The Moral Superiority of Rats

An interesting tidbit from the world of neuroscience: brain scans of volunteers have shown that altruism lights up the part of the brain also activated by sex and food. Now, this is a very, very primitive part of the brain. What it suggests is that morality is not a product of “civilization” or religion but a species-benefiting instinct hardwired into the brain. And not just our brain, either. Studies have shown that if every time a rat is given food his fellow rat receives an electric shock, then the first rat will eventually give up eating.

It seems that the basis of morality is empathy. Patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex come up with cold “the end justifies the means” answers to moral dilemmas. Psychopaths, of course, typically feel no empathy or remorse. (I could say something here about American politicians, but I’ll resist.)

For some people, these findings have very disturbing philosophical and spiritual implications. They suggest (prove?) that morality is not something that elevates us above our baser impulses, nor is it something handed down to us by philosophers and gods. It is a natural, evolutionary development, like language.

In fact, difficult moral decisions—such as is it right to smother a crying child to prevent it from betraying the location of a busload of people hiding from a murderous enemy (as in the last episode of M.A.S.H.)—create a clash between the emotional part of our brain that tells us it’s wrong to kill a child and those parts of our brain that are involved in impersonal decision making. This area of the brain—the inferior parietal lobe—is relatively new, evolution-wise. Thus the triumph of cool reason over empathetic morality may be peculiarly human, or at any rate the result of a long evolutionary process (no one knows yet which other species share this trait).

Which brings us back to those poor rats suffering electric shocks. I find myself wondering, first of all, what kind of a morally deficient sadist engages in that kind of an experiment in the first place? Then I think about putting our sadistic scientist in a cage and giving his lab partner a shock every time our sadistic scientist gets food. Want to bet on the chances that our sadistic scientist would use his “human” reasoning ability to decide it was better for him to eat and survive than for him to starve?

Which means that the rat….

Tagline Envy

I was on imdb.com the other day (internet movie database) and I started noticing that their movie listings include, among other useful details, the movies’ taglines—often more than one. Some of these taglines are very good. Consider The Bourne Identity: “He was the perfect weapon until he became the target” or, All the Pretty Horses: “Some passions can never be tamed.” Other taglines struck me as fairly lame. The Departed: “Lies. Betrayal. Sacrifice. How far will you take it?” or, “Underhanded. Unrestrained. Undercover.” Yet there were enough good ones that I started thinking, This is what I need—a really clever tagline to help sell my Sebastian St. Cyr Regency mystery series. The problem is, I’m lousy at coming up with that kind of thing.

So what are these taglines, anyway? Basically, they’re bumper stickers. Visual soundbites. Text so short that people will actually read it, that communicates one simple idea in a way that makes it both graspable and memorable. The idea is to come up with a catchy, enticing phrase that will help sell your book/movie/car/investment firm/shampoo. Quick! Sum up your plot, theme, or tone is one memorable phrase. Ummmm….

Frustrated, I wandered the net looking for pointers. I was advised to use taglines to differentiate myself from the competition and help build my brand (Publishers are always talking about “branding” authors. Maybe I’m showing my age, but I get this Rawhide image of singed cowhide.) Taglines, I’m told, are shortcuts to help my target audience know me and remember me. Sounds great. But how do I this?

I’m told to sum up my product’s essence in a way that uses memorable phrasing, creates personality, and telegraphs the message I want to convey. Yes, I know that, but HOW? Ask a question, say the experts (“Does she or doesn’t she?”). Use a two-fold delivery with a twist (i.e., Shooters’ “Yesterday was about honor. Today is about justice.”) Use specifics rather than vague words or generalizations.

In the end, I’m left with the realization I can write a 100,000 word book but I can’t write a one sentence tagline. I should have known. Hell, I didn’t even come up with a clever name for my blog.

If Only

It’s every author’s dream: the freedom to dedicate hours and hours a day, day after day, to writing.

I used to think, if only I didn’t have to write this report on that stupid abattoir in Qatar… if only I didn’t spend most of the day riding herd on a couple of preschoolers… if only I didn’t spent hours and hours chauffeuring teenagers to school and lessons and practices… if only I could just sit down and write, I’d get so much more done!

Maybe for some people it works that way. For me? Not as much as I’d expected.

The problem was, I soon realized that all those hours I once spent doing other things were not really wasted, writing-wise. All the while I was building Lego castles and watching swim practice, I was also fleshing out my characters’ personalities, developing their backstories, imagining scenes. (You’re right; I couldn’t do that and write reports on Qatari abattoirs or South Australian grain production; that kind of distraction sucks.) But in the old days, when I was finally able to grab an hour or two to sit down at the computer—or with pen and paper—I knew exactly what I wanted to write. Once most of my day was devoted to writing, I found I had to do my thinking at the computer. It was a huge change. Not only that, but writing shifted from being something I did to relax and became something I did to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. Another big change. Because no matter how much you enjoy something, once its success becomes vitally important to your children’s future, it’s inevitable that your attitude towards it is going to alter.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not complaining. What actually started me to thinking about this was a blog entry over at Razored Zen . Charles is a university prof taking the summer off to write. For him, it’s bliss. But he has also very quickly discovered that spending all day, day after day, at a computer can take a physical toll. The fact is, almost every full-time writer I know has neck and shoulder problems. Which started me to thinking, What are some of the other changes that come when writing shifts from being a hobby or an ambition, and becomes a profession?

Polar Star

Ever since I finished GORKY PARK I’ve been wanting to read POLAR STAR, Martin Cruz Smith’s next Arkady Renko story. I put it off because I was determined to plow through the “bestselling” thriller I had set myself to read next. Problem was, I hate the thriller so much I’ve made little progress in a month. Yesterday I finally caved and picked up POLAR STAR.

GORKY PARK was such a wonderful reading experience I worried I might be disappointed, but of course I’m not. Yes, it’s a very different story in a very different setting. Yes Arkady is different, impacted by the horrors set in motion by the events of Gorky Park. But I’m still having a hard time putting it down (not a good thing when the galleys for the paperback WHEN GODS DIE are due Wednesday), and even when I’m not reading it I find the characters and story drifting through my mind.

For me, one of the most fascinating aspects of Arkady’s character is that as much as he hates totalitarianism and bureaucracy and coercion, he genuinely believes in all that is good and noble about the pure communist philosophy. This came out in Gorky Park, and now it’s coming out again in Polar Star, which is set in 1989 as Russia lurches towards the greed and corrupt materialism of capitalism and the Western world. It’ll be fascinating to see how this develops in future books. I already have HAVANA BAY and WOLVES EAT DOGS sitting here waiting for me. It’s been a long time since I’ve fallen in love with an author’s writing like this. Bliss.

And So It Begins Again

Today is June 1st, the official start of the 2007 hurricane season.

Of course, the year’s first named tropical storm already formed off the coast of Florida weeks ago (not a good sign). But even when hurricanes do blow up in June or early July, they usually aren’t intense. The really nasty storms tend to come later—during the three weeks on either side of September 10th, I once heard someone say. So the scary time is yet to come. And yet…

And yet there’s a palpable tension in the air here in New Orleans today as the city draws a collective deep breath and thoughts turn to the long, hot, tense days ahead. My mother says, “I’m not going to worry about it. What good’s it do to worry about it? If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.”

Wise words. But I find myself looking around my house, with the repairs of Katrina’s damage still not finished. And I think, Hurry October.