A Beautiful Mind, the generally good film about an intellectual man with schizophrenia, reaches its climax when the intellectual accepts the Pulitzer Prize. His speech is a betrayal of all that he has done. He has changed the world, but all that he can think of to say is that his wife surpasses all of it. He subordinates all of his intellectual questing and actual progress to his female keeper -- who is at times, quite literally, his keeper. Yet her tragedy of actually having to care for him, rather than the typical case in which the man cares for his wife, is highly dramatized. He has schizophrenia, yet it is she who suffers. She who must be appreciated, in spite of his beautiful mind. The film is not at all about "a beautiful mind"; rather, it is about subordinating that mind to the female.

This can only be read as a great betrayal of the film's glory, of its depiction of a beautiful mind, of his college days and counter-cultural tendencies, of all that he has done. That it has historical basis is only evidence of how even the greatest, world-changing men are subordinated, and encouraged to subordinate themselves, in our society.

YOUR (WEEKLY?) ASSIGNMENT

This column marks the beginning of its new look.

Beginning with #25, this column went bi-weekly. It has been maintaining a weekly schedule despite this, although there have been no "Sequential Culture" columns on continuitypages.com in that time. If it were still weekly, this column would be the one due on 24 October. We'll sort this out later.

If you think this column is too short, consider your judgement in context, including the very lengthy previous column, The Matriarchy, Part 2.

I'm still working on the five-part series I promised you, which won't count for the regular columns.

Changes have been made to Darius Awards and to the Publications section. Some Notes on John Donne Studies has now been added. The History of PersianCaesar (formerly entitled "PersianCaesar usage") has been modified.

Your weekly assignment this week is to tell someone about this column. Since the departure of The Continuity Pages to continuitypages.com, hits are down here and I'm really craving an increase for the egoism necessary to continue my (unpaid) work.

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