In Cold Blood

A couple of nights ago I was reading part of In Cold Blood, which is really a thrilling, fascinating, and sometimes even funny read.  There's something about it that seems to perfectly capture the American West. 
The way African Americans are depicted is interesting.  They are not an important part of the story, but that's nothing new, as they're usually relegated to the margins of society and art.  But they do come up occasionally.  At one point, one of the killers carries on about how something pays, saying that it's not enough for "a white man could live off."  Wow, basically implying that whites are more deserving of better pay, based solely on their skin.  Great.  Well, they are serial killers, there's no reason to expect that they're going to be enlightened in any other way.  And since serial killers exist because they have a psychological need for power, there's no way to hope they would be thoughtful about privilege and power the way other people might be able to be. 
At one point, they also talk about how the killers came across "a pair of Negro prizefighters driving a lavender Cadillac."  I was happy to be reminded that some African Americans were successful, even in an age where it was probably so hard. 

(Also, can I just say that I love Cadillacs and would probably love a lavender colored one?  I think I would have to come up with a clever name for it.  Maybe Lavender Brown, in reference to the Harry Potter character.) 
Women are interesting too.  At one point, this woman landlord goes on and on to an investigator, telling him that she's "just a dizzy blonde."  She goes on, telling him that she believes him, but that she "wouldn't tell that tale to any brunettes."  I found this weirdly funny.  She sounded like so many female characters in all those old movies.   
The psychology of the serial killers is another thing that is cool to see in the piece.  The narrator comments that a potential victim's laugh reminds one of the killers of his father.  The piece doesn't really talk about what that means, but anyone thoughtful enough can start coming up with theories. 
It's so well written!  At one point, the narrator describes a word as "ominous."  The word?  "OOM."  I usually don't think of "words" like that, but it is.  It even made me think of the Ood in Doctor Who. 
The other thing I found myself thinking as I was reading this was about how Lee Pace played one of the killers in the movie version of the story that came out some years ago.  As I've mentioned here before, I'm a huge fan of Pace, though I haven't seen this movie yet.  I think there's really no choice in the matter now: I'm going to have to. 

Health

When I got home, I decided to get some lunch.  I ate all of the Swedish Fish Lisa gave me and then made some nachos.  As I was eating, I flipped through CSI and Law and Order: CI.  I don't honestly get how people can stay home all day and watch tv for days on end.  I was bored right then and there.
My Mom came home and asked if I wanted to go with her to the hospital to see Grandma.  Sure.  I got ready (which mostly consists of combing my hair, there's no one who needs me to wear makeup in the hospital) and then we left.  My Mom had to drop something off, and I flipped through the radio on the car, trying to find something we could agree on.  I stopped at the Beatles's "Blackbird."
At the hospital, my Mom realized she had forgotten her cell phone out in the car, so I was sent back to get it.  And then finally I wandered up to see my Grandma.
She looked worse than when I had seen her last.  Her arms were swollen, and when I inspected her fingers, they were too.  Her skin looks so weird and gelantaneous and her skin has weird patterns on them.  She reached for my hand.  I took it, not really thinking.  She was hot to the touch.
Because she is so sick right now, no one is suppose to touch her without gloves on, and after remembering, I did put them on.  It felt weird touching my Grandma's hand with a glove on.  Like wearing a condom, sort of.
I skipped around on her tv, looking for something she might like.  Score!  Criminal Minds.  The hottness, once again.
I read a celebrity magazine as my Mom talked to her.  She mostly reasked the same questions about where she was and what happened.  My Mom was impatient with her, but I tried to answer her questions patiently.
My Dad had been there earlier in the day, and I noticed that he was reading a book on Freud.  Maybe now he'll know something about psychology?  Probably not.
Various nurses and doctors came in to see her.  One asked me if we needed anything.  I said that she needed to be placed in the chair so she could eat her dinner.  She went to go get someone else to help her and we sat her down.
They brough my Grandma dinner.  My parents then left to get themselves something to eat, and I sat and watched her.  I read the magazine, or parts of it.  (There were lots of celebrities I had never heard of.)  I turned on SpongeBob Squarepants.
My Grandma ate by herself, which is a big improvement.  She asked me for something to drink, but we're trying to get her to do it herself, so I pointed to where it was on her tray and she did it herself.  A doctor came in to give her pills midway through her meal.
My parents came back and then we left.  We went out to dinner.  I have been desperate for protein, so I had an omelette, even though normally I have either an omelette or a hard-boiled egg every morning anyway.
When I got home, my sister was about to leave to go to the movies.  I got on my computer, intending to maybe write something.
There was a message from my friend Christine that she had a miscarriage.  This has to be her second one.  I feel badly for her, because I know she really wanted this baby.  I guess I'm also surprised, because she told me a few days ago how he (or she.  It was never really determined.) was kicking about and all excited for New Years Eve celebrations.
Seems like no one in my life is doing well health-wise.      

Freud and Race

I've been spending the evening trying doing some reading.  One of things I was working on was an article called Freud's Negro, which takes Freud to task on the issue of race. 
One of the first things the author, Claudia Tate, mentions is that since psychoanalysis always seems to boil down to is sex regardless of race.  As I have only read some of Freud, I would have to take Tate's word on it, but I suspect this has been an advantage, since Franz Fanon applied Freud's sexual theories to race and race relations in his book Black Skin, White Masks.  (He has two chapters dedicated, for instance, on inter-racial relationships.  He stipulates that Black men favor White women as partners because they perceive it as a way to have something the White man usually has, thus themselves becoming white.  He also asserts that White men favor Black women as partners as a roundabout way of dominating Black men.  This theory is also, I believe, based on Foucault.  But I digress.) 

There is lots of troubling (but also enlightening) information about Freud.  Apparently Freud told racist jokes.  I can't help but roll my eyes here.  Tate goes on to break this joke down, depicting it as a remaking of the master/slave relationship. 

I am hoping that psychologists who do work with Freud's theories are aware of this, because psychologists don't exist to be masters in a master/slave dichotomy.  They exist to as a guide, like Virgil was to Dante, so that the patient, regardless of race, can have mastery over their life again. 

That said, I like this article a lot.  It gives a good backbone to an argument that I'm assuming as been expanded elsewhere.  Her work on Freud and race (White, Black and Jewish) and gender are interesting.  There's a scene early on in the novel The Book Thief where a young white German boy, Rudy, puts on blackface in an attempt to costume himself as his hero, Jessie Owens.  (The book, set in Nazi Germany, would be at around the same time Jessie Owens won at the Olympics, which were held in Nazi Germany.)  Rudy then runs to the nearest track and runs around, pretending to be Owens, having just won another race.  His father find him and immediately removes him, dragging him home and instructing him not to wear blackface again.  I think this part of the novel, and the actual events surrounding Owens's win, would be an interesting situation to analyze in the context of this theory, which juggles three races.