People are truly dense. “Why does the Snowden movie spend so much time on Snowden’s completely unremarkable life before the defection?” 

Yes, why indeed. 

Because the whole point of the movie is to convince idiots that Snowden was not meeting with Russians before the data dump. The movie is based on a book written by Snowden’s FSB handler and could only be filmed after Oliver Stone proved his worth by conducting a slavish interview with Ukraine’s former president Yanukovich.  The movie is a pathetic attempt at brainwashing the more gullible among us. But after everybody saw how aggressively Putin is meddling in the US election, only the Trump supporters and the congenitally obstinate can refuse to acknowledge that the story told by Stone in his movie stinks to the skies.

With all of the incessant moaning that female characters don’t appear that much in Hollywood movies, nobody ever mentions that about 80% of grown-up fiction that is published  is written for women and about women. And what requires more leisure, watching a movie or reading a book?

I’m not talking about works of art right now but about reading people do for entertainment. And who are these people, almost always? Women, of course. How many men you know between the ages of 25 and 65 who are not philologists and who read fiction on a regular basis? I don’t know a single one. 

Women’s fiction exists in order to allow women imaginatively to explore potentially traumatic situations and elaborate strategies of behavior. It has a multitude of subgenres, and you can choose which ones respond to your anxieties. There are mega-bestselling authors that specialize in each subgenre, and you know exactly where to go to find relevant books. For instance, there are such subgenres as “what to do if my child goes bad?” (Jodi Picoult*), “what if my mother is a vicious bitch?” (Elizabeth Strout**), etc. 

Women get together in book clubs that serve as amateur group therapy and use these books to find solidarity and solutions. These books cross class boundaries and unite women of all backgrounds. I have discussed Gillian Flynn and Jodi Picoult with 60-year-old professors and 25- year-old supermarket cashiers. This is a vibrant, complex subculture that nobody talks about, preferring, instead, to concentrate on the issue of screen time actresses get. 

B.A. Paris is a newcomer to women’s fiction***. Her first book Behind Closed Doors belongs  to the subgenre of “what if I’m trapped in a bad marriage?” This is one of the most popular subgenres that generates a hefty number of bestsellers every year. 

Paris’s book explores the more nightmarish version of a bad marriage and is destined to be a bestseller. Most women, of course, are not locked in a room all day long, like this author’s protagonist is. But this plot line is so popular and can be found in so many books that it becomes clear how widespread the feeling of being trapped or confined is among women.

I could say a lot more but I know people hate long posts. Just this one thing: the fixation on movie screen time is intrinsically sexist because it arises from the belief that the form of entertainment that attracts men is superior to that which attracts women. 

* Picoult specializes in teenage children going bad. For the subgenres of “what if my newborn goes bad?” or “what if my toddler goes bad?” you need to go someplace else. There is a bestseller that is being widely read right now in the bad newborn genre, for instance. Even Doris Lessing contributed to it back in the day.

** Strout writes real literature, though. She’s immensely talented. I recommend even to those who have no problem with their mother. 

*** Pretty much all fiction is women’s fiction but we are not aware of that because the narrative of “pathetic, victimized women” always defeats the narrative of “smart, resourceful women.”

Everybody who works for a government-sponsored organization in Russia  (teachers, doctors, college professors, tax auditors, low-level bureaucrats, etc) knows that the most important thing to bring to the election is a bit of black thread. Bloggers and Facebookers publish instructions on how best to use the thread during the elections. 

Riddle: what is it that Russian voters actually do with a small piece of black thread in a voting booth?

From a NY TIMES article on the Russia-Iran axis:

Distant as those goals seem now, they might become more attainable if Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, could be persuaded that a never-ending war and growing tension with the West will keep Russia from what it really needs to do: rebuild a multidimensional economy.

Is there an emoji for headdesk? This attitude is precisely what makes the Russians  (and many others) so angry. People don’t want to be told “what they really need to do.” People don’t want to be lectured or condescended to. 

Stop making grandiose pronouncements on what everybody else should do and concentrate on doing something right yourself. Is there really any chance that Putin is not diversifying the economy because some self-important American hasn’t told him to? Really? Or isn’t it a bit more likely that everybody is a rational agent of their self-interest and is pursuing said interest the way they consider best?

We all know that I detest Putin but I’m seeing why he – or anybody else – would tire of this treatment. 

So here is the conclusion to the previous two posts: some people are simply miserable. When a union fails to make them happy, they blame the union. But it’s not the union’s job to peddle happiness. The union makes sure people get a fair contract and holds the employer accountable. That’s all. Everything else people should get on their own. 

When our non-tenured faculty members were unionized, one of the greatest achievements of the union was to define what their job duties consisted of and get that definition into the contract. Before that, adjuncts and instructors were forced to do enormous quantities of service that they weren’t paid for and that led absolutely nowhere for them. Now, nobody can ask an adjunct to sit on a committee or to be present on campus outside of teaching and office hours. And the union is extremely effective, so nobody even tries to impinge on this provision. 

Sounds great, right? 

Well, this provision of the contract has actually been one of the greatest sources of resentment on campus for years. Many adjuncts complain that without attending committees and doing the busy work of service, they don’t “feel included.” I’d think that not feeling exploited would be a greater benefit than the dubious honor of being included into some mortally boring committee that compares two reams of mortally boring paperwork, but people still moan and complain. 

I wasn’t here when that unionization drive took place but I can’t get over the suspicion that those who complain the most about not being included were the ones who were the most aggrieved over being forced to do service before the union came around. 

After talking to way more colleagues than suits my modest sociability needs, I can conclude that the degree to which people are happy with their job has nothing whatsoever to do with the rank they hold, the salary they get, the size or even the existence of their office, the number of students they teach, the amount of grading they do, or anything else if this kind. 

Of course, Trump would break diplomatic relations with Cuba. Obama massively humiliated Putin when he got Cubans to dump Russia and go all “We 🌹 US, we ❣ Obama, welcome, dear American leader!” And all that, two seconds after Putin gave Cuba royal gifts and incentives to keep it loyal. Putin wants his Cuba back, and Trump slavishly promises to return it. 

It is impressive how closely everything – and I mean, you have no idea – Trump says corresponds to Putin’s speeches and declared goals. 

And by the way, do you know who riled up, used, and then quietly dumped his own alt-right a couple of years earlier? Exactly. 

Wow, it’s unbelievable that today is one year anniversary since the Republican debate in front of that phallic airplane. So much happened to me in just one year that it’s like it’s been a lifetime. 

Incredible.