Sunday, August 18, 2013

What's Ultimately Dark... & What's Ultimately Light?

I finish reading The Wisdom of Psycopaths by Kevin Dutton. And how did I stumble upon this gem, you might ask.
Well, if you've been reading my blog at all—you've probably noticed an explicable swerve from the usual theme of faeries, magic, and enchantment to… uhm… me fangirling Dexter every other Sunday. Which, BTW, the more I delve into the shows wrap-up podcasts produced by Scott Reynolds and watch things like The Writer's Room episode featuring Dexter aka Michael C. Hall aka David Fisher, Sara Colleton, Scott Buck, Wendy West, and Manny Coto on the Sundance Channel, the more I discover my love for the show's WRITING is justified! YAY. I'd hate to be all crazy and fangirling over some pathetic show glorifying serial killers with lots of cliches and gratuitous violence like The Following… ahem. (Sorry!) Cause like Scott Buck said: "Dexter is about a serial killer, but it's not a serial killer show."

Okay, where was I? Oh, yes, I've given myself permission to go full-frontal fangirling on Dexter this final season and that means keeping up with the show's official blog, Dexter Daily. So there was a post on the blog about Kevin Dutton and THAT is how I came across The Wisdom of Pyscopaths.

And as you know, I'm super fascinated by psychology so I have to read this book. And I do.

OMG. It definitely reframes things. In this final season, Dr. Vogel—the neuropsychiatrist played by the phenomenal Charlotte Rampling—espouses edgy theories about psychopaths, a perspective which comes straight out of Dutton's book or at least from the studies cited therein. What's really irreverent is the book's final chapter… Gee, I just can't SPOIL it for you…  But I'll leave you with a hint. It seems there's a distant proximity between the psychopath and the saint.

And of course that gets me to thinking about Umbra… because these kinds of questions about what's ultimately dark and what's ultimately light fuel the cosmology in Daughter of Light.

Fangirling Pick of the Week: Download Dexter Wrap-Up Podcast 7.02 (#24) with Jennifer Carpenter from iTunes.