In the news

This book sounds interesting. I'm going to add it to my ever-growing list: The History of White People

Self-Defeating Personalities

So what explains those men and women who repeatedly pursue a path that leads to pain and disappointment? Perhaps there is a hidden psychological reward.

I got a glimpse of it once from another patient, a woman in her early 60s who complained about her ungrateful children and neglectful friends. As she spoke, it was clear she felt that all the major figures in her life had done her wrong. In fact, her status as an injured party afforded her a psychological advantage: she felt morally superior to everyone she felt had mistreated her. This was a role she had no intention of giving up.

As she left my office, she smiled and said, “I don’t expect that you’ll be able to help me.” She was already setting up her next failure: her treatment.


An essay on the mental experience of unemployment: Losing It

I have always had a job. I have always supported myself. Everything I own I purchased with money that I earned. I worked hard. For the 35 years I’ve been an adult, I have had an office to go to and a time to show up there. I’ve always had a place to be, existential gravitas intended. Without work, who was I? I do not mean that my title defined me. What did define me was the simple act of working. The loss of my job triggered a cascade of self-doubt and depression. I felt like a failure. Not that the magazine had failed — that I had.

Entertainment roundup

Diablo Cody Pens "Young Adult" For Mandate

Several sources cite that the comedy follows a recently divorced thirty-something author of young adult fiction who returns home to in the hope of winning back the affections of her ex-boyfriend. Trouble is, he's now married with a child.

Any movie that involves authors of non-lit-fic genres has my attention. The question is, can Cody write something that isn't yet another rehashing of Juno?

In other news, Angryfilms has bought the rights to Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. I haven't read LB yet, but I hear it's very good. Also, Angela Bassett is to play Dr. Amanda Waller in Green Lantern movie, another suspect version of A Wrinkle in Time is in the works, as is a film about NASA's secret female space program.

Oh yes, and Jason Segel (TV's "How I Met Your Mother," "I Love You Man") has signed to star as the human lead in "The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time". That may, in fact, be kinda awesome.