Smoking, a "custome lothsome to the eye"

A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse.

-King James, A Counterblaste to Tobacco

Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones

Jones, Gerard.  Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book.  New York: Basic Books, 2004.

Reviewing Gerard Jones’ history of the comic book industry makes me feel like I’m pitching a new show to the cable networks.  It’s a little like Mad Men.  There is less suavity, but plenty of smoking, drinking, and womanizing.  There is room for some gratuitous nudity.  Many of the comics publishers came from got started in spicy pulps and nudie mags.  They were hustlers from the street, too, many with mob connections.  So we can have a touch of Boardwalk Jungle, though the violence is contained to the muscular fantasies of young men wanting to overcome a sense of powerlessness.  Of course, there may be comparisono to The Big Bang Theory, especially when you have scenes of young men working side-by-side at typewriters and drawing boards, helping and competing with each other.  Most aren’t geniuses, but plenty are awkward and pretentious.  It even has a great name: Men of Tomorrow.

The book is a mostly chronological look at the development of comics.  It starts with the pulp publishers.  As the pulps declined for various reasons of economics and taste, the comics rose their peak in World War II.  Patriotic superheroes were depicted punching Hitler in the face before America entered the war.  Superhero comics declined after the war, especially due to competition from television, though other genres did well.  Some of them, especially crime and horror, attracted the attention of reformers who wanted a clean and upright media safe for children and a culture longing for conformity and peace.  Comics found a new life as baby boomers came of age, partly because of interest in new dysfunctional heroes of Stan Lee and his collaborators and partly because cheap underground comics were exploring the youth counterculture.  Finally, comics became an almost mainstream medium, especially superheroes who successfully moved into film and other media.

There are almost too many people discussed in this book to mention.  Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz built a shady distributor of sex stories and porn into a pillar of a major media corporation.  Along the way, their conflict with Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster became the stuff of comics legend that occasionally broke into mainstream consciousness.  In many retellings of this story, Donenfeld and Liebowitz are demonized and Siegel and Shuster lionized.  Jones mostly resists this urge, treating the New York publishers with some fairness and showing how the cartoonists from Cleveland were the cause of some of their own trouble.  There is a host of other notables from trash publishing (Hugo Gernsback and Bernarr McFadden), organized crime (Frank Costello and Mayer Lansky), failed teachers and academics (Charlie Gaines and William Moulton Marston), and finally from comics (Charlie Biro, Bob Kane, Jack Cole, Jack Kirby, and many more).

Many of these people grew up in Jewish immigrant families.  Their successes and failures in the 1920s and 1930s, their readiness for war in the 1940s, and their search for an identity both American and Jewish in the postwar year reflects the journey of a larger community.  In addition to being a story of comics, it is a story of how Jews, immigrants, science fiction, and geeks moved from the edges of American society toward the mainstream—or maybe the mainstream widened to encompass them.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

American Splendor (Film)

Stan Lee by Jordan Raphael and Tom Spurgeon

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu

Will Eisner by Michael Schumacher

Google

New & Interesting Stuff April 14, 2013

Christians developed science because they believed it could be done, and should be done

Comic Book Nation by Bradford W. Wright

God’s will alone matters

Gratitude may be defined simply as showing that one values the kindness of God

Human beings are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others

In Congress

It will be the duty of earthly power to do justice

Mojo by Marshall Goldsmith

More of our English is ultimately learned from Tyndale than from and other writer

The natural heart is at enmity with God

New & Interesting Stuff March 14, 2013

Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people

Reason is from God

The rise of science was achieved by deeply religious Christian scholars

Smoking, a "custome lothsome to the eye"

The system of morality to be gathered from the writings of ancient sages falls very short of that delivered in the gospel

That we think of progress at all shows the extent of the influence of Christianity upon us

We in America have everything we need except the most important thing of all

We work best when as much of what we are doing can be delegated to the unconscious mind as possible

You possess the ability to awaken and start anew

Instant Self-Hypnosis by Forbes Robbins Blair

Blair, Forbes Robbins. Instant Self-Hypnosis: How to Hypnotize Yourself with Your Eyes Open. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2004.

Forbes Robbins Blair’s premise is that almost anyone can hypnotize himself by reading aloud a hypnotic script. He stumbled across this discovery in his practice as a hypnotherapist.

In this easy to read book, Blair lays out the basics of hypnosis. He takes some time to debunk hypnosis myths, largely to put readers at ease about the safety of the method and moderate unrealistic expectations.

One of these myths, perpetuated by stage hypnotists, is that you are hypnotized by another who controls your behavior. According to Blair, the subject of hypnotism is always aware and able to ignore any suggestion he doesn’t like. Hypnosis can be helpful to those seeking a change, but it isn’t likely to help someone who is not motivated to change.



Much of the book is a series of hypnotic scripts. The reader reads aloud to himself to achieve a hypnotic state. Then he turns to a script related to a specific goal such as more assertiveness, stop smoking, weight loss or more confidence as a public speaker. At the end of each script is a wake up section.

If you don’t find a script that fits your goal, Blair has a simple procedure for writing your own script. You can even write it while hypnotized. Once written, it can serve as a script to be read like those in the book.

It may seem that one could hardly be hypnotized so easily. Blair says it is common to enter a light hypnotic state while reading an engrossing book or watching a movie. It is simply a matter of focused attention and heightened suggestibility. He says even a light state of hypnosis is enough to effectively plant suggestions for changes you want to make. Plus, as you practice the procedure, you become better at hypnotizing yourself.

The Instinct to Heal by David Servan-Schreiber

Depression and anxiety seem to be the new defining diseases of our age, especially in the West. These disorders, and even severe stress, can affect our health as much as smoking or obesity.

 French psychiatrist David Servan-Schreiber notes that drugs and talk therapy are not especially effective, though the side-effects can be serious. The operating theory behind antidepressant drugs may simply be wrong.

 Dr. Servan-Schreiber suggests we look elsewhere for solutions to depression. The roots of depression are in the emotional brain, rather than the thinking brain, the body and the interaction between them.

 Our brain is layered, an as you go deeper inward, you get to older structures similar to other life forms: first those similar to other primates, then to mammals and finally to reptiles. The wordy, analytical, thinking part of the brain is the newest outer layer, the neocortex. Anxiety and depression are more strongly linked to the inner parts of the brain, which is emotional, image-oriented and much more closely linked to the operations of the body.

 One aspect of the brain-body connection is the heart. The heart has a bundle of nerves associated with it that are practically a simple brain itself, and this heart-brain has a direct connection to the emotional brain in the head. Our emotional and physical states are closely tied this way. Servan-Schreiber discusses techniques related to heart coherence, the variation of heart rate in a regular patter, that can be calming to the heart and brain and put is in a relaxed, restorative mode. His book includes instructions on a type of meditation for increasing heart coherence.

 He also talks about a technique that uses eye movements similar to those that occur while we dream to help the emotional brain process trauma, called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). This therapy will require a trip to a psychiatrist or psychologist, but for the right patients it can provide quick results.

 There is the suggestion that some cases of depression can be a symptom of disease or other issues in the body, especially inflammation. One of the things one can do deal with this type of depression is to get more Omega-3 fatty acids. These can help improve the function of the brain by improving the coating on brain cells. Depression seems to be more prevalent in countries where the typical diet is lower in Omega-3. Exercise can also improve depression and anxiety, especially when it is done regularly; three times a week for 20 minutes is enough to see a benefit.

 In addition, relationships and community are important to mental health and a sense of wellbeing. The quality of ones relationships can have a great impact on physical and mental health. Over the last few decades, people have come to have fewer and shallower relationships and less connections to community and purpose. Servan-Schreiber’s advice on this particularly focuses on ways to communicate that resolve conflicts and build empathy.

 Depression and anxiety are complex. Servan-Schreiber provides a suite of options for treating it. One of these may be helpful along, and some may need to use various ones in combination. In any case, there are things you can do, especially with the aid of a physician or psychologist, to make things better.

 If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Anxious for Nothing by Max Lucado

The Beethoven Factor by Paul Pearsall

Change Your Brain Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen

The Last Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need by Paul Pearsall

The Mindful Way through Depression by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindal Segal & Joh Kabat-Zinn

Overwhelmed by Brigid Schulte

The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson with Miriam Z. Klipper

Rewire Your Anxious Brain by Catherine M. Pittman & Elizabeth M. Karle

The Solution by Lucinda Bassett

Switch on Your Brain by Caroline Leaf

Timeless Healing by Herbert Benson with Marg Stark

 Servan-Schreiber, David. The Instinct to Heal: Curing Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Without Drugs and Without Talk Therapy. New York: Rodale, 2003.