PHYSIOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESSORS

I have a phrase stuck in my head: "physiological manifestations of psychological stressors." I don't know where the actual phrase came from, but I do know that it was triggered by something I read in Norman Rockwell: The Underside of Innocence by Richard Halpern. I cannot locate the actual paragraph that triggered the phrase, but remember Halpern talking about the fact that things that occur in the psyche have a way of affecting us physically—arthritis, ulcers, wounds. I wonder if much of what has been touted as stigmata is primarily psychological in nature. It obviously doesn't change the end but does change the means, which could have implications for a "cure" for stigmata.

---

Norman Rockwell: The Underside of Innocence was a nice change in tone of reading material. The killing fields of Sudan from What is the What and the claustrophobic nightmare of Red the Fiend were left behind as Richard Halpern examined some of the works of America's premier illustrator, Norman Rockwell. Halpern spent a good deal of time delving into the social "psyche" that fuels Rockwell's work. Therefore, Halpern's discussion centers not only on what Rockwell brings to the canvas or magazine cover, but also how it reflects the society that Rockwell paints for and lives within. The elements of nostalgia and innocence in Rockwell's work turn out to not be quite so concerned with the past or with purity. They are ways of masking the foibles and flaws, the sexuality and violence, the gaze and voyeurism of painter and audience, that pulse just beneath our conscious acknowledgement.

---

The completion of one book brings the start of another. This time, I take another foray into fiction. Melancholy by Jon Fosse was a Christmas gift from the brother-in-law and the sister-in-law. If I thought the world of Red was claustrophobic then that of Lars Hertervig is even moreso. I am only fifty pages into the story so far, but am trapped in the head of Lars, and he is obsessing over the same couple of issues, while slowly working in a few more. I don't know what his overall psychological makeup would be, but obsessive-compulsive and high anxiety would be good guesses as to some of its components. The interesting thing is that the language (and it is an English tranlation of Norwegian) is that the rhythm of the lines does as much to pull me into the story as does the content of the story. The obsessive thought of Lars builds a litany of repetition that compels one to "get inside" the head, the thoughts, of Lars and want to stay.

---

The wife and I recently watched two movies on DVD. Last week, we saw Little Miss Sunshine; last night, we saw The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Although Little Miss Sunshine was somewhat funny, all I could think of at the end was that regardless of how "screwed up" the characters were, this was really the plot of National Lampoon's Vacation with the Abba karaoke scene of Muriel's Wedding tacked on as it's ending. I guess I had hoped for more.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was a much more fulfilling and enjoyable experience. The world of the movie was strange yet amazingly self-contained. In other words, it works. Bill Murray gives one of his best performance, along the lines of those given in Lost in Translation and Ed Wood. Steve Zissou may be psychologically unstable, quirky, and unstable, but he felt more real than all of the characters in Little Miss Sunshine combined. Perhaps, it is because Little Miss Sunshine felt dark and somewhat hopeless, with a sugary, Hollywood-style ending added for good measure and closure, whereas The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou felt hopeful even in the midst of all of the loss and suffering that Steve and the crew of the Belafonte experience.

The characters in Little Miss Sunshine feel rather disposable to me. I will not, however, soon forget Bill Murray's Steve, Owen Wilson's Ned, Angelica Huston's Eleanor, or Willem Defoe's Klaus.