FRANKLIN & LUCY
President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd, and the Other Remarkable Women in His Life
by Joseph E. Persico C 2008
Random House New York
REVIEW by Christine Trzyna
The gist of this story is that by the time the polio crippled FDR was in the White House, he had entertained a long term affair with Lucy Mercer ( later Rutherford), a woman of class but without funds, whom Eleanor his wife had hired to be her secretary. Eleanor discovered the affair, wasted away physically, and negotiated a "stay married" deal with FDR's mother, who was holding the money bags. Agreeing to live separate lives, they did so, with the same acknowledgement of their privacy as the press gave FDR to greatly hide the fact that he could not walk or stand unaided. Lucy Mercer, cut off from Franklin, made her own wealthy society marriage, and meanwhile at the White House staff accommodated Eleanor and Franklin's new love interests; In his case a young woman name Missy LeHand who lived there and in her case a lesbian journalist who gave up her career to be with Eleanor, Lorena Hickok.
This book does not "proof" that "lesbian" relationship stating that in Victorian times and in social classes where men and women were kept apart, it was not extraordinary for women to have emotional relationships and write "I love you," in letters. Letters exist. Many have been destroyed. But there were many. Just as we might e-mail today, these women wrote and posted letters to each other most every day, sentimental and feeling, full of assurances that they understood how each other felt, perhaps using language that suggested rather than being explicit.
The suggestion here is that despite Missy and other love interests if not affairs, it was Lucy Mercer Rutherford that was the love of FDR's life.
To change the subject to the economy of the time, when the stock market went down about 90% and 33 % of all Americans were out of work and there was a banking crisis and the Great Depression began - kind of like NOW - page 225 reminds us of what FDR did as president.
"That inauguration day, after he had been sworn in, Roosevelt turned to face a sea of umbrellas and began speaking of the trials that vast numbers of his countrymen still faced. "I see millions of families," he said, "trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day. I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions labeled indecent by so called polite society half a century ago. I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children. I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions. I see one third of a nation ill housed, ill clad, ill nourished. It is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope - because the nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposed to paint it out."
10/7/08
CHRISTINE TRZYNA QUICK REVIEW : THE MAN BEHIND THE DA VINCE CODE By LISA ROGAK
THE MAN BEHIND THE DA VINCI CODE
An Unauthorized Biography of Dan Brown
by Lisa Rogak
Andrews McMeel Publishing Kansas City
This book was interesting for two reasons. It explains how Dan Brown's exposure to Prep Schools and Secret Societies as a student moved him towards that subject matter for his world-wide best seller, The Da Vinci Code, and it explains his writerly life, researching first, heavily plotted schemes before writing, his use of a voice command computer rather than typing, and what went on with his agent and publisher that made the book a very marketable effort, but one that has interfered with his ability to get another book done. Dan Browns wife, Blythe, (a woman behind her man) who was responsible for the strategy of promotion for Dan's music CD's and his earlier books is given ample credit for her contributions to his success.
Page 23
He discovered he possessed a fortitude that was extremely rare among other aspiring young artists. Essentially, Brown couldn't understand how others just like him could fall into a deep depression and give up after only a few months of receiving countless rejection letters. he thought he was missing something because he viewed each rejection as instruction in how he could try harder. With that realization, he knew that Phillips Exeter was responsible. .... "Exeter vaccinated me against the fear of failure," he said.
Page 47
"Besides writing first thing in the morning, Brown also got into the habit of meticulously planning every plot point and twist, each character's relationship with the others, and the forward movement of the story before he wrote even one word of the novel. He realized that the more he knew about the story and its direction in advance, the better. Specifically detailing the tension from one chapter to the next was a great help when the time came for him to actually start writing." .... He knew some novelists wrote blindly, by starting with an idea or image and then writing to see where it would take them. In literary works where the pace moves slowly and tension isn't integral to the plot, Brown could understand this. But the kind of story he wanted to write depended on building lots of suspense, keeping the reader guessing what would happen next, and throwing in lots of surprises - in other words, a page-turning novel....
Page 49-50
"I know I am supposed to name all the great writers who have inspired me, but I'm ashamed to say that I am so buys writing I have almost no time to read anything other than non-fiction and research books," he said. "On vacations I grab some mainstream thriller off the best-seller rack. Not glamorous, I know, but the truth... But there's another reason he shies away from reading current popular fiction. "I read almost exclusively nonfiction, because I am always researching the next novel, but I don't like to read fiction when I'm writing because it tends to color what I am doing," he said.
Page 61 (On marketing his first book, Digital Fortress)
"Brown pulled out all the stops. He had learned from promoting his music that you never knew how someone could help you, so he prepared postcards with an image of the cover of the book on one side and reviews, comments, and a toll-free ordering number of the other. He also devised a succinct motto for the novel: "The government's greatest secret is that they know all of yours." He sent the cards to everyone he had ever known in the music business, as well as to his fellow classmates at Amherst College and Phillips Exeter.
Page 71
"Seasoned authors - and even those with only one book under their belt like Brown - quickly come to realize that once the manuscript has been handed in, their responsibilities to the production phase of publishing are over. Of course, he'd have to answer copy editing questions and check the galleys for typos, but typically only the art department and the sales force have the final say over the content and design of the cover.
An Unauthorized Biography of Dan Brown
by Lisa Rogak
Andrews McMeel Publishing Kansas City
This book was interesting for two reasons. It explains how Dan Brown's exposure to Prep Schools and Secret Societies as a student moved him towards that subject matter for his world-wide best seller, The Da Vinci Code, and it explains his writerly life, researching first, heavily plotted schemes before writing, his use of a voice command computer rather than typing, and what went on with his agent and publisher that made the book a very marketable effort, but one that has interfered with his ability to get another book done. Dan Browns wife, Blythe, (a woman behind her man) who was responsible for the strategy of promotion for Dan's music CD's and his earlier books is given ample credit for her contributions to his success.
Page 23
He discovered he possessed a fortitude that was extremely rare among other aspiring young artists. Essentially, Brown couldn't understand how others just like him could fall into a deep depression and give up after only a few months of receiving countless rejection letters. he thought he was missing something because he viewed each rejection as instruction in how he could try harder. With that realization, he knew that Phillips Exeter was responsible. .... "Exeter vaccinated me against the fear of failure," he said.
Page 47
"Besides writing first thing in the morning, Brown also got into the habit of meticulously planning every plot point and twist, each character's relationship with the others, and the forward movement of the story before he wrote even one word of the novel. He realized that the more he knew about the story and its direction in advance, the better. Specifically detailing the tension from one chapter to the next was a great help when the time came for him to actually start writing." .... He knew some novelists wrote blindly, by starting with an idea or image and then writing to see where it would take them. In literary works where the pace moves slowly and tension isn't integral to the plot, Brown could understand this. But the kind of story he wanted to write depended on building lots of suspense, keeping the reader guessing what would happen next, and throwing in lots of surprises - in other words, a page-turning novel....
Page 49-50
"I know I am supposed to name all the great writers who have inspired me, but I'm ashamed to say that I am so buys writing I have almost no time to read anything other than non-fiction and research books," he said. "On vacations I grab some mainstream thriller off the best-seller rack. Not glamorous, I know, but the truth... But there's another reason he shies away from reading current popular fiction. "I read almost exclusively nonfiction, because I am always researching the next novel, but I don't like to read fiction when I'm writing because it tends to color what I am doing," he said.
Page 61 (On marketing his first book, Digital Fortress)
"Brown pulled out all the stops. He had learned from promoting his music that you never knew how someone could help you, so he prepared postcards with an image of the cover of the book on one side and reviews, comments, and a toll-free ordering number of the other. He also devised a succinct motto for the novel: "The government's greatest secret is that they know all of yours." He sent the cards to everyone he had ever known in the music business, as well as to his fellow classmates at Amherst College and Phillips Exeter.
Page 71
"Seasoned authors - and even those with only one book under their belt like Brown - quickly come to realize that once the manuscript has been handed in, their responsibilities to the production phase of publishing are over. Of course, he'd have to answer copy editing questions and check the galleys for typos, but typically only the art department and the sales force have the final say over the content and design of the cover.
10/6/08
ASTRONAUTS DIARY SURVIVES FALL TO EARTH FROM EXPLODED SHUTTLE
Ramon Ilan, Israels first astronaut, and one of the six who died when the shuttle exploded entering earth's atmosphere February 1st, 2003, wrote a diary while he was aboard and by some miracle a portion of it survived. Click on the title above to get to the story featured on Yahoo News.
10/4/08
QUICK REVIEW: THE JESUS PAPERS by MICHAEL BAIGENT
QUICK REVIEW by Christine Trzyna
THE JESUS PAPERS BY MICHAEL BAIGENT
c 2006 by author
Harper San Francisco
I'm reading this book because the famous "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown based some of his fiction book research on what Baigent and others of the same intention published as non-fiction, the search for the truth about Jesus. Some say that Dan Brown and his ilk have wanted to dismantle Christianity or the Church (Catholic, but all other Christian faiths that believe in the divinity of Jesus, that he died on the cross for our sins, and through him we have eternal salvation of our souls) through revealing what supposedly the Knights Templer and the Masons have long known; that Jesus survived through a carefully conspired plot, he and his wife Mary Magdalena fled to France, where they had children, and their heirs became known as the Merovingian Kings.
Baigent is one of several authors who are akin to the gentleman travelers of the turn of the 20th century, wealthy men of inheritance mostly who were the unwitting founders of the social science of anthropology. And I am with them on their mountain climbs, sea voyages, and travels across the world, investigating, digging up, and experiencing...and coming up with theories and proofs that perhaps the contemporary establishment of anthropology would debunk. So I'm a sucker for a book that has so many color photos of important temples and underground spiritual centers that he has explored.
He is also on the quest of the Historical Jesus, rather than one of faith, or the one invented to be divine after the fact of life.
Page 39
On page 39 Baigent explains, "According to the gospels, through his father (Joseph), Jesus was of the Line of David, through his mother, he was of the line of Aaron the high Priest (Mathew 1:1 16 Luke 1:5,36;2:4). We suddenly get an understanding of his importance to the Zealot cause when we realize that because of his lineage he was heir to both lines. He was a "double" messiah; having inherited both the royal and priestly lines, he was a "Messiah of Aaron and Israel," a figure, as we have seen, who was clearly noted in the Dead Sea Scrolls. And we take as an expression of this fact Pilate's supposedly ironic sign placed at the foot of the cross: This is Jesus The King of the Jews (Matthew 27,37.)
Page 118-119
"Imagine the problem the Zealots, whose entire focus was the removal or destruction of Rome's hold over Judea, had organized a dynastic marriage between Joseph, a man of the royal line of David, and Mary, of the priestly line of Aaron, in order to have a child, Jesus - the "Savior" of Israel - who was both rightful king and high priest."
Egyptology is of interest to me. Baigent goes on about the religious beliefs of the Egyptians. Page 169,
"Dr. Jeremy Naydler, who has made a study of the deeper mysteries expressed in the Egyptian texts, stresses that we must never allow ourselves to forget the experiential (my emphasis) nature of these ancient religious writings."
Speaking of Egyptian temple rituals using the terminology appropriate, Baigent mentions some notions that I believe are equivalent to Hindu spiritual belief and practice, notions that move across cultural lines.
Page 169
"Under usual circumstances, this state would translate as "sleep," but in this specific ritual context, it indicates something more akin to a state of trance or meditation. Its main use, scholars think, was during the animation rite for sacred statues called "the Opening of the Mouth" when divine power was called down to reside in the statue, which was thereby rendered sacred. This same rite also formed part of the funerary practices. it is evident, in the latter case at least, that while in this ritual state the priest somehow moved into the world of the dead, the Far-World, and that on his return he was able to describe what he had experienced as a dead person.... seems to have happened regularly during these rituals.
Page 170
"We can be confident, I would suggest, that this ritual journey was not just an intellectual invention or some kind of priestly drama, a "pious fraud" that provided smoke and noise enough to impress but little true fire.
Around the late third to early fourth centuries A.D. the philosopher Iamblichus of Apamea, one of the most prominent Platonic scholars of his era, was teaching in what is now Lebanon. His teaching was centered upon what he called THEURGY,... that is, "working with" the gods. He contrasted this with THEOLOGY - "Talking about" the gods. He was interested in practical effects rather than intellectual argument; he wanted his students to know, not just to believe.
(THEURY IS A NEW WORD for me!)
THE JESUS PAPERS BY MICHAEL BAIGENT
c 2006 by author
Harper San Francisco
I'm reading this book because the famous "Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown based some of his fiction book research on what Baigent and others of the same intention published as non-fiction, the search for the truth about Jesus. Some say that Dan Brown and his ilk have wanted to dismantle Christianity or the Church (Catholic, but all other Christian faiths that believe in the divinity of Jesus, that he died on the cross for our sins, and through him we have eternal salvation of our souls) through revealing what supposedly the Knights Templer and the Masons have long known; that Jesus survived through a carefully conspired plot, he and his wife Mary Magdalena fled to France, where they had children, and their heirs became known as the Merovingian Kings.
Baigent is one of several authors who are akin to the gentleman travelers of the turn of the 20th century, wealthy men of inheritance mostly who were the unwitting founders of the social science of anthropology. And I am with them on their mountain climbs, sea voyages, and travels across the world, investigating, digging up, and experiencing...and coming up with theories and proofs that perhaps the contemporary establishment of anthropology would debunk. So I'm a sucker for a book that has so many color photos of important temples and underground spiritual centers that he has explored.
He is also on the quest of the Historical Jesus, rather than one of faith, or the one invented to be divine after the fact of life.
Page 39
On page 39 Baigent explains, "According to the gospels, through his father (Joseph), Jesus was of the Line of David, through his mother, he was of the line of Aaron the high Priest (Mathew 1:1 16 Luke 1:5,36;2:4). We suddenly get an understanding of his importance to the Zealot cause when we realize that because of his lineage he was heir to both lines. He was a "double" messiah; having inherited both the royal and priestly lines, he was a "Messiah of Aaron and Israel," a figure, as we have seen, who was clearly noted in the Dead Sea Scrolls. And we take as an expression of this fact Pilate's supposedly ironic sign placed at the foot of the cross: This is Jesus The King of the Jews (Matthew 27,37.)
Page 118-119
"Imagine the problem the Zealots, whose entire focus was the removal or destruction of Rome's hold over Judea, had organized a dynastic marriage between Joseph, a man of the royal line of David, and Mary, of the priestly line of Aaron, in order to have a child, Jesus - the "Savior" of Israel - who was both rightful king and high priest."
Egyptology is of interest to me. Baigent goes on about the religious beliefs of the Egyptians. Page 169,
"Dr. Jeremy Naydler, who has made a study of the deeper mysteries expressed in the Egyptian texts, stresses that we must never allow ourselves to forget the experiential (my emphasis) nature of these ancient religious writings."
Speaking of Egyptian temple rituals using the terminology appropriate, Baigent mentions some notions that I believe are equivalent to Hindu spiritual belief and practice, notions that move across cultural lines.
Page 169
"Under usual circumstances, this state would translate as "sleep," but in this specific ritual context, it indicates something more akin to a state of trance or meditation. Its main use, scholars think, was during the animation rite for sacred statues called "the Opening of the Mouth" when divine power was called down to reside in the statue, which was thereby rendered sacred. This same rite also formed part of the funerary practices. it is evident, in the latter case at least, that while in this ritual state the priest somehow moved into the world of the dead, the Far-World, and that on his return he was able to describe what he had experienced as a dead person.... seems to have happened regularly during these rituals.
Page 170
"We can be confident, I would suggest, that this ritual journey was not just an intellectual invention or some kind of priestly drama, a "pious fraud" that provided smoke and noise enough to impress but little true fire.
Around the late third to early fourth centuries A.D. the philosopher Iamblichus of Apamea, one of the most prominent Platonic scholars of his era, was teaching in what is now Lebanon. His teaching was centered upon what he called THEURGY,... that is, "working with" the gods. He contrasted this with THEOLOGY - "Talking about" the gods. He was interested in practical effects rather than intellectual argument; he wanted his students to know, not just to believe.
(THEURY IS A NEW WORD for me!)
C 2008 Christine Trzyna
9/24/08
SPANISH POETS GRAVE - FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
Click on the title above to go to the Yahoo News story about a controversy over the grave of Federico Garcia Lorca, considered Spain's best 20th century poet and playwright.
9/23/08
WRITERS ROUND TABLE ? HERE'S SOME ADVICE!
WRITERS ROUND TABLE? Here's Some Advice
By Christine Trzyna
I've been asked about Writers Round Tables. Now that school is back in sessions and students are settling in, this may be a good time to establish and participate in a Writers Round Table that runs until the holiday season.
I think these opportunities to share, critique, and discuss writing and becoming published can be a very valuable support system for the writer, that is if every member is at about the same place in their writing AND as dedicated to participation and mutual success as the next. This is rare. My experience is that it's very difficult to select the group members and that just accepting or not accepting members implies judgement that someone has to make. I've found myself being "given" the responsbility for running a Round Table by the more passive other members, becoming the "heart and soul" of the group (according to one ex member of a Round Table I was involved with for well over a year many years ago). It's a responsbility I took on and often enjoyed but I doubt the group would have stayed together as long as it did if I hadn't.
First of all, you must decide if you want to focus on a genre or form of writing, such as poetry, short stories, chapters from novels, freewriting, etc. I find that three hours is about enough time for about 5 members to discuss poetry or short fiction. I think more than about 7 members becomes overwrought, with some people feeling they did not get enough focus or time.
Second, you must decide if you want to be a real critique group or not and what the basis for that critique will be and set standards for professionalism which means NO PERSONAL ATTACKS allowed. Writers must use the lexicon of the critique focusing on the piece, not the writer. Even in my college workshops personal attacks were allowed by a professor; I don't respect that.
Third, if you're determined to send work out as a goal of the group, all members should share in their responsibility to bring publication opportunity information to the group. One group I belonged to became locked in procrastination and perfectionism and the fear that sending work out that was not A plus and five stars, even to small local chap book publications, would result in some sort of banishment from the publishing industry if the work failed to be accepted. Thus some members presented the same short story a half dozen times or more; excruciating indecision about a few word choices and the like. I believe it is better to keep writing, keep producing, without the editor in your head stopping the process, than to agonize like this. If the work holds it's own, it can withstand the go through with an eventual publishing house editor.
Fourth, decide if you have a system for exiting a non-cooperative or abusive member. Sticky, sticky, sticky. But the GROUP has to do it if it needs to be done.
Fifth, enter into a confidentiality agreement with the group so that your ideas and work is not pirated. This has happened in a group I was in in which during the first session I submitted some story ideas to a new member who showed up without any of his own work. The guy was a screenwriter who never showed up again or even attempted to return my work to me. I don't believe people who identify themselves primarily as screenwriters should be in a group with people who are concentrating on short fiction or novels. Sorry! But I live in a town where just about everyone says they are a screenwriter - particularly in Starbucks - where just about everyone has a laptop with a screenwriting program (but me), and where just about everyone has a manuscript in their desk drawer at the office. And sadly, every one of them seems to be looking for the Story Idea that will make them rich and famous, and most of them can't think of that Story Idea themselves so, some of them steal.
Sixth, meet somewhere that the writers can linger with a couple coffees or tea rather than meet in people's homes. Keeping in mind the confidentiality of the work, this may be a difficult place to locate. However if everyone doesn't have a home to use on a fair, rotational basis, even hosting the group can become a powerplay in the group. So to keep things democratic, even under the trees in the park is better. And forget the potlucking or taking turns bringing food. Write instead of cooking.
C Christine Trzyna 2008
9/21/08
I'm reading THE JESUS PAPERS by MICHAEL BAIGENT
Reading THE JESUS PAPERS by Michael Baigent, "Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History" which is, if you don't know the secret, supposedly held by the Nights Templer and the Masons, that Jesus did not die on the cross, but lived after being taken down from the cross and fleeing to France, had married Mary Magdalene, had children, and through them and then the Merovigian Kings, his DNA is evident in contemporary personages such as, say, the future King of England, Wills.
No, it doesn't say all that in this one book exactly, but Baigent and some authors like him working on the same premises, have had their research used by Dan Brown, the author of the fictive DaVinci Code. I've been in one literary -spiritual argument after another recently with my friend I call Rev John who believes the Catholic Church is a Satanic Power, that the worship of The Blessed Virgin Mary is heretical, and that the only penance Catholics get in the confessional is Hail Marys... Yes, and we are still friends. Rev John thinks the DaVinci Code is fact, not fiction. I owe it to my heritage religion to straighten him out, don't ya think?
Tell you this... I love all the archaeological and historical sites Baigent visited and photographed and presents in this book.
No, it doesn't say all that in this one book exactly, but Baigent and some authors like him working on the same premises, have had their research used by Dan Brown, the author of the fictive DaVinci Code. I've been in one literary -spiritual argument after another recently with my friend I call Rev John who believes the Catholic Church is a Satanic Power, that the worship of The Blessed Virgin Mary is heretical, and that the only penance Catholics get in the confessional is Hail Marys... Yes, and we are still friends. Rev John thinks the DaVinci Code is fact, not fiction. I owe it to my heritage religion to straighten him out, don't ya think?
Tell you this... I love all the archaeological and historical sites Baigent visited and photographed and presents in this book.
9/20/08
9/16/08
CHRISTINE TRZYNA MUSING on THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY by CARLOS CASTANEDA
I've been reading Carlos Castaneda's THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY, which is his "album of memories" (memoir) written in the year or so prior to his death from cancer and published in 1998. Carlos Castaneda is a controversial figure in the realms of literature, anthropology, academia, pop culture, and the new age - spiritual movements. I've read around him, reading the accusations and proofs he was merely a liar rather than a man taken on a journey into Yaqui shamanism in the early 1960's by a character named Don Juan and that he wasn't. But let's say I had never read anything else he'd written, had never read the controversy. I would still find THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY fascinating, a good read. (One book that pretty much accused him of being a liar on the basis that he had once the audacity to take a Creative Writing class at Los Angeles City Community College was just outrageous!)
Most importantly, I believe that the directive that Don Juan gave Carlos, that he write the album of memories as a series of story/events that had turning points in his personal development, to be an excellent one that any memoirist ought to consider. Thus Castaneda gives us stories large and small, each holding the realizations he had because of his experiences for the reader to consider. He is posed as the everyman in his memoir, humbled and awed, not as an egotist.
From all the Castaneda I have read, I have borrowed two concepts from him which may simply be a matter of word use. MOOD and MOMENT. In this moment I want to write my own album of memories. Both the mood and the moment at this time in my life are strange.
Most importantly, I believe that the directive that Don Juan gave Carlos, that he write the album of memories as a series of story/events that had turning points in his personal development, to be an excellent one that any memoirist ought to consider. Thus Castaneda gives us stories large and small, each holding the realizations he had because of his experiences for the reader to consider. He is posed as the everyman in his memoir, humbled and awed, not as an egotist.
From all the Castaneda I have read, I have borrowed two concepts from him which may simply be a matter of word use. MOOD and MOMENT. In this moment I want to write my own album of memories. Both the mood and the moment at this time in my life are strange.
9/13/08
QUICK REVIEW : MIND HUNTER by JOHN DOUGLAS and MARK OLSHAKER
QUICK REVIEW by Christine Trzyna
MIND HUNTER by JOHN DOUGLAS and MARK OLSHAKER
Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
From the Special Agent Who Pioneered Criminal Profiling
by John Douglas (the Special Agent) and Mark Olshaker
A Lisa Drew Book - Scribner Publisher
John Douglas was a pioneer of "profiling" serial killers and he's been on a number of important cases anyone in range of the news has heard about. Besides experience, statistical analysis, and luck, he also seems to have the instinct for an important detail that makes all the difference. He practically diagnoses a crime scene, getting into the mind and habits of a serial killer. Page 69: "Eventually I would come up with the term signature to describe this unique element and personal compulsion, which remained static. And I would use it as distinguishable from the traditional concept of modus operandi, which is fluid and can change. This became the core of what we do in the Investigative Support Unit."
Trivia question of the week: What is the most common vehicle owned by a serial killer (see answer below!)
What this Master Profiler wants you to know is that criminals are experts at profiling their victims and often think out every last step or detail of the crime before they commit it.
page 63
..."Just as they had in school, people felt comfortable opening to me. The more I questioned these guys, the more I came to understand that the successful criminals were good profilers. They each had a carefully thought through and well-research profile of the type of bank they preferred. Some like banks near major thoroughfares or interstates so that getaways would be easier and they could be many miles away before a pursuit could be organized..... page 64... But if you started profiling the cases - you could begin seeing patterns. And once you began seeing patterns, you could start taking proactive measures to catch the bad guys... in effect you could force the robber to select the bank of your choosing and be ready for him when he did."
page 111
"The desire to work with the police was another interesting revelation, which was to come up over and over again in our serial killer studies. The three most common motives of serial rapists and murderers turns out to be domination, manipulation, and control. When you consider that most of these guys are angry, ineffectual losers who feel they've been given the shaft by life, and that most of them have experienced some sort of physical or emotional abuse...it isn't surprising that one of their main fantasy occupations is police officer."
Ed Kemper of Santa Cruz was one killer who had even gone past university security with two bodies in the car, one wrapped up in a blanket and sitting in front, the other in back. He said the girls were drunk and he was taking them home.
Page 113: "He told us that when he stopped his car for a pretty girl, he'd ask her where she was going, then glance at his watch as if trying to decide if he had enough time. Thinking that she was dealing with a busy man who had other more important priorities than stopping for hitchhikers would immediately put her at ease and erase any hesitations. Aside from giving us a look into a killer's modus operandi, this type of information would start suggestions, verbal cues, body language, and so on that we use to size up other people and make instant judgements about them often don't apply to sociopath. With Ed Kemper, for instance, stopping for a pretty hitchhiker was his most important priority, and he had thought long, hard, and analytically about how best to accomplish his objective; much longer, harder, and more analytically than a young woman encountering him casually would have done from her perspective..."
Page 114
"Manipulation Domination Control. These are the three watchwords of violent serial offenders. Everything they do and think about is directed toward assisting them in filling their otherwise inadequate lives....Probably the most crucial single factor in the development of a serial rapist or killer is the role of fantasy...with most sexually based killers, it is a several-step escalation from the fantasy to the reality, often fueled by pornography, morbid experimentation on animals, and cruelty to peers."
John Douglas interviewed Charlie Manson and is of the opinion that the murders of Sharon Tate and her friends were not planned or intended by Manson but this was a point where he lost control over his followers and the situation.
Page 120
"He had been forced to live by his wits his entire life and so had become extremely adept at sizing up the people he met and quickly determining what they could do for him. He would have been excellent in my unit assessing an individuals psychological strengths and weaknesses and strategizing how to get to a killer we were hunting."
The Volkswagon Beetle!
MIND HUNTER by JOHN DOUGLAS and MARK OLSHAKER
Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
From the Special Agent Who Pioneered Criminal Profiling
by John Douglas (the Special Agent) and Mark Olshaker
A Lisa Drew Book - Scribner Publisher
John Douglas was a pioneer of "profiling" serial killers and he's been on a number of important cases anyone in range of the news has heard about. Besides experience, statistical analysis, and luck, he also seems to have the instinct for an important detail that makes all the difference. He practically diagnoses a crime scene, getting into the mind and habits of a serial killer. Page 69: "Eventually I would come up with the term signature to describe this unique element and personal compulsion, which remained static. And I would use it as distinguishable from the traditional concept of modus operandi, which is fluid and can change. This became the core of what we do in the Investigative Support Unit."
Trivia question of the week: What is the most common vehicle owned by a serial killer (see answer below!)
What this Master Profiler wants you to know is that criminals are experts at profiling their victims and often think out every last step or detail of the crime before they commit it.
page 63
..."Just as they had in school, people felt comfortable opening to me. The more I questioned these guys, the more I came to understand that the successful criminals were good profilers. They each had a carefully thought through and well-research profile of the type of bank they preferred. Some like banks near major thoroughfares or interstates so that getaways would be easier and they could be many miles away before a pursuit could be organized..... page 64... But if you started profiling the cases - you could begin seeing patterns. And once you began seeing patterns, you could start taking proactive measures to catch the bad guys... in effect you could force the robber to select the bank of your choosing and be ready for him when he did."
page 111
"The desire to work with the police was another interesting revelation, which was to come up over and over again in our serial killer studies. The three most common motives of serial rapists and murderers turns out to be domination, manipulation, and control. When you consider that most of these guys are angry, ineffectual losers who feel they've been given the shaft by life, and that most of them have experienced some sort of physical or emotional abuse...it isn't surprising that one of their main fantasy occupations is police officer."
Ed Kemper of Santa Cruz was one killer who had even gone past university security with two bodies in the car, one wrapped up in a blanket and sitting in front, the other in back. He said the girls were drunk and he was taking them home.
Page 113: "He told us that when he stopped his car for a pretty girl, he'd ask her where she was going, then glance at his watch as if trying to decide if he had enough time. Thinking that she was dealing with a busy man who had other more important priorities than stopping for hitchhikers would immediately put her at ease and erase any hesitations. Aside from giving us a look into a killer's modus operandi, this type of information would start suggestions, verbal cues, body language, and so on that we use to size up other people and make instant judgements about them often don't apply to sociopath. With Ed Kemper, for instance, stopping for a pretty hitchhiker was his most important priority, and he had thought long, hard, and analytically about how best to accomplish his objective; much longer, harder, and more analytically than a young woman encountering him casually would have done from her perspective..."
Page 114
"Manipulation Domination Control. These are the three watchwords of violent serial offenders. Everything they do and think about is directed toward assisting them in filling their otherwise inadequate lives....Probably the most crucial single factor in the development of a serial rapist or killer is the role of fantasy...with most sexually based killers, it is a several-step escalation from the fantasy to the reality, often fueled by pornography, morbid experimentation on animals, and cruelty to peers."
John Douglas interviewed Charlie Manson and is of the opinion that the murders of Sharon Tate and her friends were not planned or intended by Manson but this was a point where he lost control over his followers and the situation.
Page 120
"He had been forced to live by his wits his entire life and so had become extremely adept at sizing up the people he met and quickly determining what they could do for him. He would have been excellent in my unit assessing an individuals psychological strengths and weaknesses and strategizing how to get to a killer we were hunting."
The Volkswagon Beetle!
9/11/08
ALBERT EINSTEIN quote
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
- Albert Einstein
- Albert Einstein
9/8/08
IS THERE A LINK BETWEEN CREATIVE GENIUS AND BIPOLAR (MANIC DEPRESSION?)
Click on the link above to be taken to the latest news of this theory and the evidence for it. (Of course your list of geniuses may not be their list of geniuses.)
MIND HUNTER by JOHN DOUGLAS and MARK OLSHAKER coming up...
Reading Mind Hunter - Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
From the Special Agent Who Pioneered Criminal Profiling
by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
Quick Review coming up soon!
From the Special Agent Who Pioneered Criminal Profiling
by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
Quick Review coming up soon!
9/7/08
WE ARE EVERYWHERE (NEXT MAGAZINE REDUX)
From the March 1996 Next Magazine
You're the poet?" they asked. Later a woman timidly slipped me the song lyrics she'd written and a Russian man, an intense immigrant, presented me with a thick manila envelope and dashed out. It was full of poems he'd published in a Yankee literary journal.
WE ARE EVERYWHERE
by Christine Trzyna
Poets are sometimes performers, sometimes producers, sometimes workshop leaders or magazine editors. These are the high profile poets we know of. But poets can be found everywhere, even in unexpected places. AT LAVC's computer lab, where I culled my poetry file for an eventual chapbook, other students were surprised to see my poems making it through the printer between spreadsheets and graphic presentations.
You're the poet?" they asked. Later a woman timidly slipped me the song lyrics she'd written and a Russian man, an intense immigrant, presented me with a thick manila envelope and dashed out. It was full of poems he'd published in a Yankee literary journal.
Some complain about not making money through poetry. Conversely others feel that poetry is tainted by ambitions that include financial reward. But poets are not unemployed - they can be found in every profession,
Poets make "real money" in "real" jobs in the "real" world. I was once a member of a writing group that included a jet propulsion lab engineer, a landscaped designer, a telephone operator, and a retired IRS officer. Perhaps as we gossip, asking what certain poets "real" names are, we should also ask, what do they really do for a living? A quick survey of my poetry pals includes an office manager, a computer specialist, a teacher, a sociologist, a construction worker, a waiter, a cabdriver, temporary workers and coffeehouse counter clerks. Poetry is written from a vast variety of viewpoints and on "unpoetic" subjects. We are not stereotypes. We are everywhere.
What I disdain is the way some poets judge other poets, rather than praising diversity.
"Not really a poet" - a person who also indulges in other forms of writing.
"Idiot Savant" - a person whose great talent attracts jealous backstabbers.
"No Talent Bum" - a person who could give a damn about literary pretension.
"Bastard/Bitch" - a person who dares to read work inspired by bad romance, even though the ex is staring them down in the room.
"Overachiever" (No such thing!) - a person who keeps trying to perform although they bomb.
Worse of all "LA poet", as in, "Don't get known as an LA Poets!" - a person who is not approved of by the snob establishment, who some point to as "in San Francisco" or "Poets & Writers," or "The Lannan Foundation."
Such comments make me sad for the era when community had something to do with upholding each other's creative path. It makes me understand why some poets prefer to write, and remain, in secret.
***
Affirmed August 2025 First posted September 7 2008
9/2/08
FROM RIGHT TO JONG by Christine Trzyna (NEXT MAGAZINE redux)
FROM RIGHT TO JONG by Christine Trzyna
(This article appeared in July 1994 Next Magazine.)
I've worked a number of trade shows before, but the ABA Convention was the best. The Orange Ocean Press Booth, ion the Small Press area, was home base for me and visited by a horde of O.O.P's published poets.
When Moss Sheridan showed up with a substantial tote of autographed books - one from Allen Ginsberg- we realized that for a paltry $1. donation to help rebuild LA's earthquake ravaged libraries, we too could be the owner of a brand new hardback. The PR people at the convention center claimed 30,000 were in attendance and the book signing lines were hot and incredibly long - definitely requiring cushy flats to endure the waiting. I, never the less, circled in my corporate heels and braved the lines.
Somebody had to keep plugging in the Orange Ocean Press and surfing videos at the booth, so I planned my autograph hunting with discrimination. Though, OK, once I escaped by telling the guys I had to go to the ladies room. My prime target: Erica Jong.
I love Erica Jong and through thousands of books have passed through my life, each of hers remain in my permanent collection, making it through my many moves. But something went wrong and I found myself in the Disney gate instead, where I could only see her from afar. If I'd had more than a buck on me, I would've tried to "tip" the gate-keeper; instead I told the truth, tears swilling in my eyes. I got sympathy and was allowed int the FEAR OF FIFTY line.
Although I am not of her generation, Ms. Jong's seven poetry books and six novels, her many essays, have always spoke to me. She has always written honestly about the struggle for a woman to be an artist/writer/per. As I waited, I thought of all the things I I would say to her when it was my turn. When the time came I was too dumbfounded by emotion to do anything but smile.
FEAR OF FIFTY, due out in August (1994), contains an entire chapters, "Seducing the Muse," which is dedicated to her experiences as a poet back when a woman was called "poetess." It includes the ambivalence of sending work out, the glory of success, the poetry scene in which she read, and the way the publishing world turned its back on poets.
To quote Ms. Jong, "I returned again and again to poetry after each novel because poetry was guaranteed to be obscure, thus ambition-proof, so it was possible to write it with little thought for the outside worlds... The best you can do is work at not caring too much about the outer symbols and continuing to do whatever it is that centers you and makes you remember your true self... Poetry has remained that for me."
Affirmed August 2025 First posted September 2, 2008
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