The Saturday Compendium 10: Learned Helplessness, Diamanda Galás (and more)
The Saturday Compendium 10: Learned Helplessness, Diamanda Galás (and more)
I trawl through the highs and lows of culture and ideas, so you don't have to.
The Saturday Compendium is where I round up a few of the things that have interested me in one way or another this week. Some cool, some not so cool, some that have made me think, some that have inspired me to action, some that have shaken me out of a rut. Some old, some new, all borrowed, some possibly blue. But whatever else, they’re all things I think you might find interesting too.
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No one gets out alive
But…
I was also struck by this comment on the above post (pasted here with typos intact…)
Telling people to not take life “so seriously” when alot of deeply rooted and historic factors are against them is counterproductive. It’s very easy to speak from a birds eye view when most of everyday problems don’t affect you or your bottom line (I’m guessing that you are pretty well off by the size of your platform, the views you get and the guests that you speak too).
I understand your point but this mentality/advice cannot be applied to the vast majority of human beings on this planet especially those of us that are apart of a minority group that have historically held very little power to change there faiths.
What I’m reading: Not Forever, But for Now - Chuck Palahniuk
“From the bestselling author of Fight Club comes a hilarious horror satire about a family of professional killers responsible for the most atrocious events in history and the young brothers that are destined to take over.
Meet Otto and Cecil. Two brothers growing up privileged in the Welsh countryside. They enjoy watching nature shows, playing with their pet pony, impersonating their Grandfather...and killing the help. Murder is the family business after all. Downton Abbey, this is not.
However, it’s not so easy to continue the family legacy with the constant stream of threats and distractions seemingly leaping from the hedgerow. First there is the matter of the veritable cavalcade of escaped convicts that keep showing up at their door. Not to mention the debaucherous new tutor who has a penchant for speaking in Greek and dismembering sex dolls. Then there’s Mummy’s burgeoning opioid addiction. And who knows where Daddy is. He just vanished one day after he and Mummy took a walk in the so called “Ghost Forest.””
Have you read it? What did you think?
Learned helplessness
My biological father told me I was ‘useless’ every time I completed a task, and part of me still believes it now. This social experiment therefore struck a chord.
In it, researchers gave a couple of students two impossible anagrams to ‘solve’, while the rest of the class got easy ones. When the students were ALL given the same easy-ish one for the third task, the two students who’d failed previously were unable to solve it, as they believed they were ‘helpless’ (or useless) at the task in hand.
What I’ve been listening to:
“Diamanda Galás is hailed as one of the most important singers of our time. Galás has earned international acclaim for her highly original and politically charged performance works. Notable among these are Plague Mass, Defixiones: Orders from the Dead, Vena Cava, Schrei Xand The Refugee. Most recently, her performance work has concerned the musical setting of texts written by exiled poets and writers worldwide. She was the first recipient of the Demetrio Stratos award, Italy’s prize for musical innovation.”
Brace yourself…
How about you? What are you enjoying at the moment?
I'm always a bit (a lot!) behind the times, so I've just found a song I really liked, from hearing it on the Amazon ad on tv. It's Full of Life by Christine and the Queens. Ended up listening to their album, Paranoia, Angels, True Love - v. atmospheric.
Regarding learned helplessnes - it's interesting that as writers (and maybe I'm genealising here...) there are times we convince ourselves we're no good. Or we can't do it. Or the odds are so stacked against us, what's the point in even trying...?
Yet we do it.
But where does this learned helplessness come from? Our own self-doubts? Or is it an unconscious product of years (in some cases decades) of rejections from agents and publishers? Yes, I know that in the publishing world rejection isn't personal and is rarely a comment on the quality of our work, but there is a part of us that believes "if they don't want my book, then it must be rubbish. Therefore, I must be rubbish."
And where do we find the determination to overcome this self-doubt? The need to write? Self-belief managing to triumph over self-doubt? Or the little seed of confidence that comes from someone simply saying "I like your work"...?