainment value. My problem with this is about where the writers/directors began and where they are now.

Over two seasons HBO's Enlightened received a modest total of seven nominations. Seven nominations over three award seasons from 2012 to 2014 and just one win for the lead actress Laura Dern. The writing wasn't lauded. No writers were even nominated.

This spot-on drama set in modern times about a woman who descends into depression over a bad experience at work thanks to a borderline sexual predator was snubbed by critics and award shows. Why? They did see the writer/creator Mr. Mike White's brilliance, going by what they did next. This is where the writers of White Lotus began. HBO was on track with its overall (inferred) goal until then.

(No this is not personal. That said, how many women haven't had a bad experience at some or the other workplace? For me personally there was a cathartic parallel with the HR thread. Those {enter cuss words} !!!! )

To me it seems as though HBO has taken the easy road ever since. Altruistic morality be damned if a corporation floats around the memo detailing how and where entertainment has gone wrong? I am guessing of course, but it seems highly likely that there is a very real "Abaddon Industries" of "Enlightened" infamy, somewhere, and they got up and took note and had a little "chat" with Mr. Mike White. A satire about the affluent and their ways around holidaying, that's of no consequence to anyone at all, surely HBO has better gumption than this? I would have summed this up as "Entertaining. Gossip. Page 3 comes alive. Everybody has the right to party. All work and no play..."

23 nominations, maybe more, for White Lotus, and several for the writers! Freedom of Expression takes a back seat. Is this perceived as justice for the writers?

And I don't even want to comment on what that actor who played evil boss is doing right now.

I'll end this with - Goodluck to all, for what it's worth. You tried.

NEW RULES FOR RACISM

Heard this or rather saw this printed somewhere along Mr. Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign trail. “Reverse Racism is Racism”. This, as a statement, immediately feels right. I bring this into focus because there is a related topic I have been meaning to discuss.

Racism discussed by the media is usually at the superficial level. He said this and she said that, and it is usually just one word. But there's so much more. For example critical race theory.

But what I am trying to explain here is a lot more intricate. This has to do with clusters and how they're formed around corporate cults. And as a capitalist country, America is all about corporate cults. What seems non-racist at the superficial level of a corporate cult ends up being a deeper plot towards that effort only. We are in the era where the traditional echelons of power fight to hold on.

The current mix-up is a careful blend of who is on the good side of that agenda and who isn't. Everybody walks into a new life in a new country with high hopes for the future. Immigrants are rarely here looking to cause trouble. Their experiences shape what they become in the adopted country. And those experiences come from the natives and the others who arrived before them.

Power clusters of the old weren't at the grassroots level. These days they're everywhere. Whoever speaks to one kind of agenda sees success, the others don't. As far as my experience goes, the agenda is clear. You cannot but even try to be independent. You must join one such power cluster and you must have this idea about who is the greatest of them all. Else, you're out.

This is so deeply ingrained in American society, people mistrust any appearance of total independence. An “indie salaried employee” doesn't seem to fall on anyone's ears here as anything but an oxymoron.

Apart from my experience in workplaces where I could see people huddling around in clusters, especially immigrants, there is the other thing around social circles.

For example “Goodreads”. At one time, I was a Goodreads top 10 reviewer. This was in India, around the year 2008 - 2009. Later, in the USA, I lost that ranking, but that was not surprising to me. New geographical location, different algorithm.

Eventually, other things shaped the experiences that made me quit.

The clusters here became very clear one fine day. When exactly an unwritten rule gets floated becomes clear here in online cliques. The push to make you fall in line begins. When you determine not to follow, you feel the pinch. I remember one moderator explaining it to me like I was five when I complained about some bias. “You form your own group and float your own ideas. This is their group and they can make these rules.” Mind you this wasn't about using foul language or being rude or breaking the rules of the portal in anyway. I never do that. This was some specific oddity that felt wrong overall. That is what the moderator at a higher level was upholding as a right. The larger rights were ignored!

This sort of thing was happening a lot. (I can fill an entire filing cabinet). To the naked eye these clusters seemed to spread around one race more than the other. More importantly, members of any race who fell in line were treated. What exactly would be the reverse of this? Boycotting books by that race entirely? Would that be racist? I suppose it would. Mr. Ramaswamy is right?

This and more like promised first reads getting retracted by a big five publisher after one bad review (you can't like all books!) made me quit entirely. I personally feel the need to question the integrity of all book reviews on that portal. If a person like me who has no allegiance to anybody is not allowed to speak her mind in "so and so group" that is just reviewing more books published by some corporate entity, then who can? I see things like Pulitzer winners with a few hundred reviews and a romance with some odd top ten list ranking listed with hundreds of thousands of reviews. There are explanations, but again, the reviews? That doesn't add up when you consider that not all readers post reviews...and I really have lost the motivation to finish this thought. (Also debating whether the Pulitzer committee is safe from such manipulation.)

NOTE: For those who might feel inclined to go there, this is not a complaint about any of the reviews I myself received or did not receive for books published under a pen name. I stopped marketing those publications ages ago and I have no expectations. This thing, competing in that same arena, motivated me to keep quiet about the whole thing. It would have seemed self-serving.

Openly marketing is always legal, but most of what is going there, with this clever and subtle manipulation, feels closer to not. The other implications here - for social media generally, and about every other inference that must excite sociologists and statisticians, I will not get into.

Ending with just this thought. Are we really living in the society promised to us by the laws of the land, or is it all a farce?

ENGLISH & THE COMPETITIVE ARTS

When people get territorial about any language, it is time to change how we do things. Competition shouldn't boil down to who "owns" a thing where it's profiled as an inherent trait of a particular race/class of humans.

While it is rare to see a blue-eyed, brown-skinned man from India, it still happens. I haven't seen blue myself, but I have seen green and hazel. Yet, this is commonly accepted as a race-based trait. When someone makes similar arguments about a language, it gets weird to say the least. There are so many indications that someone has made that compromise ages ago and the rest have followed. There are unwritten rules about who "owns" what that no one will speak about but will follow and enforce with a determined fanaticism.

Consider this:

Literary scholars take pride in how they've "mastered" languages. This is playing out so beautifully with AI - A computer that talks like a human having learnt from scratch. What race is a computer that speaks excellent English? Who can say AI should not master any other language now that is it primarily perceived as the "owner/master" of English? Is AI a new race?

People forget what it's about. Scholarly skills are not about the subject, they're about the skillful mastery of that subject and that input comes from a human.

A true literary master would move on, as some have done already, to show off their skills mastering other languages. If writing is about speaking that language well, everybody speaking any one language would be or should be literary, but they are not.

Back to competition:

When the argument is about how non-English speakers should or should not exist a certain way in the realm of English scholars, it is nothing but racism. I have heard things like - “This could not have been written by a person like him or her; it is lifted”, where the lifting is proven as an allegation using metaphysical crap (I want to say "pedestrain", but then I would end up with an oxymoron of sorts) logic which is based solely on above mentioned profiling.

The situation is quite pathetic. In the future I would say English should be about documents and reporting only, wherever that is necessary, and literature about a new language that people so inclined learn just to craft prose and fiction.

That would be true mastery. And anyone could learn it to enjoy the literature. Else they could just read a translation. That should be the future of English. It should be struck out of the competitive arts altogether.

This Thing with TV and TV Dramas

As a writer viewing any socially relevant drama, I tend to judge the motivation and how that shapes viewers' opinions.

This is different from viewing the same shows as merely a consumer of entertainment. Writing builds on an idea but ideas can come from various sources. Some ideas stem from reactions. Some are commentaries keeping up with the trends in any area. And some go deeper, especially crime dramas, speculating about and testing the systems in place.

This week I am going to review the hit Showtime drama “Billions”. The first five seasons were engrossing. But this current one, the seventh season, is still seeking direction after six episodes.

Where this began - Heavily character centric, this drama revolved around a stockbroker so daring and debonair the justice department made him their sole target. Axel Rod dominates the first five seasons. He tests the laws while he builds his empire as a stockbroker par excellence. He doesn't care how he makes his money, and ethics is something he dismisses as for the ones coached towards an inferior morality where his is quite in place seeking something better for everyone. And he proves this repeatedly doing good his own way while thumbing down the establishment and what he considers their archaic self-serving laws.

His counterpart in this cat mouse game is the man who heads the Justice Department. Repeatedly, we are shown ways he, and his family, breaks the law while persecuting this man for bending the rules of ethics in the world of high stakes finance.

What are these rules? Who is harmed? The audience is left to judge. When the show's viewership began waning it was the time to concede that Axel Rod had failed to impress the jury.

In came his successor swooping in on a valid point, unsettling Axel Rod from his perch for a dramatic exit. Michael Prince and the drama there set up the promise for more to follow along the same lines. While the former was brash and bold with flamboyant affirmations, Prince's stealth is understated and poised like an odd underdog in the competition to excel at the unethical. This hinted at Shakespearean cunning of the Macbeth kind.

However, after one and half seasons, there has been nothing as spectacular. I am unable to recall a single moment of glorious dialogue exchange after that one scene with the bitcoin bust. Bitcoin - such a mundane topic for a TV drama, and yet these writers who are all well established in that industry (Andrew Sorkin for one) came up with some pretty good ways to make that scene as common as a CGI thrill from a superhero movie.

Then something happened. From the rule bending workplace set up by Axel Rod, where there is no HR or the usual set up and yet something better with a Wendy Rhodes, a permanently employed psychologist, available 24/7 to all employees and so on…it went to very specific ‘employee evaluations’ and worse. There wasn’t even a segway into this unless we’re supposed to infer that “now that Prince is seeking the highest office in the country…”. Why? And this while Price follows where Axel Rod left off treating employees to wildly inappropriate parties and sojourns into the places one hears about but never sees anywhere except in such dramas. This dichotomy seems forced. Why undo all the good work?

What is the character of the firm right now? Everything seems unclear.

Earlier, the show wrote the character of Rhodes back in from incarceration doom with a few scenes. Was it disappointing? Yes. Was it acceptable as probable? Yes. Sadly that too can be seen as valid commentary.

But the HR trope makes no sense and seems like an odd piece that has been plugged in from somewhere and for unknown reasons. This is, after all, the age of A.I. and as I blogged here earlier, HR was the first to go.

Another odd scene, that seems like from a bad spec writer, plugged in for the heck of it - that episode with a hacker. I won't say more, no spoilers, but it is about coding signatures and intellectual theft.

But seriously, where did that even come from?

Even so the show has good moments. Like the take on young billionaires and the toll on the economy, and the other one with an inventor embroiled in a spat with Prince over a forced takeover attempt where both end up with a lesser bargain but only one loses big. In the latter, the employee on the mission faces his own moral dilemma - a bit of inspired excellence right there.

I would hope for the commentary to continue, and for the show to remain excellent, avoiding these lapses into eerie disjointed contradictions.

OCT & LATER: JUST SAYING - ARCHIVES