Saturday, 6 March 2010

Theories of negativity

I find that in its various forms, neuroticism is highly infectious - just like optimism - and is best stayed away from, unlike optimism. Hence I am surprised when actors choose neurotic characters to play. Does it have a simple explanation – "This role will help me win awards!” Does neuroticism increase when one repeatedly plays extreme characters?

I watched parts of this movie when the sibling and my Chinese DVD player were both around. There were also mentions of doomsday with reference to the recession. Over a year later, things look different. The sibling is away, the player has been replaced, and the recession is doing selective rounds of good byes.

What remains the same is my opinion on Wall Street – it is a must watch – and this line, “The most valuable commodity I know of is information”. Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, is a man who believes greed is good and if something is waiting to be exploited, one must. Charlie Sheen plays the young trader who looks up to GG, and gets carried away in the process.

The manner in which Douglas played GG got me thinking of Gail Wynand.



In the movie The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Sean Penn’s character is obsessed with integrity in a convoluted fashion. The obsession leads him to leave one job after another, resulting in tumultuous times in his personal life for there is little integrity in reality. He lands his latest job by saying that he is married when he is actually separated, and performs incredibly well. However, he ends up losing his job - it was a non negotiable pre-condition that married men would be employed as salesmen as they look more stable. He then wires into his head that President Nixon is responsible for all that has happened to him and from there on, things go downhill.



What about dealing with the insane negative? Nothing less than a superhero would do.

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