The Writing Show - Off the Structure

Anthony Williams wrote the novel Scales about a man who wakes up with scales all over his body and his consequent adventures. My immediate association was with Kafka's Die Verwandlung, but this is a SciFi novel about a man who discovers his own supernatural abilities and finds he needs to save the world from super potent threat. But that is not what the interview Paula B has with him on The Writing Show is all about.

The show is about structure and although Williams seems very apt at writing structurally, the odd thing about Scales is that the story developed out of a dream he had had and that had him freely associating and laboring on the story without any structure until it was nearly half finished. That is why this episode is called organic writing.

Nevertheless, the show maintains structure and structure is more central in the conversation. I was struck by this beginning nevertheless. I wondered whether maybe Williams succeeded so well by working without a structure, because he is so used to it otherwise. He must have internalized structures so that he could leave them as a back burner. If so, then this method may not work at all for intuitive persons like myself.

For me in turn, trusting the intuition, ti would be a good alternative to try working in a very structured way for a change. Food for investigation. Good show. Thank you Paula. And thank you Anthony.

SRR Cybersexuality

The trigger to this latest interview on Shrinkrapradio is the book Cyber Rules: What You Really Need to Know About the Internet; Ground rules for kids and their families in the new digital environment by Dr. Joanie Gillispie. (Her website seems to be under construction; but this is her official link) This title serves as a good representation for what is discussed on the show.

There is a nice comparison Dr. Gillispie makes for what you would grant your kid on line. You wouldn't give him or her the car keys unless you have made sure the kid is up to driving the car, both as far as skills are needed, as well as the level of responsibility at stake. She points out all the reasons why cyber presence in general and cyber sexuality are tricky. To throw some of the quickly: the internet allows for impulsive behavior, anonymity and a full blown etiquette for the net is yet to develop. The bottom line seems to be, that whatever net activity and exposure to questionable content is not going to hurt, in the eyes of Gillispie, unless the behavior is sought compulsively. Hence, kids must be helped and educated with the internet and then they will be up to it.

Splendid, I think it is very valuable advice that Joanie Gillispie offers, but there are two thoughts pressing on me, that do not seem to be addressed entirely. One is that she lies a certain natural and normal burden with the parent and other educators that, I fear, they still may not be up to. It ranges from the car keys metaphor, right down to the bottom-line that kids must be helped to become mature net users. The point is, that many of those parents and educators are far from mature net users themselves and probably never are going to be. From the get go, they are not as internet savvy as the children they are supposed to help. So, they cannot evaluate whether the kids are ready for the keys.

That brings me to the second point. The book as well as the interview concentrates on kids and sexuality of the web, but not only kids have yet to learn deal with sexuality on the web. I do not take it for granted, mature grown-ups, by virtue of being mature, can deal with sexuality on the web just like that. Besides, cyber presence is more than just about sexuality. It is about all aspects of social interaction.

All of this is not to say the podcast is bad. Quite to the contrary. At its worst it seems a bit too limited to me. And what we need, both for the book as for the show is a follow-up that takes on grown-ups just as much as kids and takes on all web interaction, not just the sexual stuff.

Coming up: Dr. Dave interviews Dr. Gillispie on Wise Counsel.

Wise Counsel on borderline

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) when described on the show initially had me thinking that it could cover nearly everybody who is feeling unhappy. Fortunately the interview clears all that up, step by step, bit by bit. All in all I think this is a great issue of Wise Counsel for psycho therapy practitioners. As a layman, I had a bit of trouble keeping up with the jargon.

The interviewee, John Clarkin, is nevertheless going to great lengths opening up the field. He lays out the definition of BPD and summarizes the symptoms. The major part of the conversation is about the treatment. Clarkin has come up with a standardized and tested treatment that has promising results. In spite of insufficient funding results are had, not just in his local New York, but also in Canada and various places in Europe.

CFR.org podcast

The council of foreign relations carries two podcasts. One is the events podcast, about which I have written in the past, that gives out recordings of CFR conferences and panel discussions. This time I will comment on the generic CFR.org podcast.

On a weekly basis one of the CFR representatives has a short conversation with an expert in one field or another and interviews him about his specialty. I find the issues a bit too short. For a weekly interview podcast I could do with a little more information. The latest I hear was about terrorist threats in Europe and what the various European countries are doing about that. The conversation with the specialist, Michael Jacobson (photo), takes less than five minutes.

A weekly podcast that is more than a monologue can easily last twenty minutes. I am sure it wouldn't hurt for mr. Jacobson to stay a little longer on the phone. I am sure the CFR can cook up some more questions and I think it goes without saying that the interested listener is intent on hearing much more than just a superficial outline of how Europe is prepared to deal with terrorism.

Lieve Joris (Marathon Interview)

Haar genre wordt wel non-fictie literatuur genoemd. In het marathoninterview van de VPRO, wordt de Vlaamse schrijfster Lieve Joris ondervraagt door Djoeke Veninga. Het gaat over haar familie, maar vooral over haar werk, over hoe het tot standkomt. In Congo, Mali, Ehtiopie en binnenkort misschien Vietnam, of andere plekken in Azie. Ik dacht bij mezelf dat je het ook culturele antropologie kunt noemen.

We krijgen een portret van een vrouw die van haar manier van werken een manier van leven heeft gemaakt. Het gaat nog nauwelijks over het schrijven of het publiceren van het boek. Het gaat over het verblijf in den vreemde. Over de contacten, de relaties die ontstaan, over de eenzaamheid en de opvang op de vele, vele logeeradressen. Ik wil geen details weggeven - er is zoveel en de luisteraar moet ze gewoon lekker zelf ontdekken.

Wat is er te leren? Lieve Joris lijkt een zoektocht te maken naar universele waarden en die lijken vooral op het micro-niveau naar buiten te komen. Hoe ze houdt van haar (echte) personages en hoe de mensen in het land dat ze bezoekt haar in hun armen sluiten. Maar ze maakt ook duidelijk wat het gezicht van post-kolonialisme is. Of beter gezegd, in meervoud, de vele gezichten ervan. Congo is niet zoals Uganda, niet zoals Rwanda, of Mali, of Ethiopie. En Afrika is niet zoals Azie. De ernstigste nog voortdurende schade lijkt zich in Afrika te bevinden, Congo vooral, maar als er al iemand moet opstaan om de schade te verhelpen, moeten dat toch de Afrikanen zelf zijn zo betoogt ze. Hoe ze dat moeten doen, is misschien niet van Europeanen of Amerikanen , maar eerder van Aziaten te leren. Laten de Afrikanen kijken naar Vietnam, naar China, is haar aanbeveling.

The Prosperity Show

I have never been a regular listener to The Prosperity Show. Joan Sotkin has made this podcast over the past two years, but recently decided she needed some respiration room, as she has two businesses in addition to attend to. Hence, she has suspended the podcast until further notice.

The subtitle of the podcast is: "Tips and Techniques for Improving Your Relationship with Money and Yourself." So if you thought, like me, that a show about prosperity would only be about money and consequently about investment tips and accounting techniques, you'll find that it is so much more than that. If not, completely different. Joan delivers practical advice as to how to deal with your money (like writing it down, placing it in the right savings accounts and how to deal with taxes), but mostly the show has a more psychological angle. As indeed the subtitle indicates: the show is intended to improve your relationship with money and consequently with yourself.

Still it is not entirely my cup of tea, but nevertheless she delivered some well spent listening hours. And therefore, even if the podcast is suspended, there are plenty of shows to be had from the archives and serve the appropriate listeners.