From adam to zeus ...through all men and gods.

[Visalakshi Ramani]

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# 50. Lolita.



Lolita is a world famous novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first written in English and published in 1955, in Paris. Later it was translated to Russian and published in 1958 in New York.

The novel is famous for its controversial theme in which a middle aged man Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed worth a 12 year old Dolores Haze. The other names of Dolores are Dolly, Lolita, Lola and LO!

The plot of the novel is the story of Florence Sally Horner who was abducted from new Jersey in 1948 by a child molester. At the age of eleven, Sally stole a 5 cent note book in Camden, New Jersey, USA.

Frank La Salle, a 50 year old mechanic caught her stealing. He posed as an agent of FBI and threatened to send her ” to place for girls like you”. He abducted the girl and spent twenty one months traveling with her to different American states, holding her as a sex slave!

Several details of Sally Horner and Dolly Haze rhyme and seem to run almost parallel! Both Sally and Dolly were nice looking youngsters; both had widowed mother and both had brown hair. Lolita’s Florentine hands and breasts evoke the memory of “Florence” -the first name of Sally.

Copying La Salle, Humbert too terrorizes his victim. He even alludes to the case of Frank La Salle. Both Frank and Humbert take the girls to the different states of USA. Both the girls die very young. Sally dies in a car accident and Dolly dies during the child birth.

The appearances and names of the girls as the well as the plots are strikingly similar. No doubt the Lolita of Nabokov’s novel is Sally Horner of New Jersey.

Visalakshi Ramani.

Source my blog of 200 English articles<visalakshiramani.wordpress.com>

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

#51. The real Psycho.



Norman Bates was a fictional character created by writer Robert Bloch, as the central character in his novel Psycho. It was later filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960.

Both the novel and its film adaptation by Hitchcock explain a severe emotional abuse of Norman Bates. He suffers in the hands of his mother Norma who preaches him that sex is evil and that all women are wicked! The mother and son live together, in an unhealthy atmosphere of mutual emotional dependence.

When Norma takes a lover, Norman becomes insanely jealous and kills them both! He preserves his mother’s corpse in his home. Troubled by the pangs of guilt, he develops dissociative personality disorders.

Bloch sums up Norman Bates’ multiple personalities thus: Norman Bates is a vulnerable child dependent on his mother; Norma Bates his possessive mother and Normal Bates-the adult who lives his day to day life!

Norman Bates’ character is based on Edward Theodore Gein (1906-1984)
-an American murderer and a grave robber. Heinous crimes committed by him around his hometown Plainfield, Wisconsin, have made him notorious world wide!

When the authorities discovered the gruesome relics and trophies he had made out of the skin and bones of his victims and the bodies dug out of graves, the whole world was shocked!

Like Norman Bates, Ed Gein had an unhappy childhood. His father George Gein was an unemployed alcoholic who abused both his sons, Henry George Gein and Edward Gein.

Mother Augusta Gein prevented the outsiders from influencing her sons. She taught them that drinking was evil and all women are the wicked instruments of The Devil himself!

After the death of his father and elder brother, Ed Gein lived with his mother, doing odd jobs for a living. When his mother too died in December 1945, Ed Gein lost his only friend and became all alone in the world.
Ho boarded up all the rooms in his house and started living in a small room next to his kitchen. He became interested in Death-cult magazines and adventure stories.
In November 1957, a hardware store owner Bernice Worden’s disappearance was linked to Ed. The ensuing search by the authorities brought to light, the real nature of the seemingly mild mannered Ed!

Gein does not fit in the traditional definition or description of a serial killer. Nevertheless his real life case has influenced the creation of several fictional serial killers including Norman Bates from Psycho, Jame Gumb from The Silence of the Lambs and The Leather Face from Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Visalakshi Ramani. Source: my blog <visalakshiramani.wordpress.com>

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

If we go back to the History of our India, we will notice that Social and Religious
tasks were administered very efficiently. We could see the tasks assigned to
three distinct groups i.e. the first Group will be responsible for ruling and administering
the City, the second Group will be entrusted with the tasks of trade and business
activity and while the third one is entrusted with the development of the City.
It is thus seen that the specialization of area is not a new one and it is the chain
of the past activities, though the development of civilization and scientific march
towards modernisation of our society on the one side.

Balasubramanian
Ambattur

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Vanity???? :decision:Senility???

Brilliance???:decision: Ignorance???

Relevance???:decision: Irrelevance ???

Thoughtlessness??? :decision: Wantonness???

 

[renuka]

#51. The real Psycho.



Norman Bates was a fictional character created by writer Robert Bloch, as the central character in his novel Psycho. It was later filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960.

Both the novel and its film adaptation by Hitchcock explain a severe emotional abuse of Norman Bates. He suffers in the hands of his mother Norma who preaches him that sex is evil and that all women are wicked! The mother and son live together, in an unhealthy atmosphere of mutual emotional dependence.

When Norma takes a lover, Norman becomes insanely jealous and kills them both! He preserves his mother’s corpse in his home. Troubled by the pangs of guilt, he develops dissociative personality disorders.

Bloch sums up Norman Bates’ multiple personalities thus: Norman Bates is a vulnerable child dependent on his mother; Norma Bates his possessive mother and Normal Bates-the adult who lives his day to day life!

Norman Bates’ character is based on Edward Theodore Gein (1906-1984)
-an American murderer and a grave robber. Heinous crimes committed by him around his hometown Plainfield, Wisconsin, have made him notorious world wide!

When the authorities discovered the gruesome relics and trophies he had made out of the skin and bones of his victims and the bodies dug out of graves, the whole world was shocked!

Like Norman Bates, Ed Gein had an unhappy childhood. His father George Gein was an unemployed alcoholic who abused both his sons, Henry George Gein and Edward Gein.

Mother Augusta Gein prevented the outsiders from influencing her sons. She taught them that drinking was evil and all women are the wicked instruments of The Devil himself!

After the death of his father and elder brother, Ed Gein lived with his mother, doing odd jobs for a living. When his mother too died in December 1945, Ed Gein lost his only friend and became all alone in the world.
Ho boarded up all the rooms in his house and started living in a small room next to his kitchen. He became interested in Death-cult magazines and adventure stories.
In November 1957, a hardware store owner Bernice Worden’s disappearance was linked to Ed. The ensuing search by the authorities brought to light, the real nature of the seemingly mild mannered Ed!

Gein does not fit in the traditional definition or description of a serial killer. Nevertheless his real life case has influenced the creation of several fictional serial killers including Norman Bates from Psycho, Jame Gumb from The Silence of the Lambs and The Leather Face from Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Visalakshi Ramani. Source: my blog <visalakshiramani.wordpress.com>

Dear VR Ji,

I always feel Psycho movie is the best movie to be shown on Mothers Day..Undying love of a son for his mother!!!

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

But Love for one person should NOT endanger

the lives of other innocent persons! :nono:

Dear VR Ji,

I always feel Psycho movie is the best movie to be shown on Mothers Day..Undying love of a son for his mother!!!

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

What is the use of undying love of a mad son,

for his already dead mother.

A look at the picture of the body of his decapitated victim hung upside

down and disemboweled made me lose my sleep for many days :scared:

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

[h=1]#52. The real Dracula.[/h]
Dracula, the villainous hero of Bram Stoker’s famous novel Dracula, has captured the public interest ever since the book got published in 1897. But only a few know that this character is based on a real life villain Dracula, The son of Dragon, The King of Wallachia.

Wallacia was one of the provinces of the Medieval Rumania, situated between Transylvanian Alps and the Danube river. One of its rulers in the 15th Century, was Vlad Dracul( meaning “Vlad the Dragon). He had adopted the Dragon as his personal emblem.

When his son, also called Vlad, became the king, he was given the title “Dracula” meaning the “son of Dragon”.

Vlad Dracula was infamous for his cruelty, right from an early age. He became “Vlad the Impaler”. Impaling on a blunt stake was his favorite form of punishing people.

His other crazy actions included nailing the head gears into the skulls of the Turkish Emissaries. Their crime was that they did not remove their head gears in his Royal presence!

He detested weaklings and deformed people. Once he had all the beggars and cripples rounded up in a large hall and set fire to it–after barring all the doors and windows of the hall. Women found guilty of adultery were skinned alive. He was a monster of cruelty. It is believed that he impaled, skinned alive, boiled and roasted more than 50,000 persons in his brief reign of ten years.

He himself met an appropriate violent end–fit for tyrants. One fine day, his severed head stuck on a stake, was put for public display, by an unknown murderer. With the spread of the new printing techniques, Vlad’s atrocities became widely known to the public.

His misdeeds hint at cannibalism and blood rites. Whether or not he enjoyed the taste of blood, he definitely enjoyed the sight of it. Soon rumors of his being a demon or vampire began to circulate, paving the path for the novel Dracula.

Both the geographical background of the novel as Transylvania and the name of the central character as Dracula are firmly rooted on facts, making the work realistic and authentic!

Visalakshi Ramani

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

[h=1]#53. The Ugly Duchess.[/h]
During her adventures in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice meets an ugly and sour-tempered duchess. A classic illustration by John Tenniel in the First edition portrays the duchess as a grotesque, wide mouthed old woman, in a medieval dress!

The loathsome character is not a product of the author’s pure and vivid imagination. She was modeled on a real duchess, who certainly was one of the wicked women of all times!

Duchess Margaret of Tyrol was born in 1318. Since she had no brothers, she inherited the dukedom from her father Duke Henry. When she turned 12 years old, she married John Henry, the King of Bohemia.

Soon she divorced her husband–something unheard of among Royal families at that time! Later she married Louis, the son of the German Emperor.

She got rid of her political rivals and persons by whom she felt threatened, with the help of her bottle of poison.

She is believed to have killed even her husband and her son, just to remain in power. She was ugly beyond description. Her wide gaping mouth had earned her the nick name of “Pocket- Mouthed-Meg”.

She was as ugly as she was wicked. Her ugly form and wicked character were very well matched. She was rightly called The Ugly Duchess.

Visalakshi Ramani

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

#54. Jame Gumb.



Jame Gumb-also called as The Buffalo Bill-was the main antagonist in the 1988 novel Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris.

Gumb murders over weight women so that he make a “woman’s suit” from their skins! Gumb considers himself to be a transsexual but he is too disturbed to qualify for the sex reassignment surgery.

Gumb is abandoned by his alcoholic prostitute mother and lives in foster homes from the age of two years till he is adopted by his grand parents at the age of ten. He kills his grand parents just for the thrill of the kill, when he is just 12!

Later his modus operandi becomes this; to approach women pretending to be injured and ask for their help in loading something heavy in his van. He then gives a surprise attack from behind knocking them off.

He holds his victims prisoners and starves them until their skin becomes loose enough to come off easily. He strangles his first three victims and shoots the fourth.

He skins his fourth victim, places a Death’s head moth on her throat and dumps her body. He is fascinated by the moth’s metamorphosis- a process he wants to undergo by becoming a woman!

He thinks of his victims as “Things” and not as real people. Harris based Gumb on not just one but five real life serial killers.

1.Jerry Brudos, who would dress up in his victims’ clothing and keep their shoes.

2.Ed Gein, who fashioned trophies and keepsakes from the bones and skins of his victims.

3.Ted Bundy, who would wear an arm brace, pretend to be injured and seek the help of his victims.

4.Gary M Heidnik, who kidnapped six women and held them as prisoners and slaves.

5.Edmund Kemper, who like Gumb killed his grand parents “just to see what it felt like”

So five hideous monsters in human form have been rolled into one,to create the unforgettable and unforgivable Jame Gumb!

Visalakshi Ramani

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

[h=1]# 55. Rev. Harry Powell.[/h]
Rev. Harry Powell is a fictional character in Davis Grubb’s 1953 novel, The Night of The Hunter. Powell is a preacher, a con artist and a serial killer! He has the words LOVE and HATE tattooed on his knuckles to depict the struggle between the two, during his sermons.

He spreads the Gospel up and down the Ohio River in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He gains the trust and confidence of wealthy widows in order to marry them and kill them for their money. Driven by his hatred to women, he thinks that he is doing God’s work on earth!

Grubb based Rev.Harry Powell on Harry F. Powers, who lived in Quiet Dell, West Virginia. He had lured several widows and their children by way of “Lonely hearts” ads in the news paper.

The lonely heart killer Herman Drenth was a traveling sales man in West Virginia.He is more popularly known by his last alias as Harry F.Powers. He used the matrimonial correspondence agencies to lure and ensnare lonely women and rich widows whom he robbed and murdered.

The police estimated that he had killed 50 victims before his arrest. But he confessed to killing 5 people in his murder garage where he bound them and killed them with gas.

Harry Powers is known severally as “The lonely hearts killer”, “The matrimonial bureau murderer”, The West Virginia Blue beard” and “The butcher of Clarksburgh”.

He went to the gallows with out a tremor or twitch in his face and without showing any sense of guilt or remorse!

A real villain he was, from the beginning to end!

Visalakshi Ramani

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

When we look at the Marriage customs our our ancestors, there are
several interesting facts. But in Western History, Marriage was not a
personal affair, covering only the Husband and the Wife, but rather
the business of their two families, which brought them together. There
was little room for romantic love and even simple affection was not
considered essential.

Balasubramanian
Ambattur

 

[renuka]

When we look at the Marriage customs our our ancestors, there are
several interesting facts. But in Western History, Marriage was not a
personal affair, covering only the Husband and the Wife, but rather
the business of their two families, which brought them together. There
was little room for romantic love and even simple affection was not
considered essential.

Balasubramanian
Ambattur

Dear sir,

I take it that marriage is also a "Serial Killer" going by all the other posts above yours.

Come to think of it marriage does Kill Romance in a step wise fashion.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

The next three posts are about Ms. Sheena Iyengar.

I thank Professor M.S.K. Moorthi for suggesting her name for

this thread. ray2:

She belong to Sikhism but her surname name is Iyengar.

I fail to see the connection, but it is not so important since she

is a person of Indian Origin and has done wonders despite her

physical challenges . We will move on to the part # 1 now.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 56. Sheena Iyengar. (part 1)

Sheena Iyengar (born 1969) is the inaugural S.T. Lee Professor of Business in the Management Division at Columbia Business School and the Research Director at the Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business. She is known for her research on "Choice".

Sheena Iyengar was born in 1969 in Toronto, Canada. Her parents had emigrated from Delhi, India. In 1972, Iyengar’s family moved to Flushing, Queens. In 1979, the family moved to Elmwood park, New Jersey.

Iyengar grew up in a dual cultural environment, observing the tenets of Sikhism with her family but partaking in American culture outside of the home.

When Iyengar was three years old, she was diagnosed with a rare form of an inherited disease of retinal degeneration.

By 6th grade, Iyengar had lost the ability to read, and by 11th grade, she had lost her sight entirely and could only perceive light. Iyengar’s life had also taken another turn in high school; when she was 13, her father died of a heart attack.

In Iyengar’s book, The Art of Choosing, she explains how these seemingly random events and external influences, which shaped her life, led her to become interested in choice:

"My parents had chosen to come to this country, but they had also chosen to hold on to as much of India as possible. They lived among other Sikhs, followed closely the tenets of their religion, and taught me the value of obedience. What to eat, wear, study, and later on, where to work and whom to marry—I was to allow these to be determined by the rules of Sikhism and by my family’s wishes.

But in public school I learned that it was not only natural but desirable that I should make my own decisions. It was not a matter of cultural background or personality or abilities; it was simply what was true and right. For a blind Sikh girl otherwise subject to so many restrictions, this was a very powerful idea.

I could have thought of my life as already written, which would have been more in line with my parents’ views. Or I could have thought of it as a series of accidents beyond my control, which was one way to account for my blindness and my father’s death. However, it seemed much more promising to think of it in terms of choice, in terms of what was still possible and what I could make happen."
(Iyengar, 2010, pp. xi-xii).

In 1992, Sheena Iyengar graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. in economics and a B.A. in psychology with a minor in English from the College of Arts and Sciences. She then earned her PhD in social psychology in 1997 from Stanford University

The following year, her dissertation, “Choice and its Discontents,” which asks the question: "Are there circumstances in which people are better off when they have their choices limited or entirely removed" received the prestigious Best Dissertation Award for 1998 from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology.

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

That is not that. They rather gave importance to the growth and
development of a family at one stretch while their business does not get
neglected or that affects the existence. If one goes back to our own
village marriages in the yester years, one can find a Mirasdar boy choosing
a Mirasdar Girl, so that they flourish and expand their rule in the village
to have a monopoly and take the leadership of the area. Rich chooses the
Rich.

Balasubramanian
Ambattur

 

[zebra16]

Sri Bala Sir,

Your posts are a real challange to be understood at one go. So let me try to understand:

That is not that.

What is not what?

They rather gave importance to the growth and
development of a family at one stretch while their business does not get
neglected or that affects the existence.

Who are they? Their business: Do you mean the same persons who are qualified by "they"

If one goes back to our own
village marriages in the yester years, one can find a Mirasdar boy choosing
a Mirasdar Girl, so that they flourish and expand their rule in the village
to have a monopoly and take the leadership of the area. Rich chooses the
Rich.

Who is that "one" and who are all included in "our"

By the way I came across that you were in Pune for a long time. I was also a Rastha-pethan

Regards

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

I do not talk of the romance. More than Romance, value for money
and wealth was attached more importance besides hereditary aspects of
their forefathers, who were having business of their own and contine
to dominate in such areas. It may be unjust or absurd but they wanted
to have a sole possession or control on something. If you closely watch
rich monopolists never gave much importance to education those days
except for agriculture or their family business, etc.

Balasubramanian
Ambattur

 

[nannilam_balasubramanian]

#442. I was for many years in Pune in Night School Rastha Peth, while I was employed
in Pune. I worked in different places, viz. Air Force Maintenance Command, Controller
of Defence Accounts, Pune, Vaikunth Mehta Institute of Cooperative Management,
Pune University Campus besides in many Private Firms and at the end in DRDO (Min of
Defence) Pune.

Balasubramanian
Ambattur

 

[Raji Ram]

......... Your posts are a real challange to be understood at one go. So let me try to understand: ....

ஒரே பேட்டை ஆயிட்டீங்க! So, please be ready for more challenges very soon, Z sir!! :ballchain:

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

If her father is NOT an Iyengar, then her husband must be one. Yes he is an Iyengar. Please read on in Sheena's own words...

"At Stanford, two things happened that would change my life. The first was that I became interested in how people make choices, particularly the importance and universality of choice in people's lives.

The second thing was that I met the man, Garud Iyengar, who would one day become my husband. We were both waiting for the Marguerite bus at the top of the oval, he with a torn ligament, me just being lazy.

Garud asked me to join him for lunch at the Thai Cafe. That was December of 1993. On July 6th, 1997, we got married in a traditional wedding in Bangalore, India.

We both joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1998. I teach in the business school, and he teaches in the school of engineering.

The next three posts are about Ms. Sheena Iyengar.

I thank Professor M.S.K. Moorthi for suggesting her name for

this thread. ray2:

She belong to Sikhism but her surname name is Iyengar.

I fail to see the connection, but it is not so important since she

is a person of Indian Origin and has done wonders despite her

physical challenges . We will move on to the part # 1 now.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Am I becoming senile???

This truth (about the Iyengar husband of Sheena)
MUST have dawned on me in a jiffy, but it has taken almost a day!

What is happening to me?

lack or rest?

too many distractions? :juggle:

too little free time?

too much interaction?

too little concentration?

a combined effect of all these? :bump2:

The starry page in font of me? :dizzy:

I really do not know.

The traffic in the threads continues-proving that my
reply to each and every post is NOT AT ALL necessary.

Thank you all for removing a huge burden off my mind!

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

The Oscar ceremony is the yearly occasion which is "star-studded"

besides the clear, cloudless and dark nights.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

# 56. Sheena Iyengar. (part 2)

Academic career:

Iyengar's focal line of research concerns choosing, and she has been studying choice for two decades. This work, as well as her work on globalization, has earned Iyengar a lot of recognition.

In 2002, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Social Scientists, for her work on cultural differences in decision making. Her research appears in academic journals of a wide range of disciplines such as economics, psychology, management, and marketing.

Not only is her work acclaimed in academia, but also it has attracted attention in other venues, as well. Her research has been cited in Fortune and Time magazines, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall street Journal and in the books Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and Choice by Barry Schwartz.

Iyengar has written a book, The Art of Choosing, which explores the mysteries of choice in everyday life.
Iyengar has taught courses in Management at Columbia Business School since 1998. Specifically, she has taught courses in Globalization, Leadership, Entrepreneurial Creativity, and Decision Making to MBA, Executive MBA, and Executives.

In addition, her course on Leadership earned her an Innovation in the Teaching Curriculum award from Columbia Business School.

Sheena Iyengar is an Academic Member of the Behavioral Finance Forum, a Fellow at the Applied Statistics Center at Columbia University, an Oversight Board Member at the I N G Institute for Retirement Research, and an Institute Fellow at TIAA -CREF.

She has previously been a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. She has received grants from such institutions as The Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business, Citigroup Behavioral Sciences Research Council, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Science Foundation.

[SUP][/SUP][SUP]
[/SUP]

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

New posts in this thread will appear on the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th

and 30th of every month from March 2012 onwards. ray2: