#but it evinces a lack of attention to detail

[tanadrin]

Michael Hobbes fucking up the explanation of prion disease on Maintenance Phase is super annoying

[mephone-3gs]

My 3GS rant copy pasted from the iid

So to start with 3gs. What we know. 3gs is the oldest MePhone we see active in ii. He is currently dead (?) due running out of battery. We first see him in one of MePhone 4’s gemory flashbacks. He is in the back of what appears to be a storage closet for broken/deactivated meeple products. It is also assumed that cobs threw him in there with force due to the cracks in the wall behind him. When MePhone 4 activates him he starts playing an audio recording of the shimmer invasions. (We learn more about that in episode 14) after that’s over he repeats “please cobs don’t” over and over and faster and faster until he runs out of battery and powers down. The next time we see him is in episode 14. During the prime shimmer flashbacks we see 3gs invading the shimmer planet with two other unnamed mephones (presumed to be 2g and 3g). They wanted to harness the shimmer life and after the shimmers refused 3gs got upset and exploded a bit of the shimmer planet. He and the two other mephones proceeded to take 6 shimmer eggs. The two other mephones were both killed while 3gs was spared.

Now let me side track here. Both were hit with two spears while 3gs only one. The two had the spears go completely through them (also they exploded too ig), while 3gs just had his bounce off. This is probably the only reason he managed to survive. Maybe he had a screen protector while the others didn’t?

3gs was the only survivor and managed to escape with two shimmer eggs. We know one ended up on mars but the whereabouts of the other are still unknown. 3gs managed to get back to meeple where he told cobs he failed the mission and then was thrown into the closet to slowly loose battery and die.

OK. NOW I GET TO TALK ABOUT THEORIES AND SILLY LITTLE DETAILS 😁😁

So I want to talk about the other recordings 3gs shows during episode 13. First his lecture on “charge” that lasts 2 hours 39 minutes and 17 seconds.

There’s three ways I can see this lecture going. (Hit the word limit cont in 2)

The first way I can see it going is cobs teaching 3gs how to charge and how the charging process works.

The second is 3gs recording the charge on the shimmers. Having recorded the whole invasions (I’ll get into this more later)

The third is 3gs telling the two mephones the game plan for how they’ll do the invasions. Telling them the strategy for how they’ll get into the shimmer planet and steal the shimmers and get back out (spoilers it didn’t work oops)

We already know what the second log is so Umm

Third log. Study 8 am - 12 pm. Makes me think maybe it was a daily thing? Perhaps one of 3gs tasks was to study. What did he study? Mayhaps electronics? Mechanics? Space? Maybe he didn’t have the ability to generate items like 4 did so he had to learn how to do it by hand. So he spend weeks-months studying how. Learned how to build and pilot a space ship. Also studied about space too.

Extra memory recordings! Here’s where i get to the recording stuff I mentioned earlier. I believe that cobs heavily monitored his mephones. And I mean heavily. So heavily that he had them record most events that they experienced. This is so he can make sure that they’re doing their tasks with top performance. Also he can use the recordings to see the mistakes from past MePhone models so he can correct those in newer models.

Noveau recording. Noveau (according to a Google search) means modern or up to date. Perhaps this is 3gs recording himself updating? Noveau is short for noveau riche meaning “people who have recently acquired wealth, typically those perceived as ostentatious or lacking in good taste.” I then looked up ostentatious, which means “: attracting or seeking to attract attention, admiration, or envy often by gaudiness or obviousness : overly elaborate or conspicuous : characterized by, fond of, or evincing ostentation” this is actually very fitting of the mephones in general. Each new generation is new and up to date. New and flashy. (Continued in part 3)

Ok so. We get some voice clips from 3gs va (got during the 2022 ii x bfb meetup) 3gs seems pretty confident and cocky. When asked “how good are your terms with MePhone 2 and 3g” he responds with “they’re fine people but they weren’t as efficient at their jobs as I am” due to this voice clip words like Noveau riche and ostentatious certainly fit him.

Now that I think about it. Maybe the recording is 3gs recording himself advertising the mephone 3gs? Trying to show off how it’s the newest and latest MePhone model, how advanced and sleek it is, how much better he is, how much more efficient he is.

Ok take out the trash recording. Uh tying this back to cobs making the mephones record everything they do, just 3gs taking out the trash. Or could be 3gs recording a message reminding himself to take out the trash later. Taking out the trash could also mean like. Getting rid of the shimmers??? Shimmers = trash. Take out the shimmers…

Ok now toooo. Random theories!!

First off. The ship we see X on. I personally believe that is not the ship MePhone 4 and mepad were on. I know X is looking specifically for 4 but perhaps they just stumbled on 3GS old ship buried in the sand and falling apart after years of neglect and they just thought it was 4’s. MePhone 4’s ship landed by the cave so I don’t know how he would have gotten it by the beach. Besides maybe X was told to look for the ship first? They knew that 4 is on the island just not specifically where.

Ok and now to the “why did 3gs steal the shimmers just to hide them?”

I believe that on the way back to meeple 3gs realized that what he had done was terrible, that he was the bad guy in the situation. He didn’t want cobs to get either of the eggs. So he took one of the shimmer eggs to mars and hid it there. And took the other to a different planet (or hid it somewhere else on mars) doing so caused him to run out of fuel and caused him to crash his ship on the ii island (continued in part 4)

(This ties back to the ship in the sand being 3gs) 3gs then calls cobs to come get him. Afterwards 3gs explains to cobs what happened, but says he didn’t manage to get the shimmers and then gets sent to the closet.

Okokok so. How would cobs know what the shimmers looked like if he never went. Cobs saw fans egg and seemed to know what it was. So I think 3gs sent cobs updates with images of the shimmers as he was doing the invasions, or he recorded the invasions, and cobs looked back on those recordings before putting him in the closet. So he would know what they looked like.

And I’m starting to get to the point where this is draining so I’m gonna stop for now, I’ve pretty much said everything I’ve wanted too atm. May make a part 5. May not. Idk but I’m done for the moment

[dwellordream]

“...Nevertheless, in the face of this popular ideal of female domesticity, and in the face of these prevailing constraints on female public activity, some Roman women of the upper classes proved formidable, politically influential figures in the late republic and early empire— Cicero's and Tacitus' own times. It is with such women, and the paradoxical nature of their formidability and political influence, that those who study women in the classical Roman elite chiefly concern themselves. Ancient sources report that several women from Rome's leading houses wielded substantial clout during the forties B.C., a decade rife with civil war and political turmoil. 

They encourage modern scholars to accord special attention to such females as Marcus Brutus' mother Servilia and Mark Antony's wife Fulvia, who are portrayed by classical authors as staging summit conferences, commanding armies, implementing political proscriptions, and thereby controlling men's affairs. Tacitus and Suetonius vividly document the powerful roles played by shrewd and redoubtable female kin in the reigns of Rome's Julio-Claudian emperors; their accounts have attracted, and deserve, no less notice. Ancient sources, moreover, regard politically powerful women as a time-honored element of Rome's heritage. 

Both the historian Livy, writing in the final quarter of the first century B.C., and the biographer Plutarch, a century and a half later, give serious consideration to a legend which credits a woman, the nymph Egeria, with advising Rome's second king, Numa Pompilius, on weighty matters of state: their assumptions about Rome in the eighth century B.C., may well derive from their observations of Roman politics in later, historical, eras. Perhaps more importantly, even upper-class Roman women who did not possess special political influence nor concern themselves deeply with the workings of Roman government seem to have been perceived by politically experienced and aware Roman males as disturbances and even threats to Roman political order. 

Accounts summarizing an oration delivered in the early second century B.C. by the elder Cato serve as a case in point: in this oration, Cato is said to have justified the prohibition against young boys' attending the Roman senate as protecting young boys, and the senate, against the rapidly mobilized forces of their inquisitive and gossipy mothers. Livy, moreover, attributes to the elder Cato a speech expressing outrage at a group of wellborn women who demonstrated against inequitable legislation restricting their personal adornment. This rendition of Cato's supposed remarks characterizes these women as not merely riotous but actually in the process of overthrowing male rule.

By Livy's time, however, other men had joined Cato in regarding women with the most minimal political involvements as nonetheless capable of having considerable political impact. Sallust, writing in the decade before Livy launched his lengthy history and in the years immediately following his own retirement from political life, assigned a character sketch of the aristocratic matron Sempronia a featured place when chronicling the Catilinarian conspiracy of 63 B.C. Yet it is clear from all of our evidence, much of it supplied by Sallust himself, that Sempronia played no part in the conspiracy whatever and was at most deemed a possible influence on various men.

By the first century, apprehensions about the political potential of women altogether removed from public life had become more commonplace. During the emperor Nero's reign of terror in the early sixties A.D., the female relations of his male victims routinely suffered persecution at Nero's hands. Even Nero's adoptive half-sister Claudia Antonia, whom Tacitus pointedly depicts as a quiet and unassertive woman, appears to have met her death because Nero harbored political suspicions about her. Indeed, the assumption that women, especially those of high birth, were instrumental in affecting the course of Roman republican and imperial politics manifests itself frequently and strongly enough in our ancient Roman male sources to render it impossible for scholars today to distinguish clearly between women's actual influence and women's imagined influence in political matters.

Whatever the true extent of Roman women's political involvement, it is indisputable that the political impact attributed to certain of them reflects a general image of Roman women as socially significant and often highly visible individuals. Such an image of course differs radically from that of well-born women in the society to which later republican and early imperial Rome is sometimes likened, that of fifth century B.C. Athens. "Citizen women" of the classical Athenian era barely figure in accounts of political history and are not represented as integrally involved in male social concerns; their social invisibility has created difficulties for generations of scholars merely interested in determining their social status.

In the light of scholars' readiness to note Roman women's paradoxical, real and imagined, political influence and social significance during classical times and to acknowledge Roman women's structurally central, and hence influential and significant, position within the elite family, one might therefore expect scholarship to connect this familial structural centrality and this paradoxical formidability with one another. At the very least one would expect a strong scholarly interest in the dynamics of Roman women's involvement in the politically influential, socially significant, upper-class family itself. Yet the behavior thought appropriate to and the behavior actually evinced by women in their various roles within the elite Roman family—of mother, sister, wife, daughter—are only beginning to undergo examination; the same holds true for the patterns of bonding with and among female family members.

Even in recent investigations into these matters, Anglo-American scholars have not made much of an effort to consider the relationship between the paradox of Roman women and women's conduct in their role, or roles, within the upper-class Roman family. This lack of effort need not, however, be ascribed to scholarly obtuseness. For generations a theory of Roman social development based on the views of the nineteenth century jurist Bachofen and his followers has been invoked, largely in European studies, to account for the paradox of Roman women. This theory pointedly assumes an impact of early Roman family structure and sentiment on women's position in much later elite Roman society. 

The theory and its explanation for the paradox of Roman women deserve special scrutiny and detailed refutation for two reasons. Most obviously, its understandable failure to convince most Anglo-American scholars may help elucidate the failure of recent studies to link upper-class Roman women's familial position to their social significance and political influence. More importantly, its shortcomings make clear various problems to be encountered in seeking to relate the paradox of Roman women to their structural centrality in the elite family of classical times.”

- Judith P. Hallett, “The Paradox of Elite Roman Women: Patriarchal Society and Female Formidability.” in Fathers and Daughters in Roman Society: Women and the Elite Family

[onecornerface]

voluntary control over whether to hold a specific belief?

I tend to strongly reject direct doxastic voluntarism overall. And in general, my beliefs seem to be well outside my direct conscious control, except via extremely indirect means (such as deciding what issues to investigate or think a lot about, or deciding on strategies to improve the reliability of my thinking). I have generally found direct doxastic voluntarism to be not merely implausible but also bizarre and perhaps even tending to evince some fundamental lack of seriousness about scrutinizing the structure of one’s own mental states-- often in the service of screwed up religious apologetics and suchlike.

But here’s a really weird experience which I’m having today: One of my friends said something that sounded ambiguous in regard to whether it was intended to be passive-aggressive or not. It feels like I have a significant degree of control over whether I believe the remark was intended to be passive-aggressive vs. merely accidentally sounding that way. It feels like I can basically make myself believe “it was probably passive-aggressive” or “it was probably not passive-aggressive” pretty much at will. This is really weird. I don’t know if I’ve ever had this experience before.

At least, it seems in this instance that I have an unusually high degree of control over something in the near ballpark of belief-- such as my level of credence toward the claim “the remark was passive-aggressive”, or the seeming-true or alief or intuition about the claim, or the attention I give to the (thin and hard-to-specify) evidence for or against it (in conjunction with an odd sort of sensitivity of that attention on whether the belief seems true or not at a given moment, or suchlike), or imaginatively vividly taking on a perspective on whether the claim is true or false, or some related attitude like my degree of taking the possibility seriously, or suchlike.

Whatever it is, this is very unusual for me. Maybe it has to do with the conjunction of (1) the lack of impressive or specific evidence for or against the claim “the remark was passive-aggressive,” and (2) my desire to believe “the remark was NOT passive-aggressive,” and potentially other more or less specific factors. Ordinarily, I think my awareness of my own “desire-->belief” mechanism/wishful thinking, along with my commitment to its clear unreliability, would tend to kick in to prevent said mechanism. For some reason, that doesn’t seem to be happening in this case, at least not in a straightforward way.

I guess I can see how someone who feels a similar way about (say) the claim “God exists” might conclude that it was voluntarily up to them whether to believe God exists or not. Maybe that would be true (or something in the near ballpark might be true), given the relevant particular details of their psychological states. Moreover, maybe some people (but not others) can decide whether to believe God exists (or other claims of a relevantly similar kind, under relevantly similar conditions), and maybe they tend to (mistakenly) assume that everyone stands in the same voluntary or quasi-voluntary relation to the claim “God exists,” rather than realizing that it is a somewhat peculiar psychological position.

[bluewatsons]

James Carney, Culture and mood disorders: the effect of abstraction in image, narrative and film on depression and anxiety, Med Hum (2019)

Abstract

Can cultural representations be used to therapeutic effect in the treatment of mood disorders like depression and anxiety? This article develops a theoretical framework that outlines how this might be achieved by way of mid-level cultural metrics that allow otherwise heterogeneous forms of representation to be grouped together. Its prediction is that abstract representations—as measured by Shannon entropy—will impact positively on anxiety, where concrete representations will positively impact on depression. The background to the prediction comes from construal level theory, a branch of social psychology that deals with the effects of abstraction on psychological distance; the types of cultural representations analysed include image, narrative and film. With a view to evaluating the hypothesis, the article surveys the empirical literature in art therapy, creative bibliotherapy and cinema therapy.

Introduction

How does culture relate to mental health? If this question is easy to ask, it is less easily answered. Both culture and mental health are highly contested terms, meaning that no two interlocutors are likely to agree on even basic definitions. In the first instance, this is because culture comprises categories of assortment like ethnicity, nationality and class, as well as symbolic practices such as religion, art and sport—a scenario that disperses the consideration of culture and mental health across a range of objects and disciplines.1 In the second, the fraught political history of medical classification means that mental pathologies are the site of some of the most vigorous debates in the critical social sciences, ensuring that no one account of what constitutes mental illness attracts majority assent. While such tensions have been productive when it comes to unsettling normative diagnostic labels,2 there can be no doubt that they have also had the effect of balkanising the literature. To be sure, there is no shortage of interesting results and discussions.3 Nevertheless, it is equally true that the lack of a background theoretical framework militates against a deeper understanding of how culture shapes (and is shaped by) the experience of mental illness.

As no single exposition is likely to successfully anticipate what such a framework will look like in totality, I shall not attempt to deliver one here. Instead, I hope to outline how one metric of variation—abstraction—promises to connect different modes of cultural representation and mood disorders in a way relevant to thinking about how cultural objects might be exploited therapeutically. The background to this will come from recent work in construal level theory (CLT), a branch of social psychology that links the experience of psychological distance to the experience of abstraction. The animating claim of CLT is that the experience of abstraction cues expectations of psychological distance in the spatial, temporal, probabilistic and social spheres, just as the experience of distance cues expectations of abstraction.4 In itself, this observation seems relatively modest, but the achievement of CLT is to identify in abstraction a mid-level metric that is sufficiently general to be detectable across a wide range of stimuli, yet concrete enough to say something non-trivial about any given one of these. What this means in practice is that CLT allows for connection to be made between the experience of cultural artefacts in the broad sense and the disposition to behave in certain ways. That is, if the experience of abstraction (or concreteness) can be linked to expanded or contracted mental horizons, then the vehicle of that experience can be identified as a stimulus for the actions that take place within those horizons. And this, indeed, is what the literature shows: the experimental programme of CLT provides many examples linking moral, social, practical and creative behaviours (among others) to the experiences of abstraction and concreteness.5

Where these discoveries connect with the mood disorders is by way of a separate body of work that identifies depression and anxiety to be problems of overgeneralisation and undergeneralisation. While both conditions are obviously more complicated than can be explained by a one-dimensional characterisation such as this, it remains the case that it picks out an important component of variation. Depression, for instance, is typically experienced as ‘a feeling of being dislodged from everyday activity’, 6 leaving the sufferer ‘an isolated object in a world without relationships’.7 Conversely, anxiety generates the sense of ‘being too much in contact with reality’8 and ‘the fearful anticipation of a catastrophe one is hopeless to prevent’. 9 What is visible in both conditions is attentional capture by interpretive frames that either strip away or exaggerate the constituent details of ordinary human experience. To this extent, CLT provides an empirically sanctioned bridge between modes of cultural expression (and the historical factors behind them) and the experience of mental illness. It hardly needs stating that this connection may well allow for insights into how cultural representations can be most effectively leveraged in support of therapeutic interventions.

Starting from these observations, I shall proceed here by delivering an overview of how different modes of cultural expression can evince abstraction and concreteness, and commenting on the relevance of this for anxiety and depression. For the most part, the cultural forms I will discuss relate to image, narrative and film. (Music I shall not consider due to lack of specialist knowledge.) All these genres of representation use different materials against different horizons of expectation, with the result that there is no simple sense in which they can be said to be abstract or concrete. Nevertheless, if the ideas I propose here are to be tested, defensible and reliable measures of this representational tendency need to be developed. Necessarily, doing this will involve a wide-ranging discussion of cultural representation; to no less a degree, it is unavoidable that some of these discussions must deal with technical concepts in linguistics, information theory and cognitive science. However, to develop even one metric of health-relevant variation that extends across several cultural forms and which admits of objective estimation must surely be admitted as a useful exercise. At the very least, it challenges the de facto approach, which is to treat different modes of expression on an individual basis, without ever taking a global overview.

CLT, depression and anxiety

If CLT and mood disorders are to contextualise an analysis of cultural forms, then the relation between the two needs to be properly explicated. The present section will do this by way of a short review of the CLT literature that discusses how its findings might be brought into contact with cognate findings on depression and anxiety. This will deliver the background knowledge needed for the subsequent engagement with specific modes of cultural representation.

For all that CLT is communicated in a specialist vocabulary, the insights behind it are rather intuitive. Central among these is the idea that human cognition persistently links abstraction and distance. ‘Abstraction’ in this connection relates to the level of detail associated with a stimulus, with CLT proponents labelling a high-detail stimulus as having a ‘low’ construal level and a low-detail stimulus as having a ‘high’ construal level. ‘Distance’ equates with psychological distance, which comprises distance in the spatial, temporal, probabilistic and social dimensions. (The adjective ‘psychological’ denotes that it is the subject’s perception or imagination of distance that matters, rather than any physical measure of distance, even if the two are frequently connected.) The CLT proposal is that that expectations of distance on these four dimensions are cued by high-construal level stimuli, just as the experience of concreteness is projected to promote expectations of nearness. And by a reciprocal process again, the experience of psychological distance leads to expectations of high-construal level, just as the experiences of nearness cue low-construal expectations. In the words of two leading CLT theorists, ‘different levels of construal serve to expand and contract one’s mental horizons and thus mentally traverse psychological distances’.10

Some examples should make these claims clearer. Take the high-construal noun ‘civilisation’: typically, this prompts one to expect psychological distance along several dimensions—thus, one speaks of ‘Roman civilisation’ (temporal distance), ‘Japanese civilisation’ (spatial distance) or ‘alien civilisation’ (social distance), but never ‘Oxford civilisation’. In the other direction, distance cues high-construal expectations. Probabilistically remote events, for instance, prompt low-detail hypotheticals (‘if alien civilisations exist, we will discover whether there are cultural universals’), when likely events enjoin more detailed ones (‘if there’s traffic on Oxford High Street, I’ll divert via Queen’s Lane’). Similar considerations obtain with respect to low-construal stimuli, though here of course the relation is with nearness. For example, a detailed statement like ‘The venue for Julia’s vocal performance has poor acoustics’ is typically consonant with Julia’s recital happening soon and not in three decades, just as ‘Julia hopes to be still able to sing on her 100th birthday’ does not usually enjoin one to ask whether the room in which she sings will have air conditioning.

In themselves, these examples are merely suggestive; the achievement of CLT is to support them with an experimental programme that links a diverse range of behavioural and cognitive outcomes to the experience of both psychological distance and construal level. With respect to distance, the evidence is that framing actions as far away on one of the dimensions of psychological distance makes high-construal purposiveness salient while inhibiting considerations of low-construal context. Liberman and Trope,11 for instance, show that action statements like ‘locking a door’ are represented in terms of constituent subactions (‘putting a key in the lock’) when located in the imminent future, but in terms of agentive intention (‘securing the house’) when set a year from the present. Cognate results are available for spatial distance,12 probabilistic distance13 and social distance.14 Another effect of distance is to prime for morality over empathy (ie, the application of abstract normative principles over the emotional engagement with the needs of another). In this connection, Eyal, Liberman and Trope demonstrate that the violation of widely accepted moral rules (sibling incest, eating pets, desecrating national symbols) is judged more harshly (ie, more morally) in far-future conditions than in near-future ones15 —presumably because contextual mitigating factors are not in play. Intensity of emotion is also linked to distance cues, with events like visiting the dentist being imagined to be less intense when imagined to be further in the future than near to the present;16 similarly, objects and events moving away from the subject are felt as having less emotional valence than object and events moving towards.17 Some other behaviours that have been identified as affected by considerations of construal level and distance include the propensity to conform,18 the alignment of goals with desires,19 the perception of expertise,20 the experience of shame,21 the appreciation of creativity,22 the use of politeness23 and the making of economic decisions.24 In all cases, the general result is the same: abstraction and psychological distance are cues for one another, just as concreteness and psychological nearness are also.

As indicated, the link between these considerations and the mood disorders comes by way of attentional capture in depression and anxiety. Though both conditions share a common cognitive trait in overrumination and are thus often comorbid,25 the focus of rumination tends to be quite distinct—and this is where CLT considerations come into view. Starting with depression, this should be understood here to mean ‘major depressive disorder’ (MDD) or ‘persistent depressive disorder’ (PDD) as classified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V). Typical symptoms of both involve depressed mood, diminished interest in activities, weight loss/gain, insomnia/hypersomnia, psychomotor agitation/retardation, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness and/or guilt, lack of concentration or decisiveness, and recurrent thoughts of death.26 MDD requires more symptoms for a shorter period for diagnosis; PDD requires fewer symptoms for longer. Both are to be distinguished from bipolar disorder, which the DSM-V now classes alongside the psychoses.27 With respect to the phenomenology of both conditions it would seem that the ruminative emphasis falls on capture by high-construal, negatively valent thoughts and memories. For instance, Watkins and Teasdale note that ‘overgeneral memory is a disorder specific phenomenon found in depression and posttraumatic stress disorder but not in generalised anxiety disorder, social phobia or obsessive-compulsive disorder’,28 with Watkins amplifying this into the more general claim that ‘the level of goal/action identification adopted in major depression is abnormal and dysfunctional, with patients with depression tending to adopt more abstract levels of goal/action identification, at least for negative information, than non-depressed controls’.29 Significantly, the CLT-predicted distance priming that this experience of abstraction should enjoin can be readily identified in first-hand accounts of depression.Matthew Ratcliffe, for example, collates the following descriptions: ‘There was just an unfathomable distance between me and any other human being’;30 ‘It feels as though you’re watching life from a long distance’;31 ‘the world looks different—familiar things seem strange, distant’;32 ‘things are no longer appear available; they are strangely distant’;33 ‘I was terribly alone, lost in a far-away place’;34 ‘You’ve lost a habitable earth. You’ve lost the invitation to live that the universe extends to us at every moment’.35 There can be no doubting the salience of psychological distance in these reports.

Moving on to anxiety, this condition should be taken here as a proxy for ‘generalised anxiety disorder’, which the DSM-V defines as ‘excessive, uncontrollable anxiety or worry for at least 6 months and associated with two of restlessness, fatigue, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance’.36 At first glance, the literature seems to identify these symptoms as a form of attentional capture by high-construal stimuli. Watkins, for instance, concludes that generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is ‘characterised by a predisposition towards adopting an abstract level of goal/action identification as the prepotent operational level … patients with GAD demonstrate a biassed tendency towards a more abstract level of processing’.37 However, though this formulation may be technically correct—after all, it is certainly true that worry deals in hypotheticals—it is questionable how useful it is. (And note the disagreement with Watkins and Teasdale quoted above.)38 Instead, it would seem more accurate to characterise anxiety as the making concrete of ostensibly abstract threats. Mathews, for example, notes that anxiety is marked by ‘persistent awareness of possible future danger, which is repeatedly rehearsed without ever being resolved’39—an appreciation that is echoed in a number of studies that identify anxiety as a form of ‘selective processing that fits [the anxious individual’s] view of the world as dangerous’.40 From a CLT perspective, this amounts to collapsing the psychological distance on the probabilistic dimension. By making unlikely events—that is, events that are probabilistically distant—salient, anxiety cues the collapsing of mental horizons into the here and now.

A cursory examination of first-hand descriptions of anxiety bears out this view of anxiety as an overconcrete immersion in the near-hypothetical. Though equivalent collations of anxiety experiences to those available for depression are less easy to find, discussions on social media forums offer some useful evocations. For instance, a psychiatrist on Reddit recalls a patient as saying anxiety ‘feel[s] like she tripped and the moment where you don’t know if you are going to catch yourself or not is how she felt all day long.’41 Another commenter likens it to what happens when your ‘stomach turns and you get hot and your heart pounds, whatever happens when you think something went very wrong and you’re about to catch shit for it’;42 a second exhorts the reader to ‘Imagine if every small decision had life or death consequences’.43 An author on the Anxiety and Depression Association of America website recalls, ‘I’d be stuck in traffic and these irritating voices would take my brain hostage. “Did you leave the coffee on? The house will catch fire, the neighbours will burn!”’44 Another recounts, ‘I don’t see five to ten ants. I see the inevitable 100 to 200 that I imagine will invade and eventually carry off our house. It’s very hard for me to deal with the here and now when I am catastrophizing’.45 The examples could be multiplied, but the point is clear: anxiety, contra depression, shrinks the horizon of cognition into immediately nearby spatial and temporal concerns.

The question that follows from framing mood disorders in this way is whether doing so provides any therapeutic insights into anxiety and depression. The answer would seem to be that it does, even if such insights are not explicitly articulated using CLT.46 Specifically, there is a small (but growing) body of evidence that exposing the depressed and the anxious to stimuli that exhibit a construal level opposite to that which characterises their condition yields positive therapeutic results. In the case of depression, Werner-Seidler and Moulds47 establish that prompting depressed and recovered individuals to recall an autobiographical memory in abstract and concrete modes yields a positive impact in the concrete mode; in their words, ‘a concrete processing mode enabled positive memory recall to have a reparative effect on mood for depressed and recovered participants’.48 Equivalently, Watkins et al show that complementing treatment as usual (TAU) for depression with concreteness training ‘seems to be an efficacious treatment for mild to moderate depression in primary care, producing significantly better outcomes than TAU’.49 Viewed through the lens of CLT, these results are explained by the adopting of a low-construal cognitive frame, where the depressive tendency towards ruminative overgeneralisation is recalibrated towards shorter psychological distances. These distances, being more amenable to everyday projects and goals, challenge the impotence in the face of the cosmos that characterises depression.

With respect to anxiety, the situation once again seems less clear-cut. Amir, Beard, Cobb and Bomyea demonstrate that diverting attention away from threatening stimuli succeeds in reducing anxious feelings50 —a result that is replicated in several places across the literature.51 However, there is also evidence that actively exposing anxious individuals to inducing stimuli can, over the course of time, ameliorate symptoms.52 How can these different data be reconciled? The key to doing this comes with recognising the role played by abstraction in both protocols. Attention diversion techniques invariably work by training participants to attend to neutral stimuli over threatening ones; as such, they strip away one dimension of experience—valence—and thereby shift the individual’s perception of the world into a marginally more abstract mode. It can be argued that exposure therapies do the same, but in a radically different way: by inserting the threatening stimulus into a series of encounters, they dampen its singularity and subordinate it to an abstract category that is amenable to cognitive manipulation. What emerges, therefore, is the finding that ‘a tendency to preferentially attend toward or away from threat, relative to an equal distribution of attention irrespective of threat, results in greater reduction in clinical symptoms and diagnoses’.53 In other words, so long as a high-construal perspective is adopted—whether by diversion or habituation—the anxiety-inducing character of a stimulus will tend to diminish.

In sum, there exist reasonable grounds for thinking that the results of CLT have relevance for the treatment of both depression and anxiety. I stress, once more, that this does not amount to saying that they are explained by CLT, or that CLT captures the full phenomenology of either condition. If it did, it would be a damning verdict on psychological medicine for it to have missed so straightforward a result, given the amount of research that anxiety and depression have stimulated over the years. Instead, the value of the CLT perspective is that it allows for connections to be made with cultural processes that may have a therapeutic value for both conditions. These processes will be the target of the next section.

Construal level and culture

Viewing culture through the lens of abstraction is not a new idea. As long ago as 1908, Wilhelm Worringer wrote of ‘the antithetic relation of empathy and abstraction’, and how the impulse towards abstraction ‘finds in beauty in the life-denying inorganic, in the crystalline or, in general terms, in all general law and necessity’.54 For Worringer, the motivation towards abstraction is ‘the immense spiritual dread of space’,55 which leaves humanity ‘tormented by the entangled inter-relationship and flux of the phenomena of the outer world’.56 By positing abstraction as the antidote to the anxiety entrained by the unpredictability of the world, it should be clear that Worringer is making a connection between mood and forms of cultural representation that is cognate to the issues under discussion here.

In the present section, my aim is to go beyond Worringer’s purely qualitative appreciation of how abstraction shapes the experience of culture and develop quantitative metrics that allow for such abstraction to be measured. The value of such measurement is that it allows for cultural representations to be compared with one another, both within and between the categories they belong to. This is a potentially controversial move, given the long-standing resistance to such acts of quantification in the humanities and the interpretive social sciences.57 Nevertheless, it is to be hoped that recent work in areas like cognitive cultural studies will have gone some distance towards illustrating the power of using empirically informed methodologies to engage with the symbolic apparatus of culture.58 Equally, the movement towards the experimental humanities points to the value of having manipulable measures that allow for the testing of predictions against real-world audiences.59 Here, both considerations will allow for an account of different forms of cultural representation that predict their impact on the mood disorders.

At a practical level, I shall focus mostly on construal level as my variable of interest. This is not at all to dismiss psychological distance as playing an important role in the operations of culture; indeed, I have written previously on how manipulations of distance play a crucial role in establishing the cognitive effect of genres such as science fiction.60 Instead, my view is that the necessarily synoptic exercise of surveying how distance emerges in several media would eclipse the no less important (and comparatively underdeveloped) issue of abstraction, which must therefore be my principal focus here. Saying this, however, invites the question of how construal level can be quantified. While it is often intuitively obvious whether a representation is abstract or concrete, this is of little value when precise comparisons are needed. Moreover, the experimental manipulations of construal level in the literature, though fit for purpose, are not generalisable across multiple modes of stimulus presentation. What is therefore needed is a reliable proxy for construal level that yields precise values and can be extended across a variety of media.

I propose here to use Shannon entropy as this measure.61 Like the thermodynamic concept it is derived from, Shannon entropy (hereafter just entropy) is a measure of how much structure is required to encode a message, with high entropy messages being more unpredictable than low entropy messages. As the central concept in information theory, entropy is surrounded by a forbidding formal vocabulary. Nevertheless, it is relatively easy to illustrate by way of a linguistic example. For instance, it is easy to see that asking someone to complete a three-word phrase that starts with ‘the northern’ will more often produce ‘the northern lights’ or ‘the northern hemisphere’ than ‘the northern engine’ or ‘the northern babysitter’. This is because, in English, the former two phrases occur with a much higher frequency than the latter, meaning that any guess concerning how the phrase should be completed is more likely to be correct if it uses ‘lights’ or ‘hemisphere’ as the relevant word. In this sense, the phrase ‘the northern lights’ has less entropy than ‘the northern babysitter’, as it would require fewer guesses to reconstruct it in the event of the last word being missing.

In more formal terms, entropy is therefore ‘a measure of the information contained in a message as opposed to the part of the message that is strictly determined (hence predictable) by inherent structures’.62 What this involves in practice is calculating the average freedom to vary each symbol or item in a given message relative to the constraints that operate on that message. This is done using the following formula, where H corresponds to the entropy of the message X, i denotes a value in the range 0≤ i ≤ k when k is the number of symbols in the message, and p(xi) is the probability of a specific symbol xi occurring:

For those unfamiliar with the formalism, the sigma operator ‘Σ’ means that if there are k symbols, then the entropy should be calculated for each one of them and the results added together. The log2p(xi) quantity picks out a number y, such that 2y=p(xi). Though this formula outputs a value in bits for any well-defined system, this number is often normalised so it can only take values between ‘0’ and ‘1’ by dividing by the quantity log2(k); this quantity is called metric entropy. To see how the formula works in advance of its use below, take a simple example: a coin toss with an unbiased coin. There are two possible results (heads or tails) with the same probability each; thus p(xi)=0.5 for i=1 and i=2. The entropy of the system is calculated by summing across both possible results: – [(0.5 × log2(0.5) + (0.5 × log2(0.5)]=1. Thus, this system can be completely described using 1 bit of information. (Note that the metric entropy is also one in this example, as log22 =1.)

The relevance of entropy for the discussion of construal level and culture is that it reliably tracks abstraction. The core cognitive operation of abstraction is to strip away redundant detail and make a given system predictable—a function that reaches its apotheosis in mathematics and logic, but which is present in any act of classification or generalisation. Conversely, concreteness entails unpredictability, with its limit case being a purely random distribution of elements where the only structure is that described by the normal distribution. In the terminology under discussion, this means, counterintuitively, that low entropy corresponds to high-construal level and high entropy corresponds to low-construal level. If this identity is allowed, it means that entropy can be used as a proxy for identifying the likely impact of cultural representations on anxiety and depression.

Naturally, all of this raises the question of what such analysis might look like in practice. I shall initiate it now by giving an overview of how three modes of representation—image, narrative and film—can be discussed in terms of construal level. I would like it to be noted from the outset that my treatments of each area will be highly summary in character, and for every operational choice I make, I acknowledge that a specialist will be able to make the case for a different one. In defence of my procedure, I state here that my aim is only to demonstrate in principle how one might approach these three areas. Any thoroughgoing practical demonstration would need to be more circumspect in its approach, if also longer than is useful for an article-length exposition.

Image

Most discussions of the therapeutic potential of image focus on the production rather than the reception of visual artworks.63 However, as Vidler notes ‘anxiety, estrangement, and their psychological counterparts, anxiety neuroses and phobias have been intimately linked to the aesthetics of space’.64 For Vidler, this is a specifically modern phenomenon, but it can readily be seen that the attempt to ‘permeate the formal with the psychological’65 can inhabit the visual art of any period. The 70 k BCE ochre carvings from the Blombos Cave, for example, display a geometrical linear styling that has no obvious mimetic intention;66 conversely, the 17 k BCE animal paintings of the Lascaux Cave evince a highly concrete realism.67 Closer to the present, Celtic art of the Hallstatt style (1200–500 BCE) is geometrical, linear and spare, while that in the La Tène (450–1 BCE) style is curvilinear, richly detailed and organic68—no less than the formal innovations of the twentieth-century avant-garde contrasts with the nineteenth-century pictorial realism. The point is that the oscillation between mimetic detail and formal abstraction is a pattern the repeats across the history of visual culture.

To the extent that this is so, entropy should provide a reliable measure of abstraction in an image. The question concerns how it might be calculated. The standard protocol for doing this is to use colour as the variable i in the entropy formula, such that it takes a value from the set of k colours that make up an image. The object taking the value can be thought of as the pixels making up the image, so that for any colour i, a given image will contain m pixels of that colour. Thus, for any randomly chosen pixel from the total of n pixels in the image, the probability of it being colour i will be the fraction n/m. To illustrate, take an 8-bit grayscale computer image: this format allows 256 (ie, 28) shades of grey that can occur in any admixture. The probability of a randomly selected pixel exhibiting any given one of these shades will be given by dividing the total number of pixels exhibiting the shade by the total pixel count of the image. In turn, this allows the image entropy to be calculated by summing the 256 products of each shade’s probability by the log base 2 of this probability—a number that can then be normalised by dividing by log2(256). As even small images have very large numbers of pixels, it would be impractical to reproduce such a calculation here; it is easier just to show the results generated for specific images (figure 1), which I calculate using a python function specifically scripted for the task. As can be seen, there is a clear linear progression such that the more abstract an image is, the lower the entropy score.

Figure 1. Metric entropy scores for three images, where ‘0’ is the lowest possible value and ‘1’ is the highest. The rectangular grid is highly predictable and has a low score. The middle image—taken from Louis le Brocquy’s illustrations to Thomas Kinsella’s translation of the medieval Irish epic, Táin Bó Cuailgne—blends pictorial and schematic elements, and takes a value in the middle of the distribution. The final image, as a photograph, lacks any easily defined organising principle, and thus comes close to the entropy of a purely random distribution of pixels (ie, a score of 1).

Directing these results back to CLT, what can be said is that entropy tracks abstraction—and therefore construal level—in images in a reliable way. High-construal images, in virtue of exhibiting law-like regularities, are predictable and have low entropy; conversely, low-construal images frustrate schematic perception and have high entropy. The prediction that follows is that high entropy images should be of value for individuals with depression, when low entropy images should be of value for those suffering from anxiety. Such a claim invites assessment: is it the case that entropy tracks the therapeutic value of images?

To the extent that there is evidence available, it would seem that it does, looked at from both a historical and an experimental perspective. Starting with anxiety, Currey and Kasser69 compare the therapeutic impact of colouring a mandala design, colouring a generically abstract plaid design and colouring by way of a free-form unguided exercise. The results clearly show that colouring low entropy images in the form of the plaid design and the mandala reduced anxiety in a statistically significant way relative to colouring the free-form design, which has no impact—with this outcome being replicated in an independent follow-up study.70 In a separate study, Sandmire, Gorham, Rankin et al71 compare the impact on anxiety of mandala design, free-form painting, clay sculpting, collage making and drawing .Small sample sizes by condition did not allow the different interventions to be statistically distinguished. Nevertheless, given that the largest group chose the mandala design, the positive results they establish for art therapy across all conditions are consistent with the CLT abstraction hypothesis. Though more work is needed, these results clearly point to high entropy images as having a potentially positive impact on anxiety.

With respect to depression, the evidence is that the types of images produced by depressed individuals are of a low entropy kind, to the extent that they use less colour, have more empty space, are more constricted, are less effortful and are less meaningful.72 Correspondingly, it is unsurprising that high entropy images appear to be more therapeutically efficacious for depression. For instance, in a study that involved patients with cancer in a non-abstract watercolour-based art therapy intervention, Bar-Sela, Atid, Danos, Gebay et al73 found that depression was reduced while anxiety levels remained the same. Beyond this, it is difficult to generalise, as most experimental studies do not distinguish between the specific types of art therapy administered. Nevertheless, it is possible that the relative preponderance of concrete and mimetic modes of representation in art therapy is responsible for the positive impact on depression identified in several meta-analyses.74

It would seem, then, that there is evidence in support of the view that CLT effects on depression and anxiety can be tracked using entropy as a proxy, and they take the direction predicted. Necessarily, this requires further testing if the hypothesis is to receive the support it requires. Equally, a more cognitively ‘thick’ account of visual perception is needed to allow for entropy-reduction processes (like face and scene recognition) that improve the predictability of images. Nevertheless, it should be evident that the CLT-entropy approach points to a potentially important line of inquiry for the discussion of the therapeutic impact of images.

Narrative

If art therapy has an established therapeutic pedigree, treatment using literary materials has emerged in the last number of years as a parallel method of engaging with various disorders.75 Variously termed ‘book therapy’ or ‘creative bibliotherapy’, the idea is that ‘active immersion in great literature can help relieve, restore, or reinvigorate the troubled mind’.76 Though certainly an appealing prospect, the field is new and there is no robust proposal as to why literature should have a therapeutic effect in the first place. Montgomery and Maunders probably offer the most considered approach when they argue for literature as a vehicle for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) effects,77 though this ultimately relies on the same ideas concerning readerly identification in fiction that underwrite less developed approaches.78 Moreover, even allowing that literature has a therapeutic effect, no approach predicts how different types of literature will interact with any one of the 297 or so conditions that at least one diagnostic system identifies as defining the repertoire of mental illness.79

As scoping a response to these problems for all forms of literature is obviously impractical, I shall restrict myself here to outlining how a CLT-informed entropic perspective might be used to make predictions concerning the therapeutic impact of narrative literature. Naturally, this poses the problem of how narratives can be understood as ‘abstract’ or ‘concrete’—not least because there are several levels, ranging from the lexical to the sentential to the discursive, that may exhibit such qualities. One useful concept for probing the distinction is that of narrativity.80 This is a global term that indexes the extent to which a cultural artefact lends itself to narrative elaboration across all its elements. A text with a high degree of narrativity will exhibit a judicious mix of surprise and predictability, with a preponderance of either surprise or predictability being deleterious to a text’s narrativity. As David Herman notes, ‘there is a lower limit of narrativity, past which certain ‘stories’ activate so few world models that they can no longer be processed as stories at all’, just as there is ‘an upper limit of narrativity, past which the tellable gives way to stereotypical, and the point of a narrative, the reason for its being told, gets lost or at least obscured’.81 In other words, a highly concrete text will be one that frustrates narrativity by resisting predictability, while an abstract text frustrates it by being too general. The connection here with entropy is obvious: texts that are either too high or too low in entropy are poor in narrativity.

One way in which these distinctions can be illustrated is by way of the link between character and action—a central plank of all forms of narrative. In this regard, one achievement of formalist models of narrative has been the identification of narrative ‘grammars’, where the key intervention involves abstracting recurrent classes of action from a given class of narratives to arrive at a general model. These models often generalise across categories like region and genre,82 but there also exist accounts that identify features purportedly present in all narratives.83 Their value for the present purpose is that they offer one clear dimension on which narrativity varies, to the extent that texts that entirely coincide with, or entirely deviate from, narrative grammars are also poor in narrativity. I shall illustrate this here using A J Greimas’s actantial model84 —not out of any conviction that Greimas is correct where others are wrong, but simply because his model is well known and supports a formal demonstration that can be readily extended to other models.

For Greimas, a character in a narrative can take one of six actants or roles: it can be a subject, an object, a helper, an opponent, a sender or a receiver (figure 2). The subject and object are paired in a relation of desire, want or need, with the subject exercising this relation on the object. Take Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels: here, Bond is typically the subject, with the defence of democratic values and the social order being the object. The helper and opponent are paired in a relation of power, such that they either augment or detract from the subject’s ability to pursue the object. In the Bond narratives, the helpers can be Q, the Bond girl, Felix Leiter and so forth; the opponent is manifested through the agents of the USSR and the various criminal enterprises that Bond confronts. The sender and receiver are paired in an axis of transmission, where the sender legitimates the subject’s actions, the value of which is delivered to the receiver. Thus, M, as representative of the Crown, authorises Bond’s actions, which benefit the British public and the wider democratic world. According to Greimas, these categories are present in all narratives, such that any character can be identified with a given actant on a given appearance (ie, they can be identified with different actants at different points in the narrative). Thus, what the actantial model defines is an underlying principle of organisation that maps the information contained in the set of character appearances into the information contained in the set of actantial roles.

Figure 2. Greimas’s six-term actantial account of narrative.

Viewing this model through the lens of entropy, the six actants define a set of values that partition the set of character appearances. This means that, for any given character appearance, that appearance can be classified under a category i, where i belongs to the set (sender, receiver, subject, object, helper, opponent). The sum of the character appearances in each category will then total the amount of appearances in the narrative. The probability, pi, of a given appearance being a particular actant is found by dividing the number of appearances in that category by the total number of appearances. As per the formula, the entropy is calculated by summing the products of each probability pi by log2(pi). In the case where there is an equal likelihood of a character belonging to one of the six roles in a given appearance, the metric entropy of the narrative is exactly 1, as there is no structure present. The latter enters into the picture via genre, which will foreground and background different actantial roles, thereby changing the relative probabilities involved. In Greimas’s words, ‘an articulation of actors constitutes a particular tale; a structure of actants constitutes a genre’.85 To properly represent this would require exact data on the relative proportion of actantial roles in different genres, which it is beyond the scope of the present article to provide. Instead, it is more useful to look at how entropy and narrativity relate to these considerations of abstraction and concreteness.

In this regard, the tendency towards concreteness has a clear expression in the realist novel. As an exercise in ‘the mimesis of consciousness’,86 realism participates in the unpredictability of its subject matter. That is, by attenuating the connection between actantial role and character identity in favour of character identity, narrative realism refuses the predictability of a schema and makes salient instead the sense of subjective freedom that attends personhood. Given the social orientation of much human cognition,87 it is unsurprising that that texts exhibiting this tendency should be narrative to a high degree. Nevertheless, it is no less true that the wholesale reproduction of subjective experience as found in texts like James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake88 or Virginia Woolf’s The Waves89 have the effect of reducing narrativity. By requiring the reader to invest sustained cognitive labour before she can extract the general principle from the concrete particular, they frustrate the sense of (immediate) universality that is implicit in highly narrative texts.

On the abstract side of the spectrum, quasi-formulaic narratives like folk tales and myths are close mirror images of realist fiction, in that they also have psychological verisimilitude and functional roles, even if here the functional role predominates. The result is that such genres evince the same degree of narrativity as realist fiction, while having lower entropy. The ‘pathological’ tail to this end of the narrativity distribution is probably to be found in those simplified narratives that entirely dispense with specific actants. These are most commonly found in children’s discourse, which evolve over the course of development from primitive assertions of desire or causality to fully worked-out stories.90 Notably, such narratives are also visible in the ‘anti-narratives’ of modernist fiction, which strategically interrupt the story-telling process so as to highlight its inadequacy to human experience. Take, for instance, Samuel Beckett’s trilogy of novels, Molloy, Moran and The Unnamable, where all distinctions of character and structure eventually collapse into the ‘Where now? Who now? When now?’ of The Unnamable’s immobile subject.91

The general picture that emerges from this is that there is a clear alignment between the concept of entropy under discussion here and narrative structure. Moreover, this alignment is not merely theorised to exist, but has a long-standing expression in narratological terminology. But while this is welcome and satisfying, it is of incidental importance to the present inquiry if it cannot be connected with anxiety and depression. In this connection, the evidence is promising, if limited. As might be expected, the difficulty of making lengthy narrative materials amenable to experimental manipulation means that such studies as exist tend to focus on shorter narratives or narrative selections. With respect to depression, Carney and Robertson show that individuals exhibiting traits that correlate with depression are more strongly engaged by a high entropy version of a narrative text than a low one.92 On the side of anxiety, Glavin and Montgomery93 and Montgomery and Maunders94 offer a meta-analyses of studies that use literature in the treatment of various conditions and find either modest effects or no effects, but suggest that lack of comparability and poor design make definitive conclusions untrustworthy. Orthogonal to both, Troscianko shows substantial effects for fiction reading on several dimensions of behaviour relating to eating disorders, but the classification of fiction type is determined by thematic focus rather than abstraction or concreteness.95 Beyond this, the research literature offers little in the way of robust empirical evidence, even if there is no shortage of speculative pieces.

Thus, though there is no evidence against the proposal that abstraction impacts differentially on mood disorders, and some small evidence for it, a programme of testing is needed to properly establish the effect of narrative abstraction on depression and anxiety. I am currently engaged in an ongoing programme of such testing, which aims to ground the efflorescence of interest in creative bibliotherapy with solid empirical data. As yet, however, no solid conclusions can be reached concerning the role of abstraction in the cognitive impact of fiction—even if there are reasons to be hopeful that it might yet be used to good therapeutic effect.

Film

Just as literature has been suggested as a possible vehicle for therapeutic intervention, so too has film. The practice of using ‘motion pictures in a structured manner with specific populations for particular therapeutic gains’96 dates back to at least the 1940s,97 and continues today in a wide range of healthcare contexts.98 To the extent that it is theorised, ‘cinematherapy’ is framed in much the same way as its literary equivalent, with many theorists even going so far as to explicitly identify it as a form of bibliotherapy.99 Given the problems with bibliotherapy, this does little to clarify how cinematherapy might work, but it does point to CBT-style effects as the most commonly assigned mechanism.100 Though this may well be the case, the fact remains that such accounts say little about the specifically filmic dimension of cinematherapy, or indeed how different types of film relate to different conditions.

As will be anticipated, my suggestion is that abstraction provides one way of approaching this issue. In fact, given that film contains both visual and narrative components, it can be readily seen that two ways in which filmic entropy can be measured have already been covered. The task comes with outlining how these approaches might be adapted to account for the specific effects of cinema. In the former scenario, this involves extending the static entropy measure of a still image into a dynamic register of multiples of images per second; in the latter, it means incorporating the issues that arise when characters and actants are instantiated in physically perceivable agents and objects (ie, actors and props). Once both issues are dealt with, it should then become possible to consider the therapeutic impact of film.

To start with the issue of dynamic entropy, there is an obvious sense in which the relevant abstraction measure for film is not the average entropy across its frames, but the distribution of the entropy values these frames take. Take, for instance, the Heider-Simmel demonstration,101 which is the famous animation that uses moving shapes to illustrate the human propensity to assign agency to objects. Consider, at the same time, the introductory sequence to Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now,102 which uses richly worked cinematography to conflate the external chaos of the Vietnam war with the inner turmoil of its protagonist, Captain Willard (figure 3). It should be clear that, on a frame-by-frame basis, both films will exhibit very different entropy measures—as is clear from plots of the entropy levels for the first 1800 frames of each (figure 4). Equally, however, what should emerge is that there are marked differences in the variance of the entropy across both films. Though neither exhibits a particularly large variation, the overall spread of entropy in Apocalypse Now is much wider than in Heider-Simmel, and would likely be wider again in a longer selection (figure 5). What this serves to show is that a measure like the IQR (the numerical interval in which the middle 50% of the data lie) is likely to offer the best measure of the entropy of a sequence of film. Where this range is narrow and lies close to 1, the film will be concrete and exhibit high entropy; where it is narrow and closer to 0, it will be abstract and have low entropy. Where there is a large IQR, there is likely no worthwhile measure of the central tendency of entropy, and analysis will have better results by focusing on shorter subsequences.

Figure 3. Illustration frames from the Heider-Simmel demonstration frame (left) and ApocalypseNow.

Figure 4. Entropy by frame for Heider-Simmel and ApocalypseNow.

Figure 5. Box plots for Heider-Simmel and ApocalypseNow.

Moving on to the issue of character-based entropy, the specifically filmic problem that emerges is the high cognitive load that the audience must sustain when they are inferring the motives of ostensibly unknown persons. Unlike a linguistically mediated narrative, where mental states can, in principle, be directly communicated, acted roles are physically instantiated in real people and thus engage computationally expensive inferential processes.103 As pushing cognitive load beyond a certain point is typically antihedonic,104 this means that film, as a genre, perpetually runs the risk of alienating its audience due to excessive entropy. How might this be resolved? One solution comes by way of the ‘star’ phenomenon. As noted by theorists such as Richard Dyer, ‘The star’s presence in a film is a promise of a certain kind of thing that you would see if you went to see the film’.105 Though Dyer volunteers this as motivated by economics, it functions equally well to reduce entropy. That is, if the presence of a specific actor entrains a set of performance expectations, then these expectations reduce cognitive load by creating a set of priors that prestructure the relevant inferences. Putting this in terms of the entropy formula, the variable i will thus pick out a member of the set of conventional movie roles (action hero, femme fatale, comic relief, maverick, wise counsellor, etc). Summing across his or her appearances, the presence of a specific actor will increase the conditional probability of a given character belonging to a given role, thereby providing implicit context for making sense of their actions. As this serves to increase predictability, it lowers overall entropy, and helps resolve the problem of cognitive load. In this sense, the star system created by the film industry operates as an entropy reduction ‘grammar’ that increases consumption by lowering the cognitive demands of understanding the actions of person-like agents.

Bringing these considerations back to the mood disorders, what emerges is that abstraction is concomitant with films that have predictable action structures and character motivations, and which impose a low perceptual processing burden. Conversely, detailed visual innovation and eschewal of ready-made associations between actors and roles creates a highly concrete cinema that resists predictability. Once more, the question is whether the latter type of cinema is therapeutically efficacious for depression, where the latter is for anxiety. Such experimental testing as has been conducted supports the general idea that cinema can have a therapeutic impact, though there are no data that can be parsed in terms of abstraction and concreteness in cinematic representation and how they serve to differentially impact on mood disorders. Thus, even more than image and narrative, cinema remains a terra incognita with respect to its clinical impact. It remains possible—even plausible—that it has a palliative effect on conditions like depression and anxiety, but this needs to be supported by well-designed experiments. Given the popularity of cinema relative to other cultural forms, there can be little doubt that supporting the emergence of an effective cinematherapy by doing so would be a socially valuable outcome.

Conclusion

My aim in this study was to show that abstraction provides a useful metric for grouping together observations about how culture and mental health might interact. Necessarily, this is a speculative undertaking from which no definitive conclusions can be expected—which is as well, because no definitive conclusions have emerged. However, what will hopefully be in evidence is that mid-level measures like abstraction, in virtue of how they shape information-bearing structures, can be used to bridge the gap between mental illnesses that themselves actively shape the processing of information.106 If this is allowed, how might such a research programme be taken forward?

The first issue that would need to be addressed centres on the question of content. In the interests of exposition, I have set to one side all considerations of how subject matter might impact on the reception of abstract and concrete modes of representation—despite the obvious fact that content (rather than form) is often the primary driver of response. The problem this poses is how content can be made susceptible to systematic hypothesis testing. One solution might come from dimensional accounts of emotion like the valence-arousal-dominance (VAD) model, which maps variation between emotions into variations in the degree to which each of the three components are associated with a stimulus.107 Though experimentally investigating a system that has four parameters of variation is a formidable task, it is not intractable, and will certainly nuance the abstraction-derived model explored here. Moreover, there are now available large corpuses of words and images that have already assessed for how to trigger the VAD components, which makes the creation of experimental materials substantially easier.108

A second issue comes with the parallel problem of interpersonal variation. Several studies show that a preference for abstraction is either a driver or concomitant of stable personality traits.109 What remains unclear is how this preference relates to anxiety, depression and CLT effects. It may be, for instance, that it merely moderates susceptibility to CLT effects, and can thus be controlled for experimentally. But it may also be that it is implicated in proneness to anxiety or depression in the first place, which makes for a more complicated model. Either way, this interaction needs further research before a complete picture can emerge.

Finally, there is the issue of how the cognitive effects proposed here might be instantiated in the brain. In this regard, recent work on predictive processing and the free energy principle shows that entropy plays a crucial role in how organisms optimise for error reduction in their interaction with the world.110 The crucial idea is that organisms minimise ‘surprisal’—expressed as the log probability of a given stimulus—by either updating their model or probing the environment to gain better data. However, tolerance for surprise is not fixed, and is likely to be mediated by the predictive actions of the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems.111 As these systems are also implicated in mood disorders,112 this opens a potential avenue of connection between CLT-style cultural effects (as mediated by entropy) and the neurotransmitters involved in the regulation of mood. Though I can do no more than point to this possibility here, recent work by Carhart-Harris et al on the ‘entropic brain’ model and the impact of serotonin on active and passive coping suggests how it might be pursued by linking the surprisal of a cultural stimulus (relative to background cultural entropy) to the differential activation of 5-HTA1 and 5-HTA2 serotonin receptors.113

I do pretend that these considerations are enough to defend the present survey against its limitations. But they may point to solutions that obviate the need to reject the abstraction hypothesis merely because it is difficult to assess. With respect to the hypothesis itself, only further testing can establish whether it has value. Though such testing with cultural materials will always be difficult, I submit that the potential gains—therapeutic and intellectual—make it a practice that will richly reward being pursued.

Notes

1. Edward B Tylor (1873), Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art, and Custom; Leon J Goldstein (1957), “On Defining Culture”; John Baldwin, Sandra Faulkner, and Michael Hecht (2005), “A Moving Target: The Illusive Definition of Culture.”

2. David Pilgrim, Ann. McCranie, and Recovery (2013), Recovery and Mental Health: A Critical Sociological Account; Whitehead et al., Edinburgh Companion to Crit. Med. Humanit.; Michel Foucault and Madness (1967), Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason.

3. Ana Mari Cauce et al. (2002), “Cultural and Contextual Influences in Mental Health Help Seeking: A Focus on Ethnic Minority Youth”; Giyeon Kim et al. (2013), “Regional Variation of Racial Disparities in Mental Health Service Use Among Older Adults”; Kate Loewenthal (2006), Religion, Culture and Mental Health.

4. Yaacov Trope and Nira Liberman (2010), “Construal-Level Theory of Psychological Distance”; Nira Liberman and Yaacov Trope (2008), “The Psychology of Transcending the Here and How.”

5. Tal Eyal and Nira Liberman (2012), “Morality and Psychological Distance: A Construal Level Theory Perspective”; Stephan, Liberman, and Trope, “Politeness and Psychological Distance: A Construal Level Perspective.”; Liberman and Trope, “The Role of Feasibility and Desirability Considerations in near and Distant Future Decisions: A Test of Temporal Construal Theory”; Mueller, Wakslak, and Krishnan, “Construing Creativity: The How and Why of Recognizing Creative Ideas.”

6. Matthew Ratcliffe (2015), Experiences of Depression: A Study in Phenomenology, 79.

7. Thomas Fuchs (2013), “Depression, Intercorporeality, and Interaffectivity,” 229.

8. Daniel Smith (2012), Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety, 174.

9. Scott Stossel (2014), My Age of Anxiety, 56.

10. Yaacov Trope and Nira Liberman (2010), “Construal-Level Theory of Psychological Distance,” 442.

11. Nira Liberman and Yaacov Trope (1998), “The Role of Feasibility and Desirability Considerations in near and Distant Future Decisions: A Test of Temporal Construal Theory.”

12. Kentaro Fujita et al. (2006), “Spatial Distance and Mental Construal of Social Events.”

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[tswiftsedits]

Look What You Made Me Do is about Swift’s rightful anger. She flashes her fangs on hard-bitten lyrics like, “I don’t trust nobody and nobody trusts me,” and it sounds more like a scathing post-grunge alt-rock hit, in the vein of Alanis Morrisette’s You Oughta Know, than the glimmering, tongue-in-cheek Blank Space. “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now,” bit might be deeply cringey, but it’s also menacing, and Swift’s dead-eyed stare as she repeats the titular phrase evinces that she’s had enough and she’s through playing nice. This, too, is held against her. Female anger is taboo and Swift has always been a lightning rod for sexism. She’s “petty”, she’s “misrepresenting her feuds” and, in that victim-blaming rhetoric, she’s “deflecting blame instead of taking responsibility for her actions”. “You said the gun was mine,” is distressingly apt imagery that captures the way that Swift is vilified, in order to justify the onslaught of misogynistic abuse she’s been subjected to for the past two-and-a-half years — the past 12, if we’re really counting. Her pain is dismissed and her rage is treated as an invitation to ridicule, shame and shunning. There are consequences for being an “angry woman”. This kind of tone-policing has burdened Swift her entire career; you would almost think her the devil for expressing her feelings the best way she knows how. It’s self-masking misogyny, and drawing attention to it only gives rise to more of it. The angrier she gets, the more she, somehow, is in the wrong. “If a man talks shit then I owe him nothing,” Swift snaps on the snarling, unapologetic 2017 Reputation album track I Did Something Bad, and that’s probably the most accurate assessment of the situation yet, but no one cares. There’s no end to what we think women owe to men, and Swift, apparently, owes them politeness and silent compliance in the face of cruelty and exploitation. Her feud with West is hardly the first instance of this. Back in 2009, Swift penned the bluesy ballad Dear John, which supposedly details the ways in which she believed that ex-beau John Mayer emotionally abused her throughout their short-lived relationship. For this, she was called passive-aggressive, and Mayer accused her of “abusing her talent” as a songwriter. “You are an expert at sorry / And keeping lines blurry,” she croons to a melody that is hauntingly like one of Mayer’s own. Of course, we all know that 39-year-old men who date literal teenage girls would never, ever dream of taking advantage of their naivety and lack of life experience. Swift is just shady, that’s all.

The character assassination of Taylor Swift

[sol1056]

the dangers of dabblers

It’s important to remember VLD isn't being run by anyone who loved the original so much they were desperate to do a remake/reboot. This was completely top-down: someone at Dreamworks thought it’d make a popular franchise cornerstone, and of course they’d want to hire some or all of the team that made AtLA/LoK into a pop-culture juggernaut. (It’s worth noting that by S3 a lot of those names had moved on: several directors, and at least two writers.)

Somewhere there’s an interview with the EPs where they admitted they walked into their first DW meetings unable to remember who was the original main character. I think JDS thought it was Sven (Shiro), while LM was certain it was Keith. Or maybe vice-versa. Point is, I doubt either had thought of the series in years, and their vague recollection was sketchy, at best. (And apparently didn’t care enough to freaking google it, either, which says volumes.)

Which means that given it’s the EPs’ role to set the story’s outlines, we have two people aware enough of the original work to instinctively mix it up, just like fanfic would. But at the same time, they lack a strong-enough tie to the original work, which means they don’t feel obligated to slavishly mimic the original, either.

Sometimes that combination goes well. Sometimes, it doesn’t. 

If you’re used to fanfic, you've seen this before: a new writer in the fandom, and you check their stats to find they’ve written fifty, a hundred, or more stories -- but never more than one or two, maybe up to five, in any one fandom. They write and move on -- and to them, your treasured fandom is just one in a long line. They’re not emotionally invested, and they see this as freedom to do whatever they want, without guilt.

Sometimes, a dabbler's stories will give readers a fresh view from a semi-outsider’s perspective. But those cases are successful, imo, because they still respect the fandom; the ones who don't inevitably end up writing interesting premises that devolve into frustrating disasters. The fault lies in their disinterest in playing with care in someone else’s sandbox -- and I don’t mean the original creators. I mean the fandom itself.

The first hint will usually be a certain amount of apathy towards the canonical main character(s). The writer will instead latch onto a secondary or a tertiary character, layering on head canons and tilting canonical events like a funhouse mirror. For readers at least passing familiar with canon, it can be cool to see it from new angles, if sometimes a little disconcerting.  

This is fine, so long as the writer values their chosen replacement protagonist to the same degree they're convincing readers to do so. Without that loyalty, the dabbling writer will have no qualms tossing that character aside to turn their attention elsewhere. If, as a reader, you were willing to emotionally invest in this secondary or tertiary character getting the spotlight -- I’d be quite surprised if you’re all that happy when the writer bastardizes them for plot convenience, assuming they don’t get bored and abruptly drop that character completely.

Unfortunately, when a writer’s just passing through, there’s little point in complaining. They don’t get it. They don’t get the story, they don’t get the characters, and they’re not emotionally invested enough to even try. At best, they’ll be baffled. At worst, they’ll retaliate with outright disgust -- or even malice -- when readers cry foul.

(If you think it wasn’t textbook when the EPs complained bitterly about how the execs ‘made’ them put Shiro back in, then you haven’t been in fandom nearly as long as you think you have.)  

For all the talk of nostalgia goggles, VLD as delivered displays minimal respect for -- and hardly any emotional investment in -- the original. Which, okay, fine: but neither do the EPs display any respect for -- or emotional investment in -- their own version of the story.

And that’s a major problem.

You can see it in how the EPs skipped the basics in character creation: hand-waving character ages, head-canoning their own original characters (seriously?), and failing to provide even simple backstories. Even beginner writers instinctively know the value of nailing down a character's base stats: age, height, weight, race, sexuality, family history. These details inform characterization, and I will never get over my astonishment that the EPs not only skipped this fundamental step, but that they'd be so dismissively nonchalant about having done so.

You can see it in how the EPs are utterly baffled by the popularity of the Keith/Lance ship. For that matter, you can see it in how the EPs sprinkled numerous Allura/Shiro hints in S1/S2, and seem completely ignorant of the effect. Just like with real people, when we're lukewarm about a character, we struggle to see why someone else would care, so we’ll miss major shipping potential. Add in what sounds like a real lack of genre savvy, no wonder the EPs had no clue they’d created some powerful fandom bait.

You can see it in how the EPs will freely torque characters or worldbuilding to push plot or manufacture conflict, even if that requires a character contradict what they’d said only minutes before. Or how the EPs drop character arcs, fail to create compelling stakes, and break internal consistency without even bothering to lampshade. You can see it in how the EPs never follow through on consequences; when you really give a damn about a character, you want those consequences because that heralds growth.

You can see it in how the EPs don’t seem bothered by making Allura beg for a lion, or lingering on her terror, or even just demoting her. Or the fact that they’ve kept racial dogwhistles in the dialogue. A hallmark of emotional investment is empathy with others who feel the same, and the EPs have evinced little empathy for viewers angry and upset over the way Allura’s been reduced to a magical plot device.    

You can see it in how the EPs dismiss the #notmyshiro contingent; they’ve moved from surprise to mild irritation at questions about when the ‘real’ Shiro will come back. Or how they laugh about -- veering close to mocking -- viewers upset by the ‘clone’ issue. If the EPs had any loyalty to the Shiro they’d created, they would’ve known that reaction was coming.

You can see it in how the EPs shrug at marketing material with out-dated or non-canonical information. You can see it in how the EPs don't know or care that the comics ignore -- if not outright contradict -- the story's rules. They're supposed to be running this show, but they act like passive bystanders with no stake in the game. They don't just disavow any authority; they frequently even deny any knowledge. A writer is a gatekeeper of their own story, and the EPs have failed on multiple counts to gatekeep with any diligence.

Now, all that said: it's entirely possible that behind the scenes, none of this is true. It could be the EPs fight daily to have insight into marketing material, or that corporate politics has marginalized them in the creation process for vlogs, comics, toys, or whatever else. It could be that they lie awake at night, agonizing over where the story is going, and wanting to do right by the world they've created. 

If this is true, they're utterly failing to communicate any of that. What we get in their interviews and public appearances are EPs who don't take their story seriously, aren't emotionally invested, and for the most part seem kinda surprised anyone else is.

And truth is, it’s damn hard to care about a story when even the creators don’t.

[endenogatai]

Big tech has 2 elephants in the room: Privacy and competition

The question of how policymakers should respond to the power of big tech didn’t get a great deal of airtime at TechCrunch Disrupt last week, despite a number of investigations now underway in the United States (hi, Google).

It’s also clear that attention- and data-monopolizing platforms compel many startups to use their comparatively slender resources to find ways to compete with the giants — or hope to be acquired by them.

But there’s clearly a nervousness among even well-established tech firms to discuss this topic, given how much their profits rely on frictionless access to users of some of the gatekeepers in question.

Dropbox founder and CEO Drew Houston evinced this dilemma when TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Matthew Panzarino asked him if Apple’s control of the iOS App Store should be “reexamined” by regulators or whether it’s just legit competition.

“I think it’s an important conversation on a bunch of dimensions,” said Houston, before offering a circular and scrupulously balanced reply in which he mentioned the “ton of opportunity” app stores have unlocked for third-party developers, checking off some of Apple’s preferred talking points like “being able to trust your device” and the distribution the App Store affords startups.

“They also are a huge competitive advantage,” Houston added. “And so I think the question of … how do we make sure that there’s still a level playing field and so that owning an app store isn’t too much of an advantage? I don’t know where it’s all going to end up. I do think it’s an important conversation to be had.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said the question of whether large tech companies are too powerful needs to be reframed.

“Big per se is not bad,” she told TC’s Zack Whittaker. “We need to focus on whether competitors and consumers are being harmed. And, if that’s the case, what are the remedies?”

In recent years, U.S. lawmakers have advanced their understanding of digital business models — making great strides since Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg answered a question two years ago about how his platform makes money: “Senator, we sell ads.”

A House antitrust subcommittee hearing in July 2020 that saw the CEOs of Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple answer awkward questions and achieved a higher dimension of detail than the big tech hearings of 2018.

Nonetheless, there still seems to be a lack of consensus among lawmakers over how exactly to grapple with big tech, even though the issue elicits bipartisan support, as was in plain view during a Senate Judiciary Committee interrogation of Google’s ad business earlier this month.

On stage, Lofgren demonstrated some of this tension by discouraging what she called “bulky” and “lengthy” antitrust investigations, making a general statement in favor of “innovation” and suggesting a harder push for overarching privacy legislation. She also advocated at length for inalienable rights for U.S. citizens so platform manipulators can’t circumvent rules with their own big data holdings and some dark pattern design.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://ift.tt/3mKI6kk via IFTTT

[un-enfant-immature]

Big tech has 2 elephants in the room: Privacy and competition

The question of how policymakers should respond to the power of big tech didn’t get a great deal of airtime at TechCrunch Disrupt last week, despite a number of investigations now underway in the United States (hi, Google).

It’s also clear that attention- and data-monopolizing platforms compel many startups to use their comparatively slender resources to find ways to compete with the giants — or hope to be acquired by them.

But there’s clearly a nervousness among even well-established tech firms to discuss this topic, given how much their profits rely on frictionless access to users of some of the gatekeepers in question.

Dropbox founder and CEO Drew Houston evinced this dilemma when TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Matthew Panzarino asked him if Apple’s control of the iOS App Store should be “reexamined” by regulators or whether it’s just legit competition.

“I think it’s an important conversation on a bunch of dimensions,” said Houston, before offering a circular and scrupulously balanced reply in which he mentioned the “ton of opportunity” app stores have unlocked for third-party developers, checking off some of Apple’s preferred talking points like “being able to trust your device” and the distribution the App Store affords startups.

“They also are a huge competitive advantage,” Houston added. “And so I think the question of … how do we make sure that there’s still a level playing field and so that owning an app store isn’t too much of an advantage? I don’t know where it’s all going to end up. I do think it’s an important conversation to be had.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said the question of whether large tech companies are too powerful needs to be reframed.

“Big per se is not bad,” she told TC’s Zack Whittaker. “We need to focus on whether competitors and consumers are being harmed. And, if that’s the case, what are the remedies?”

In recent years, U.S. lawmakers have advanced their understanding of digital business models — making great strides since Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg answered a question two years ago about how his platform makes money: “Senator, we sell ads.”

A House antitrust subcommittee hearing in July 2020 that saw the CEOs of Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple answer awkward questions and achieved a higher dimension of detail than the big tech hearings of 2018.

Nonetheless, there still seems to be a lack of consensus among lawmakers over how exactly to grapple with big tech, even though the issue elicits bipartisan support, as was in plain view during a Senate Judiciary Committee interrogation of Google’s ad business earlier this month.

On stage, Lofgren demonstrated some of this tension by discouraging what she called “bulky” and “lengthy” antitrust investigations, making a general statement in favor of “innovation” and suggesting a harder push for overarching privacy legislation. She also advocated at length for inalienable rights for U.S. citizens so platform manipulators can’t circumvent rules with their own big data holdings and some dark pattern design.

[waxontape-blog]

Not Fade Away: A Look Back at Buddy Holly and The Crickets

The relevance of musical aptitude has waxed and waned with what the general public has decided is in fashion. As a result, one could argue that the mainstream musical landscape has seen yearlong talent droughts more than once or twice before, and it would not be a difficult point to argue. Coinciding with the explosion of MTV, artist and band members had to present evocative visuals and in no uncertain terms be physically attractive-- talent was an added bonus. In the 1990s, feelings were "in," and it became trend to be introspective; in 2017, it is social media which dictates an artist's commercial successes. However, at the earliest on-set of rock and roll, the rules for pop music presentation were still developing, with racial politics and an icy reception from the jazz industry playing an important role. 

Just shortly before four unknown young men from Liverpool, England would take the world by force with their accessible sound and rebellious creativity, another four young men from Lubbock, Texas were busy laying down the foundation for what would become the rock and roll revolution. Niki Sullivan, Jerry Allison, Joe B. Maudlin, and Charles Holley were studio musicians merely dabbling in the only type of true indulgence teenagers had at that time. Blues and rockabilly, country and folk-- already established genres in their own right-- would be used as raw clay for the four boys, who would craft a concoction that would revolutionize the adolescent's very place in society.

But before then, a landmark invention would have to hit shelves in order to get their unique blend to the masses.

With the end of World War II came the advent of the personal radio, the forefather of the Walkman, Discman, Minidisc Player, the iPod, and now the smartphone and streaming services. These small, compact radios were a far cry away from the larger beasts installed in parlors and dens across the world. Which program to listen to on which evening was no longer decided upon by democracy; rather, the sole owner and operator had control over what he or she filled her ears with. This practice had only ever been seen before with the mass production of books. In a world where America had been the heroes in Europe (and the ogres in Asia), life for the average teenager meant being bombarded with omnipresent, brightly painted advertisements, new technology, the promises of travel with family-sized camper vans, the sweet tastes of new candies and ice cream from hamburger joints, and all of it still very much constricted by the need to be "one of us." Regardless, it was the first time in American history that the standard, family-centric paradigm was broken-- the average teenager no longer needed to "share," so to speak.

The personal radio, merely an empty vessel, would soon work its way into the hands of every child and teenager and became a revolution, but it needed the content to propel it forward. And rock and roll, blues, country, and danceable R&B became the software needed to break the mold. The days of jazz pop were slowly being eclipsed, its subversive counter culture once perceived as dangerous was more common place than ever before. The hot, new thing by the middle of the 1950s became records with an electric edge to them. Although tame by today's standards, the melodies and guitar riffs (often adapted and retooled from blues and country-folk origins),present on these recordings were integral to music evolution and still hold their own today.

The combination of Sullivan, Allison, Maudlin, and Holley proved to be reactive, and lucrative. Charles Holley, a charismatic front man with boy-next-door looks, was quick to show his licks from the word go. The boys formed as The Crickets, following the natural dissolution of another band, The Three Tones, and released The Chirping Crickets in 1957, a mixture of original material and blues/R&B covers featuring tight musicianship and impressive performance. 1958's almost immediate follow-up would be the result of a slick marketing ploy, catapulting the front man into the realm of supreme celebrity. The record would bear his now-iconic stage name: Buddy Holly.

Albums were an entirely different beast in the 1950s in comparison to today, and thus these two projects cannot be analyzed separately. Although thematic projects had been ushered into the mainstream music canon by Frank Sinatra, who is often credited with creating the earliest examples of concept albums, rock and roll was a newborn baby rapidly stumbling towards the age of growing pains. As such, Buddy Holly is not an album that was assembled with any great attention to detail. In reality, it is the second slice of the Crickets pie, released under Holly's name in order to capitalize on the band's signature sound and Holly's ever-growing popularity. Also, it was a clever way around contractual obligations by signing the band as two separate acts. The Chirping Crickets and Buddy Holly are two sides of the very same coin, the former a slightly more distant affair in comparison to the latter's more targeted presentation. Whereas The Chirping Crickets is far more general in its approach, the songs on Buddy Holly seem to be directing themselves at a teenage audience while simultaneously marketing the man for whom the record is named.

The two albums are neck and neck in terms of their quality, which stand out as arguably the best survived recordings of the whole of the 1950s. The range of fidelity on these records is astounding for the time period, with raw experimentation placed  right at the forefront. Although the songs seem to draw their inspirations from a myriad of sources (from classical to lullaby to rhythm and blues), they are defined by the band's willingness to push forth into unknown territory. This is perhaps best evinced by the simplistic and sweet "Everyday," which perfectly encapsulates Holly's charisma and ability to adapt his voice to particular song styles. This evergreen is defined by the rather interesting combination of certain elements:  acoustic and bass guitars, a typewriter, Holly's voice, and the gentle slapping of hands on Jerry Allison's knees. Its lack of decoration is strong evidence that less is, in many cases, more. It is also at stark contrast to the up-tempo rendition of "Ready Teddy," on which Buddy snarls with the gusto and experienced snap of a man thirty years his senior.

Despite not being the most artistic of albums, Buddy Holly is a non-stop disc of action, collecting within its short half-hour run time some of Holly and The Crickets' most important material. The classic (albeit rather overrated musically) "Peggy Sue" defines golden oldies in today's society, and the definitive reading of  Sonny West's "Rave On" is a compact rock bullet to the ears. But elsewhere on this album, the deeper cuts ruminate and delight with their slick production and perfectly crafted melodies. From the jazzy, bass and piano--driven "Look at Me" to the rather sensual "Words of Love," the material present here is nothing if not far more advanced than the average pop songs on radio of the day. Whereas much of the standard fair was uncompromisingly pop or uncompromisingly rock, The Crickets managed to marry the genres, creating the blueprint for those who came after them.

The influence from black musicians of the era is full and complete on both The Chirping Crickets and Buddy Holly, which (as opposed to later-era acts like The Beach Boys and at times The Beatles) do not rob-- they contribute to the sound of the day. These four men were deep in the trenches, their youthful energy spilling over across two marvelous pieces of wax. Unfortunately, both of these records are meager when taken on the whole. Due to the nature of the recording industry at that time, much of Holly's best work (both with and without The Crickets) is not present on these two canon albums. Neither houses the spectacularly sexy "Well, All Right," the signature "That'll Be the Day," or "Blue Days, Black Nights," that last of which John Fogerty would later lift for his Blue Moon Swamp album in 1997.

There is a wealth of fantastic material to discover when searching through demos and one-off singles, in addition to Decca Records's That'll Be the Day, the unofficial third LP in Holly's canon, released only in response to The Crickets' later success on Coral and Brunswick. There's the downright sassy, almost baroque-pop "It Doesn't Marry Anymore," the  near tropical stylings of "Heartbeat," and the bittersweet sequel "Peggy Sue Got Married" tucked in between all the flash and sizzle of Holly's biggest hits. They are also important clues for where Holly would have taken his musical adeptness into the 1960s, had he lived to help define them. His final recordings, unfortunately dubbed after his death, serve as our last glimpses into what the future could have been. At times, they are difficult to listen to.

Many of Holly's hits would be defined by the long shadow cast by his untimely death during the Winter Dance Party Tour in 1959, with "True Love Ways," an unreleased ballad from 1958 written for Holly's wife, perhaps the most heart-breaking of them all: "Sometimes we'll sigh / Sometimes we'll cry / And we'll know why just you and I know true love ways." These posthumous hits, along with some of his most experimental and/or forgotten material, would be collected and released on various compilations, the best of which being Decca Records's comprehensive triple-disc set The Very Best of Buddy Holly & The Crickets and the rare but complete Not Fade Away. 

Today, Holly is regarded as one of the great grand-fathers of modern rock and roll, and nobody would be wrong in this declaration. However, it is important to note the important songwriting contributions from Jerry Allison and record producer Norman Petty. Between the three of them, they are responsible for the band's most iconic and important works. With Holly's tragic and untimely death (now coined "The Day the Music Died") we, as listeners, lost the original trajectory for pop music in forms we can only imagine. Would there be a The Beatles? A Duran Duran? A Madonna? A Janet Jackson? A Radiohead? Would disco have risen to power in the 1970s, and would synthesizers had taken the 1980s by storm? We cannot say, but one thing is for sure-- Buddy Holly and his bandmates had a lot more to offer the world that we could ever fathom. Although his career began and ended during the most embryonic phase of rock and roll’s fairly short existence, The Crickets ushered the genre towards excellence and informed every act who came after them.

Click here to buy material from Buddy Holly and The Crickets.

[mst3kproject]

320: The Unearthly

The first word that comes to mind to describe this movie is 'colourless', which gets an immediate reaction of well, duh, because the movie is of course in black and white.  But above and beyond that, The Unearthly is completely lacking in interest, tension, characters, and everything ese that makes a movie entertaining.  It could have had these things, but apparently it just didn't bother.

Mad Scientist Dr. Charles Conway believes he has discovered the secret to immortality – an artificial gland which, when implanted into the patient's brain, will modulate their hormones to keep them young and fit forever!  So far all his test subjects end up deformed, dead, or unresponsive, but he's determined that he'll get it right if he just keeps trying, and has a friend refer mental patients to him so he can continue to experiment on them.  Then fate throws a wrench in the works, in the form of escaped criminal Mark Houston.  Conway takes Houston in with the idea of blackmailing him, but Houston is actually an undercover police officer, here to expose the whole project.

The Unearthly is a difficult movie to write a summary of, actually, because the story is very unfocused and seems to spend a lot of time wandering aimlessly from scene to scene without actually getting anything done.  This is largely because of the way it handles its characters.  Mark Houston is technically our hero, but we don't meet him until we've already spent almost ten minutes getting to know a completely different character in a way that suggests she will be our protagonist.

The movie begins with Grace Thomas, a woman suffering from mental illness, whose psychologist Dr. Wright has brought her to Conway's quiet little halfway house.  Supposedly this is for treatment, but once Grace is out of the room the two doctors' conversation makes it clear that they intend to fake her death and experiment on her.  All this is dealt with in some detail, and in a way that seems to set Grace up as the audience identification character.  Somebody who watched only these first few minutes would probably guess that the rest of the movie is about Grace discovering that something is wrong and trying to get in touch with her father, whom Wright identifies as her only living family.

This is not the case, though.  Grace goes to bed, Wright heads out to throw her purse in the bay and claim she drowned herself, and then we meet Mark.  For the rest of the film, it will be Mark we follow, as he investigates Conway's nefarious experiments while Grace sits around doing and saying nothing much of interest.  In fact, Grace is a singularly bland character, partly because she's written that way and partly because the actress evinces no interest in her lines whatsoever.  Allison Hayes was in two other MST3K features, The Undead and Gunslinger, as well as a number of other classic b-movies like Attack of the 50-Foot Woman and Zombies of Mora Tau, and this is the worst performance I have ever seen her give.  She sounds like she's bored to tears.

In fact, Grace has less personality than any other member of the cast, including Tor Johnson's Lobo.  The other patients at Conway's retreat include Dan, a man prone to fits of anger, and Natalie, a chipper and trusting young woman looking forward to going home. Conway himself is egotistical and obsessive, and his assistant, Dr. Gilchrist, is professional and a little bit motherly.  Mark is nosy but cautious, as befits his investigative role.  I cannot pick out any personality traits like this for Grace.  She just says lines while staring blankly at the wall.

While Mark may be the hero, we are clearly supposed to feel something for Grace.  The last two people Dr. Conway experimented on came to bad ends, and we're supposed to worry that Grace will be next and Mark will not be in time to save her.  She is such a nonentity, though, that it's almost impossible to care.  We're supposed to want to see a romance blossom between her and Mark, but she's totally apathetic.  We're supposed to believe that she trusts Dr. Conway and comes to him with her problems, but the movie tells us this without bothering to establish it properly. Even when she's supposed to be angry with Mark and ordering him to leave her alone, it just doesn't work.  Nothing around Grace is interesting, and since she is the focal point for other characters throughout the narrative, the movie never has a proper center.  That, however, is merely annoying.  If you want to get angry at this movie, let's talk about portrayals of women and mental illness.

Dr. Conway's patients are explicitly mental patients, perhaps because he claims to need perfect physical specimens for his artificial gland to work.  Mental illness in movies is usually not researched very well, and I don't think The Unearthly was an exception to that, even though it tries to be a little more realistic.  At least it doesn't have anybody who talks to hand puppets or a guy who thinks he's Napoleon – what it's got is Dan, a man who is a bit paranoid and suffers from fits of ranting anger, sometimes needing medication to calm down.  He is presented as something of a joke, and the other characters treat him as if they consider him unreasonable rather than ill – but he is at least allowed to be ill and show symptoms.  The same cannot be said of the women.

Grace is described as having suffered a nervous breakdown and being prone to mood swings: she'll be suddenly afraid, or will break down in tears for no reason, but we never see her behave oddly.  In fact, Grace comes across as calm and collected at all times, and we see no difference in her between the scene where she arrives and the one where Dr. Conway tells her she's made excellent progress. Natalie is presented to us as nearly cured and ready to leave the retreat, so it's not surprising if she shows no symptoms, but she is unable to describe her previous illness as anything other than an inability to 'get herself together'.

So what we have here is two cases of acute Fictional Disease: women in movies are allowed to suffer from terrible illnesses, but only as long as these do not render them unattractive or antisocial.  A woman going into the same kind of rant as Dan would come across as bitchy rather than ill, and would be automatically unsympathetic to a male audience who would associate such behaviour with the stereotype of the nitpicking, nagging wife.  We're supposed to like Grace and Natalie, so their health problems can only manifest in ways that make us want to protect and help them, and actual symptoms are kept discreetly off-camera. At the end of the story, I think we're supposed to assume that Grace's problems will be solved not by a licensed practitioner with years of training, but by the power of Twu Wuv. Evidently people in the 50's still accepted the Victorian idea that all women's health issues can be solved by a generous application of dick.

Then there's the way Dr. Conway behaves towards Grace.  At their first appointment, he tells this sick woman who has been committed to his care that she looks lovely, and that “if I were Rembrandt I would paint a portrait of you”.  He claims that many women would envy her and that her looks and charm make her worthy of attention and protection.  Perhaps if Grace is suffering from low self-esteem these are things she needs to hear, but they come across as deeply creepy and unprofessional, and the worst part is that I can't actually tell if the movie wants us to find them so.

There was a similar dynamic, with a mad scientist hitting on his patient while the female assistant became jealous, in Atom Age Vampire, but in that movie it was explicitly manipulative and wrong.  The Unearthly, however, is much more neutral in its presentation of this material.  It just sits back and watches, without placing a value judgment, and Dr. Gilchrist's condemnation of the behaviour is much milder than that of her counterpart in Atom Age Vampire.  Later Dr. Conway laments the fact that Grace has 'turned on him', suggesting that he did in fact have feelings for her... in which case, perhaps we're meant to think he was expressing honest affection?  Whatever the case, it's gross.

The Unearthly's single greatest moment of misogyny, however, comes courtesy of Dr. Wright.  In order to facilitate Grace's disappearance, Dr. Wright throws some of her possessions into the sea in order to suggest she committed suicide in her depression.  Not long after, he finds himself in a similar pickle when another vanished patient's sister turns up on his doorstep – Wright calls Conway to ask what to do, and Conway tells him to simply make out a death certificate for the man, who has been in a coma since the experiment anyway.  Wright, who personally came up with the plan to fake Grace's suicide, is horrified.

There are only two possibilities I can come up with to explain this contradiction.  Either the screenwriter just couldn't keep track of which characters were willing to do what in the name of science – or Dr. Wright is just fine with faking the death of a woman, whose life doesn't matter, but repulsed by the thought of doing it for a man, whose does.  I think it's just shitty writing, but I can't be sure.

The Unearthly really could have been much better than it is, but it did just about everything wrong.  The idea of a mad scientist experimenting on mental patients because he knows anything they say will not be believed is one that could work, but is never explored.  Conway's basement full of possibly-immortal monsters could have been used to much better effect.  Mark's assumed persona of criminal on the run wondering what he's gotten into was far more interesting than his actual role turned out to be.  Grace would have been a way better character if she'd ever done something. Anything.  In the end, the movie simply misses every opportunity it had, and the result is as dull as a bowl of plain oatmeal.  Like I said, colourless.

[osumuseumofart-blog]

Creating a Universal Language: A Visual Analysis

Hello everyone, this is Gianna Martucci-Fink one of your Education Interns! Today I would like to share with you the process in which I examine art. When you get to spend time with the same paintings on a daily basis, you get to understand them pretty well, but the average person only spend about three seconds looking at a work of art! Here at the OSU Museum of Art we want to empower our guests to use the skills of visual analysis when examining different kinds of art! In this blog post I will examine the piece Circumvention created by the artist J Jay McVicker in the exhibition Centering Modernism, that is currently on display in our gallery. 

Using the image at the top for reference, lets get started! At first glance the figures look like loose contort line drawings, but as more time is spent with this work, it is clear what a detail orientated and methodical process it was to create this aquatint print which is an “intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching” (Tate.org). The first element that captures the viewer’s attention are stark white lines that when complied make up biomorphic figures in the foreground. All but one figure appears to have individual characteristics, that when abstracted gives clues that tell us their gender. Two figures are depicted as females, evinced by the different characteristics such as curvature lines, wide hips, or even circles on the chest resembling breasts. On the far right, notions of muscular forms and an emphasis on genitalia characterize the body of the male figure. One body in particular though appears to have more detail than the others, as it not only depicts the external body, but also suggests internal anatomy.

Due to this captivating figure, this simple print becomes deeply rooted in reoccurring symbolism that can be seen throughout the ages of art history. Creating circular lines and organic shapes around the stomach, McVicker is putting emphasis on the figures womb, suggesting themes of fertility. It is up to the viewer to decide whether this woman is literally carrying a child, but it a symbolic reference that McVicker commonly uses throughout his work regarding the birth of creativity and a metaphor gendered social roles.

Now shifting to the figure with the least amount of detail is the silhouette form placed in the middle of the page. Although it might appear that this element is not as important as the rest, it does carry significance due to its overriding color of green. From an art historical perspective green is again connected to fertility, growth, and renewal. With this being said, not all viewers of the piece will be aware of this specific correlation, but they will understand how green is also commonly used to suggest themes of nature and earthly elements. But the most peculiar thing about this form is unlike the rest of the bodies, as they do not hold clear gendered markings. When taking into account the thematic coloration and lack of a cisgendered depiction, the circular formation around the silhouette then suggests that this figure is distinctly circumventing or avoiding following traditional gendered traits and roles. The energetic halo that engulfs the figure acts to separate them from the rest of the conforming population, and the green suggests how nonconforming to strictly feminine or masculine roles should also be perceived as natural. 

For McVicker his use of a universal language came out of the turmoil and division of the world due to the after math of World War II. In searching for ways to bring people back together, he saw his art as an opportunity to showcase the universal experience of the social dynamics of gender nonconformity and conformity, constructing the common themes of identity and individuality. 

We are living in a world that places value on language, and with the rise of technology the globe has been more connected than ever. While we are successful at translating languages we might not understand, we do not always get the opportunity to fully understand individuals cross culturally on a completely emotional and expressive level. However when it comes to art, it carries no language barriers, as the artist has the power to reach all people regardless of what language they speak. In this case,  McVicker relies on the ability to evoke personal emotions, thoughts, or ideologies as his messages are left up to the interpretation of the viewer. The visual representation of human beginnings can be recognized on a significant and universal basis, and yet it still has the equally powerful ability to connect with individuals from a concentrated personal perception. 

Come visit this beautiful and complex print in person! The exhibition Centering Modernism will be on display until January 29th, 2019. 

Gianna Martucci-Fink is a Junior at OSU working towards her Bachelors degree in Fine Arts with a minor in Art History. She has been at the OSU Museum of Art for two years and works as an Education Intern. 

[golicit]

Time for Another Round of Securities Class Action Litigation Reform?

In 1995, Congress passed the Private Securities Class Action Reform Act (PLSRA) over President Clinton’s veto in order to try to address perceived securities class action litigation abuses. According to a new report from the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform entitled “A Rising Threat: The New Class Actions Racket That Harms Investors and the Economy,” despite the PSLRA’s reforms, many of the same abuses that led to the PSLRA’s enactment have returned, and as a result the securities class action system is “spinning out of control.” According to the report, the time has come for Congress to intervene again to curb “abusive practices that enable the filing of unjustified actions.” The Institute’s October 23, 2018 report can be found here. 

  The “Skyrocketing” Number of Securities Lawsuit Filings

As evidence of the return of “abuses eerily similar to those of the 1990s,” the report cites a number of factors, including most notably the “skyrocketing” number of securities class action lawsuits. As I have noted on this blog, the number of securities class action lawsuit filings in 2017 was at historically high levels, and the torrid pace of filings continued in the first half of 2018. The number of filings this year are on pace to end the year close to last year’s record setting levels. The rate of litigation – that is, the number of lawsuits relative to the number of publicly traded companies – is even more alarming; with the litigation rate in recent months exceeding 8%, the likelihood of an individual publicly traded company getting hit with a securities suit is higher than it has ever been.

  According to the report, not only is the number of lawsuit filings soaring, the lawsuits “are again filed without regard to their merit.” The report notes that whereas in the past, securities class action lawsuits were filed based upon allegations of financial misrepresentations, today “a huge proportion” of the class actions are being filed either based on (1) proposed M&A transactions, or (2) headline-grabbing events harming a company’s underlying business.

  The Increase in the Number of Federal Court Merger Objection Lawsuits

With regard to the M&A litigation, the report document notes, as I have previously noted on this blog, that a huge percentage of M&A deals draw at least one lawsuit. The huge percentage of deals being targeted by itself “demonstrates that suits are filed with regard to the underlying merits,” as it is obvious that 80% of the deals do not involve fraud. The plaintiffs’ lawyers file these lawsuits because the short deal timelines provide incentives for defendants to quickly settle. Academic studies cited in the report have substantiated that the types of disclosure-only settlements by which most of these cases are settled provide little value to shareholders and the additional disclosures do not affect shareholder voting.

  In recognition of these abuses, Delaware’s courts have evinced their hostility to merger objection lawsuits, as a result of which the case increasingly are being filed in federal court. In order to avoid judicial scrutiny of disclosure-only settlements, the federal merger objection cases increasingly are being settled based on the defendants’ agreement to provide supplemental disclosures (making the case “moot”) and the defendants’ willingness to pay the plaintiffs’ lawyers a “mootness fee,” which typically are made without court approval.

  The Rise in the Number of Event-Driven Securities Lawsuits

With regard to the second major securities litigation trend driving the increase in the number of securities class action lawsuit filings, the report notes that there has been “a dramatic growth in the new category of event-driven claims.” These kinds of claims allege that the defendant company misrepresented the risk that the adverse event would occur. The report cites as an example of these types of lawsuits the securities suit that was filed against Arconic following the Grenfell Tower fire. Other examples include the securities suits filed against companies following revelations of regulatory investigations; following disclosures of alleged sexual misconduct involving senior company management; or involving news of a cybersecurity incident at the company.

  The plaintiffs’ lawyers are drawn to these kinds of event-drive suits because the event typically is accompanied by a sharp drop in the company’s share price. However, the “merits of these claims are highly suspect.” The report cites an article by Columbia Law School Professor John Coffee saying that these event-driven securities suits often are “fatally deficient” with respect to allegations of both scienter and loss causation. The report also cites the comments of observers that the scope of event-driven litigation could expand rapidly.

  The Overall Decline in the Merits of Lawsuits Filed

The upshot in the proliferation of these new and expanding categories of securities class action lawsuit filings is that at the same time that the number of lawsuits has increased, the merits of the lawsuits filed has declined. The report cites an increasing rate at which the securities suits are dismissed – from about one-third to forty percent in the early years after the passage of the PSLRA to over 50% in the most recent years – as confirming that “plaintiffs’ lawyers are filing more legally-unjustified claims.” Moreover, the cases that survive or that otherwise settle increasingly are settled on a nuisance value basis, further underscoring the overall lack of merit of many of the cases that are being filed.

  The Harm to Investors

This proliferation of “abusive securities class actions” is “hurting investors, not benefiting them.” In support of its assertion that the increasing number of lawsuits is hurting investors, the report cites a recent study by Chubb showing that between 2012 and 2016 the aggregate cost to companies of resolving M&A lawsuits – whether or not they settle or are dismissed – has increase by significant amounts. The report also cites academic studies concluding that even where securities litigation results in a cash settlement, the settlement itself represents little more than a shift of funds from one set of shareholders.

  The Need for Additional Congressional Reform

The report contends that “the same sort of abusive practices” that led Congress to enact the PSLRA “are again in full flower and require Congressional attention.” In support of this assertion, the report details how the goals of the PSLRA’s lead plaintiff provisions have been undermined. In the lead plaintiff provision, Congress sought to encourage institutional investors to become involved in controlling securities lawsuits. However, increasingly the lead plaintiff in securities suits either is an individual or a public pension fund whose leaders have received political contributions from the plaintiffs’ law firms. As a result, there is a “missing monitor” in many shareholder lawsuits, which in turn may help to explain why plaintiffs’ lawyers are able to file so many lawsuits that are dismissed or settled for nuisance value. Either way, the lawsuits “are imposing a cost on the system and ultimately on shareholders, who are its intended beneficiaries.”

  The report concludes that “the securities class action litigation racket is plainly inflicting serious harm on investors, companies, capital markets, and our entire economy.” The report argues that Congress should enact reform legislation that would deter the filing of “meritless cases”’; ensure that cases are brought because investors injured by fraud seek redress, not because “plaintiffs’ lawyers need additional ‘inventory’; and “prohibit abusive practices that undermine the ability of parties and the courts to address the merits of securities class action claims.”

  Discussion

The report cites a number of litigation trends and developments that have been highlighted on this blog. (Indeed, in many cases, this blog is the source on which the report is relying for some of its analysis. And, yes, I am very appreciative of the report’s very kind props, thank you very much. ) Like the report’s authors, I too have been alarmed by the dramatic rise in the number of securities class actions. For that reason, I agree that it could be time for Congress to consider whether additional securities class action reforms may be warranted.

  It is probably worth noting that there is a sort of pendulum swing that seems to govern the periodic pushes for securities litigation reform. The pendulum swung in favor of reform in 1995 with the PSLRA. After the rash of corporate scandals at the beginning of the last decade, the pendulum swing resulted, in 2002, in the Sarbanes Oxley Act. After the global financial crisis, the pendulum swing resulted, in 2010, in the Dodd-Frank Act. In between the pendulum swings in favor of reform, the pendulum swung in the opposite direction, in favor of trying to encourage investment and capital raising. Thus, just two years after the D0dd-Frank Act, the pendulum swing resulted in the JOBS Act (which Congress has since amended several times).

  It could be that with the accumulating evidence that is faithfully compiled in this report, the pendulum may have swung back again, in favor of reform. If you look at the pattern from the PSLRA to Sarbanes Oxley to Dodd Frank, the pendulum swing intervals are about seven or eight years. So the Institute’s call for reform appears to be right on schedule.

  While I agree in many respects with the report’s analysis, I do have some points of disagreement. One concern relates to the conclusions the report draws about the increasing numbers of dismissals. It could be, as the report argues, that the increasing dismissal rate could be due to a declining overall quality of securities suit filings. However, it is possible that there are other factors that might explain the increased dismissal rate, at least in part. The increased dismissal rate could also be due to changes in U.S. Supreme Court case law interpreting the PSLRA’s reforms.

  To cite just one example, in 2007, the Supreme Court held in the Tellabs case that under the PSLRA’s heightened pleading standard that a securities fraud complaint “will survive only if a reasonable person would deem the inference of scienter cogent and at least as compelling as any plausible opposing inference one could draw from the facts alleged.” This articulation of the heightened requirements for pleading scienter undoubtedly led to an increased number of dismissals.

  The Tellabs decision is only one of a series of rulings that increased the plaintiffs’ pleading burdens in securities suits. Arguably this changing legal landscape could explain, at least in part, the increase in the dismissal rate in more recent years as compared to the dismissal rate in the early years after the PSLRA’s enactment.

  The report does not go into detail on the question of what specific reforms might be best calculated to eliminate the perceived abuses. The report is obviously leaving for another day the question of what reforms are indicated. Just the same, I do think it is worth noting here that there may be different answers for different aspects of the supposed evils identified in the report. For example, I believe the obvious abuses of merger objection litigation could be dealt with separately, and arguably more easily, than some of the other problems identified.

  For example, Congress could easily pass legislation specifying that there is no private right of action under Section 14 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934; that simple move would eliminate federal court merger objection litigation and force claimants back into state court and the growing state court hostility to merger objection lawsuits.

  Although I generally agree with many of the observations in the report, I do feel that there are some countervailing considerations.

  For example, while there are many lawsuits that arguably could be characterized as abusive, not all securities lawsuit filings are abusive. Not all securities lawsuits lack merit. I make this point to emphasize that whatever reforms are considered or enacted, the revisions should not sweep too broadly and risk discouraging the meritorious lawsuits that are filed. To be sure, the report acknowledges this concern at various points, commenting, for example, that among the goals of any Congressional reform would be the objective to “encourage the cases involving real fraud.”

  This latter point of not discouraging meritorious lawsuits fits within a larger consideration relating to our U.S. securities marketplace. One of the reasons why the U.S. securities marketplace is as respected as it is, and one of the reasons why a listing on a U.S. exchange is perceived as a mark of status and reliability, is that our marketplace is viewed as transparent and having integrity. One of the reasons our marketplace is viewed this way is that scrutiny is a very significant part of having a U.S. listing. This level of purifying scrutiny comes not only from the official government regulator, but also from the additional protections afforded through private securities litigation.

  The U.S. Supreme Court has frequently noted that our system of private securities litigation is an important accessory part of the system for policing the integrity of our securities marketplace. (Indeed, the Court stressed that very point in the Tellabs decision — private rights of action under the securities laws, the Court said, are a “necessary supplement to Commission action.”)  I stress that point here to emphasize that any reforms should take into account the important role that private securities litigation provides in policing our securities marketplace.

  All of that said, I think the Institute’s report is interesting, includes a number of important observations, and is worth reading at length and in full. The report’s authors have pulled together a number of important trends and the overall impression is concerning. Clearly, and at a minimum, these are issues that should be discussed, and arguably even addressed.

The post Time for Another Round of Securities Class Action Litigation Reform? appeared first on The D&O Diary.

Time for Another Round of Securities Class Action Litigation Reform? published first on

[lawfultruth]

Time for Another Round of Securities Class Action Litigation Reform?

In 1995, Congress passed the Private Securities Class Action Reform Act (PLSRA) over President Clinton’s veto in order to try to address perceived securities class action litigation abuses. According to a new report from the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform entitled “A Rising Threat: The New Class Actions Racket That Harms Investors and the Economy,” despite the PSLRA’s reforms, many of the same abuses that led to the PSLRA’s enactment have returned, and as a result the securities class action system is “spinning out of control.” According to the report, the time has come for Congress to intervene again to curb “abusive practices that enable the filing of unjustified actions.” The Institute’s October 23, 2018 report can be found here. 

  The “Skyrocketing” Number of Securities Lawsuit Filings

As evidence of the return of “abuses eerily similar to those of the 1990s,” the report cites a number of factors, including most notably the “skyrocketing” number of securities class action lawsuits. As I have noted on this blog, the number of securities class action lawsuit filings in 2017 was at historically high levels, and the torrid pace of filings continued in the first half of 2018. The number of filings this year are on pace to end the year close to last year’s record setting levels. The rate of litigation – that is, the number of lawsuits relative to the number of publicly traded companies – is even more alarming; with the litigation rate in recent months exceeding 8%, the likelihood of an individual publicly traded company getting hit with a securities suit is higher than it has ever been.

  According to the report, not only is the number of lawsuit filings soaring, the lawsuits “are again filed without regard to their merit.” The report notes that whereas in the past, securities class action lawsuits were filed based upon allegations of financial misrepresentations, today “a huge proportion” of the class actions are being filed either based on (1) proposed M&A transactions, or (2) headline-grabbing events harming a company’s underlying business.

  The Increase in the Number of Federal Court Merger Objection Lawsuits

With regard to the M&A litigation, the report document notes, as I have previously noted on this blog, that a huge percentage of M&A deals draw at least one lawsuit. The huge percentage of deals being targeted by itself “demonstrates that suits are filed with regard to the underlying merits,” as it is obvious that 80% of the deals do not involve fraud. The plaintiffs’ lawyers file these lawsuits because the short deal timelines provide incentives for defendants to quickly settle. Academic studies cited in the report have substantiated that the types of disclosure-only settlements by which most of these cases are settled provide little value to shareholders and the additional disclosures do not affect shareholder voting.

  In recognition of these abuses, Delaware’s courts have evinced their hostility to merger objection lawsuits, as a result of which the case increasingly are being filed in federal court. In order to avoid judicial scrutiny of disclosure-only settlements, the federal merger objection cases increasingly are being settled based on the defendants’ agreement to provide supplemental disclosures (making the case “moot”) and the defendants’ willingness to pay the plaintiffs’ lawyers a “mootness fee,” which typically are made without court approval.

  The Rise in the Number of Event-Driven Securities Lawsuits

With regard to the second major securities litigation trend driving the increase in the number of securities class action lawsuit filings, the report notes that there has been “a dramatic growth in the new category of event-driven claims.” These kinds of claims allege that the defendant company misrepresented the risk that the adverse event would occur. The report cites as an example of these types of lawsuits the securities suit that was filed against Arconic following the Grenfell Tower fire. Other examples include the securities suits filed against companies following revelations of regulatory investigations; following disclosures of alleged sexual misconduct involving senior company management; or involving news of a cybersecurity incident at the company.

  The plaintiffs’ lawyers are drawn to these kinds of event-drive suits because the event typically is accompanied by a sharp drop in the company’s share price. However, the “merits of these claims are highly suspect.” The report cites an article by Columbia Law School Professor John Coffee saying that these event-driven securities suits often are “fatally deficient” with respect to allegations of both scienter and loss causation. The report also cites the comments of observers that the scope of event-driven litigation could expand rapidly.

  The Overall Decline in the Merits of Lawsuits Filed

The upshot in the proliferation of these new and expanding categories of securities class action lawsuit filings is that at the same time that the number of lawsuits has increased, the merits of the lawsuits filed has declined. The report cites an increasing rate at which the securities suits are dismissed – from about one-third to forty percent in the early years after the passage of the PSLRA to over 50% in the most recent years – as confirming that “plaintiffs’ lawyers are filing more legally-unjustified claims.” Moreover, the cases that survive or that otherwise settle increasingly are settled on a nuisance value basis, further underscoring the overall lack of merit of many of the cases that are being filed.

  The Harm to Investors

This proliferation of “abusive securities class actions” is “hurting investors, not benefiting them.” In support of its assertion that the increasing number of lawsuits is hurting investors, the report cites a recent study by Chubb showing that between 2012 and 2016 the aggregate cost to companies of resolving M&A lawsuits – whether or not they settle or are dismissed – has increase by significant amounts. The report also cites academic studies concluding that even where securities litigation results in a cash settlement, the settlement itself represents little more than a shift of funds from one set of shareholders.

  The Need for Additional Congressional Reform

The report contends that “the same sort of abusive practices” that led Congress to enact the PSLRA “are again in full flower and require Congressional attention.” In support of this assertion, the report details how the goals of the PSLRA’s lead plaintiff provisions have been undermined. In the lead plaintiff provision, Congress sought to encourage institutional investors to become involved in controlling securities lawsuits. However, increasingly the lead plaintiff in securities suits either is an individual or a public pension fund whose leaders have received political contributions from the plaintiffs’ law firms. As a result, there is a “missing monitor” in many shareholder lawsuits, which in turn may help to explain why plaintiffs’ lawyers are able to file so many lawsuits that are dismissed or settled for nuisance value. Either way, the lawsuits “are imposing a cost on the system and ultimately on shareholders, who are its intended beneficiaries.”

  The report concludes that “the securities class action litigation racket is plainly inflicting serious harm on investors, companies, capital markets, and our entire economy.” The report argues that Congress should enact reform legislation that would deter the filing of “meritless cases”’; ensure that cases are brought because investors injured by fraud seek redress, not because “plaintiffs’ lawyers need additional ‘inventory’; and “prohibit abusive practices that undermine the ability of parties and the courts to address the merits of securities class action claims.”

  Discussion

The report cites a number of litigation trends and developments that have been highlighted on this blog. (Indeed, in many cases, this blog is the source on which the report is relying for some of its analysis. And, yes, I am very appreciative of the report’s very kind props, thank you very much. ) Like the report’s authors, I too have been alarmed by the dramatic rise in the number of securities class actions. For that reason, I agree that it could be time for Congress to consider whether additional securities class action reforms may be warranted.

  It is probably worth noting that there is a sort of pendulum swing that seems to govern the periodic pushes for securities litigation reform. The pendulum swung in favor of reform in 1995 with the PSLRA. After the rash of corporate scandals at the beginning of the last decade, the pendulum swing resulted, in 2002, in the Sarbanes Oxley Act. After the global financial crisis, the pendulum swing resulted, in 2010, in the Dodd-Frank Act. In between the pendulum swings in favor of reform, the pendulum swung in the opposite direction, in favor of trying to encourage investment and capital raising. Thus, just two years after the D0dd-Frank Act, the pendulum swing resulted in the JOBS Act (which Congress has since amended several times).

  It could be that with the accumulating evidence that is faithfully compiled in this report, the pendulum may have swung back again, in favor of reform. If you look at the pattern from the PSLRA to Sarbanes Oxley to Dodd Frank, the pendulum swing intervals are about seven or eight years. So the Institute’s call for reform appears to be right on schedule.

  While I agree in many respects with the report’s analysis, I do have some points of disagreement. One concern relates to the conclusions the report draws about the increasing numbers of dismissals. It could be, as the report argues, that the increasing dismissal rate could be due to a declining overall quality of securities suit filings. However, it is possible that there are other factors that might explain the increased dismissal rate, at least in part. The increased dismissal rate could also be due to changes in U.S. Supreme Court case law interpreting the PSLRA’s reforms.

  To cite just one example, in 2007, the Supreme Court held in the Tellabs case that under the PSLRA’s heightened pleading standard that a securities fraud complaint “will survive only if a reasonable person would deem the inference of scienter cogent and at least as compelling as any plausible opposing inference one could draw from the facts alleged.” This articulation of the heightened requirements for pleading scienter undoubtedly led to an increased number of dismissals.

  The Tellabs decision is only one of a series of rulings that increased the plaintiffs’ pleading burdens in securities suits. Arguably this changing legal landscape could explain, at least in part, the increase in the dismissal rate in more recent years as compared to the dismissal rate in the early years after the PSLRA’s enactment.

  The report does not go into detail on the question of what specific reforms might be best calculated to eliminate the perceived abuses. The report is obviously leaving for another day the question of what reforms are indicated. Just the same, I do think it is worth noting here that there may be different answers for different aspects of the supposed evils identified in the report. For example, I believe the obvious abuses of merger objection litigation could be dealt with separately, and arguably more easily, than some of the other problems identified.

  For example, Congress could easily pass legislation specifying that there is no private right of action under Section 14 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934; that simple move would eliminate federal court merger objection litigation and force claimants back into state court and the growing state court hostility to merger objection lawsuits.

  Although I generally agree with many of the observations in the report, I do feel that there are some countervailing considerations.

  For example, while there are many lawsuits that arguably could be characterized as abusive, not all securities lawsuit filings are abusive. Not all securities lawsuits lack merit. I make this point to emphasize that whatever reforms are considered or enacted, the revisions should not sweep too broadly and risk discouraging the meritorious lawsuits that are filed. To be sure, the report acknowledges this concern at various points, commenting, for example, that among the goals of any Congressional reform would be the objective to “encourage the cases involving real fraud.”

  This latter point of not discouraging meritorious lawsuits fits within a larger consideration relating to our U.S. securities marketplace. One of the reasons why the U.S. securities marketplace is as respected as it is, and one of the reasons why a listing on a U.S. exchange is perceived as a mark of status and reliability, is that our marketplace is viewed as transparent and having integrity. One of the reasons our marketplace is viewed this way is that scrutiny is a very significant part of having a U.S. listing. This level of purifying scrutiny comes not only from the official government regulator, but also from the additional protections afforded through private securities litigation.

  The U.S. Supreme Court has frequently noted that our system of private securities litigation is an important accessory part of the system for policing the integrity of our securities marketplace. (Indeed, the Court stressed that very point in the Tellabs decision — private rights of action under the securities laws, the Court said, are a “necessary supplement to Commission action.”)  I stress that point here to emphasize that any reforms should take into account the important role that private securities litigation provides in policing our securities marketplace.

  All of that said, I think the Institute’s report is interesting, includes a number of important observations, and is worth reading at length and in full. The report’s authors have pulled together a number of important trends and the overall impression is concerning. Clearly, and at a minimum, these are issues that should be discussed, and arguably even addressed.

The post Time for Another Round of Securities Class Action Litigation Reform? appeared first on The D&O Diary.

Time for Another Round of Securities Class Action Litigation Reform? syndicated from https://ronenkurzfeldweb.wordpress.com/

[simonconsultancypage]

Time for Another Round of Securities Class Action Litigation Reform?

In 1995, Congress passed the Private Securities Class Action Reform Act (PLSRA) over President Clinton’s veto in order to try to address perceived securities class action litigation abuses. According to a new report from the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform entitled “A Rising Threat: The New Class Actions Racket That Harms Investors and the Economy,” despite the PSLRA’s reforms, many of the same abuses that led to the PSLRA’s enactment have returned, and as a result the securities class action system is “spinning out of control.” According to the report, the time has come for Congress to intervene again to curb “abusive practices that enable the filing of unjustified actions.” The Institute’s October 23, 2018 report can be found here. 

  The “Skyrocketing” Number of Securities Lawsuit Filings

As evidence of the return of “abuses eerily similar to those of the 1990s,” the report cites a number of factors, including most notably the “skyrocketing” number of securities class action lawsuits. As I have noted on this blog, the number of securities class action lawsuit filings in 2017 was at historically high levels, and the torrid pace of filings continued in the first half of 2018. The number of filings this year are on pace to end the year close to last year’s record setting levels. The rate of litigation – that is, the number of lawsuits relative to the number of publicly traded companies – is even more alarming; with the litigation rate in recent months exceeding 8%, the likelihood of an individual publicly traded company getting hit with a securities suit is higher than it has ever been.

  According to the report, not only is the number of lawsuit filings soaring, the lawsuits “are again filed without regard to their merit.” The report notes that whereas in the past, securities class action lawsuits were filed based upon allegations of financial misrepresentations, today “a huge proportion” of the class actions are being filed either based on (1) proposed M&A transactions, or (2) headline-grabbing events harming a company’s underlying business.

  The Increase in the Number of Federal Court Merger Objection Lawsuits

With regard to the M&A litigation, the report document notes, as I have previously noted on this blog, that a huge percentage of M&A deals draw at least one lawsuit. The huge percentage of deals being targeted by itself “demonstrates that suits are filed with regard to the underlying merits,” as it is obvious that 80% of the deals do not involve fraud. The plaintiffs’ lawyers file these lawsuits because the short deal timelines provide incentives for defendants to quickly settle. Academic studies cited in the report have substantiated that the types of disclosure-only settlements by which most of these cases are settled provide little value to shareholders and the additional disclosures do not affect shareholder voting.

  In recognition of these abuses, Delaware’s courts have evinced their hostility to merger objection lawsuits, as a result of which the case increasingly are being filed in federal court. In order to avoid judicial scrutiny of disclosure-only settlements, the federal merger objection cases increasingly are being settled based on the defendants’ agreement to provide supplemental disclosures (making the case “moot”) and the defendants’ willingness to pay the plaintiffs’ lawyers a “mootness fee,” which typically are made without court approval.

  The Rise in the Number of Event-Driven Securities Lawsuits

With regard to the second major securities litigation trend driving the increase in the number of securities class action lawsuit filings, the report notes that there has been “a dramatic growth in the new category of event-driven claims.” These kinds of claims allege that the defendant company misrepresented the risk that the adverse event would occur. The report cites as an example of these types of lawsuits the securities suit that was filed against Arconic following the Grenfell Tower fire. Other examples include the securities suits filed against companies following revelations of regulatory investigations; following disclosures of alleged sexual misconduct involving senior company management; or involving news of a cybersecurity incident at the company.

  The plaintiffs’ lawyers are drawn to these kinds of event-drive suits because the event typically is accompanied by a sharp drop in the company’s share price. However, the “merits of these claims are highly suspect.” The report cites an article by Columbia Law School Professor John Coffee saying that these event-driven securities suits often are “fatally deficient” with respect to allegations of both scienter and loss causation. The report also cites the comments of observers that the scope of event-driven litigation could expand rapidly.

  The Overall Decline in the Merits of Lawsuits Filed

The upshot in the proliferation of these new and expanding categories of securities class action lawsuit filings is that at the same time that the number of lawsuits has increased, the merits of the lawsuits filed has declined. The report cites an increasing rate at which the securities suits are dismissed – from about one-third to forty percent in the early years after the passage of the PSLRA to over 50% in the most recent years – as confirming that “plaintiffs’ lawyers are filing more legally-unjustified claims.” Moreover, the cases that survive or that otherwise settle increasingly are settled on a nuisance value basis, further underscoring the overall lack of merit of many of the cases that are being filed.

  The Harm to Investors

This proliferation of “abusive securities class actions” is “hurting investors, not benefiting them.” In support of its assertion that the increasing number of lawsuits is hurting investors, the report cites a recent study by Chubb showing that between 2012 and 2016 the aggregate cost to companies of resolving M&A lawsuits – whether or not they settle or are dismissed – has increase by significant amounts. The report also cites academic studies concluding that even where securities litigation results in a cash settlement, the settlement itself represents little more than a shift of funds from one set of shareholders.

  The Need for Additional Congressional Reform

The report contends that “the same sort of abusive practices” that led Congress to enact the PSLRA “are again in full flower and require Congressional attention.” In support of this assertion, the report details how the goals of the PSLRA’s lead plaintiff provisions have been undermined. In the lead plaintiff provision, Congress sought to encourage institutional investors to become involved in controlling securities lawsuits. However, increasingly the lead plaintiff in securities suits either is an individual or a public pension fund whose leaders have received political contributions from the plaintiffs’ law firms. As a result, there is a “missing monitor” in many shareholder lawsuits, which in turn may help to explain why plaintiffs’ lawyers are able to file so many lawsuits that are dismissed or settled for nuisance value. Either way, the lawsuits “are imposing a cost on the system and ultimately on shareholders, who are its intended beneficiaries.”

  The report concludes that “the securities class action litigation racket is plainly inflicting serious harm on investors, companies, capital markets, and our entire economy.” The report argues that Congress should enact reform legislation that would deter the filing of “meritless cases”’; ensure that cases are brought because investors injured by fraud seek redress, not because “plaintiffs’ lawyers need additional ‘inventory’; and “prohibit abusive practices that undermine the ability of parties and the courts to address the merits of securities class action claims.”

  Discussion

The report cites a number of litigation trends and developments that have been highlighted on this blog. (Indeed, in many cases, this blog is the source on which the report is relying for some of its analysis. And, yes, I am very appreciative of the report’s very kind props, thank you very much. ) Like the report’s authors, I too have been alarmed by the dramatic rise in the number of securities class actions. For that reason, I agree that it could be time for Congress to consider whether additional securities class action reforms may be warranted.

  It is probably worth noting that there is a sort of pendulum swing that seems to govern the periodic pushes for securities litigation reform. The pendulum swung in favor of reform in 1995 with the PSLRA. After the rash of corporate scandals at the beginning of the last decade, the pendulum swing resulted, in 2002, in the Sarbanes Oxley Act. After the global financial crisis, the pendulum swing resulted, in 2010, in the Dodd-Frank Act. In between the pendulum swings in favor of reform, the pendulum swung in the opposite direction, in favor of trying to encourage investment and capital raising. Thus, just two years after the D0dd-Frank Act, the pendulum swing resulted in the JOBS Act (which Congress has since amended several times).

  It could be that with the accumulating evidence that is faithfully compiled in this report, the pendulum may have swung back again, in favor of reform. If you look at the pattern from the PSLRA to Sarbanes Oxley to Dodd Frank, the pendulum swing intervals are about seven or eight years. So the Institute’s call for reform appears to be right on schedule.

  While I agree in many respects with the report’s analysis, I do have some points of disagreement. One concern relates to the conclusions the report draws about the increasing numbers of dismissals. It could be, as the report argues, that the increasing dismissal rate could be due to a declining overall quality of securities suit filings. However, it is possible that there are other factors that might explain the increased dismissal rate, at least in part. The increased dismissal rate could also be due to changes in U.S. Supreme Court case law interpreting the PSLRA’s reforms.

  To cite just one example, in 2007, the Supreme Court held in the Tellabs case that under the PSLRA’s heightened pleading standard that a securities fraud complaint “will survive only if a reasonable person would deem the inference of scienter cogent and at least as compelling as any plausible opposing inference one could draw from the facts alleged.” This articulation of the heightened requirements for pleading scienter undoubtedly led to an increased number of dismissals.

  The Tellabs decision is only one of a series of rulings that increased the plaintiffs’ pleading burdens in securities suits. Arguably this changing legal landscape could explain, at least in part, the increase in the dismissal rate in more recent years as compared to the dismissal rate in the early years after the PSLRA’s enactment.

  The report does not go into detail on the question of what specific reforms might be best calculated to eliminate the perceived abuses. The report is obviously leaving for another day the question of what reforms are indicated. Just the same, I do think it is worth noting here that there may be different answers for different aspects of the supposed evils identified in the report. For example, I believe the obvious abuses of merger objection litigation could be dealt with separately, and arguably more easily, than some of the other problems identified.

  For example, Congress could easily pass legislation specifying that there is no private right of action under Section 14 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934; that simple move would eliminate federal court merger objection litigation and force claimants back into state court and the growing state court hostility to merger objection lawsuits.

  Although I generally agree with many of the observations in the report, I do feel that there are some countervailing considerations.

  For example, while there are many lawsuits that arguably could be characterized as abusive, not all securities lawsuit filings are abusive. Not all securities lawsuits lack merit. I make this point to emphasize that whatever reforms are considered or enacted, the revisions should not sweep too broadly and risk discouraging the meritorious lawsuits that are filed. To be sure, the report acknowledges this concern at various points, commenting, for example, that among the goals of any Congressional reform would be the objective to “encourage the cases involving real fraud.”

  This latter point of not discouraging meritorious lawsuits fits within a larger consideration relating to our U.S. securities marketplace. One of the reasons why the U.S. securities marketplace is as respected as it is, and one of the reasons why a listing on a U.S. exchange is perceived as a mark of status and reliability, is that our marketplace is viewed as transparent and having integrity. One of the reasons our marketplace is viewed this way is that scrutiny is a very significant part of having a U.S. listing. This level of purifying scrutiny comes not only from the official government regulator, but also from the additional protections afforded through private securities litigation.

  The U.S. Supreme Court has frequently noted that our system of private securities litigation is an important accessory part of the system for policing the integrity of our securities marketplace. (Indeed, the Court stressed that very point in the Tellabs decision — private rights of action under the securities laws, the Court said, are a “necessary supplement to Commission action.”)  I stress that point here to emphasize that any reforms should take into account the important role that private securities litigation provides in policing our securities marketplace.

  All of that said, I think the Institute’s report is interesting, includes a number of important observations, and is worth reading at length and in full. The report’s authors have pulled together a number of important trends and the overall impression is concerning. Clearly, and at a minimum, these are issues that should be discussed, and arguably even addressed.

The post Time for Another Round of Securities Class Action Litigation Reform? appeared first on The D&O Diary.

Time for Another Round of Securities Class Action Litigation Reform? published first on http://simonconsultancypage.tumblr.com/

[beatrixpotterstories]

My Kinsman, Major Molineux

"My Kinsman, Major Molineux" was written in 1831 and first published in 1832. It was later included in the 1852 edition of The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales, the final short story collection of short stories that was published while Hawthorne was still living. I have characterized it with its original publication date of 1832, but belonging to his final collection.

AFTER the kings of Great Britain had assumed the right of appointing the colonial governors, the measures of the latter seldom met with the ready and generous approbation which had been paid to those of their predecessors, under the original charters. The people looked with most jealous scrutiny to the exercise of power which did not emanate from themselves, and they usually rewarded their rulers with slender gratitude for the compliances by which, in softening their instructions from beyond the sea, they had incurred the reprehension of those who gave them. The annals of Massachusetts Bay will inform us, that of six governors in the space of about forty years from the surrender of the old charter, under James II., two were imprisoned by a popular insurrection; a third, as Hutchinson inclines to believe, was driven from the province by the whizzing of a musket-ball; a fourth, in the opinion of the same historian, was hastened to his grave by continual bickerings with the House of Representatives; and the remaining two, as well as their successors, till the Revolution, were favored with few and brief intervals of peaceful sway. The inferior members of the court party, in times of high political excitement, led scarcely a more desirable life. These remarks may serve as a preface to the following adventures, which chanced upon a summer night, not far from a hundred years ago. The reader, in order to avoid a long and dry detail of colonial affairs, is requested to dispense with an account of the train of circumstances that had caused much temporary inflammation of the popular mind.

It was near nine o'clock of a moonlight evening, when a boat crossed the ferry with a single passenger, who had obtained his conveyance at that unusual hour by the promise of an extra fare. While he stood on the landing-place, searching in either pocket for the means of fulfilling his agreement, the ferryman lifted a lantern, by the aid of which, and the newly risen moon, he took a very accurate survey of the stranger's figure. He was a youth of barely eighteen years, evidently country-bred, and now, as it should seem, upon his first visit to town. He was clad in a coarse gray coat, well worn, but in excellent repair; his under garments were durably constructed of leather, and fitted tight to a pair of serviceable and well-shaped limbs; his stockings of blue yarn were the incontrovertible work of a mother or a sister; and on his head was a three-cornered hat, which in its better days had perhaps sheltered the graver brow of the lad's father. Under his left arm was a heavy cudgel formed of an oak sapling, and retaining a part of the hardened root; and his equipment was completed by a wallet, not so abundantly stocked as to incommode the vigorous shoulders on which it hung. Brown, curly hair, well-shaped features, and bright, cheerful eyes were nature's gifts, and worth all that art could have done for his adornment.

The youth, one of whose names was Robin, finally drew from his pocket the half of a little province bill of five shillings, which, in the depreciation in that sort of currency, did but satisfy the ferryman's demand, with the surplus of a sexangular piece of parchment, valued at three pence. He then walked forward into the town, with as light a step as if his day's journey had not already exceeded thirty miles, and with as eager an eye as if he were entering London city, instead of the little metropolis of a New England colony. Before Robin had proceeded far, however, it occurred to him that he knew not whither to direct his steps; so he paused, and looked up and down the narrow street, scrutinizing the small and mean wooden buildings that were scattered on either side.

``This low hovel cannot be my kinsman's dwelling,'' thought he, ``nor yonder old house, where the moonlight enters at the broken casement; and truly I see none hereabouts that might be worthy of him. It would have been wise to inquire my way of the ferryman, and doubtless he would have gone with me, and earned a shilling from the Major for his pains. But the next man I meet will do as well.''

He resumed his walk, and was glad to perceive that the street now became wider, and the houses more respectable in their appearance. He soon discerned a figure moving on moderately in advance, and hastened his steps to overtake it. As Robin drew nigh, he saw that the passenger was a man in years, with a full periwig of gray hair, a wide-skirted coat of dark cloth, and silk stockings rolled above his knees. He carried a long and polished cane, which he struck down perpendicularly before him at every step; and at regular intervals he uttered two successive hems, of a peculiarly solemn and sepulchral intonation. Having made these observations, Robin laid hold of the skirt of the old man's coat just when the light from the open door and windows of a barber's shop fell upon both their figures.

``Good evening to you, honored sir,'' said he, making a low bow, and still retaining his hold of the skirt. ``I pray you tell me whereabouts is the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux.''

The youth's question was uttered very loudly; and one of the barbers, whose razor was descending on a well-soaped chin, and another who was dressing a Ramillies wig, left their occupations, and came to the door. The citizen, in the mean time, turned a long-favored countenance upon Robin, and answered him in a tone of excessive anger and annoyance. His two sepulchral hems, however, broke into the very centre of his rebuke, with most singular effect, like a thought of the cold grave obtruding among wrathful passions.

``Let go my garment, fellow! I tell you, I know not the man you speak of. What! I have authority, I have -- hem, hem -- authority; and if this be the respect you show for your betters, your feet shall be brought acquainted with the stocks by daylight, tomorrow morning!''

Robin released the old man's skirt, and hastened away, pursued by an ill-mannered roar of laughter from the barber's shop. He was at first considerably surprised by the result of his question, but, being a shrewd youth, soon thought himself able to account for the mystery.

``This is some country representative,'' was his conclusion, ``who has never seen the inside of my kinsman's door, and lacks the breeding to answer a stranger civilly. The man is old, or verily -- I might be tempted to turn back and smite him on the nose. Ah, Robin, Robin! even the barber's boys laugh at you for choosing such a guide! You will be wiser in time, friend Robin.''

He now became entangled in a succession of crooked and narrow streets, which crossed each other, and meandered at no great distance from the water-side. The smell of tar was obvious to his nostrils, the masts of vessels pierced the moonlight above the tops of the buildings, and the numerous signs, which Robin paused to read, informed him that he was near the centre of business. But the streets were empty, the shops were closed, and lights were visible only in the second stories of a few dwelling-houses. At length, on the corner of a narrow lane, through which he was passing, he beheld the broad countenance of a British hero swinging before the door of an inn, whence proceeded the voices of many guests. The casement of one of the lower windows was thrown back, and a very thin curtain permitted Robin to distinguish a party at supper, round a well-furnished table. The fragrance of the good cheer steamed forth into the outer air, and the youth could not fail to recollect that the last remnant of his travelling stock of provision had yielded to his morning appetite, and that noon had found and left him dinnerless.

"Oh, that a parchment three-penny might give me a right to sit down at yonder table!'' said Robin, with a sigh. ``But the Major will make me welcome to the best of his victuals; so I will even step boldly in, and inquire my way to his dwelling.''

He entered the tavern, and was guided by the murmur of voices and the fumes of tobacco to the public-room. It was a long and low apartment, with oaken walls, grown dark in the continual smoke, and a floor which was thickly sanded, but of no immaculate purity. A number of persons -- the larger part of whom appeared to be mariners, or in some way connected with the sea -- occupied the wooden benches, or leather-bottomed chairs, conversing on various matters, and occasionally lending their attention to some topic of general interest. Three or four little groups were draining as many bowls of punch, which the West India trade had long since made a familiar drink in the colony. Others, who had the appearance of men who lived by regular and laborious handicraft, preferred the insulated bliss of an unshared potation, and became more taciturn under its influence. Nearly all, in short, evinced a predilection for the Good Creature in some of its various shapes, for this is a vice to which, as Fast Day sermons of a hundred years ago will testify, we have a long hereditary claim. The only guests to whom Robin's sympathies inclined him were two or three sheepish countrymen, who were using the inn somewhat after the fashion of a Turkish caravansary; they had gotten themselves into the darkest corner of the room, and heedless of the Nicotian atmosphere, were supping on the bread of their own ovens, and the bacon cured in their own chimney-smoke. But though Robin felt a sort of brotherhood with these strangers, his eyes were attracted from them to a person who stood near the door, holding whispered conversation with a group of ill-dressed associates. His features were separately striking almost to grotesqueness, and the whole face left a deep impression on the memory. The forehead bulged out into a double prominence, with a vale between; the nose came boldly forth in an irregular curve, and its bridge was of more than a finger's breadth; the eyebrows were deep and shaggy, and the eyes glowed beneath them like fire in a cave.

While Robin deliberated of whom to inquire respecting his kinsman's dwelling, he was accosted by the innkeeper, a little man in a stained white apron, who had come to pay his professional welcome to the stranger. Being in the second generation from a French Protestant, he seemed to have inherited the courtesy of his parent nation; but no variety of circumstances was ever known to change his voice from the one shrill note in which he now addressed Robin.

``From the country, I presume, sir?'' said he, with a profound bow. ``Beg leave to congratulate you on your arrival, and trust you intend a long stay with us. Fine town here, sir, beautiful buildings, and much that may interest a stranger. May I hope for the honor of your commands in respect to supper?''

``The man sees a family likeness! the rogue has guessed that I am related to the Major!'' thought Robin, who had hitherto experienced little superfluous civility.

All eyes were now turned on the country lad, standing at the door, in his worn three-cornered hat, gray coat, leather breeches, and blue yarn stockings, leaning on an oaken cudgel, and bearing a wallet on his back.

Robin replied to the courteous innkeeper, with such an assumption of confidence as befitted the Major's relative. ``My honest friend,'' he said, ``I shall make it a point to patronize your house on some occasion, when'' -- here he could not help lowering his voice -- ``when I may have more than a parchment three-pence in my pocket. My present business,'' continued he, speaking with lofty confidence, ``is merely to inquire my way to the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux.''

There was a sudden and general movement in the room, which Robin interpreted as expressing the eagerness of each individual to become his guide. But the innkeeper turned his eyes to a written paper on the wall, which he read, or seemed to read, with occasional recurrences to the young man's figure.

``What have we here?'' said he, breaking his speech into little dry fragments. `` `Left the house of the subscriber, bounden servant, Hezekiah Mudge, -- had on, when he went away, gray coat, leather breeches, master's third-best hat. One pound currency reward to whosoever shall lodge him in any jail of the providence.' Better trudge, boy; better trudge!''

Robin had begun to draw his hand towards the lighter end of the oak cudgel, but a strange hostility in every countenance induced him to relinquish his purpose of breaking the courteous innkeeper's head. As he turned to leave the room, he encountered a sneering glance from the bold-featured personage whom he had before noticed; and no sooner was he beyond the door, than he heard a general laugh, in which the innkeeper's voice might be distinguished, like the dropping of small stones into a kettle.

``Now, is it not strange,'' thought Robin, with his usual shrewdness, -- ``is it not strange that the confession of an empty pocket should outweigh the name of my kinsman, Major Molineux? Oh, if I had one of those grinning rascals in the woods, where I and my oak sapling grew up together, I would teach him that my arm is heavy though my purse be light!''

On turning the corner of the narrow lane, Robin found himself in a spacious street, with an unbroken line of lofty houses on each side, and a steepled building at the upper end, whence the ringing of a bell announced the hour of nine. The light of the moon, and the lamps from the numerous shop-windows, discovered people promenading on the pavement, and amongst them Robin had hoped to recognize his hitherto inscrutable relative. The result of his former inquiries made him unwilling to hazard another, in a scene of such publicity, and he determined to walk slowly and silently up the street, thrusting his face close to that of every elderly gentleman, in search of the Major's lineaments. In his progress, Robin encountered many gay and gallant figures. Embroidered garments of showy colors, enormous periwigs, gold-laced hats, and silver-hilted swords glided past him and dazzled his optics. Travelled youths, imitators of the European fine gentlemen of the period, trod jauntily along, half dancing to the fashionable tunes which they hummed, and making poor Robin ashamed of his quiet and natural gait. At length, after many pauses to examine the gorgeous display of goods in the shop-windows, and after suffering some rebukes for the impertinence of his scrutiny into people's faces, the Major's kinsman found himself near the steepled building, still unsuccessful in his search. As yet, however, he had seen only one side of the thronged street; so Robin crossed, and continued the same sort of inquisition down the opposite pavement, with stronger hopes than the philosopher seeking an honest man, but with no better fortune. He had arrived about midway towards the lower end, from which his course began, when he overheard the approach of some one who struck down a cane on the flag-stones at every step, uttering at regular intervals, two sepulchral hems.

``Mercy on us!'' quoth Robin, recognizing the sound.

Turning a corner, which chanced to be close at his right hand, he hastened to pursue his researches in some other part of the town. His patience now was wearing low, and he seemed to feel more fatigue from his rambles since he crossed the ferry, than from his journey of several days on the other side. Hunger also pleaded loudly within him, and Robin began to balance the propriety of demanding, violently, and with lifted cudgel, the necessary guidance from the first solitary passenger whom he should meet. While a resolution to this effect was gaining strength, he entered a street of mean appearance, on either side of which a row of ill-built houses was straggling towards the harbor. The moonlight fell upon no passenger along the whole extent, but in the third domicile which Robin passed there was a half-opened door, and his keen glance detected a woman's garment within.

``My luck may be better here,'' said he to himself.

Accordingly, he approached the doors and beheld it shut closer as he did so; yet an open space remained, sufficing for the fair occupant to observe the stranger, without a corresponding display on her part. All that Robin could discern was a strip of scarlet petticoat, and the occasional sparkle of an eye, as if the moonbeams were trembling on some bright thing.

``Pretty mistress,'' for I may call her so with a good conscience thought the shrewd youth, since I know nothing to the contrary, -- ``my sweet pretty mistress, will you be kind enough to tell me whereabouts I must seek the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux?''

Robin's voice was plaintive and winning, and the female, seeing nothing to be shunned in the handsome country youth, thrust open the door, and came forth into the moonlight. She was a dainty little figure with a white neck, round arms, and a slender waist, at the extremity of which her scarlet petticoat jutted out over a hoop, as if she were standing in a balloon. Moreover, her face was oval and pretty, her hair dark beneath the little cap, and her bright eyes possessed a sly freedom, which triumphed over those of Robin.

``Major Molineux dwells here,'' said this fair woman.

Now, her voice was the sweetest Robin had heard that night, yet he could not help doubting whether that sweet voice spoke Gospel truth. He looked up and down the mean street, and then surveyed the house before which they stood. It was a small, dark edifice of two stories, the second of which projected over the lower floor, and the front apartment had the aspect of a shop for petty commodities.

``Now, truly, I am in luck,'' replied Robin, cunningly, ``and so indeed is my kinsman, the Major, in having so pretty a housekeeper. But I prithee trouble him to step to the door; I will deliver him a message from his friends in the country, and then go back to my lodgings at the inn.''

``Nay, the Major has been abed this hour or more,'' said the lady of the scarlet petticoat; ``and it would be to little purpose to disturb him to-night, seeing his evening draught was of the strongest. But he is a kind-hearted man, and it would be as much as my life's worth to let a kinsman of his turn away from the door. You are the good old gentleman's very picture, and I could swear that was his rainy-weather hat. Also he has garments very much resembling those leather small-clothes. But come in, I pray, for I bid you hearty welcome in his name.

So saying, the fair and hospitable dame took our hero by the hand; and the touch was light, and the force was gentleness, and though Robin read in her eyes what he did not hear in her words, yet the slender-waisted woman in the scarlet petticoat proved stronger than the athletic country youth. She had drawn his half-willing footsteps nearly to the threshold, when the opening of a door in the neighborhood startled the Major's housekeeper, and, leaving the Major's kinsman, she vanished speedily into her own domicile. A heavy yawn preceded the appearance of a man, who, like the Moonshine of Pyramus and Thisbe, carried a lantern, needlessly aiding his sister luminary in the heavens. As he walked sleepily up the street, he turned his broad, dull face on Robin, and displayed a long staff, spiked at the end.

``Home, vagabond, home!'' said the watchman, in accents that seemed to fall asleep as soon as they were uttered. ``Home, or we'll set you in the stocks by peep of day!''

``This is the second hint of the kind,'' thought Robin. ``I wish they would end my difficulties, by setting me there to-night.''

Nevertheless, the youth felt an instinctive antipathy towards the guardian of midnight order, which at first prevented him from asking his usual question. But just when the man was about to vanish behind the corner, Robin resolved not to lose the opportunity, and shouted lustily after him, --

``I say, friend! will you guide me to the house of my kinsman, Major Molineux?''

The watchman made no reply, but turned the corner and was gone; yet Robin seemed to hear the sound of drowsy laughter stealing along the solitary street. At that moment, also, a pleasant titter saluted him from the open window above his head; he looked up, and caught the sparkle of a saucy eye; a round arm beckoned to him, and next he heard light footsteps descending the staircase within. But Robin, being of the household of a New England clergyman, was a good youth, as well as a shrewd one; so he resisted temptation, and fled away.

He now roamed desperately, and at random, through the town, almost ready to believe that a spell was on him, like that by which a wizard of his country had once kept three pursuers wandering, a whole winter night, within twenty paces of the cottage which they sought. The streets lay before him, strange and desolate, and the lights were extinguished in almost every house. Twice, however, little parties of men, among whom Robin distinguished individuals in outlandish attire, came hurrying along; but, though on both occasions, they paused to address him such intercourse did not at all enlighten his perplexity. They did but utter a few words in some language of which Robin knew nothing, and perceiving his inability to answer, bestowed a curse upon him in plain English and hastened away. Finally, the lad determined to knock at the door of every mansion that might appear worthy to be occupied by his kinsman, trusting that perseverance would overcome the fatality that had hitherto thwarted him. Firm in this resolve, he was passing beneath the walls of a church, which formed the corner of two streets, when, as he turned into the shade of its steeple, he encountered a bulky stranger muffled in a cloak. The man was proceeding with the speed of earnest business, but Robin planted himself full before him, holding the oak cudgel with both hands across his body as a bar to further passage

``Halt, honest man, and answer me a question,'' said he, very resolutely, ``Tell me, this instant, whereabouts is the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux!''

``Keep your tongue between your teeth, fool, and let me pass!'' said a deep, gruff voice, which Robin partly remembered. ``Let me pass, or I'll strike you to the earth!''

``No, no, neighbor!'' cried Robin, flourishing his cudgel, and then thrusting its larger end close to the man's muffled face. ``No, no, I'm not the fool you take me for, nor do you pass till I have an answer to my question. Whereabouts is the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux?'' The stranger, instead of attempting to force his passage, stepped back into the moonlight, unmuffled his face, and stared full into that of Robin.

``Watch here an hour, and Major Molineux will pass by,'' said he.

Robin gazed with dismay and astonishment on the unprecedented physiognomy of the speaker. The forehead with its double prominence the broad hooked nose, the shaggy eyebrows, and fiery eyes were those which he had noticed at the inn, but the man's complexion had undergone a singular, or, more properly, a twofold change. One side of the face blazed an intense red, while the other was black as midnight, the division line being in the broad bridge of the nose; and a mouth which seemed to extend from ear to ear was black or red, in contrast to the color of the cheek. The effect was as if two individual devils, a fiend of fire and a fiend of darkness, had united themselves to form this infernal visage. The stranger grinned in Robin's face, muffled his party-colored features, and was out of sight in a moment.

``Strange things we travellers see!'' ejaculated Robin.

He seated himself, however, upon the steps of the church-door, resolving to wait the appointed time for his kinsman. A few moments were consumed in philosophical speculations upon the species of man who had just left him; but having settled this point shrewdly, rationally, and satisfactorily, he was compelled to look elsewhere for his amusement. And first he threw his eyes along the street. It was of more respectable appearance than most of those into which he had wandered, and the moon, creating, like the imaginative power, a beautiful strangeness in familiar objects, gave something of romance to a scene that might not have possessed it in the light of day. The irregular and often quaint architecture of the houses, some of whose roofs were broken into numerous little peaks, while others ascended, steep and narrow, into a single point, and others again were square; the pure snow-white of some of their complexions, the aged darkness of others, and the thousand sparklings, reflected from bright substances in the walls of many; these matters engaged Robin's attention for a while, and then began to grow wearisome. Next he endeavored to define the forms of distant objects, starting away, with almost ghostly indistinctness, just as his eye appeared to grasp them, and finally he took a minute survey of an edifice which stood on the opposite side of the street, directly in front of the church-door, where he was stationed. It was a large, square mansion, distinguished from its neighbors by a balcony, which rested on tall pillars, and by an elaborate Gothic window, communicating therewith.

``Perhaps this is the very house I have been seeking,'' thought Robin.

Then he strove to speed away the time, by listening to a murmur which swept continually along the street, yet was scarcely audible, except to an unaccustomed ear like his; it was a low, dull, dreamy sound, compounded of many noises, each of which was at too great a distance to be separately heard. Robin marvelled at this snore of a sleeping town, and marvelled more whenever its continuity was broken by now and then a distant shout, apparently loud where it originated. But altogether it was a sleep-inspiring sound, and, to shake off its drowsy influence, Robin arose, and climbed a window-frame, that he might view the interior of the church. There the moonbeams came trembling in, and fell down upon the deserted pews, and extended along the quiet aisles. A fainter yet more awful radiance was hovering around the pulpit, and one solitary ray had dared to rest upon the open page of the great Bible. Had nature, in that deep hour, become a worshipper in the house which man had builded? Or was that heavenly light the visible sanctity of the place, -- visible because no earthly and impure feet were within the walls? The scene made Robin's heart shiver with a sensation of loneliness stronger than he had ever felt in the remotest depths of his native woods; so he turned away and sat down again before the door. There were graves around the church, and now an uneasy thought obtruded into Robin's breast. What if the object of his search, which had been so often and so strangely thwarted, were all the time mouldering in his shroud? What if his kinsman should glide through yonder gate, and nod and smile to him in dimly passing by?

``Oh that any breathing thing were here with me!'' said Robin.

Recalling his thoughts from this uncomfortable track, he sent them over forest, hill, and stream, and attempted to imagine how that evening of ambiguity and weariness had been spent by his father's household. He pictured them assembled at the door, beneath the tree, the great old tree, which had been spared for its huge twisted trunk and venerable shade, when a thousand leafy brethren fell. There, at the going down of the summer sun, it was his father's custom to perform domestic worship that the neighbors might come and join with him like brothers of the family, and that the wayfaring man might pause to drink at that fountain, and keep his heart pure by freshening the memory of home. Robin distinguished the seat of every individual of the little audience; he saw the good man in the midst, holding the Scriptures in the golden light that fell from the western clouds; he beheld him close the book and all rise up to pray. He heard the old thanksgivings for daily mercies, the old supplications for their continuance to which he had so often listened in weariness, but which were now among his dear remembrances. He perceived the slight inequality of his father's voice when he came to speak of the absent one; he noted how his mother turned her face to the broad and knotted trunk; how his elder brother scorned, because the beard was rough upon his upper lip; to permit his features to be moved; how the younger sister drew down a low hanging branch before her eyes; and how the little one of all, whose sports had hitherto broken the decorum of the scene, understood the prayer for her playmate, and burst into clamorous grief. Then he saw them go in at the door; and when Robin would have entered also, the latch tinkled into its place, and he was excluded from his home.

``Am I here, or there?'' cried Robin, starting; for all at once, when his thoughts had become visible and audible in a dream, the long, wide, solitary street shone out before him.

He aroused himself, and endeavored to fix his attention steadily upon the large edifice which he had surveyed before. But still his mind kept vibrating between fancy and reality; by turns, the pillars of the balcony lengthened into the tall, bare stems of pines, dwindled down to human figures, settled again into their true shape and size, and then commenced a new succession of changes. For a single moment, when he deemed himself awake, he could have sworn that a visage -- one which he seemed to remember, yet could not absolutely name as his kinsman's -- was looking towards him from the Gothic window. A deeper sleep wrestled with and nearly overcame him, but fled at the sound of footsteps along the opposite pavement. Robin rubbed his eyes, discerned a man passing at the foot of the balcony, and addressed him in a loud, peevish, and lamentable cry.

``Hallo, friend! must I wait here all night for my kinsman, Major Molineux?''

The sleeping echoes awoke, and answered the voice; and the passenger, barely able to discern a figure sitting in the oblique shade of the steeple, traversed the street to obtain a nearer view. He was himself a gentleman in his prime, of open, intelligent, cheerful, and altogether pre-possessing countenance. Perceiving a country youth, apparently homeless and without friends, he accosted him in a tone of real kindness, which had become strange to Robin's ears.

``Well, my good lad, why are you sitting here?'' inquired he. ``Can I be of service to you in any way?''

``I am afraid not, sir,'' replied Robin, despondingly; ``yet I shall take it kindly, if you'll answer me a single question. I've been searching, half the night, for one Major Molineux, now, sir, is there really such a person in these parts, or am I dreaming?''

``Major Molineux! The name is not altogether strange to me,'' said the gentleman, smiling. ``Have you any objection to telling me the nature of your business with him?''

Then Robin briefly related that his father was a clergyman, settled on a small salary, at a long distance back in the country, and that he and Major Molineux were brothers' children. The Major, having inherited riches, and acquired civil and military rank, had visited his cousin, in great pomp, a year or two before; had manifested much interest in Robin and an elder brother, and, being childless himself, had thrown out hints respecting the future establishment of one of them in life. The elder brother was destined to succeed to the farm which his father cultivated in the interval of sacred duties; it was therefore determined that Robin should profit by his kinsman's generous intentions, especially as he seemed to be rather the favorite, and was thought to possess other necessary endowments.

``For I have the name of being a shrewd youth,'' observed Robin, in this part of his story.

``I doubt not you deserve it,'' replied his new friend, good-naturedly; ``but pray proceed.''

``Well, sir, being nearly eighteen years old, and well grown, as you see,'' continued Robin, drawing himself up to his full height, ``I thought it high time to begin in the world. So my mother and sister put me in handsome trim, and my father gave me half the remnant of his last year's salary, and five days ago I started for this place, to pay the Major a visit. But, would you believe it, sir! I crossed the ferry a little after dark, and have yet found nobody that would show me the way to his dwelling; only, an hour or two since, I was told to wait here, and Major Molineux would pass by.''

``Can you describe the man who told you this?'' inquired the gentleman.

``Oh, he was a very ill-favored fellow, sir,'' replied Robin, ``with two great bumps on his forehead, a hook nose, fiery eyes; and, what struck me as the strangest, his face was of two different colors. Do you happen to know such a man, sir?''

``Not intimately,'' answered the stranger, ``but I chanced to meet him a little time previous to your stopping me. I believe you may trust his word, and that the Major will very shortly pass through this street. In the mean time, as I have a singular curiosity to witness your meeting, I will sit down here upon the steps and bear you company.''

He seated himself accordingly, and soon engaged his companion in animated discourse. It was but of brief continuance, however, for a noise of shouting, which had long been remotely audible, drew so much nearer that Robin inquired its cause.

``What may be the meaning of this uproar?'' asked he. ``Truly, if your town be always as noisy, I shall find little sleep while I am an inhabitant.''

``Why, indeed, friend Robin, there do appear to be three or four riotous fellows abroad to-night,'' replied the gentleman. ``You must not expect all the stillness of your native woods here in our streets. But the watch will shortly be at the heels of these lads and'' --

``Ay, and set them in the stocks by peep of day,'' interrupted Robin recollecting his own encounter with the drowsy lantern-bearer. ``But, dear sir, if I may trust my ears, an army of watchmen would never make head against such a multitude of rioters. There were at least a thousand voices went up to make that one shout.''

``May not a man have several voices, Robin, as well as two complexions? said his friend.

``Perhaps a man may; but Heaven forbid that a woman should!'' responded the shrewd youth, thinking of the seductive tones of the Major's housekeeper.

The sounds of a trumpet in some neighboring street now became so evident and continual, that Robin's curiosity was strongly excited. In addition to the shouts, he heard frequent bursts from many instruments of discord, and a wild and confused laughter filled up the intervals. Robin rose from the steps, and looked wistfully towards a point whither people seemed to be hastening

``Surely some prodigious merry-making is going on,'' exclaimed he ``I have laughed very little since I left home, sir, and should be sorry to lose an opportunity. Shall we step round the corner by that darkish house and take our share of the fun?''

``Sit down again, sit down, good Robin,'' replied the gentleman, laying his hand on the skirt of the gray coat. ``You forget that we must wait here for your kinsman; and there is reason to believe that he will pass by, in the course of a very few moments.''

The near approach of the uproar had now disturbed the neighborhood; windows flew open on all sides; and many heads, in the attire of the pillow, and confused by sleep suddenly broken, were protruded to the gaze of whoever had leisure to observe them. Eager voices hailed each other from house to house, all demanding the explanation, which not a soul could give. Half-dressed men hurried towards the unknown commotion stumbling as they went over the stone steps that thrust themselves into the narrow foot-walk. The shouts, the laughter, and the tuneless bray the antipodes of music, came onwards with increasing din, till scattered individuals, and then denser bodies, began to appear round a corner at the distance of a hundred yards

``Will you recognize your kinsman, if he passes in this crowd?'' inquired the gentleman

``Indeed, I can't warrant it, sir; but I'll take my stand here, and keep a bright lookout,'' answered Robin, descending to the outer edge.

A mighty stream of people now emptied into the street, and came rollmg slowly towards the church. A single horseman wheeled the corner in the midst of them, and close behind him came a band of fearful wind-instruments, sending forth a fresher discord now that no intervening buildings kept it from the ear. Then a redder light disturbed the moonbeams, and a dense multitude of torches shone along the street, concealing, by their glare, whatever object they illuminated. The single horseman, clad in a military dress, and bearing a drawn sword, rode onward as the leader, and, by his fierce and variegated countenance, appeared like war personified; the red of one cheek was an emblem of fire and sword; the blackness of the other betokened the mourning that attends them. In his train were wild figures in the Indian dress, and many fantastic shapes without a model, giving the whole march a visionary air, as if a dream had broken forth from some feverish brain, and were sweeping visibly through the midnight streets. A mass of people, inactive, except as applauding spectators, hemmed the procession in; and several women ran along the sidewalk, piercing the confusion of heavier sounds with their shrill voices of mirth or terror.

``The double-faced fellow has his eye upon me,'' muttered Robin, with an indefinite but an uncomfortable idea that he was himself to bear a part in the pageantry.

The leader turned himself in the saddle, and fixed his glance full upon the country youth, as the steed went slowly by. When Robin had freed his eyes from those fiery ones, the musicians were passing before him, and the torches were close at hand; but the unsteady brightness of the latter formed a veil which he could not penetrate. The rattling of wheels over the stones sometimes found its way to his ear, and confused traces of a human form appeared at intervals, and then melted into the vivid light. A moment more, and the leader thundered a command to halt: the trumpets vomited a horrid breath, and then held their peace; the shouts and laughter of the people died away, and there remained only a universal hum, allied to silence. Right before Robin's eyes was an uncovered cart. There the torches blazed the brightest, there the moon shone out like day, and there, in tar-and-feathery dignity, sat his kinsman, Major Molineux!

He was an elderly man, of large and majestic person, and strong, square features, betokening a steady soul; but steady as it was, his enemies had found means to shake it. His face was pale as death, and far more ghastly; the broad forehead was contracted in his agony, so that his eyebrows formed one grizzled line; his eyes were red and wild, and the foam hung white upon his quivering lip. His whole frame was agitated by a quick and continual tremor, which his pride strove to quell, even in those circumstances of overwhelming humiliation. But perhaps the bitterest pang of all was when his eyes met those of Robin; for he evidently knew him on the instant, as the youth stood witnessing the foul disgrace of a head grown gray in honor. They stared at each other in silence, and Robin's knees shook, and his hair bristled, with a mixture of pity and terror. Soon, however, a bewildering excitement began to seize upon his mind; the preceding adventures of the night, the unexpected appearance of the crowd, the torches, the confused din and the hush that followed, the spectre of his kinsman reviled by that great multitude, -- all this, and, more than all, a perception of tremendous ridicule in the whole scene, affected him with a sort of mental inebriety. At that moment a voice of sluggish merriment saluted Robin's ears; he turned instinctively, and just behind the corner of the church stood the lantern-bearer, rubbing his eyes, and drowsily enjoying the lad's amazement. Then he heard a peal of laughter like the ringing of silvery bells; a woman twitched his arm, a saucy eye met his, and he saw the lady of the scarlet petticoat. A sharp, dry cachinnation appealed to his memory, and, standing on tiptoe in the crowd, with his white apron over his head, he beheld the courteous little innkeeper. And lastly, there sailed over the heads of the multitude a great, broad laugh, broken in the midst by two sepulchral hems; thus, ``Haw, haw, haw, -- hem, hem, -- haw, haw, haw, haw!''

The sound proceeded from the balcony of the opposite edifice, and thither Robin turned his eyes. In front of the Gothic window stood the old citizen, wrapped in a wide gown, his gray periwig exchanged for a nightcap, which was thrust back from his forehead, and his silk stockings hanging about his legs. He supported himself on his polished cane in a fit of convulsive merriment, which manifested itself on his solemn old features like a funny inscription on a tombstone. Then Robin seemed to hear the voices of the barbers, of the guests of the inn, and of all who had made sport of him that night. The contagion was spreading among the multitude, when all at once, it seized upon Robin, and he sent forth a shout of laughter that echoed through the street, -- every man shook his sides, every man emptied his lungs, but Robin's shout was the loudest there. The cloud-spirits peeped from their silvery islands, as the congregated mirth went roaring up the sky! The Man in the Moon heard the far bellow. ``Oho,'' quoth he, ``the old earth is frolicsome to-night!''

When there was a momentary calm in that tempestuous sea of sound, the leader gave the sign, the procession resumed its march. On they went, like fiends that throng in mockery around some dead potentate, mighty no more, but majestic still in his agony. On they went, in counterfeited pomp, in senseless uproar, in frenzied merriment, trampling all on an old man's heart. On swept the tumult, and left a silent street behind.

. . . . . . . . . . .

``Well, Robin, are you dreaming?'' inquired the gentleman, laying his hand on the youth's shoulder.

Robin started, and withdrew his arm from the stone post to which he had instinctively clung, as the living stream rolled by him. His cheek was somewhat pale, and his eye not quite as lively as in the earlier part of the evening.

``Will you be kind enough to show me the way to the ferry?'' said he, after a moment's pause.

``You have, then, adopted a new subject of inquiry?'' observed his companion, with a smile.

``Why, yes, sir,'' replied Robin, rather dryly. ``Thanks to you, and to my other friends, I have at last met my kinsman, and he will scarce desire to see my face again. I begin to grow weary of a town life, sir. Will you show me the way to the ferry?''

``No, my good friend Robin, -- not to-night, at least,'' said the gentleman. ``Some few days hence, if you wish it, I will speed you on your journey. Or, if you prefer to remain with us, perhaps, as you are a shrewd youth, you may rise in the world without the help of your kinsman, Major Molineux.''