Grigory Ryzhakov's Blog, page 9

Brain. Memory. Chromatin. DNA. RbAp48

 

A curious study has just been published describing research on cellular proteins involved in sustaining brain memory. It was an examination of post mortem brains from deceased individuals aged 33-88, focusing on changes in gene expression in connection with senescence and age-related memory loss.… Read the rest

Fake not Dysfunctional Family. Comedy – We Are The Millers

Components of a good comedy are the same as in a bad one – toilet humor gags, cringeworthy images, a tear-jerker moment, epic fails – what matters is how they have been mixed together.

We are the Millers is an unlikely box office hit.… Read the rest

Fake not Disfunctional Family. Comedy – We Are The Millers

Components of a good comedy are the same as in a bad one – toilet humor gags, cringworthy images, a tear-jerker moment, epic fails – what matters is how they have been mixed together.

We are the Millers is an unlikely box office hit.… Read the rest

Why Blockbusters Fall Flat. Wolverine and The Lone Ranger

After the whole spring of commercially successful ‘bombasters’ like Man of Steel and Iron Man-3, we witnessed poor performance of several other high-budget blockbusters, among them Wolverine (the lowest grossing film in the X-men franchise so far) and The Lone Ranger, only partially rescued by audiences in non-US markets.… Read the rest

Modern Russian Authors: Boris Akunin

One of the most popular searches leading to my blog is ’modern Russian literature’. So, I’m starting a series of blog posts about contemporary Russian authors and their books.

I’ll start with one of the most prolific and popular authors, Boris Akunin.… Read the rest

On Weakness. Film of the Week: Only God Forgives

In a nutshell, Only God Forgives is a film about vendetta that back-fired. Set in the modern-day Bangkok, the story centers on Ryan Gosling who portrays an American expat drug dealer and the owner of the boxing club called Julian who has to avenge his dead brother.… Read the rest

Ambiguity and Clarity. Why Some Books Are Hard to Get Through

I admire clear succinct prose, like Hemingway’s. And I also like beautiful style of Oscar Wilde, where every word matters even though the language is poetic and can be quite elaborate at times. Both writers couldn’t be more different but one thing they have in common is clarity.… Read the rest

A cocktail of negative qualities – Who Is Alan Partridge?

Alan Partridge himself (by Benabomb (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Alan Partridge is enjoying the peak of his career. Countless interviews, TV appearances, radioshows and now he’s got a feature film – Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.

What’s the reason behind his popularity?

For those who’s not in the UK, Alan Partridge is a fictional character (radio host, TV presenter, etc.) created about twenty years go by the British comic Steve Coogan. Alan is quintessentially British as his dry humor, awkwardness in social conduct and cockiness that is poorly hiding his insecurities. Other qualities make him specifically Partridge – he’s hardly able to concentrate on anything but himself, he uses others for personal gains without giving it a second thought and he’s been a bachelor for years – well who could possibly stand this self-obsessed man for longer than a date but his patient, all-forgiving PA, Lynn.

To summarise, Alan is an insufferable jerk, especially considering his attitude to his friend Pat in the new film, so why are the audiences find him interesting? Why is he a celebrity?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qywG2-FC6x0

Short answer – because he is funny. I have another theory. Alan Partridge is a mirror of an average British man. A mirror prone to illuminate and show off all the bad qualities. We see parts of ourselves in this mirror and think, well, at least, we are not as bad. If he’s got away with his nastiness, then we are not that bad after all. Alan makes us more accepting who we are. In this respect, Alan Partridge could become a global phenomenon. What limits his appeal to international audiences is that he is too British in terms of him using countless British cultural references. The only way for him to expand is to travel abroad. But then we don’t need a second Borat or ‘Mr Bean on a holiday’, do we? So, Partridge should remain quintessentially British, it’s his identity.

Some people say they won’t watch a film with an unlikeable protagonist. Well, Alan is a cocktail of negative qualities, but he knows it, he just can’t help himself. He’s weak like many of us, so all he can do to counter-balance this is to make people laugh, which he does well. Watch the film and see for yourself.

Infinity and the Universe

Infinity Rally by David Gerstein, via Wikimedia Commons

Have you ever wondered what’s beyond the Universe?

If it still expands after the Big Bang  as we are told by astrophysicist then – where to? Have you ever considered than there might be just another Universe like ours inside the tiniest particle we have yet to discover, let’s name it cutely – gravittino. Maybe our big Universe is just a tiny particle of yet even bigger Universe? And so on. Who knows.

Here’s the video explaining some facts about limits in our Universe. But are they facts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvLrzEpglF8

Does it make you sad, all this inexplicable mystery of the world? Rejoice, there will always be something left to discover for our descendants. The existential mystery, our irrational nature gives birth to art.

Art is like another Universe, there is no end to it as we evolve and the world around us changes.

Here’s one of my favorite songs called Infinity by the Russian singer-songwriter Zemfira. Sometimes it feels like the human soul is a Universe in itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A29cDw57qWQ

 

How To be Normal When You Are a Misfit. Frances Ha

Prince Myshkin from Dostoevsky’s novel “Idiot” is a renowned misfit character

I’m a misfit. Always been one, always will be. Yet often, when things got too difficult, I would think, “I wish I was normal, like everyone else.”

The thing is there’s no such thing as normal. If I were like everyone else, I wouldn’t have been unique, wouldn’t have been myself and likely would have multiple personalities or no personality at all. A human mockingbird.

One of the pioneers of ’soul science’ Carl Jung noticed that people have fundamental psychological differences that can be classified into groups like extraverts vs introverts. This was a beginning of a field of knowledge called socionics. Notice there is no such a group as normal or weird. The modern socionics operates with sixteen psychological types, you can find out which one is yours by passing a Myers-Briggs test, MBT.

Interestingly, these 16 types have different frequences in the human population. The most common ones –  comprise up to 16%  of human population each, while the rare ones like ENTJ constitute just 1-2% of the population. So, is misfitness potential linked to the personality type? The question to psychologists.

(from Myers, I. B., McCaulley, M. H. Quenk, N. L., & Hammer, A. L. (1998). MBTI manual: A guide to the development and use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.)

Now, there is a cultural component as well. If you have a unique ethnic and educational background, quite unusual family circumstances – this may increase your chances of being a misfit. A privately educated violin-playing orphan brought up by her nan is more likely to feel out of place with ’regular kids’ at a holiday camp. Now, if he/she is a common type, like sensory introvert,  she’s got more chances to fit into the society than an intuitive extravert like me who is driving you mad. So, the psychological and cultural components either exacerbate or even-out your misfit potential.

Here’s the graph I created to exemply the dodgy function of misfitness. Just a disclosure for the weak-hearted –  this has no mathematical basis, purely an aesthetic bonus. Hey, I’m a misfit, remember? Hehehe.

Okay, now having established a scientific justification/explanation of misfitness, we can move on to the solution. The society expects us to behave ’normal’, with Friday nights being an exception. How can we be normal as misfits. Pretend? Conform? Exorcise our weirdness and sell it on eBay?

I believe all we need to do is to accept ourselves and our differences with other people, normal or weird. Treat yourself and others with respect. As a species, a bunch of small populations, tribes, human kind has developed a variety of different personalities, so people could have distinct roles, contribute to the species well-being using specific skills and traits.

We need some misfits to show us a different world, a different perspective. So we don’t get too bored.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9YKHRQkf7k

Some people don’t even know to what extent they are misfits, they are blissfully ingorant. In the new Noah Baumbach’s film Frances Ha starring Greta Gerwig, the main heroine is a weirdo. One of the characters says that Frances looks older than her age, though she behaves like someone younger than her age.

Frances is a modern dancer, living a bohemian lifestyle in New York with her best friend Sophie, an editor at Random House. When Frances splits up with her partner after disagreeing to move in with him, Sophie coincidentally moves out of their shared flat to live with her boyfriend. Frances faces a series of professial, financial and personal challenges, all arising for one reason – Frances feels lost and incomplete without Sophie, her soul mate. Frances has to learn how to be self-reliant and bring her life back on track. How does she grow up? By being pro-active. She takes a boring day job and does her creative things after work, eventually life smiles back at her because Frances is in control of her destiny. She remained herself and evolved.

Being a misfit can be such a normal thing.