Would I Find Myself in You? (Eurythmics)

Language: Greek

Part of the application process for the job I interviewed for on Thursday is a personality test. This makes me really nervous (in some respects, more so than the interview itself): among other things, I prefer it when my personality is a surprise to people.

A lot of the questions were about the sorts of things you'd expect: whether or not it's okay to steal from an employer (even if they're really, really mean to you), whether or not it's good to be nice to people, etc. The strangest part was a series of items sprinkled in among the other ones about accidents, whether they were preventable, whose fault they were, etc. It struck me as an odd thing to be asking questions about.

But then, the whole thing was kind of screwy, frankly. Any halfway intelligent person could easily figure out the answers that the test was angling for, especially if you know, going in, that there's a scale built in to catch people who are trying to give the most socially correct answer. I suspect I could get into some trouble if I posted one of the exact questions, word for word, but there were things in there like, "I've gone out of my way to be mean to people before." Well, duh. So clearly questions like that are checking to see if you're being honest.

I had initially been toying with the idea of e-mailing and asking to be removed from consideration, because of the personality test thing. It really bothered me, seemed like a weird kind of asymmetric invasion of privacy (and still kind of does). In the end, I decided not to, and went ahead and took the test, and told the truth, because 1) I figure actually getting the job is kind of a long shot anyway¹, and 2) I can't imagine that they're getting any usable, real information out of these things, so to the extent that the test counts for anything, I'm thinking it's just an extra randomizing device, a wild card if you will. So there's no particular reason not to take it if you think, as I do, that I was not especially impressive in the interview: it could only help my chances of getting the job.

This song seemed like the only sensible song choice, given the aforementioned situation.

-Jessi

¹The husband would actually prefer that I not get the job, for reasons which are specific to the job and which I don't want to address at the moment, but which are very possibly valid and which I have some concerns about myself.
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Would I find it in you?
Would I find it in you, honey?
Would I say something now that wasn't genuine?
I ask you that, sugar: would I find it in you?

My friends know what's in the shop.
I won't be here otherwise.
I've packed my bags,
I've cleaned the floor.
You're careful with me.
Walk outside the door.

(You consider me: I'll make him, I will make him)

You fall in a straight line - no intervention.
No deceit in your person.
You are the bigger imitation, but
A lot of him is genuine.
I had all of it I can take;
Now I leave it to you.

(You consider me: I will make him, I will make him)

(You are careful with me – you are careful! Ooh, yeah)

The Sweet Dreams of the Dreams (Make This) (Eurythmics)

Language: Russian

Ummmmkay. Well. So there's this guy, Peter Watts, who writes science fiction. And I wouldn't have found out about him, except that Pharyngula linked to a page of his a while back about vampires.

The page was a clever Power-Pointish presentation about vampire physiology, origins, etc., which is actually brilliant. Not brilliant so much for being well thought-out biologically (though it more or less is), but brilliant for matching the tone and style of this sort of scientific presentation. And I highly recommend watching it, because it's carefully thought-through and elaborate and tonally-perfect. Plus, some of us think physiology lectures are cool in and of themselves.

So, my interest piqued, I looked around his site at basically everything else, and decided, okay, this guy knows how to build worlds in a way that meets or exceeds my exacting standards, and he's got his novels on-line, for free, so what the hell, let's give him a chance and read the book even though science fiction isn't really, "Battlestar Galactica" notwithstanding, my thing.

So I read Blindsight, which is the book for which the Power Point presentation is relevant. And . . . I think a lot of the reason why I don't read much science fiction is that when I do, I'm always interested in the wrong things. Watts is wanting me to think about the nature of consciousness and alien intelligences and the shape and function of the ship, and I'm more interested in the mundane stuff. I want to have long, digressive conversations between crew members completely unrelated to the business at hand. I want the characters to be charming and funny and clever and, you know, personable². Distinct. Which he does lay out, more than once, the way in which each character is different, physically and mentally, from a standard-issue twentieth-century person. But they all have a tendency to talk kind of the same way, and the characters never really progress beyond their functions on the ship: I know what they look like, and what their job is, but I'm never especially intimate with any of them except the narrator, and so by the time the carnage starts³, I don't feel particularly bad about any of the characters potentially dying: I've never made a connection with any of them, really, despite trying to the whole time I've been reading.

Which means I was a bad reader. Watts points to the breathtaking philosophical space opera taking place on the stage, and I'm back in the control room talking to the guy in charge of the lights about his pets, and where he grew up, and we're discovering that we had the same third-grade teacher, and I only look back at the stage when the explosions begin.

So, Mr. Watts, if you're reading this: it's not you, it's me. But we can still be friends --

I'd still recommend the book to people. Those more accustomed to science fiction as traditionally practiced will no doubt like Blindsight just fine. And in fairness, I think I have probably been somewhat ruined for reading sci-fi by all the sci-fi viewing I've done: this would possibly work just fine for me as a movie. I may yet try one of the other books, reading more slowly, to see if that helps. But so far, the Power Point is the best thing I've seen.

-Jessi

¹"FizerPharm: Trust. Profit. Deniability.", e.g.

²Some of them are not un-charming, exactly. And the reader's way into the story is via a character that the others don't especially trust or like, so they don't have much reason to try to ingratiate themselves to him. Which means, they don't have much reason to try to ingratiate themselves to you, the reader, either. Which might be an unavoidable structural flaw.

³I think this can't count as a spoiler, because what sci-fi books don't have carnage?

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This will be made sweet:
is it necessary to contradict me?
Peace moves me, and seven seas –
each one is looking for something.
Some of them want to use you;
some of them, they want utilized by you.
To get some from them, they want to misuse you;
some of them, they want to be misused.

(You hold up your head,
you hold up your head;
moving further.)

Here Comes Rain (Eurythmics)

Language: Spanish

That radar picture is moderately current, or at least it was when I began to post this. Iowa City seems to have had an unusually wet, cool, and stormy summer this year. I'm sure that's bad for somebody or another (farmers?), but I like it. In fact, it's pretty much what I look for in a summer.

This song has a bad tendency to get stuck in my head, particularly when it's raining for real. There's a whole set of them, actually:

Another Song About the Rain (Cracker)
Red Rain (Peter Gabriel)
Rain (Madonna)
Driving in the Rain (John Wesley Harding)
I Can't Stand the Rain (Tina Turner)
I'm Only Happy When It Rains (Garbage)
I Wish it Would Rain (Nanci Griffith)
No Rain (Blind Melon)
Purple Rain (Prince)

Which means probably we're looking at a Rain Trilogy happening. And that's good. There hasn't been a trilogy in a while.

-Jessi

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here comes the rain again
that falls in my head again, like a memory
that lowers my head like a new emotion
that desire to walk in the open wind,
a desire to speak lovingly
I wish to plunge myself in his ocean
I am he with whom you rain

loving me as a baby
so walk with me to it
as the lovers
Speak with me,
since the lovers do.

Here comes the rain, that rain again
in my head, like a tragedy that
tears me a new emotion to separate (like "Oooooh")
that desire to breathe in the open wind
desire to kiss me lovingly
I wish to plunge in his ocean
I am he with whom you rain

char it, baby, to me
so lovingly

Here comes the rain, that falls again
in my head like a memory, that
lowers my head as a new emotion.
(it comes here again, he comes here again)
That desire to walk in the open wind,
desire to speak lovingly:
I wish to plunge myself in his ocean.
I am he with whom you rain

Sisters Will be Doin' it There, for Ourselves (Eurythmics)

Language: Russian

I was going to start off by saying something about how Annie Lennox is kind of adorable, or at least used to be back in the day (haven't seen much of her lately), when it occurred to me that she and Billy Idol used to look an awful lot alike. High, short, platinum-colored hair, episodic sneer -- they were going for something very much like the same look. I think they should get together now, and do a new album: give him the lipstick and the housewife dresses, give her the studded leather jackets and the crotch-grabbing machismo. How could it fail to work?

This probably wouldn't be the song to try to do, though I'd certainly pay good money to hear Billy Idol singing this unironically. Like that cover of "Stand by Your Man" that Lyle Lovett did on the Lyle Lovett and His Large Band album.

-Jessi

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Times were, when they was used to say
that after each "large person,"
must be a "large woman."
But in these times of change you know
that they're no longer true.
So we come from the kitchen
because we forgot to say something to you, which is: (we, we speak)

The sisters make it for ourselves,
stand on their own two feet,
and ring their own bells.
Sisters make it for themselves.

Now this song will finish celebrating
the conscious liberation of female position!
Mothers, daughters, and their daughters too.
Woman to the woman,
we sing with you.
The "inferior sex" obtained new exteriors;
we obtained doctors, lawyers, politicians too.
Each - glance all around.
You can see; can you see - can you see
the right of the woman next to you will be there.

The sisters make it for ourselves,
stand on their own two feet,
and ring their own bells.
Sisters make it for themselves.

Now we don't make stories,
and we don't place plans,
because woman still loves man,
and man still loves woman.
(Exactly the same, however)