Rainy February Day

[nightdog_barks]

It started raining last night at around 10:30 or 11, and basically didn't stop until about 40 minutes ago. So that's a good soaking that we really needed.

Finished reading the Steven Jobs biography last night and thought it was terrific, although at times it was genuinely painful when Isaacson would talk about Jobs' acts of selfishness and all-around general assholery. I mean, the man screwed his friends and colleagues out of bonus money and stock options. He treated people like dirt. He parked his Mercedes in handicapped-parking spaces (sometimes he would angle it in so it blocked two spaces) (I am not making this up). AND YET. He was a creative genius. He changed the way we use computers, the way we make phone calls, the way we listen to music. (I'm using the general we here; I don't own any Apple products.) He was a genius, and yet he could be such a shit human being. (Aside: I have Isaacson's bio of Benjamin Franklin on my to-read shelf; I suppose I'll get to that sooner rather than later.)

Also last night was the 10th (and final?) episode of The Young Pope. I've watched all 10, and for me, they were 10 of the best hours of TV I've seen in a long time. I loved this series -- its moments of surreality, its dream-like atmosphere, the beautiful cinematography, the very human protagonists. Two of the episodes (Nine and Ten) reminded me of Magnolia and the way that movie treated the stories of secondary characters. Kudos to The Young Pope, and especially to Jude Law, Silvio Orlando, Javier Cámara, Cécile de France, and, I suppose most of all, to Paolo Sorrentino, the writer/director/creator of this dazzling show. If it was available on a U.S.-compatible DVD set, I would buy it right now.

And I guess that's all I've got. :-)

Comments

[silverjackal]

It's an armchair (internet?) diagnosis of course, but I'm quite certain that Jobs was clinically a narcissist. They are often masters at manipulation and quite apart from the other shenanigans he engaged in his marketing of Apple was a virtuoso act of manipulation. He's also not alone. There are all manner of people who do great, brilliant things -- even things much more important than selling sleek electronics -- like surgeons (for example) who engage in domestic violence, or abuse their children, etc. Unfortunately genius has no correlation to any shred of human decency. :(

I am glad to hear you enjoyed the series about the Pope. I've heard a bit of buzz about it, all favourable.

[nightdog_barks]

I would not be surprised at all by a diagnosis of narcissism. Jobs was a master manipulator, and his ability to create a "reality distortion field" (and that's actually what people called it) with just his presence was legend. He could inspire his engineers to virtually superhuman efforts to get a new product out on time. Walter Isaacson himself says that he heard there was perhaps a touch of the manic-depressive in Jobs -- he did indeed have magnificent highs and bottom-of-the-valley lows. A lot of folks also suspected Jobs' sense of abandonment as a child (he was adopted) had a lot to do with his temperament ("I'll hurt other people before they can hurt me," perhaps).

From what I've read, The Young Pope aired in Europe last fall and didn't show up on American HBO until now. I loved it. It's really been a long time since I've seen a show that so completely engaged me. I've seen it described as having a distinct Twin Peaks influence, and I would agree with that. :D

[silverjackal]

That "reality distortion field" is very common for people who live in the orbit of a narcissist. The narc gaslights and manipulates so hard that people fall into a sort of shared delusion, unable to tell the real world from the narc's fabrications. With bad cases the narcissist themselves really and truly believe the alternative reality they've created. That's a part of why they're so very damaging to the people they're around even when they masquerade as nurturing/benign. On the surface of it people who oppose them have it worse because they're the targets for their ire and retribution but ultimately it's the ones who are drawn in who suffer worst.

The abandonment issue also fits the pattern. There's a lot of argument about what is genetic propensity and what is environment -- with reality likely coming down on some combination of the two factors -- but there's a general agreement that childhood neglect or abuse (with perversely over-indulgent coddling to the point of crippling the child included in the latter category) has a strong role in producing adult narcissists.

The Young Pope aired in Europe last fall and didn't show up on American HBO until now

My exposure to television is virtually nil these days. Not only do I not have it myself when I'm doing things with others it doesn't involve watching television. I've heard of a few things through general buzz like this that I would doubtless enjoy but truthfully I can't even justify a Netfix subscription. When would I sit and watch? It's just not part of what I do anymore, and I'll have even less time when the weather warms.