Stealing out of "love" for the stolen objects or out of greed?

 

It's a very strange experience for a writer to see how one of the worst leeches of the world of books, Filippo Bernardini, got away with his theft of unpublished works, e.g. by a well-known author like Margaret Atwood. By pretending to be a legitimate publisher/employee he got access to many unpublished scripts of both newbie authors and established ones, and he is supposed to have stolen more than 1000 manuscripts. HOW did he avoid prison for something like that??? To me, that is something quite incomprehensable because each script represents work by an author: Time spent, ideas, and the writing itself don't float around in a workless sphere, but takes dedication and stamina, just like e.g. harvesting by a farmer. The sentence of Filippo Bernardini only was for a much deserved deportation as well as restitution money to the biggest name in publishing, Penguin House: $88,000.

To be able to steal the unpublished manuscripts he impersonated publishing professionals, which also makes him an "identity thief". It's amazing - as well as scary - that he succeeded in this scheme for quite a long time: From 2016 until his arrest in 2022. In my opinion committing aggravated identity theft should have landed him in jail, and the theft should have kept him there: Both the stealing of manuscripts and the identity theft should have been punished by the law, and I feel that the authors and the publishing world as such were let down by the judicial world.

https://www.vulture.com/2023/03/book-thief-filippo-bernardini-gets-no-jail-time-deported.htmlhttps://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-59893035



https://nypost.com/2023/03/10/book-thief-filippo-bernardini-claims-love-of-reading-drove-him-to-steal/



https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/24/book-fraudster-filippo-bernardini-spared-jail

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64197625

 
 

Wikipedia

 

Bad Genes: Joseph and Nicholas Brooks

 

Joseph Brooks doesn't exactly look like the picture of a "cover-boy" of romantic music. Nonetheless, he wrote the hit song "You Light Up My World", besides producing and directing the 1977-drama of the same name, all of which brought him fame and wealth. Also, he composed e.g. "Blue Balloon" as well as jingles for e.g. Pepsi and Maxwell House. However, somewhere along the road he seems to have turned from a well-known and appreciated song-writer into a detestable criminal: A serial rapist. The winner of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Grammy Award ended up committing suicide before his trial for rape in 2011. When that happened, his son, Nicholas, was also facing prison for a serious crime, namely murder.

Nicholas Brooks

Looking quite cute, the son of Joseph Brooks, Nicholas, led a happy-go-lucky playboy-life. He never had any kind of career after he dropped out of college, and didn't seem to want to commit himself to anything but drugs. They were the true "love of his life", but in 2010 the charming, young man (24 years old) caught the eye of the Peruvian-American swimsuit designer, Sylvie Cachay (1977-2010). They bonded after one of her dogs was hit by a car, and he comforted and helped her after the accident. Contrary to him, she was a successful woman with a fine career as a fashion designer. She was the one who headed the swimsuit designing team of Victoria's Secret, which was one of her many achievements that cemented her fame in the world of fashion. 

They became a couple in 2010, but their relationship met with many difficulties, and it seems to have been an off-on affair for most of the time. She was a success - as well as somewhat older than him - but he was a failure, with economic problems and no real plans of solving them. He didn't have a good relationship with his father, even though he was the one who paid for his volatile life-style. 

On December 9, 2010, Sylvie was found strangled and drowned in a bathtub at the Soho House where the couple was staying at the time. At that time, they had been together for six months, but she may have made it clear to him that she wanted out of their relationship, which could be the trigger that turned him into a murderer. Anyway, he was convicted of murdering her, and on September 23, 2013, he was sentenced to 25 years to life. 

What went wrong with this father and son? That's anybody's guess ....

 

https://nypost.com/tag/nicholas-brooks/ 

 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0112072/  

 

https://nymag.com/news/features/71271/ 

 

Wikipedia 

 

 

 

The Literary Formula of Consolation and Acceptance

 

 Jane Austen

Some authors are formula writers, even some great authors like e.g. Jane Austen, although nobody would call her that as the term is considered derogatory. Someone like e.g. Philippa Gregory, who has published a lot of historical romances, also is a formula writer: Each one of her books always has a fixated gallery of main characters, namely a Whore and an Angel. The fixated gallery of Jane Austen will be the smart, but not the most beautiful girl who - sometimes to her own surprise - conquers the richest, but very demure and even unpleasant hero, like, for instance, Mr. Darcy of "Pride and Prejudice". When conquered, he changes into a loving husband who simply adores his bride. 

Actually, one will meet this very same formula in e.g. the works of the late "Queen of Romance", Barbara Cartland. To me, the consistent formula writings of many female authors signals something very interesting as to the use of these books. They have been the favorite literature of "taken women", i.e. the non-feminist readers, who need to find confirmation of ideologies they have been taught since early childhood: YOU are the ultimate prize of the love game in Patriarchy, not the helpless victim to the ruses of men. Even though you may seem to be suppressed by society, you will always win because you, morally and in other ways, are the one who score the highest.

The predictable storylines of formula fiction is not a coincidence, but what it's all about: Get hold of a confusing world which not always takes too kindly to women.

https://www.philippagregory.com/

 

Wikipedia

Hands And Shoulders Telling A Story

 

No, that's not normal! Also, what's not quite "normal" - or at least common - is the tRumpian "body twist" when he is delivering a speech of some kind. As far as I can see, the twist starts at his waist and then goes up, making his shoulders move in a sudden jerk/twist. It's surprising that a twist may be part of flirtation, whereas the "jerk" may signal a medical condition that needs treatment. Is he flirting with the audience? Yes, of course he is, as he is out to seduce them into electing and supporting him. When I see him performing his special twist, I see it as something insincere or even traitorous in his speeches, but that may be taking the interpretation a bit too far - may be ....

This photo depicts a hand gesture that's common in people who want to point out their authority. That seems to be the favorite hand gesture of Elon Musk, but as can be seen, tRump uses it too. However, often he cradles his right hand in his left hand as if he wants to protect it. That cradled, and thus protected, hand has quite often been seen with weird disfigurements looking like some kind of bruises, which indicates a medical problem of some kind. Anyway, the cradling looks like his special way of giving himself comfort, and it's interesting that that hand gesture is more common in him than the "stapling" of fingers that signals the wish to exude authority.

Elon Musk and his habit of finger stapling looks more genuinely concerned with a strong wish for authority than tRump which is a bit surprising. Maybe he doesn't feel as secure and powerful as he wants to come out to the public - and to tRump? 
 

Max Ernst

Hands are unique body parts, giving us and our "cousins", monkeys of all kinds, opportunities to make an impact on the world as such. As everyone with a loving dog knows, paws may be quite nice, but they can't compete with a hand when it comes to altering what makes our world work. Also, paws come short when it comes to body language which is both good and bad: They may be tell-tale traitors .... 

 

https://www.helpguide.org/relationships/communication/nonverbal-communication 

 

https://www.wikihow.com/Clasped-Hands#:~:text=Holding%20hands%20with%20someone%20else,re%20trying%20to%20self%2Dsoothe

 

Wikipedia

The "Smartest" Person On Earth?

 

William James Sidis (1898-1944)

This mathematician has often been referred to as the “smartest person who ever lived on this planet.” According to his sister, a psychologist estimated him to have an IQ between 250 and 300. Records of his childhood told about how he was able to read newspapers at 18 months, spoke several languages at an early age, lectured at Harvard at age 12, as well as invented his own language. The invention of the language doesn't impress me the most, as I think many kids do, or attempt to do, something like that. However, not many lecture on four-dimensional geometry at Harvard at the age of 12 or write four books as a child. In 1914 he graduated cum laude, 16 years old.

OK, he was a genius, but somehow it didn't come to much in the long run. That is, not much as to an academical career, because he seems to have been very diligent in his studies, and he published many books and articles under various pseudonyms as he hated being in the focus of the public. 

His many topics ranged from Native American history, urban transportation systems, mathematics and cosmology. He often felt that he and his ideas were not understood by his contemporaries, and I suppose he was right. Living in seclusion, even extolling it as necessary for him, makes it more understandable that he ended up a penniless office clerk and not "The King of Academics" he seemed to be born to become. He didn't fit in, and may have been depressed.

In 1944 he died from a brain hemorrhage, which may have been brought on by his legal troubles after suing "The New Yorker" for a story about him, "April Fool", which he felt was humiliating by pointing out his lack of success after having been a child prodigy.

https://medium.com/@keriannesheree/a-tortured-genius-bce8c03a109a 

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19750232/william-james-sidis 

 

Wikipedia

 

Performance Issues "Solved" by Killing Women

Henry VIII (18 years old)

As a young man, he was considered extremely handsome. Well, that may be the case, as it's difficult to estimate his looks from this old portrait. Normally, we think of him as the male hormone-bomb of later years, strutting along, flaunting his masculinity as some sort of banner of what he is as a human being.

I think his calves earned him most compliments, but to him, the most important part of his body must have been "the bulge" that sets him apart as a man. He was a man, and at one time, (or several times???), he boasted about his nightly ejaculations which he saw as a proof that he was all butch. However, boasting doesn't prove anything, and his behavior with women may indicate that the situation wasn't the best for either him as a person or his dynastic dreams of many healthy sons.

One of his favorite manly exploits was jostling. As a young man, being the sole, surviving male heir to the throne, he was not allowed to engage in this dangerous sport, but as a king he loved to show off his bravery and his skill by jostling. However, in 1524 he had a very serious accident when he forgot to close the vizier of his helmet, and his opponent had some problems with his outfit. Unfortunately, Henry VIII was hit in a manner that might have killed him, but which "only" set off a long line of health problems that ruined almost everything for him. Not that the accident is the sole reason for what may have been caused by weight gains, Diabetes, etc., but there is a marked difference of the quality of his life before and after it happened. One of these differences was his ability to perform sexually as before. His virility was impaired and one wonders if that was the reason for his executing two of his wives, Anne Boleyn and her cousin, Catherine Howard.

Catherine Howard 

Anne kept her tongue, but still his sexual problems may have been one of the reasons for his wish to get rid of her. With Catherine, it was different: She was a rather giddy, young thing who betrayed the besotted king, who then turned upon her, blaming her for adultery and for not having been a virgin when they married. To me, it seems that his perceptible masculine vanity played a major part in his execution of her as a witness to his failure in the royal bed. That part of the history of his "serial executions" of wives, as well as his rejection of the "ugly" Anne of Cleves, signals a hurt masculine vanity that only might be alleviated by getting rid of those who might expose him.

  

https://thetudorchronicles.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/on-this-day-in-1524-king-henry-viii-was-injured-in-a-jousting-accident/ 

 

https://www.tudorsociety.com/henry-viiis-1524-jousting-accident-sarah-bryson/ 

 

Britannica

 

Wikipedia

 

 

 

The Fuzzy-Headed Genius, Alan Turing

  

Alan Turing (1912-1954)

The prime "father" of the modern computer was a gay, British man who met a lot of problems in his life, but who succeeded in solving problems others had had to give up on. His work on what turned into the modern computer started with his wish to take on the Entscheidungsproblem that gave fellow scientists a headache. In 1936 he came into goal by inventing The "Universal Turing Machine" that had instructions in symbols that could manipulate other symbols. 

In WWII he made a valuable contribution as one of the codebreakers for the UK government, who worked at the special codebreaker center, Bletchley Park. It has been said that without him the war would have lasted several years longer. What he - and his colleagues, like his short timed fiancée, Joan Clarke - did was to work on decoding the German Enigma cipher machine so that the Brits could intercept Nazi-messages and decode them. Something which, of course, was of great value to them in the war. After the war he went on developing his computer ideas, which, however, led to something else: His studies in artificial intelligence. This part of his ongoing studies were made famous in a paper, he published in 1950 on a subject that must have been seen as rather far-fetched at that time: "Can machines think"? His so-called "Turing test" was part of these studies as it was set to determine whether a machine could imitate human conversations.

Alan Turing has been estimated to have an IQ of ca. 185, putting him in the top 0.1% of the British population. Always thinking and studying, he came up with many new ideas and inventions all through his life, but in some respect he proved to be the "fuzzy professor" of many hilarious cartoons: Fearing a Nazi invasion he bought silver bars for what may have been most of his money. The reason for this was, that he wanted to shield them from the Nazis by burying them somewhere only he knew. However, he sort of forgot where that safe place was, and he seems to have had problems with decoding the code for it, so the silver may still be hidden somewhere in the underground of England.

Anyway, in 1950 he was accused of what was considered a criminal offense at that time: A sexual relationship with a man. He was given the choice of undergoing a hormonal treatment to reduce his "sinful libido" or go to jail. He chose the medical treatment, and I suppose it may have had a negative effect on him, maybe even leading to his death by what is considered to be a suicide in 1954. It took many years for the State to pardon him for his "gross offense", as it didn't happen until 2013 after a campaign to recognize him as a national hero. Four years later the same kind of pardon was given to all gay men/people who had been convicted for homosexuality.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29840653

 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alan-Turing 

 

Wikipedia