If I were a book, you will put me in a bookshelf after you’ve read me. Later, I’ll probably lie in an attic and find my way to a library. My life would span a few decades, or even more. If I’m exceptionally good, I’ll be a timeless classic.
If I were your personal diary, I will probably last your lifetime, even if you stop using me after a while. You’ll keep me under lock and key, and no one else will read it. You will always treasure me.
If I were a real greeting card, you must have looked at me fondly, caressed me as if I were precious. You may not look at me again for many years, but I’ll be stashed away in some drawer of “memories”. Some day, you will enjoy nostalgia going through that drawer.
If I were a photo from your childhood, I will be stuck in some family album. This family album will be a great source of joy during holidays when the whole family is together.
If I were a blog post, I will live for a few years at best. That is, unless my blog is hacked or accidentally wiped out. I will be happy if your children know the name of my blog.
If I were a JPEG, I’d be one among the millions on Facebook or Flickr. Some people you’ve never met in real life may look at me and write comments. If I offend the sensibilities or political opinions of the owners of such social networks, I may be deleted.
If I were an email, my life in your inbox will be a few hours. After you’ve read me, I will be deleted or archived, and forgotten forever.
If I were a status update on a social network, I’ll be real-time, one among many that flow like fallen leaves in your friends river of feeds. If I’m good, I might be “liked”, extending my life by a few more minutes.
If I were an IM or chat conversation, I am real-time. I exist for a few fleeting minutes. I am usually used just to say Hi, or pass a link. Nobody ever looks at me again, as I vanish from this universe usually without leaving a trace.
If I were a tweet, my value usually lasts a few minutes. I may be short, but I am real-time. If I am any good, I will be passed around, shared among people who don’t know much about each other beyond their 140 character bios.
[Cross-posted from Skeptic Geek]
If evolution ensures survival of the most adaptable species, how did it not vanquish mental depression in humans? This question has been on my mind for several years, and it is time to examine it in the context of a new hypothesis proposed by two scientists.
Background
Between 30 to 50% people suffer from a major depressive episode in their lifetime. It is generally considered to be a disease of the brain, an illness that needs treatment. In the millions of years of human evolution, natural selection was at work, ensuring that the ones among us who were best at surviving, adapting, and reproducing, carried the human species forward. Mental depression reduces ones ability to survive, adapt, and reproduce. It would then be reasonable to expect that those humans afflicted with this disease would have become extinct by now. The genes responsible for, or conducive to depression, should have eroded out of the thriving gene pool. But that, as we know, is far from the truth.
While animals are also known to experience depression, it is still an emerging field of research, and I am skeptic whether their sadness is just a rational response to external circumstances or is full-blown causeless depression like in humans.
Meredith Small, an anthropologist at Cornell wrote last year:
The capacity to feel presumably helps us solve problems and survive, and is essential for group living, and perhaps inconsolable depression is simply emotional baggage that tags along with the good stuff. Or maybe unhappiness and a tendency towards suicide is the product of the uncontrolled nature of our quicksilver minds. We think a lot, and our wondering minds are just as likely to think sad as happy.
LiveScience quotes Meredith in Why Did Evolution Produce Depression, along with Paul Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., who have argued in Scientific American that “depression is in fact an adaptation, a state of mind which brings real costs, but also brings real benefits.”
The Hypotheses
The two scientists have published their views in a Scientific American article “Depression’s Evolutionary Roots”. The key points:
- Depression should not be thought of as a disorder at all. They argue that depression is in fact an adaptation, a state of mind which brings real costs, but also brings real benefits.
- One reason to suspect that depression is an adaptation, not a malfunction, comes from research into a molecule in the brain known as the 5HT1A receptor….The ability to “turn on” depression would seem to be important, not an accident.
- Depressed people often think intensely about their problems. These thoughts are analytical and persistent. Depressed people have difficulty thinking about anything else. This analytical style of thought, of course, can be very productive and can help you solve the problem causing the depression.
- Analysis requires a lot of uninterrupted thought, and depression coordinates many changes in the body to help people analyze their problems without getting distracted.
- Symptoms of depression make sense in light of the idea that analysis must be uninterrupted. The desire for social isolation helps the depressed person avoid situations that would require thinking about other things. Inability to derive pleasure from sex or other activities prevents the depressed person from engaging in activities that could distract him or her from the problem. Even the loss of appetite could be viewed as promoting analysis because chewing and other oral activity interferes with the brain’s ability to process information.
- If depressive rumination were harmful, then bouts of depression should be slower to resolve when people are given interventions that encourage rumination, such as having them write about their strongest thoughts and feelings. However, the opposite appears to be true. Several studies have found that expressive writing promotes quicker resolution of depression, and they suggest that this is because depressed people gain insight into their problems.
- There is another suggestive line of evidence. Various studies have found that people in depressed mood states are better at solving social dilemmas.
- Depression is nature’s way of telling you that you’ve got complex social problems that the mind is intent on solving. Therapies should try to encourage depressive rumination rather than try to stop it, and they should focus on trying to help people solve the problems that trigger their bouts of depression.
Critique of An Unquiet Mind
- The semantic difference between “disorder” and “adaptation” has huge ramifications and consequences in how society treats depressed people. These gentlemen have perhaps not thought through these ramifications. By their own account, they describe the unhealthy, self-destructive, treatment-worthy behavior of people in this state of mind, so what goals do we achieve by terming them an adaptation rather than an illness, disease, or disorder?
- I am not sure if this is “missing the wood for the trees”. Humanity would benefit greatly if scientists studying the brain and depression focus on their excellence at dealing with trees and not try to paint the woods.
- Analytical and persistent thinking in depression is usually in the form of obsession and brooding – two words, often associated with depression, conspicuously missing in the article. The obsessive nature of thinking in depression is rarely productive, and often self-destructive.
- Dealing with lack of distraction in the next point, here I would like to point out the conspicuous absence of the discussion of anxiety in the article. Most forms of depression are closely associated with anxiety, and there is no discussion of whether anxiety also contributes to “productive analytical thinking”.
- Uninterrupted “analysis” often leads to suicide. Not eating leads to serious physical harm. Substance abuse is also a serious problem with those afflicted with the illness of depression. The idea that suicide, starvation, and substance abuse “can be viewed as promoting analysis” is not just ridiculous, but very insensitive. The brains ability to process information is not enhanced by any of these activities.
- The studies confirm that emotional expression is an important healing factor in depression. It is not just the writing, but the family, friends, consultation and therapy that follows it, which is often crucial for resolving issues.
- The first study is of whether mood influences level of cooperation in people and had just two experiments. The second examines how family relationships are relevant to adolescent depression. The notion that people with depression are better at solving social dilemmas is again, preposterous and highly insensitive.
- Many forms of human depression have no cause in the external world. It is not a rational response to an external social problem. It is often causeless and intrinsic or inborn. The scientists view of depression seems to be very narrow minded.
Conclusion
It is clear that we do not have any definite answer yet. Though Depression has been studied in all cultures, we do not know if it existed in early stages of evolution. If it didn’t, and we find that it has developed in recent history (in evolutionary terms), I’m sure natural selection will eventually eliminate it.
Meanwhile, it does not behoove Scientific American to publish such articles. If you want to learn about mental depression, here is the best place to start.
A few blog posts and conversations with friends have made me unquiet about the concept of Divinity: What is Divinity and what does it mean?
Background
My friend Asuph wrote about Divinity in 2004, when I had not even started blogging. He uses Pirsig’s Metaphysics of Quality from Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to describe what happens when we experience divinity. In my opinion, Pirsig’s Chautauqua is another example after Immanuel Kant, of how philosophizing can lead to general unintelligibility if you continue to seek metaphysical truths without getting your epistemology right. Leaving Pirsig aside, Asuph makes interesting observations and asks very pertinent questions.
The discourse has recently been over divinity in art and specifically, in music.
In Music Divine, Atul describes music that makes a direct connection to the divine, and pontificates about the role of divine intervention in the creation of such music and art in general. If you read my response, or are familiar with my blog, you can see that I disagree with the concept of divine intervention leading to the creation of anything, let alone artistic works. This idea essentially harks back to Evolution vs. Creationism at the metaphysical level.
Asuph then elucidates his take on divinity in music in the beautiful post – The Musical Language. He says that for him, the formless, nameless territory of divinity is ruled by music alone. If it were possible to consider an objective perspective on divinity, the question in my mind is: how do deaf (and further, blind) people experience divinity?
Sudheendra Kulkarni has touched upon a similar theme in a recent column: Why Sachin’s bat speaks to him. He uses the Sanskrit tanmay and talleen (self-immersed, engrossed) to describe the same things that Atul and Amit describe in their posts. Surprisingly, leaving his right-wing ideological background, Kulkarni turns to the work of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who architected the theory of “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, and calls it a “psychological theory of karma”, whatever that means.
Using An Epistemological Razor on Divinity
What, then, is Divinity? As Wikipedia correctly notes, it is a loosely-defined term. One should be extra-careful with loosely defined concepts since they are a slippery slope from an epistemological perspective. Einstein played on this slope when he wrote to Max Born that “He does not throw dice”, a phrase commonly paraphrased in other words.
Continuing with the Wikipedia entry: The root of the word means “God-like”. It is used to refer to powers or forces that are universal or transcend human capacities or to qualities of individuals who are considered to have a special relationship to the divine.
In essence, anything that appears to transcend human understanding in general appears divine to us. This is what remains after applying the razor.
Experiencing The Divine
Are divine experiences limited to the sense of sound as they seem to be for Asuph?
Does a newborn baby experience divinity in its mother’s bosom? Did quantum physics scientists experience divinity when they observed sub-atomic particles defying all known laws of the universe? Can divinity be experienced by touch? Can you feel it when you see something?
I believe the answer to all the above questions is a resounding yes, because by definition, what we think lies beyond human understanding is a subjective interpretation.
Other than the common divine musical experiences, I experienced divinity when I had my first sexual orgasm. I felt it when I saw the Andromeda Galaxy for the first time through a telescope. I felt it the first time I closed my eyes and dipped a finger into liquid mercury, awed at how such a metal element could remain in a stable state in nature. I lived in it for many days during my trip to the Himalayas.
What is Divinity?
Asuph correctly identifies divinity as a state of mind. And that is what it is. Like many other aspects of the human mind, there is a lot we still don’t understand about it. I suspect it has a lot to do with a state of mind where the amygdala and the temporal lobes of our brain are in harmony, but those are hypotheses best left to neural scientists. I’m comfortable knowing what we don’t know at present.
When I was in school, I was asked to participate in a debate: “Science: A Cure Or A Disease?”. Yes, my school sucked.
Since then, I’ve been observing how the discipline of science remains largely misunderstood or not understood at all.
New Scientist has just published “13 more things that don’t make sense”, a sequel to their highly popular “13 things that don’t make sense” article in 2005. Both the articles give you a brief glimpse of phenomena that science has yet to understand and are an interesting read for knowing more about cutting-edge experiments and yet-to-be-formulated theories.
If you observe the domain of the “13 things”, they deal with
- Issues of time, space, mind and body
- The world beyond human sensory perception either on a micro or macro scale
- Time spans vastly beyond that of human life
Is this surprising in the least? If you contrast how long science has been in existence compared to the universe, life on earth, and the beginning of homo sapiens, to say that nature has an unfair advantage would be a huge understatement.
On the one hand, I am happy that articles like these catch popular attention. They serve to generate interest in science among the general populace. Carl Sagan is best known for his misquoted phrase “billions and billions”, though he never uttered it in the entire Cosmos series. Catchphrases work and are sometimes justified.
On the other hand, I dislike the lame attempt at sensationalization. How many times have you heard or read “unexplained”, “mysteries”, “unanswered” in the context of science? There are no mysteries in science, only in nature.
New Scientist’s 2005 article remains the most forwarded article in the site’s history. The article’s popularity led to a popular book of the same name. If this were a non-profit organization popularizing science, I wouldn’t have written this post. In Jan 2009, it ran a cover with the title “Darwin was wrong”.
The magazine has been criticized by sci-fi writer Greg Evan:
The combination of a sensationalist bent and a lack of basic knowledge by its writers…is rendering it unreliable often enough to constitute a real threat to the public understanding of science.
And did you notice the use of the number 13?
In the discussion surrounding my popular post Religion vs. Gender Equality & Feminism, there was a reference to religion and environmentalism. As if on cue, the Pope has now said:
“Is it not true that inconsiderate use of creation begins where God is marginalized or also where his existence is denied? If the human creature’s relationship with the Creator weakens, matter is reduced to egoistic possession, man becomes the ‘final authority,’ and the objective of existence is reduced to a feverish race to possess the most possible.”
Atheists everywhere are up in arms with the headline “Pope blames atheists for global warming” all over the web. Read this post for a particularly incisive response. When the President of the National Secular Society labeled the Pope’s comments as inflated and self-serving, moderate voices asked whether this is a surprise and should be news in the first place.
If you wish, you can explore www.environmentalism.com and be surprised. I consider the final word on this topic to be of Michael Crichton, who argues that we need to take environmentalism out of the clutches of religion and bring it back to the scientific discipline:
“We know from history that religions tend to kill people, and environmentalism has already killed somewhere between 10-30 million people since the 1970s.”
You read it right. There is no typo in the above quote.
After months of sitting on my computer on a backless settee, I began to realize that my back has a spinal cord, and that it's made up of individual vertebrae.
But that's not what this is about. While my new chair does indeed improve my posture, this is a new posturing using Posterous.com. I am writing this email using Gmail, sending it to post@posterous.com and attaching the photo of my new chair. After I hit the send button, I sit back in my chair. I expect Posterous will:- Post this email and the photo to my Posterous blog http://socialgeek.posterous.com
- Post my photo to my Flickr photo stream
- Post my photo to my Picasa web albums
- Post this update to my Facebook account (I want to see how it does that, whether it just links, or uploads the photo, etc.)
- Post this email and photo to my Wordpress.com blog – An Unquiet Mind
- Post this update to my Friendfeed, which will then tweet an update on Twitter as @SocialGeek
- Post this update as a tweet on Twitter as @Palsule
Just 1 Email. Now, let's see how it works!
While Barack Obama proclaims White House support to the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities to which India is a signatory, the Indian Supreme Court has delivered a landmark judgment in a unique case of young woman in India. My apologies, but the subject necessitates a lengthy post.
Background
Born in 1991, this woman was abandoned by her family in ‘98, when she was just seven years old. After a few years with the Missionaries of Charity, she went to her new home: the state-run Nari Niketan in Chandigarh, India. Though she is 18 years old today, she is said to have the IQ equivalent of a 9 year old. In this state-run institution, she was repeatedly raped by the staff, four of whom have been arrested. All this came to light only when she was shifted from there to another state-run institution Ashreya. The latest unsubstantiated evidence casts further doubt on where exactly she was raped, and on the entire police investigation so far.
When medical investigation revealed that the woman was pregnant, the Chandigarh Administration decided that it was in her best interests to abort the pregnancy. The girl expressed an unambiguous and unequivocal desire to keep the child. Responding to the state’s petition, the state High Court ordered an immediate termination of pregnancy.
A Delhi based lawyer Suchita Srivastava challenged the order, filing a petition in the Supreme Court. After several days of intense debate in the media as well as the public, the Supreme Court refused to allow termination of pregnancy, and stayed the High Court order.
Advocate Tanu Bedi who had earlier assisted the High Court as amicus curiae, argued for the woman, against Administration counsel Anupam Gupta. The highlights of the debate in court as reported in the press offer the gist of the arguments and the court’s judgment.
The State
- “Consent of the victim cannot be decisive. The so-called consent of the girl is no assent either in law or fact.”
- Reacting to the statement that mild mentally challenged people have the capability to take a decision for themselves, Gupta said: “This is a myth, which is completely belied by present scientific knowledge. It is a structural edifice of myth built on a foundation of highly wishful postulates of mental retardation. The argument is underlied by sincerity and overload of commitment, yet it is mere euphoria.”
- Dismissing the emphasis that the girl’s desire to give birth was ultimate, Gupta said: “If this expression of desire is taken as consent, it will be a complete travesty of consent in moral, philosophical and legal category. How can one question her regarding termination of pregnancy when she does not even understand what pregnancy is? She is blissfully oblivious of her pregnancy and unaware of the sexual act.”
- Reacting to the argument that children of mentally challenged rape victims can be taken care by institutes like Nari Niketan and Ashreya, Gupta said: “It’s easier said than done. We seem to be living in a realm of imagination. I am not trying to run down the argument by calling it a fantasy but such change, although welcome, is yet an illusion in our society.”
- Senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for a social worker in favor of abortion, cited medical reports and said the continuation of pregnancy could result in complications, considering the girl’s age, mental status, and previous surgery. He said she was not aware that there was a child inside her, and hence could not mother a child.
The Woman
- “It would be a travesty of justice if a mother has to come to the highest court of the land to seek permission to give birth to her own child”.
- Consent of the victim matters most. “She is not mentally incompetent to give consent. Despite her communication problems, she has expressed her desire to give birth to the child. She has immense strength and resilience. We don’t even know our destiny, how can we script the future of someone else?” concluded Bedi.
- Ms. Bedi argued that doctors did not form the opinion that termination of pregnancy was in the best interests of the girl, and that the medical report suggested that she required support and supervision to help her raise the child.
- Counsel argued that termination of pregnancy against the mother’s wish was against the provisions of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971, and the Rights of the Disabled.
- If her mental age is a consideration for the judiciary to think that she cannot take care of her baby, why should poor women, who are found lacking in bringing up their children, be allowed to become mothers?
- Ms. Bedi said India was a party to international conventions that uphold and preserve the rights of the disabled, which had been given the go-by in the impugned order. “We have to respect the girl’s right to life”, she said.
- Ms. Bedi argued that the victim had a right to give birth to her child. She said the National Trust constituted under the National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999, had agreed to provide her social and financial support and take care of the child after delivery. Counsel for the Trust said it was funding several institutions and would support the girl.
The Court
- Before the judgment: “What you say is right if she is not a mentally retarded person,” Chief Justice Balakrishnan told Ms. Bedi. “We are worried about her future also because she is an orphan. No NGO is going to look after her. It is a difficult decision for us.”
- “We are not in favor of termination of pregnancy. If there are no further complications to the woman in continuation of her pregnancy, then why abort a life?”
- “We are sure that somebody will be in a position to give protection to the child. Our anxiety is the fetus is already 19 weeks. The second medical opinion says her physical condition is good to bear the child. The child is not suffering from any deformity. Nature will give her biological protection. If somebody is ready to take care of the child, should we even then order medical termination of pregnancy? Nature will take care on its own.”
- Justice Sathasivam told Gupta: “Is it not possible for the Chandigarh administration to take care of the child? Is it not your responsibility to protect her?”
- “We know as a natural mother she will not be able to take care of the child. But if somebody is ready to look after the child, then there would not be any problem.”
- After being satisfied that several national-level NGOs had come forward to take responsibility of the child, the 3-member bench was reluctant to accept any other arguments supporting her abortion.
- Acknowledging that if a baby is aborted against her wishes, it would cause further trauma to the woman, the court ordered that the baby should be born with “mother under constant care and supervision”.
I have no way of assessing general public opinion, but in my experience, the opinion regarding the court’s judgment has been largely negative. See this blog post by Aditi Ray on Sulekha. Prerna’s post has a slew of comments criticizing the judgment.
The Bioethics Discussion Blog asks readers’ opinion regarding permanent sterilization of mentally disabled women, and asks if disability rights groups should ever sacrifice the disabled individual to the group’s agenda. I also found an interesting student paper at the University of Kentucky’s Dept. of Philosophy, Health Care Ethics on mentally retarded women and forced contraceptives. Finally, the UN’s Women with Disabilities page is a gateway to much more information and links.
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A few weeks back, HyperActiveX asked me something on Twitter.
“What is your data flow? Have you mapped it yet?” or something to that effect. This had been on my mind for quite a few months and I always pushed it to the back burner. Quadrant I vs. Quadrant II. The usual story.
But his tweet pushed me over the edge. It led to two MakeUseOf.com posts (How to Define and Manage Your Social Networks), which weren’t popular, but were noticed by a few select people. So here’s a big thank you to HyperActiveX for goading me, and I now have my online social life mapped out on a page.
Comments are closed for this post, since I want to consolidate/track comments (if any) on that page itself.
(Cartoons courtesy: Geek and Poke)
O
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
One of the most powerful anti-establishment movies I’ve seen, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is the story of a criminal McMurphy who prefers an insane asylum to prison, and leads a sustained revolt against the suffocating and stultifying atmosphere and practices of the barbaric asylum. Unlike mainstream movies, here the anti-hero does not win, in fact the establishment wins in the most brutal fashion, leaving us shattered.
I find it shocking that some people see this movie as a comedy of the revolt led by McMurphy with the fishing trip, the orgy at night, and the caricatured inmates. These people are lucky souls who have never experienced the vice-like grip of a cruel establishment and are so blissfully ignorant that they can view this film as a comedy. For the less fortunate among us, Forman uses our intellectual and emotional sensitivity to deal a severe blow that is devastating. I have written before about this film being one of the most intense cinematic experiences for me.
The film’s success – it bagged 5 Oscars and was a box-office hit – was completely unanticipated. It beat Jaws and Nashville at the Oscars. Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando had turned down the lead role, and co-producer Michael Douglas chose not to act himself. Five other actresses turned down the role of the domineering Nurse Ratched. Finally, Louise Fletcher won the Best Actress Oscar for her stunning portrayal of the Nurse, accepting the role just a week before filming began, and turning what was arguably a supporting role, into a lead one. Jack Nicholson, as McMurphy, won his first Oscar and the film catapulted him to super-stardom.
Jack Nicholson lives and breathes McMurphy, a wisecrack who loves to break the rule, is prone to violence, and like any sane person, can have insane impulses when trapped in an insane asylum. While Nicholson’s performance is universally and frequently appreciated, Fletcher’s Nurse is often overshadowed. Observe that Fletcher does not make the Nurse a typical monster, or witch. Rather, the Nurse is a sexually and emotionally repressed authoritative figure, who plays by the rule book, and actually believes that what she is doing is good for the patients.
Western critics believe the treatment of mental illness shown in the film is dated, and modern practices are not as brutal. While it is true that practices such as lobotomy are discontinued, electro-convulsive therapy is still widely used, especially in developing countries. Forman, a Czech, has likened the asylum to communist Russia, and the film doesn’t let viewers escape its grim reality. The escape of the Indian Chief was meant to offer a cathartic end, but for me, McMurphy’s end was simply too devastating.
I once composed a poem inspired by this film:
I was flying on a quest
With a great deal of zest
When I fell down
Into a cuckoo’s nest
Thus I had a fracture
And lost all my rapture
While I kept pondering
The reasons for my capture
All my friends told me
The nest was the best for me
And as the days went by
I forgot how to fly
As my mind reeled
My lips were sealed
My fracture healed
But my fate was sealed
Runner Up
Out of Africa
A personal favorite that must be watched on the big screen. Pollack’s best picture. Streep, Redford, and Brandauer’s performances. David Watkin’s eye-popping on-location cinematography. John Barry’s soul-stirring background score. A dollop of Mozart – the K136 Divertimento in D, K331 Piano Sonata in A, Clarinet Concerto. The complex characterizations of the baroness Karen Blixen and Denys. The story of a woman who never accepted defeat in any way.
The apes playing with the phonograph. The big game hunting scene with lions. The Masai tribe in the desert. The English school for the natives. The owl gifted to her. The view of the world through god’s eyes. The flight sequence followed by the love-making scene in bed. Ah, what cinema!
Noteworthy Mentions
On The Waterfront, Elia Kazan and Marlon Brando are a tour de force that make powerful films.
Once Upon A Time In America, Sergio Leone’s explosive saga of gangland America.
[I may write a paragraph or two at the beginning of each post about some aspect of film-making, sharing thoughts, facts, or experiences, etc. This may or may not be related to the films I write about.
Do feel free to comment on the films, my writing, as well as recommend and discuss other films. The more you participate, the more meaningful and enjoyable this would be! Lastly, I plan to adopt the widely-accepted technique of reformatting titles beginning with ‘A’ and ‘The’.]
I always think that editors are one of the most under-appreciated folks in film-making. How far we have come from the old days when editors used to be exclusively women! Editing was considered no more than a cut and paste job, and since women sewed and tailored, editing was treated as a menial job relegated to women. Today, what would Spielberg be without Michael Kahn, or Scorcese without Thelma Schoonmaker?
Many Indian film-makers aspiring for Academy Awards need a primer on editing. A Slumdog Millionaire’s editing makes it appear as if Lagaan’s editor was stricken with diarrhea and thus was unable to work.
A Beautiful Mind
When I was young, one of my best friends became a paranoid schizophrenic. In the years since, I have seen schizophrenia up close – its impact on patient and family, its treatment, and its social stigma. Not many movies treat mental illness simply as a disease. It is usually sensationalized, or trivialized, or turned into tragedy or melodrama. A Beautiful Mind sensitively portrays John Nash Jr., a mathematical genius who fought paranoid schizophrenia, and successfully achieved global recognition. This is Ron Howard’s masterpiece after the earlier Apollo 13.
Russell Crowe is astonishing as the mild-mannered, socially handicapped genius. He metamorphoses into a Gladiator of the mind, fighting demons of insanity. The film deals with complex mathematical theories to just the right extent, keeping it understandable to laymen. It shows what true love is all about – not passion and romance, but hard work and commitment. It touched me very deeply, without insulting my intelligence, and without offending me by trying to manipulate my emotions.
Thoughts about insanity and genius lingered afterwards. In his Nobel auto-biography, Nash reveals that his recovery is not entirely a matter of joy. “One aspect of this is that rationality of thought imposes a limit on a person’s concept of his relation to the cosmos”, he says. I wonder if apart from his groundbreaking work in mathematics, this revelation will turn out to be his most significant lesson for mankind.
Runner Up
Babel
The germ of four different interlocking stories causing chaos reminded me of the butterfly effect in chaos theory. Despite big-ticket stars like Pitt and Blanchett, they are not given any preferential treatment, as required by the plot. This integrity is rare in Hollywood. Superb cinematography, strong character development, and deeply thought-provoking. We can easily identify with all the characters, none of whom are villains, and do not intentionally act wrongly, yet the situation spirals out of control. It is also an intriguing look at how cultural barriers have unintended consequences.
Such a powerful film shot in different locations of the world with numerous actors cannot be weaved into a compelling yet easy to grasp drama without supreme editorial work. In retrospect, I was mesmerized by how the director and editor managed to weave this thrilling complex drama and piece together disparate clips into an integrated whole.
Noteworthy Mentions
Bandit Queen – a film I saw once and do not wish to see again. A film that made me feel ashamed of being an Indian, with its caste system and patriarchal society. A film with that scene of repeated sounds of a door creaking – a sound I do not wish to hear again.
And, highly recommended: Brief Encounter, The Bicycle Thief, Bridge On The River Kwai
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An Unquiet Mind by Mahendra Palsule is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
