The Filth up to Chap 7

In the beginning I was a little lost what with the leaking parapersonality, afros, toupees, and The Hand. As his adventures continue though I find it easier to read if I just accept that there are gigantic killing sperm and the like. It's nothing worse then what I read in The Ticket anyways. In comparison, The Filth isn't that bad at all.
When the I-Life where introduced I started thinking of how it related to humans. They are helpful to their host as long as there is a supply of energy, but as modeled by Doctor Soon's death, when this supply runs out they consume what is available. The majority of humans on Earth are consuming its resources without a second thought. There are no sentimental feelings for that which makes it possible for us to even exist.
Speaking of sentimental feelings, I have found myself hoping the Tony the cat gets better. Every time Slade returns from a trip Tony looks worse. He has to make a choice between cleaning up the filth of the world and protecting the reality most people live in or let the filth fester and take care of Tony. That cat is Slade's only attachment to the 'real' world. When I say 'real' I mean 'the world that is most familiar to the reader'. This distinction has to be made because the definition of 'real' is 'actual rather than imaginary'. For The Hand to exist and for the world of Greg to exist one must be false. Up to chapter 6 The Hand is believed to be the real 'real'. In chapter 7 this is questioned though. Could he be imaging it all? Is The Hand only in his imagination? If so then the deteriorating health of Tony is because of his neglect while he acts out these fanciful adventures in his mind.
Other things that caught my attention while reading were The Crab and the people altering the story line of a comic book by free falling into it. Comic book characters altering the world of other comic book characters, hilarious. I wonder if they would be so quick to alter the events in the other comic book if they realized they were a comic book as well. What would happen to the comic book inside a comic book if it realized what was going on? My hopes for the chapters to come are that the characters in the comic inside a comic rebel and have war on the characters outside the comic.

Media Control and Culture

Why control of movies and music by big media corporations harm society and culture:

In my opinion the big media corporation’s domination of music and movies is harmful. People are bombarded by one view point of perfection. They are only shown one version of the perfect woman, man, family, and lifestyle. Women are supposed to be docile, innocent, and skinny. From childhood they grow up watching movies showing happiness as finding a man to take care of them. Disney movies like “Snow White” and “Ariel” continually suggest that the way to get the perfect man is by being beautiful and helpless. Men are taught that they need to be a provider. They are shown that emotions are a weakness. In music videos such as “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent or “Boss’ Life” by Snoop Dog, men see women as seductresses and completely objectified; lips, legs, breasts. They are told that in the perfect nuclear lifestyle the men need to take care of their wife and be able to buy them expensive material things.

This mindset ingrained into people from childhood causes women to go to great lengths in trying to improve their bodies. Time and money are spent in this search for perfection. Lives are lost because of it. Women starve themselves, let surgeons cut open their skin, and even endure spousal abuse hoping to one day appeal to their soft side. On the other hand men are finding an outlet for their bottled emotions through the only acceptable means media presents to them, violence. They have already been conditioned to view women as pieces, as things. If being a man means not being sensitive then is it any surprise that when upset these troubled boys see no wrong in taking it out on women, on objects.

A single-minded point of view crushes diversity. When there is only the nuclear family being shown, other lifestyles become invisible. Living as a queer becomes stigmatized as abnormal. Without this way of life in the media people have trouble understanding and accepting it. We have a tendency to fear what we can’t comprehend. The only outlooks about the queer way of life that viewers get a glimpse of are ones that the big media corporations deem tolerable. Things like Katy Perry’s song “I Kissed a Girl” and characters like Jack in “Will and Grace”. In Katy’s song, being queer is presented as ok if it is done to impress a boyfriend. In “Will and Grace” Jack is shown to be flamboyant and promiscuous. Both these personas completely undermine the gay identity. It confirms stereotypes of the queer phase, experiment, or bad copy of heterosexual norm. These beliefs devastate the gay image. In this dominated media a homosexual relationship can only exist if there is a feminine and masculine character. When this model isn’t deviated from then that is all the viewer will be familiar with.

The Much Delayed Prichard Quote of the Week

No idea why this has taken me so long, but that is unimportant. On to the quote! Unfortunately I have completely forgotten the context, but regardless I'd like to share it:

"Wouldn't it be great if we had access to other people's dreams? No no, that would be the worst thing ever, that would be a nightmare."

What struck me about this quote is how much I really wouldn't want to know the thoughts of friends or strangers. The mind is a scary place where thoughts are best understood by those thinking them and even then it can be quite confusing. My internal comments are carefully censored or completely purged before they make it out of my mouth. I assure you that this is done with good reason. Speaking your mind is important, but speaking your entire mind is not always necessary. Nobody can ever truly know your reasoning, your intention, or your anything behind a thought.
This is the same for other people. Whatever they are thinking has a meaning behind it that I can't grasp due to our varying pasts and experiences. As far as I am concerned our minds are separate worlds. Language can links us though. It can be the bridge that connects our minds, but using language waters the message down. The ability to accurately explain myself is limited. The person I am speaking with is left with words that can be interpreted many ways, nothing as complete as the whole thought in my head.
Recently I had a dream that my roommates turned into werewolves and terrorized the city. In the dream I was distressed and the feeling stayed with me when I woke up. It was a silly dream, but it still greatly affected my mood. Imagine the lifetime of dreams you have had or will have. Many are pointless, ridiculous, and mean nothing. Now imagine if others were exposed to them. Those dreams would be looked at as a legitimate opening into your psyche. Silly things to you would be analyzed and pondered about by them. "What is the meaning behind your roommate's transformation? Why werewolves? "
Prichard is right, the realm of other's dreams is not to be shared. Scary things lurk under our skulls. I'd hate to accidently witness the thoughts of someone like Ted Bundy or *gasp* Britney Spears.