Frank Wedekinds Lulu: An Analysis

Frank Wedekinds Lulu: An Analysis Discuss Frank Wedekinds Lulu in relation to its cultural and social context. Pay particular attention to the ways in which the play challenges and/or perpetuates certain assumptions concerning gender and sexuality; include a discussion of the plays relevance to our contemporary context. This essay will be exploring and discussing the character of Lulu in Frank Wedekinds play of the same name. It will delve into the relationship that Lulu has with the men and women of the late 1800s, as well as the challenges that women have experienced over the centuries having to deny their sexual appetite in a patriarchal world. There will be investigations into female oppression and gender status. Also one will be looking at the roles of fictional and factual Femmes Fatales throughout the ages, from those in story books to actual icons who have reached out to the world through modern media coverage. It will discuss whether being a sexually attractive woman is help or hindrance, is a woman a slave to mens desires or is it a tool that women use to live and lead the life that they wish? In research of the character of Lulu I read the introduction from the play Lulu adapted by Nicolas Wright and his insight to the character of Lulu and Frank Wedekinds method research by having sexual encounters with a number of prostitutes. Using this method Frank Wedekind created lulu, by taking different the qualities and flaws of the prostitutes he had met, women who are described as irresistible, some fearlessly honest, some devious, some manic, all doomed. (Wedekind/Wright, 2007:11) Nicolas Wright gives the impression in the introduction that Certainly he must have come across a woman who, at the age of five or so, was raped and prostituted by a man who may have been her father. This is exactly what had happened to Lulu, as Wedekind goes to some trouble to spell out. Is he saying that this hideous event has formed her life, thats its made her what she is as an adult? As a 19th-centery buck, he may not spot the connection. Yet his comments on women are full of insight, and the way the way lulu sexualises every relationship she enters into with a man seems very much part of damaged- child syndrome. (Wedekind/Wright, 2007:11) By reading Nicolas Wrights thoughts on how the character of Lulu is an abused child and is a damaged soul and as a character has a very warped view of what is acceptable and what is normal in a relationship. Due to the impression of her childhood raised by a man who is said to be her father who is insinuated in the play they had an inappropriate relationship. This is apparent in Act 4. She asks Schigolch to kill Rodrigo (an acrobat who is blackmailing lulu) for her. Lulu: what do you want? Dont ask too much. Schigolch: well, now. if you ever felt nostalgic for our old arrangement.. Lulu: oh god..! Schigolch: Why not? Lulu: Im .changed. Im not a child any more. Schigolch: what do see when you look at me now? Some aged monster? Lulu; but youve already got a mistress. (Wedekind/Wright, 2007: Act 4:94) Lulu from a young age was passed around like a toy for mens enjoyment. This information reflects that Lulu is always looking for someone to look after her, and the security which comes with marriage, as she has never had that as a child. Now as an adult Lulu can only rely on her exceptional beauty and the fact all men from different status are drawn to her. This in turn empowers her to manipulate the men in her life, to bend to her every whim while the man still thinks he is in control. But in return by becoming what the man wants from her Lulu is able to enchant them by targeting their weaknesses and getting what she may want in that times before her eyes start to wonder again. This is more apparent when she marries for the second time, Eduard Schwarz. In this relationship she is the one who is control and she doesnt like this as she has nothing to manipulate him with, so it is my belief this is the reason she begins an affair with Dr Franz Schoning. This marriage to Schwarz seems t o be a healthy relationship and very comfortable life style, and which by Lulu entering into this affair with Schoning makes me wonder that Lulu is not wanting a loving family and the security of being married, she wants some danger and excitement to her life, and to me this selfish attitude which many women from her background would kill for makes me think what does Lulu really want? Its apparent she needs the security of marriage which is what society expects of women in her status and situation. But this isnt what lulu wants she is a healthy sexed woman with a natural sexual appetite which unfortunately was going against the society grain. Lulus character was ahead of the times as she was written in a time when women were repressed and had to marry for security. In a way that was most women in that era ambition was to marry well and above their station. In Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin Mrs. Bennet was obsessed with finding husbands for her five daughters. The heroine of Pride of Prejudice Elizabeth Bennet is the complete opposite of Lulu. Whereas Elizabeth Bennet wants to marry for love, and disliked the idea of marrying just for security. When she was proposed by her cousin Mr Collins it takes him some time to understand that his proposal is being rejected by Elizabeth, in that time was quiet unheard of to actually refuse a proposal. Your portion is unhappily so small that it will be in all likelihood undo the effects of you loveliness and amiable qualifications. As I must therefore conclude that you are not serious in your rejection of me, I shall chuse to attribute it to your wish of increasing my love by suspense, according to the usual practice of elegant females. (Austin,1996:106) Even Jane Austen herself in 1802 accepted a marriage proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither, but she later changed her mind the next day. In all of her novels the heroine somehow ended in a suitable marriage with the man of their affections, yet she herself went on to becoming an old maid which was her choice but in this article it states that Austen never felt she had been presented with adequate choices: it was either get married or become a governess or a teacher. (http://www.sexualfables.com/spinster.php). Harris Bigg-Wither who after her death read her books more closely in trying to understand her refusal of him and came to conclusion that marriage didnt interest her, because in her novels she didnt include sexual passion, and also she would only write about the prelude to marriage in a platonic way. So does this mean that Austen felt that sexual tension in a marriage would be the downfall of a relationship that started without it and that was based on affection? I feel that Austen a women of the early 1800s who was expected to marry and was scared of sex and the complications that come with it, and thought marriage should be the product of two people in love and not a realistic and practical arrangement. She is quoted from a letter to her niece Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection, (http://www.sexualfables.com/spinster.php). So in the early 1800s Jane Austen was changing the way women behaved towards marriage that being an old maid was the only acceptable life style if one wasnt inclined to marry. But by not marrying sparked rumours in the 1990s that Austen was in fact a lesbian and that was the real reason she didnt marry. This theory hasnt be proved or disproved, I think its an insult to any women if they choose not to marry that they are assumed be a lesbian. Even in todays society women are targeted and frowned upon if they choose to have a career over starting a family, which in my opinion it is a mans ego that is being injured by not being needed. Frank Wedekind went a different way his play Lulu by making her of sorts a high class prostitute and giving Lulu the looks and the skills to manipulate the men she wanted to pursue. In my opinion the reason why Lulu was shocking for the time it was written in is because, it was common thought that men were driven by their sexual desires and women had none. If Lulu was a man this play would be called Casanova. If the lead was a male it wouldnt be as shocking as the world would have heard of the antics of Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt who had died 1798 who was renowned for a sexual predator of young women and a gambler. But Lulu wasnt a man but she was influenced by the men in her life, she tried to gain power by enslaving the men she wanted with her sexual desire. Another woman in fiction used the same skills in attain what information her pray had. Milady Clarick de Winter from The Three Musketeersa novelbyAlexandre Dumas. Milady Clarick de Winter was a teenager forced to enter the convent, but when she gets there she falls in love with a priest with who she escapes with. They leave the church with stolen property to fund their new life together, for which both of them get caught and were branded criminals with the fleur de liys. Then she appears in Athos village living with a man, and pretending to be his sister. When Athos, fell in love with her and married her. After some time together he finds the brand on her shoulder, saying she was a thief. Thinking she had married him only for his money which is not true, a heart-broken Athos tries to kill her by hanging her from a tree. But she survived. At the time the book is written, apparently it was acceptable to kill your wife if you found out she had committed a crime. Milady Clarick de Winter is a capable and beautiful spy, she is an example of a strong, independent woman with a tragic past, and filled with hate for men, she enjoys seduction and the destruction of men. The men she traps will provide her with support for a short period of time but will most likely to meet an untimely end if they learn of her past. Milady Clarick de Winter is remorseless for her countless crimes. In my opinion Lulu and Milady Clarick de Winter are femme fatales, and to achieve their hidden purpose, by using their feminine assets such as beauty, charm, and sexual allure. Both seem to be victims, caught in a situation from which they cannot escape; the connections between Milady Clarick de Winter and Lulu are uncanny having relationships ending in deadly consequences for the men they ensnare. Both Milady Clarick de Winter and Lulu have many names given or changed them through marriage. Dr Goll Lulus first husband in the play is in discussion with Dr Franz Schoning on their preferences on what they like to call her.With all these men renaming her is it any wonder that no-one knows the real Lulu? Does lulu exist anymore? I feel that there is such a power in a name, and by changing that aspect of a person they no longer exist. So by changing lulus name constantly she becomes a whole new person with a new personality over and over again, and is sculptured into whatever the man want s. Goll: You see I call her Popsy. Schoning: I thought Mignon suited her well. Goll: Mignon? No, Popsys better, from my personal point of view. I have a weakness for the incomplete . . . the immature . . . the innocent child in need of fatherly protection. (Wedekind/Wright, 2007:18) In the case of Milady Clarick de Winter she had to change her name as Athos, her first husband whom she loved deeply thought she was dead after hanging her from a tree, and for her own protection she changed it when she married Lord De Winter. With all these name changes is there wonder that these women manipulate men for their own gain. When its the man who has the power to change their names a moulding them into their puppets or to force them to change their name for protection. In the process stripping them of whom there are and who they could have been. Does society put the pressure on women to behave a certain way still? In a culture that is obsessed with the celebrity and the morbid fantasy of when things go wrong trying to find the information because even in death we as a society still want more. Marilyn Monroe was a beauty with curves; she was more than a 50s sex goddess. She dominated the age of movie stars to become the most famous woman of the 20th Century and still has a strong fan base growing 45 years after her death. She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson and never knew who her father and was baptized Norma Jeane Baker. Her mother was mentally ill and Norma Jeane had to spend most of her childhood in foster homes and orphanages until she moved in with family friend, but when she was 16 the family she was living with was going to move and couldnt take Norma Jeane with them. She had two options: return to the orphanage or get married.So even in the 1940s girls without family had two choices the state or marriage, she married a boy who she had been dating for 6 months. On being discovered by a photographer while helping towards the war effort in a factory, and from then on she became a model and Marilyn Monroe. But her marriage didnt survive her new found career. Then she soared to fame by landing film roles and various awards, but on the 5th august 1962 she died of a possible suicide. The events surrounding her death isthe most talked and debated conspiracy theories of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Many believe she was killed by order of the Kennedys and this was the belief of her second husband Joe DiMaggio and he died convinced the Kennedys were to blame, in an article about a book of his life written by his long term lawyer and friend Morris Engelberg. DiMaggio is to of expressed They murdered the one person I loved, DiMaggio confided to Mr Engelberg. (http://news.scotsman.com/marilynmonroe/Joe-DiMaggio-died-convinced-JFK.2401434.jp) These beliefs come from man who loved her very deeply and expressed that the men she was in a romantic relationship was the cause of her demise, and many of her fans believe that there are allot of unanswered questions connected with her death and I agree the masses there is too much information missing. She was at the mercy of very powerful men who wanted to keep her quiet and the scandal if she ever diverged in the information she knew. The allegations of the Kennedys being connected with her death has not been proved or disproved. Like Lulu, Marilyn Monroe was playing a very dangerous game by underestimating the power she had over men and the men in power. It is insinuated that Lulu was killed by Jack the Ripper an educated man who used his status to lure vulnerable prostitutes with his refinery and wealth, one the suspects was Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondalehe was grandson of Queen Victoria but this was neither proved or disproved. When doing my research the s imilarities between Lulu and Marilyn Monroe was very chilling both women were killed as the result of men, but for me the fact that Lulu is a fictional character based on the women Wedekind met on his sex romping with prostitutes and his character has so many similarities with the icon Monroe is disturbing that plight of women hasnt changed much in a hundred years and more. My aim in this essay was to Discuss Frank Wedekinds Lulu including the context and time it was written in, and if the female gender role has changed much in the time scale, by exploring other writers, and eventually looking at a modern day icon. I feel my discussion is in a very female point of view and Im sure that if this was written by a man it would have a very different angle and maybe I should have gotten a male opinion on the subject. Did Frank Wedekind write Lulu to shock society? Or to show that women of the 1800s were restricted my gender and status through text. When Frank Wedekind wrote Lulu I think he knew it would be shocking in his society as a sex tragedy but I dont think that knew that he had divulged so much into the way women were repressed by their gender and how certain sexual traumas can affect the way women as a gender enter a sexual relationship. Even today women use their sexual allure to get what they want or to influence a man into doing things for them. Im my opinion women have been fighting for the right to be equal with men but yet we as a sex still choose to use our beauty to get what we want and is that because from a young age society and story books use the stereotype of the woman is at home with the children and the man makes a living and supports his family. The times have changed and as a culture we have accepted same sex marriage, same sex adoption and a black president which I thought I would never see in my life time, but the life long battle of the sexes continues and I dont think this is going to end with any outcome which will be acceptable for either side. Lulu is a modern drama of sex. Its not a helpful story about gender roles or sexual politics, or even at heart a marriage play, as all four of her marriages end badly. Lulu is a ruthless test of the terrible destructive would be of a basic human drive, and of that favourite scapegoat for that destruction, the femme fatale. Bibliography Austen.J (1996) Pride And Prejudice, London, Penguin Group. http://news.scotsman.com/marilynmonroe/Joe-DiMaggio-died-convinced-JFK.2401434.jp http://www.sexualfables.com/spinster.php Wedekind.F/Wright.N (2007) Lulu, London: Nick Hern Books limited. Research Ascription of Identity: The Bild motif and the character of Lulu, Silvio Jose Dos Santos, The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 21, No.2 (spring 2004), pp. 267-308 http://www.marilynmonroe.com/ Masterpieces of French literature By Marilyn S. Severson Refraction of the Feminine: The Monstrous Transformations of Lulu, Karin Littau, MLN, Vol. 110, No. 4, Comparative Literature Issue (Sept., 1995), pp. 888-912 The Three MusketeersbyAlexandre Dumas

Accounting :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When most people go to college they think of what major would be the most interesting, and most exciting. However there are a few brave souls who want to be bored out of their mind but learn the language of business. For those few the major of accounting calls to them. Those men and women who choose accounting as their major will spend many semesters trying to figure out what the hell the professors are talking about when they go into managing and valuing inventories for companies. This one area of accounting is one of the most important parts to understand, because of the vast amounts of money companies have raped up in inventories. So sit back and get ready to be bored because we are entering the world of accounting.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Inventories are asset items held for sale in the ordinary course of business or good that will be used or consumed in the production of goods to be sold. That sounds very interesting doesn’t it? Well let’s think about that for a second. Companies like Wal-Mart have billions of dollars put into inventories and they need to make sure that it is properly accounted for so they do not become the next ENRON of the world. Wal-Mart gets their inventory in a ready to sell state. That means no extra cost goes into getting it ready to put on the shelf. So when a Wal-Mart accountant takes in invoices of merchandise purchased the price Wal-Mart paid was the amount that goes into their inventory account. However for companies that are manufacturing business, like Boeing, they will have three inventory accounts called, raw materials, work in process, and finished goods. Assigning cost into the inventory account is a little different for manufacturing companies. The cost assigned to good and materials on hand but not yet placed into production is reported as raw materials inventory. Raw materials include things like plastics for sex toys or steel for skyscrapers, did I say sex in an accounting paper?

Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 27~28

Chapter 27 Bridging the Boredom Half past midnight. He stood at the top of the southwest tower of the Oakland Bay Bridge, some fifty stories above the gunmetal-cold bay, thinking, Jump or dive? He wore a black silk suit and he paused for a moment, regretting that the suit would be ruined. He liked the feel and flow of silk on his skin. Oh well. Two miles away Jody was walking up Market Street wishing that she could just get drunk and pass out. I wonder, she thought, if I found someone who was really drunk and drank his blood? No, this damn system of mine would probably identify alcohol as a poison and fight the effects. So many questions. If only I'd remembered to ask them. She stopped at a phone booth and called Tommy at the store. â€Å"Marina Safeway.† â€Å"Tommy, it's me.† â€Å"Are you still mad?† â€Å"Not mad enough, I guess. I just wanted to tell you to stay in the store until after daylight. Don't go outside for any reason. And stay around the other guys if you can.† â€Å"Why? What's the matter?† â€Å"Just do as I say, Tommy.† â€Å"I cleaned up the loft. Mostly, anyway.† â€Å"We'll talk about it tomorrow night. Stay at home until I wake up, okay?† â€Å"Are you still going to be pissed?† â€Å"Probably. I'll see you then. Good-bye.† She hung up. How could he be so smart sometimes and so ignorant other times? Maybe the vampire was right, a human could never understand her. She suddenly felt very lonely. She ducked into an all-night diner and ordered a cup of coffee as rent on a booth. She still could enjoy the smell of coffee, even if she couldn't keep it down. She opened the paper she had bought from the bum with her cosmetics bag and began to read through the personals. â€Å"Men Seeking Women,† â€Å"Women Seeking Men,† â€Å"Men Seeking Men,† â€Å"Women Seeking Women,† â€Å"Men Seeking Small Fuzzy Animals†; there was a wide selection of categories. She scanned over the more mundane entries until her eye settled on one under â€Å"Support Groups.† â€Å"Are You a Vampire? You don't have to face your problem alone. Blood Drinkers Anonymous can help. Mon.-Fri. Midnight. Rm. 212 Asian Cultural Center, Non-Smoking.† It was Friday. It was midnight. She was only ten minutes from the Asian Cultural Center. Could it be this simple? The first thing she noticed when she walked into room 212 of the Asian Cultural Center is that all of the people sitting in a circle in molded plastic chairs, all twenty of them, were giving off heat signatures. They were all human. She was backing out of the door when a pear-shaped woman in a leotard and black cape intercepted her and took her hand. â€Å"Welcome,† said the woman. She sported a set of rather wicked-looking fangs that caused her to lisp. â€Å"I'm Tabitha. We're just getting ready to start. Come on in. There's coffee and cookies.† She led Jody to an orange plastic chair and urged her to sit down. â€Å"It's hard the first time, but everyone here has been where you are.† â€Å"Not bloody likely,† Jody said, wiping a speck of Tabitha's spittle from her cheek. Tabitha pointed to a plastic medallion that hung from her neck by a heavy silver chain. â€Å"See this chip? I've been clean and bloodless for six months. If I can do it, so can you. One night at a time.† Tabitha squeezed her arm, then threw her cape over her shoulder, turned dramatically, and stalked across the room to the cookie table, her cape billowing behind her. Jody looked at the other occupants of the room. All were talking, most were sneaking looks at her between sips of coffee. The men were all tall and thin with protruding Adam's apples and bad skin. Their dress ranged from business suits to jeans and flannel. They might have been a chess club out for the evening if not for the capes. To a man, they wore capes. Four of seven had fangs. Two sets of four were made of glow-in-the-dark plastic. Jody focused on two of them whispering in the corner. â€Å"I told you, this is a babe-fest. Did you see the redhead?† He sneaked a look. His partner said, â€Å"I think I saw her at Compulsive Cleaners last week.† â€Å"Compulsive Cleaners, I was going to try that. How are the odds?† â€Å"Lots of gay guys, but a few babes. Mostly they smell like Pine Sol, but it's hot if you like latex gloves.† â€Å"Cool, I'll check it out. I think I'm going to quit going to Adult Children of Alcoholics, everybody's looking to blame, no one's looking to get laid.† Jody thought, I don't know if I want to hear quiet desperation this clearly. She changed her focus to the women in the room. A six-foot-two brunette woman in a black choir robe and Kabuki-like makeup was complaining to a washed-out blonde wearing a tattered wedding dress. â€Å"They want to be tied up, I tie them up. They want to be spanked, I spank them. They want to be called names, I call them names. But try and drink a little of their blood, and they scream like babies. What about my needs?† â€Å"I know,† said the blonde. â€Å"I asked Robert to sleep in the coffin one time and he left.† â€Å"You have a coffin? I want a coffin.† Christ, Jody thought, I've got to get out of here. Tabitha clapped her hands. â€Å"Let's get the meeting started!† Those who were standing found seats. Several men tried to shove their way into the seats next to Jody. A skinny geek with peanut-butter breath leaned in to her and said, â€Å"I was on ‘Oprah' on Halloween. ‘Men who drink blood and the women who find them disgusting. If you want, you can come by my place and watch the tape after the meeting.† â€Å"I'm out of here,† Jody said. She jumped up and headed for the door. Behind her she heard Tabitha saying, â€Å"Hi, I'm Tabitha and I'm a bloodsucking fiend.† â€Å"Hi, Tabitha,† the group said in chorus. Outside Jody looked up and down the street wondering which way to go, what to do. She paused by a phone booth, realizing that there was no one she could call. Tears welled in her eyes. Why even bother to hope? The only person who had the slightest idea how she felt was the vampire who had made her. And he had made it clear that he wasn't interested in helping her – the evil fucker. I should set him up with my mother, she thought, then the two of them can look down on humanity together. The thought made her smile. Then the phone rang. She looked at it for a second, looked around for someone else who would answer it, but except for a guy standing by his car a couple of blocks away, the street was empty. She picked up the phone. â€Å"Hello.† A man's voice said, â€Å"I thought you would show up here eventually.† â€Å"Who is this?† Jody asked. The man sounded young, his voice was unfamiliar. â€Å"I can't tell you that yet.† â€Å"Okay,† Jody said. â€Å"Bye.† â€Å"Wait, wait, wait, don't hang up.† â€Å"Well?† â€Å"You're the one, aren't you? You're real. I mean, you are a real vampire.† Jody held the phone away, stared at the receiver as if it were an alien object. â€Å"Who is this?† â€Å"I don't want to tell you my name. I don't want you to be able to find me. Let's just say that I'm a friend.† â€Å"That's how most of my friends are,† Jody said. â€Å"They don't tell me their names or how to find them. It keeps my social calendar pretty clear.† Who was this guy? Who could possibly know that she was here, right now? â€Å"Okay, I guess I owe you something. I'm a med student at†¦ at a local college. I did some research on one of the bodies†¦ one of the bodies of the people you killed.† â€Å"I didn't kill anyone. I don't know what you're talking about. If I am who you think I am, how did you know I'd be here? I didn't even know I would be here until an hour ago.† â€Å"I've been waiting, watching every night for a couple of weeks. I had a theory that you wouldn't have any noticeable body heat, and you don't.† â€Å"What are you talking about? No one notices anybody's body heat.† â€Å"Look up the street. By the white Toyota. It's running, by the way. If you make a move to come toward me, I'm gone.† Jody looked more closely at the person up the street standing by a white car. The car was running. The man was holding a cell phone and looking at her through some very large binoculars. â€Å"I see you,† she said. â€Å"What do you want?† â€Å"I'm looking at you through infrared glasses. You're not giving off any body heat, so I know you're the one. My theory was right.† â€Å"Are you a cop?† â€Å"No, I told you, I'm a medical student. I don't want to turn you in. In fact, I think I might be able to help you, if you're interested in being helped.† â€Å"Talk,† Jody said. She held her hand over the phone and focused on the guy by the car. She could hear him talking into the cell phone. â€Å"They gave one of the cadavers to our department after the coroner was done with it. It was a male, about sixty years old, the third victim, I think. I noticed that there was a clean spot on his neck, as if it had been washed. The coroner hadn't put that in his report. I took a tissue sample and put it under a microscope. The tissue in that area was living. Regenerating. I cultured it and it started to die, until I added something on a hunch.† â€Å"What?† Jody asked. She didn't know what to think. This man knew she was a vampire, and strangely, she felt an urge to attack. Some protective instinct wanted her to hurt him. Kill him. She fought to stay calm. â€Å"Hemoglobin. I added some human hemoglobin and the tissue started to regenerate again. I ran it through the sequencer. It's not human DNA. It's close, but not human. It doesn't produce heat, doesn't seem to burn fuel the same way that mammalian cells do. The coroner said that he was the one that had drained the blood from the body, but he'd never done that before. And I knew that the guy had been murdered. I made a guess. I saw the ad in the Weekly for a vampire support group, so I've been watching.† Jody said, â€Å"Suppose I believe what you're saying. Suppose I believe that you believe this bullshit, how could you help me? Supposing I wanted to be helped?† â€Å"My major is gene therapy. There's a chance I could reverse the process.† â€Å"This isn't science. I'm not saying that you're right about your theory. There are a lot of things that you don't know, that can't be explained by science. If you don't know that by now, you will. What you're talking about is magic.† â€Å"Magic is just science that we don't know yet. Do you want me to help or not?† â€Å"Why would you want to do that? As far as you know, I kill people.† â€Å"So does cancer, but I still work on it. Do you have any idea what kind of competition there is for jobs in my field? It's an all-or-nothing field. I could end up getting my PhD and giving saccharine enemas to rats for five bucks an hour. What I learn from you would put my resume at the top of the stack.† Jody didn't know what to say. Part of her wanted to drop the phone and go after him. Another part wanted to accept his help. She said, â€Å"What do you want me to do?† â€Å"Nothing yet. How can I get hold of you?† â€Å"I can't tell you that. I'll call you. What's your number?† â€Å"I can't tell you that.† Jody sighed. â€Å"Look, Mr. Scientific Genius, figure out something. And by the way, I really didn't kill those people.† â€Å"Then why are you even listening to me?† â€Å"I guess this conversation is over. Get in your car and get comfortable with asking rats to bend over. Good-bye.† â€Å"Wait, we could meet somewhere. Tomorrow. Someplace public.† â€Å"No, it has to be at night. Someplace private. You could have cops everywhere.† She watched him as she talked. He had put the binoculars down and she could see that he was Asian. â€Å"You're the killer here. Would you meet you someplace private and dark?† â€Å"All right. Tomorrow night. Seven o'clock, at Enrico's on Broadway. That public enough for you?† â€Å"Sure. Can I bring a blood-sample kit? Would you let me?† â€Å"Would you let me?† she asked. He didn't answer. â€Å"Just kidding,† she said. â€Å"Look, I don't want to hurt you, but I don't want to get hurt either. When you leave here, drive like hell and take an indirect route home.† â€Å"Why?† â€Å"Because I really didn't kill those people, but I know who did, and he's been following me. If he's seen you, you're in danger.† The line was quiet for a minute, just the ghost voices of a cellular connection. Jody watched the Asian guy watching her. Finally he cleared his throat. â€Å"How many of you are there?† â€Å"I don't know,† she said. â€Å"I know that all of the victims don't change. It couldn't work. The geometric progression would have the entire human race turned to vampires in a month.† He sounded more confident now that he had brought the conversation back to science. â€Å"I'll tell you what I know tomorrow. But don't expect much. I don't know much. Or I'll tell you now if you want to talk face to face, but I don't think it's a good idea to talk about this with you on a cell phone.† â€Å"Yeah, you're right. Not now, though. Not here. You understand, don't you?† Jody nodded, exaggerating the gesture so he could see. â€Å"The longer you stand there, the better chance you have of being seen by†¦ by the other one. Tomorrow night, then. Seven o'clock.† â€Å"Will you be wearing that dress?† Jody smiled. â€Å"Do you like it? It's new.† â€Å"It's great. I didn't think you would be a woman.† â€Å"Thanks. Go now.† She watched him climb into the Toyota, the cell phone still in hand. â€Å"Promise not to try and track me down?† â€Å"I know where you'll be tomorrow night, remember?† â€Å"Oh yeah. By the way, my name's Steve.† â€Å"Hi, Steve. I'm Jody.† â€Å"‘Bye,† he said. He disconnected. Jody hung up the phone and watched him drive away. She thought, Great, another one to worry about. It hadn't occurred to her that her condition might be reversible. But then, the med student didn't know about how the body had turned to dust. Science indeed. Jump or dive, he thought. The silk suit whipped about his legs in the chill wind. The tower's aircraft warning light flashed red across his face and he could see heat swirling off it, dissolving over the bay. His name was Elijah Ben Sapir. He stood five feet ten inches tall and he had been a vampire for eight hundred years. In human life he had been an alchemist and had spent his time mixing noxious chemicals and chanting arcane incantations trying to turn lead into gold and tap the secret of eternal life. He hadn't been a particularly good alchemist. He had never been able to pull off the gold transformation, although by a bizarre miscalculation of chemistry he did manage to invent Teflon some eight hundred years before DuPont would find a use for it. (It should be noted, though, that archaeologists recently uncovered a Viking rune stone in Greenland that mentions a Jew who entered the palace of Constantine the Magnificent in 1224 selling a line of nonstick hot pokers for the Emperor's torture chamber and was promptly given the bum's rush to the city gates. The accuracy of the story has been questioned, however, as it begins, â€Å"I never believed that your letters were true until Gunn er and I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and goes on to recount the sexual exploits of two Vikings and a harem of brown-skinned Byzantine babes.) Ben Sapir's search for eternal life had been somewhat more successful. Granted, it came with the side effects of drinking human blood and staying out of sunlight, but he had gotten used to that. It was the loneliness that he couldn't abide. Perhaps, after all these years, it would end. He was afraid to hope. It had been a hundred years since a fledgling had lasted this long. She had been a Yanomamo woman in the Amazon Basin and she had hunted the jungle for three months before she returned to her village and turned her sister. The sisters declared themselves gods and demanded sacrifices from the village. He found them by the river feeding on an old woman, and he took no pleasure in killing them. Perhaps the redhead, perhaps she would be the one. Dive, he decided. He leaped away from the tower, jackknifed into a dive, and plunged fifty stories to the black water. The challenge was to avoid changing to mist before hitting the water. That was too easy. The impact of the water ripped the clothes off his back; the stitching of his shoes exploded with the pressure. He surfaced, naked except for one sock that had strangely survived the impact, and began the long swim back to his yacht thinking, I shouldn't have saved her from the sunlight. I must be desperate for entertainment. Chapter 28 Is That a Blackjack in Your Pocket? Tommy booted the Emperor out of the store at dawn. It had been a long night trying to keep the crazed ruler away from the Animals while throwing stock and trying to figure out the logistics of his meeting with Mara, all while under the influence of Dr. Drew's polio weed, which seemed to affect the part of the brain that motivates one to sit in the corner and drool while staring at one's hands. When the shift ended, he declined the Animal's invitation for beers and Frisbee in the parking lot, swiped a baguette from the bread-delivery man, and caught the bus home, intent on going straight to bed. He knew his plan was foiled when Frank, the biker/sculptor, met him outside their building holding a familiar-looking bronze turtle. â€Å"Flood, check it out.† Frank held up the turtle. â€Å"It worked!† â€Å"What worked?† Tommy asked. â€Å"Thick electroplating process. Come on in, I'll show you.† Frank turned and led Tommy through the roll-up door into the foundry. The foundry took up the entire bottom floor of the building, here was a huge furnace making a muffled rumbling sound. There were several large pits filled with sand, and plaster-of-Paris molds lay in them in various states of completion. In the back, near the only windows, stood wax figures of naked women, Indians, Buddhas, and birds, waiting to be cut up and placed in plaster of Paris. Frank said, â€Å"We've been doing a lot of statues for people's gardens. Buddhas are big with the koi-pond types. That's what we needed the turtles for. Monk already sold one of them to a woman in Pacific Heights for five hundred bucks. Sight unseen.† â€Å"My turtles?† Tommy said. He looked more closely at the bronze turtle Frank was holding. â€Å"Zelda!† â€Å"Can you believe it?† Frank said. â€Å"We did them both in less than eight hours. Lost-wax process would have taken days. I'll show you.† He led Tommy to the other side of the shop where a short, portly man in leather and denim was working beside a tall Plexi-glas tank filled with a translucent green liquid. Frank said, â€Å"Monk, this is our neighbor, Tom Flood. Flood, this is my partner Monk.† Monk grunted, not looking up from a compressor that he seemed to be having trouble with. Tommy could see how he had gotten his name. He had a large bowl-shaped bald spot with a fringe of hair around it: the Benedictine version of Easy Rider, Friar Tuck on wheels. â€Å"This,† said Frank, gesturing toward the ten-foot tank, â€Å"as far as we know, is the biggest electroplating tank on the West Coast.† Tommy didn't know quite how to react. He was still stunned by seeing the bronze likeness of Zelda. â€Å"That's just spiffy,† he said finally. â€Å"Yeah, dude. We can do anything we can find. No molds, no wax carvings. You just dunk and go. That's how we did your turtles.† Tommy was beginning to get it. â€Å"You mean that that is not a sculpture? You covered my turtles with brass?† â€Å"That's it. That liquid is supersaturated with dissolved metal. We sprayed the turtles with a thin metal-based paint that would conduct current. Then we attached a wire to them and dipped them in the tank. The current draws the metal out of the water and it fuses to the paint on the turtle. Leave it a long time and the coating gets thick enough to have structural integrity. Voila, a bronze garden turtle. I don't think anybody's ever done it before. We owe you, man.† Monk grunted in gratitude. Tommy didn't know whether to be angry or depressed. â€Å"You should have told me you were going to kill them.† â€Å"I thought you knew, man. Sorry. You can have this one, if you want.† Frank presented the bronzed Zelda. Tommy shook his head and looked away. â€Å"I don't think I could look at her.† He turned and walked away. Frank said, â€Å"C'mon, man, take it. We owe you one. If you need a favor or something†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tommy took Zelda. How would he explain to Jody? â€Å"By the way, I've turned your little friends into statues.† And this right after they'd had a big fight. He slunk up the steps feeling completely lost. Jody had left him a note on the counter: Tommy: Imperative that you are here when I wake up. If you go out you are in serious, life-threatening trouble. I mean it. I have some very important things to tell you. No time now, I'm going to go out any second. Be here when I wake up. Jody â€Å"Great,† Tommy said to Peary. â€Å"Now what do I do about Mara? Who does Jody think she is, threatening me? What does she think she's going to do if I'm not here? I can't be here. Why don't you keep her busy until I get home.† Tommy patted the chest freezer and an idea came to him. â€Å"You know, Peary, scientists have frozen vampire bats and thawed them completely unharmed. I mean, how would she know? How many times has she thought it was Tuesday when it was really Wednesday?† Tommy went to the bedroom and looked in on Jody, who had made it to bed, but not in time to change out of her black dress. Wow, Tommy thought, she never dresses like that for me. She looked so peaceful. Sexy, but peaceful. She'll be angry if she finds out, but she's angry now. It won't really hurt her. I can just take her out tomorrow morning and put her under the electric blanket. By sundown she'll be thawed out and I'll have handled the Mara thing. I can tell Mara that I'm involved. I can't start something new until this is finished. Maybe with the extra time, Jody will have chilled a little. He smiled to himself. He opened the lid of the freezer, then went into the bedroom to get Jody. He carried her into the kitchen and laid her in the freezer on top of Peary. As he tucked her into the fetal position he felt a twinge of jealousy. â€Å"You guys behave now, okay?† He tucked a few TV dinners around her nice and snug under her arms, then kissed her on the forehead and gently closed the lid. As he crawled into bed he thought, If she ever finds out about this, she's really going to be pissed. Tommy had been asleep three hours when the pounding started. He rolled out of bed, stumbled across the dark bedroom, and was blinded when he opened the door into the loft. He was just regaining his eyesight when he opened the fire door and Rivera said, â€Å"Are you Thomas Flood, Junior?† â€Å"Yes,† Tommy said, bracing himself against the doorjamb. â€Å"I'm Inspector Alphonse Rivera from the San Francisco Police Department.† He held up a badge wallet. â€Å"You're under arrest† – Rivera pulled a warrant from his jacket pocket – â€Å"for abandoning a vehicle on a public street.† â€Å"You're kidding,† Tommy said. Cavuto stepped through the door and grabbed Tommy by the shoulder, whipping him around as the big cop pulled his handcuffs from his belt. â€Å"You have the right to remain silent†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Cavuto said. Two hours later Tommy had been processed, probed, and printed, and as Cavuto had expected, Tommy's fingerprints matched those on the copy of On the Road that they had found under the dead bum. It was enough for them to get a search warrant issued for the loft. Five minutes after they entered the loft a mobile crime lab was dispatched along with a forensics team and two coroners' trucks. As far as crime scenes went, the loft in SOMA was the mother lode. Cavuto and Rivera left the crime scene to the forensics team and returned to the station, where they took Tommy from a holding cell and put him in a pleasantly pink interrogation room furnished with a metal table and two chairs. There was a mirror on one wall and a tape recorder sat on the table. Tommy sat staring at the pink wall, remembering something about how pink was supposed to calm you down. It didn't seem to be working. His stomach was tied in knots. Rivera had done dozens of interrogations with Cavuto and they always took the same roles: Cavuto was the bad cop, and Rivera was the good cop. Actually Rivera never felt like the good cop. More often he was the I-am-tired-and-overworked-and-I'm-being-nice-to-you-because-I-don't-have-the-energy-to-be-angry cop. â€Å"Would you like a smoke?† Rivera asked. â€Å"Sure,† Tommy said. Cavuto jumped in his face. â€Å"Too bad, punk. There's no smoking in here.† Cavuto took great pleasure in being the bad cop. He practiced in front of the mirror at home. Rivera shrugged. â€Å"He's right. You can't smoke.† Tommy said, â€Å"That's okay, I don't smoke.† â€Å"How about a lawyer then?† asked Rivera. â€Å"Or a phone call?† â€Å"I have to be at work at midnight,† Tommy said. â€Å"If it looks like I'm going to be late, I'll use my call then.† Cavuto was pacing the room, timing his path so he could wheel on Tommy with every statement. He wheeled. â€Å"Yeah, kid, you're going to be late, about thirty years late, if they don't fry you.† Tommy pushed back in his chair with fright. â€Å"Good one, Nick,† Rivera said. â€Å"Thanks.† Cavuto smiled around an unlit cigar and backed away from the table where Tommy sat. Rivera moved up. â€Å"Okay, kid, you don't want an attorney. Where do you want to start? We've got you hands-down on two murders and probably three. If you tell us the story, tell us everything, about all the other murders, we might be able to waive the death penalty.† â€Å"I didn't kill anybody.† â€Å"Don't be cute,† Cavuto said. â€Å"We found two bodies in your freezer. We've got your fingerprints all over a book that we found under a third body outside your apartment. We've got you staying at the motel where we found a fourth body. And we've got you with a closetful of women's clothing and eyewitnesses that put a woman near where we found a fifth body†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Tommy interrupted, â€Å"Actually, there's only one body in the freezer. The other is my girlfriend.† â€Å"You sick fuck.† Cavuto drew back as if to hit Tommy. Rivera moved to restrain him. Tommy cowered in his chair. Rivera led Cavuto to the far side of the room. â€Å"Let me take this for a minute.† He left Cavuto grumbling to himself and went to the seat across from Tommy. â€Å"Look, kid, we've got you cold, so to speak, on two murders. We've got circumstantial evidence on another. You are going to jail for a very long time, and at this point, the death penalty is looking pretty good. Now if you tell us everything, and don't leave anything out, we might be able to help you out, but you have to give us enough to close all the cases. Do you understand?† Tommy nodded. â€Å"But I didn't kill anybody. I put Jody in the freezer, which I admit is inconsiderate, but I didn't kill her.† Cavuto growled. Rivera nodded in mock acceptance of the story. â€Å"Fine, but if you didn't kill them, who did? Did someone you know force you into this?† Cavuto exploded, â€Å"Oh Christ, Rivera! What do you need, a videotape? This little bastard did it.† â€Å"Nick, please. Give me a minute here.† Cavuto moved to the table and leaned over it until his face was next to Tommy's. He whispered, raspy and gruff, â€Å"Flood, don't think you can use a wiggle and a wink to get yourself out of this. That might work down on Castro, but I'm immune to it here, you got me? I'm going to leave now, but when I come back, if you haven't told my partner your story, I'm going to cause pain. Lots of it, and I won't leave a mark on you.† He stood up, smiled, then turned and left the room. Tommy looked at Rivera. â€Å"A wiggle and a wink?† â€Å"Nick thinks you're cute,† Rivera said. â€Å"He's gay?† â€Å"Completely.† Tommy shook his head. â€Å"I would have never guessed.† â€Å"He's a Shriner, too.† Rivera tapped a cigarette out of his pack and lit it. â€Å"Looks can be deceiving.† â€Å"Hey, I didn't think you were allowed to smoke in here.† Rivera blew smoke in Tommy's face. â€Å"You had two people in your freezer, and you're giving me shit about smoking.† â€Å"Good point.† Rivera sat down and leaned back in the chair. â€Å"Tommy, I'm going to give you one more chance to tell me how you killed those people, then I'm going to let Nick back in here and I'm going to leave. He really likes you. This room is soundproof, you know.† Tommy swallowed hard. â€Å"You're not going to believe me. It's a pretty fantastic story. There's supernatural stuff involved.† Rivera rubbed his temples. â€Å"Satan told you to do it?† he said wearily. â€Å"No.† â€Å"Elvis?† â€Å"I told you, it's supernatural.† â€Å"Tommy, I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone before. If you repeat it, I'll deny I said it. Five years ago I saw a white owl with a seventy-foot wingspan swoop out of the sky and pluck a demon off a hillside and take off into the sky.† â€Å"I heard that cops get the best drugs,† Tommy said. Rivera got up. â€Å"I'm going to bring Nick in.† â€Å"No, wait. I'll tell you. It was a vampire. You can thaw Jody out and ask her.† Rivera reached over and turned on the tape recorder. â€Å"Now slow down. Start at the beginning and go until we walked you into this room.† An hour later Rivera met Cavuto behind the one-way mirror. Cavuto was not happy. â€Å"You know, I'd rather you just threaten that I would beat him up.† â€Å"It worked, didn't it?† â€Å"There's nothing there we can use. Not a thing. If he sticks with that story he'll get off on insanity. It's too wild. I want to know how he got the blood out of the bodies.† â€Å"The kid thinks he's a writer. He's showing off his imagination. Let's let him sit awhile and get something to eat. I want to find the Emperor.† â€Å"That wacko?† â€Å"He's been reporting seeing a vampire for weeks. Maybe he saw the kid doing one of the murders.†

Does Exercise Help the Brain Essay examples - 1735 Words

Lets all go for a run: does exercise really help the brain? Should I go run a marathon, join a yoga class, or head off to the gym? Is it really worth the time and effort? Afterall, sitting down and watching television can seem just as appealing. Why even bother working out? The reasons to work out may be greater than you think. Physical activity can make you feel good, keep you in shape, keep you healthy, but now researchers also are finding biological evidence that exercise benefits specific brain mechanisms. Just as exercise improves muscle tone and function, it may also have similar effects on the brain. Some people have thought that exercise positively affects the brain as well as the body. Preliminary evidence suggests that†¦show more content†¦Studies with animals found that exercise increases brain concentrations of norepinephrine in brain regions involved in the bodys stress response (2). In a recent study, researchers found that adult mice doubled their number of new brain cells in the hippocampus when they had access to running wheels (1). The fact that the adult brain can increase its number of brain cells is amazing. It was once thought that the brain stopped producing new brain cells early in its development and that brainpower dimmed as cells died over the years. But in the past decade, researchers have found evidence that the brain continues to generate new brain cells throughout life, even in humans. Studies indicated that challenging environments, which included a number of components, such as pumped-up learning opportunities, social interactions and physical a ctivities, were key to boosting the growth (1). In another study, scientists found that voluntary physical activity alone was enough to trigger a boost in brain cell proliferation in rats. However, this proliferation was seen in relation to the running wheel. Swimming produced no change in mice and rats. This could be because they had access to a pool for only a brief amount of time per day. The runners had round-the-clock wheel access. Its also possible that the rodents dont enjoy swimming and it causes a stress to their systems that counters any benefit. Researchers believe that rodents enjoyed theShow MoreRelatedExercise On The Brain : How Does Physical Activity Helps Our Brain And Mind? Essay908 Words   |  4 PagesExercise on the Brain was printed in the New York Times, December 29, 2015. This article is based on a few researches that shows that physical activity helps our brain and mind to be healthier. It also states that people who are physically active tend to live longer and age slower. According to three of the studies’ results shown in this article the best our physical condition is and the more we exercise the better our brain works. 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Instead ofRead MorePhysical Exercise and Cognitive Functioning in Children1691 Words   |  7 PagesThe purpose of this study is to look at if physical exercise will help the healthy cognitive development in children and adolescence and this paper will illustrate that the same facts are true for children and adolescence, and will stress the importance of exercise for children optimal brain development and growth. The current studies show that physical activity has a positive effect on attention, neuroplasticity and intellectual development in children and adolescence. The studies also seem toRead MoreExercise At The University Of Hawaii Gym1426 Words   |  6 Pagesstructure at around 3:30 to 4:00 pm in the afternoon. As the seconds go by I see the UH student’s expression, movement, mood, and intensity as they exercise. R anging from the basketball court where students are running up and down the court, talking, jumping, shooting, and making eye contact to their teammates. 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