What I learned from reading The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The turn of the screw is a paranormal novel written by Henry James, and despite the fact that I found it a little bit boring to read, because I didn’t like the narration style, it touches a very interesting subject about the paranormal and the craziness. 

Speculating about the title, I think it comes from the saying of “having a screw loose” which refers to being crazy, so in a way I felt that this novel is about being crazy and reassuring the craziness. Since the screw refers to being crazy, and turning the screw is like adjusting it into the mind, who knows? it is really hard to explain, because the way this novel was written was too brilliant and putting into words the concept is really giving me headache, because it’s one of this books that one understand but that cannot explain. 

So in a way, I learned from this novel that we all assume that our perception is the same that everyone else have, which is totally incorrect, since we all are different so we all have different perceptions so one should never assume one is always correct. Because in the book the main Character saw some apparitions than despite only she was able to see, she assumed the kids she was in charge with could see them too, and it’s about this that the book is about, how she misunderstood all the situation with these ghosts she was seeing around the house. 

Nevertheless, Henry James, never confirmed in the book if the apparitions she saw were real ghosts or just tricks that her eyes / mind played on her, so the reader never really know, and this is what led me to overthink the title of the book, because if the apparitions were not real, and the main character was crazy, she just turned the screw she had loosen and plug all the craziness into her life. 

And I better stop writing because I feel like I can be like a dog chasing it’s tail trying to explain this book, and instead try to give it a read, as always you can find it for free on iBooks because it is a classic and it’s public domain. 

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What I learned from listening to Positions by Ariana Grande

Screenshot from the Music Video

I listened to Ariana Grande new song: Positions, and I liked it a lot, because it’s really catchy and the music relaxing, but what I liked the best is the message Ariana brought to us with the lyrics. 

But before jumping on over analyzing the lyrics, I wanna tell that I found very refreshing how this song, despite being heavily sexual, is not explicit at all, so we have to use our dirty imagination to decode the sexual innuendos in it. I like this type of songs better than the ones that leave nothing to the imagination at all. 

Back to the topic, what I learned from listening to positions by Ariana Grande is the meaning of love, because when one is in love with someone else, one is willing to change or sacrifice certain things in our life in order to be with other person or just please them. And this changes or sacrifices shouldn’t be a bother or a burden, they must be willingly and moved by loved. 

And this is a message that the world needs right now, because people nowadays is really selfish and have a wrong perception of what love really is.

Most people are too self centered and just want to be loved and that people changed for them to gain their love, without understanding that love is a 50/50 thing, so this unrealistic perspective of love created by narcissistic people needs to end, because that’s not what love is. 

To love is to share, to change, to sacrifice, to rejoice, and always, always equally. And this is expressed on the song too, as she emphasize the word “both” on the lyrics. 

So I’m glad this song with such a nice message and nice vibes came out, because lately most of the songs carry bad, negative or self degrading messages, that despite being catchy and technically good songs, I end up disliking because of it. 

But positions? I can listen to positions and attract love to my life 🥰

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What I learned from watching This is Paris.

Paris Hilton Documentary

For those few who know me might already know that I like Paris Hilton, I consider her a great role model and it’s someone I look up to. So, it was obvious that I was going to watch the documentary she made for YouTube Originals. And despite being very disturbing, I loved it, because I learned, or I confirmed, some theories I have about her.

Since the beginning of the Paris Hilton era, I always had a hunch that “this girl can’t be serious, she is fooling everyone with her dumb blonde attitude” and this documentary confirmed that I was right, as it shows a whole new face of Paris, and the “real her”, which of course it’s not the stupid girl she portraits to be on social media or T.V. 

But beyond Paris’ life, this documentary gets a disturbing turn, as it confirms the power of what MKUltra programming can do to a person. Because in This is Paris, she opens up about her teen years and how she was abused in Provo Canyon School and other boarding schools where her parents sent her to “fix her”.

So Paris tell us openly how this abuses she went thru helped her create the persona she portraits to be and some love and hate. So it is really scary and disturbing that this confirms the conspiracy theory of the MK Ultra programming and how it really can work and split and broke a person mind so they can be manipulated and handled easily.

I also learned that people still live in the Victorian era, as they seem to live for what society says and expect from them, and I’m talking about Nikki Hilton Rothschild and Paris’ Parents, because just because she was different and not following the pattern of what society expects her to be, was the reason she was sent to those abusive boarding school.

Sadly, that’s something that it is not only seen in the elite or rich people, that’s an stigma that still lingers in middle and lower class people too. So it’s really sad, because we all have free will to do, think and say whatever we want as long as it doesn’t hurt or affect others or ourselves, so society shouldn’t take this free will out from us. 

Punishing someone or stop doing something just because of the “what might people say” is something we as humanity need to overcome, as we come to world to be happy and please ourselves not anyone else.

But of course all that philosophical ranting is me over thinking and analyzing the documentary, as you don’t see any of what I said it is, at least not directly, but if you wanna check it out by yourself, you can watch This is Paris in YouTube for free.

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What I learned from reading O. Henry Short Stories.

O. Henry slayin’ it! 

Starting with this post I am changing the dynamic of the boring and awfully reviews that I’ve been doing, to be honest I don’t know how to review things, specially books, because I just enjoy them so much even when they are bore and lame and I end up liking them and recommending them to everybody. So, instead, I’m starting this new ‘section’ (if I can call it like that) of “What I learned from...” in which instead of reviewing the books, I’ll state the knowledge I got from reading them AND I’ll be expanding it to movies, series, anime, music videos, etc. 

Now that I cleared that up, I can get back to the topic, which is O. Henry’s short stories.

But before jumping into the stories, I’d like to share with you what I learned of O. Henry, as it is a habit of mine to check the biography of the authors I read, after I read them, and it turned out that O. Henry real name was William Sydney Porter, he was American and he lived quite a life, he went to prison and he didn’t started his writing career after his serving time, which I think it’s pretty cool, because some of the stories I read were about robbing people, banks or trains, and I can guess where he got those ideas from...

About his short stories, O. Henry wrote over 300 short stories, but I only read like around 40, the most popular ones, and I’m sure that one of the things that he wanted to teach in all of his stories, even if they were fiction, is how ironic life can get to be, as they all had unexpected and twisted endings that I’m sure all of us have experienced in life in one way or another, like when we fight for getting something and we end up having exactly the opposite but realizing that what we’ve got it’s better than what we wanted. 

Therefore O. Henry‘s short stories are full of funny, sad and interesting ironies that represents life, which are important to mark and reckon and learn from, as this will help us accept what happens on our own life. So it’s a big thumbs up to O. Henry for that. 

Another not so remarkable thing I learned from his stories is how the economy has grow and change from the period of time where he lived (late 1800s) to nowadays, as he used a lot of monetary remarks and reference on his stories, so it’s pretty fun to read how people just made $8.00 a week from a full time job back then. Which tell us the never ending tale of how wages are never enough for people, because as wages go up, so does the price of things and services, making it an infinite loop. 

To conclude, I also re affirmed (because I’ve been knowing this for years) that fiction it’s not too far away from real life, because all fiction has its root in reality. So, after learning that O. Henry had served time in prison, I understood how all the plots of his stories were so spotless and felt so real, because I’m assuming he used the stories he got from his fellow prisoners when he was in jail. So I’m guessing he took reality and blended into fiction, but is it really fiction if it’s based on reality?... I’ll leave you that to think about. 

So, if you’d like to read some of his stories, I found this great website which contains a lot of them if not all, so you can check them up and read them for free. 

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Review of François Rabelais’ Saga: Gargantua & Pantagruel

I know it’s been a while since the last review I posted a few months ago, but it’s because I started reading the saga of the five books of Gargantua and Pantagruel, that were published thru 1532 to 1564, written by the monk, physician and occultist François Rabelais. 

I first heard about this book on Éliphas Lévi’s novel the Sourcier of Meudon, which is like a biography of François, and since I found his life amusing, I decided to read his work having an slightly idea of what I was going found due to the few times the books are mentioned in Éliphas’ novel, but bruh! I was so wrong...

If I’d had to describe the 5 books of Gargantua and Pantagruel in a sentence it would be:

What the f*ck did I just read???!!!

Since this books are a crazy mixture of fiction, non fiction, comedy, fantasy, philosophy, fables, science, arts, occultism, economy,  religion, love, demonology and maybe other topics I didn’t even realize, as this books were so random and so dense that I’m sure they need to be re read several time to be able to get a full grasp of all the knowledge they contain. 

But, unfortunately, that’s not going to happen, because despite being very knowledgeable, it was really hard for me to read them, mostly because they are too old and they bored me, the style of writing it’s not catching, and although they are written with a comedy tone to make them more appalling, the dull format of the narration made them a challenge for me.

Therefore, reading this saga left me with a bittersweet sensation, because the story is good, all the knowledge hidden in between the lines, and sometimes directly, it’s amazing, and the philosophy and critics to the humanity which François exposed on his books were very clever, but they were so hard to read that it shades a little the good part. 

To talk a little about the plot of this books, well, they narrate the life of two giants, which are Gargantua and Pantagruel, the first book tell the story of Gargantua, and how he grew in Europe and was educated, and fought a war and stablished his own land. 

The second book, it’s focused on Pantagruel, who’s Gargantua’s son, and it follows the same plot of the first book, telling us how Pantagruel was educated, and he too fought a war, with Panurge and some other friends he made along the way. 

Now from the third book on, the story focus only on Pantagruel and his friends (Specially Panurge, who becomes a co-protagonist) the conversation he has with them, the clash of their philosophies, and a lot of moral lesson, about life, economy and love. 

So in the third book, they discuss the topics of debts and how to handle oneself economically and marriage, as Panurge brings the topic that he would like to get married but he was afraid of becoming a cuck if he did got married. (So apparently being or becoming a cuck it’s been a issue on society since the 1500s or before 🤣)

The four book now center around this idea of Panurge, and the gang decide to go look for advise from wise people and even witches, to predict wether or not Panurge was going to become a cuck if he decided to get marry. 

But not being satisfied with the all the answers and predictions he got along the way, they decide to travel the seas looking for the ultimate answer provided to them by a ‘Holy Bottle’, and that’s what the last book narrates. His sea adventures, and all the different places and island full they visit on this way to the ‘Holy Bottle’

So it’s a big, complex and rich saga that, in my opinion, everyone has to read and should be more famous and well known, because I think it can be compared to Dante’s Inferno, or Cervantes Don Quixote, But I think that the heavy symbolism and hidden knowledge it contains, make this saga to form part of the occult and secret books that are hard to find.

The good part, tho,  is that if you’d like to read them, you can find them and download all five books with illustrations for free on iBooks. 

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Visual Art: The Magician

The Magician

For those who doesn’t know, I’ve been doing tarot readings for over a year a now, after having studied the cards and it’s symbols for almost 7 years.  

In the Tarot the Magician represents the card Number I (one) of the Major Arcana, and it could be interpreted as the preparation or the beginning of the journey to find the illumination. 

So inspired by this powerful and moving card I made this piece, which I decided to called The Magician, since well, that’s what it represents. 

Funny thing is that the original plan for this photo was to be very simple, without much “symbolism” so I had just pictured me naked with the magician hat with the sky as background, but as I started to put it together, I couldn’t help it and ended up loading it with heavy symbolism and the card itself that inspired me to create it, which I think it was a nice touch. 

This is the third card I represent in a photo, being the Tower and the Devil the first two. 

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LA TORRE . . . . . . #SirHelderAmos #Tarot #thetower #magic #wizard #witch #magia #art #portraitphotographer #portraitcentral #bnw #symbolic #edit #card #blackandwhite #portraiture #colorsplash #magia #brujeria #nwo #illuminati #shirtless #symbolism #maleportraits #photographs #abstract #random #popart #popsurrealism #hoscos

A post shared by Sir Helder Amos (@sirhelderamos) on Jul 10, 2017 at 1:28pm PDT

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The devil #tarot #me

A post shared by Sir Helder Amos (@sirhelderamos) on Oct 12, 2015 at 10:25pm djdkkfc

And this makes me wonder if I would end up representing all the cards thru my lifetime, as one of the many interpretation of the cards is that they represent the different stages of our life and path to illumination and evolution. 

I guess only time will tell, but as for now I am pretty much certain that I feel like The Magician myself.

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Review of Éliphas Lévi’s novel: Le Sorcier de Meudon.

The Wizard of Meudon 

Le Sorcier de Meudon or The Wizard of Meudon (in English) is a novel written by the occultist Éliphas Lévi and was published as two short novels in 1847. 

This book is a pretty peculiar one, because despite having the appearance to be a fictional funny story it actually is a biographical novel that narrates the life of François Rabelais. And this literally blew my mind. 

As I’ve said repeatedly here, I just read whatever my intuition tells me to read next, so I never know the premise of the books I read before I read the , so that’s why I’m always surprised by all of them. So, I chose this one because I still wanted to read something about magic (remember the bad luck I had with the Gross Philéas book). 

Therefore I started reading Le Sorcier the Meudon expecting to fulfill this expectation, at the beginning I thought that the book was a fictional one, but then I realized that the main character of the book actually existed in the mid 1500s  and that all the crazy story the book narrates actually happened. 

So you could only imagine my level of astonishment and how my mind was blown when I started to look further on the topic of François Rabelais and found that everything in the book was real, that he had actually done what he did in the book, and that he wasn't just a fictional character, but a real human being like you or me.

That made me enjoy the book even more than what I was already enjoying when I started reading it, because it was easy to read, it was entertaining and it was enlightening, all at the same time. Now add that everything was real and you have a perfect book. 

As I said before, this novel was originally published in two light novels, the first part that tells us the beginning of François Rabelais and the event that made him start his journey which changed his life. The second part of the book it’s after his journey and in his late stage of life. So we have like an before and after on the story of this peculiar man. But, unfortunately, this book leaves us wonder what happened in that in between, which I’m pretty sure it was more amazing that the little glimpse Eliphas gave us in his book. 

With only over 350 pages on my iPad I read the book in the original French language in about three weeks, which is the usual, and as always it is for free to download in the iBook Store (although I don’t know if they have a free English version available) so if you wanna have a really nice time and share a laugh I totally recommend it.

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Review of Joseph Conrad’s novel: The Secret Agent.

The Secret Agent is a highly politicized novel written by Jose Conrad and was first published in 1907, about the anarchism and somehow the terrorist attacks that were having place in the U.K. And the U.S. back at the time. 

Now, I only learned that after reading the Wikipedia article of the novel, because as I always do, I just picked to read this book because the title ‘called me’, since This time I wanted to read an adventure book. And apparently Joseph Conrad wrote this novel inspired by an actually terrorist attack that took place in Greenwich in 1894.

Nerveless, despite the novel gives you what the title promises, a book about a Secret Agent, it was not delivered in the way I expected. Because I wanted to read something like... I don’t know... a Secret Agent like James Bond or something, fooling everyone and making stunts. But instead I got a book extremely boring (at least the first half of it) filled with politics and anarchism. 

Fortunately for me, I really got to enjoy the second half of the book, mostly because it’s where the action happens, and all the extensive narrative that I felt unnecessary and boring, took a turn of events. 

And let me repeated in case it’s not clear, I disliked the narrative of this book so bad. Joseph Conrad took too many words to describe his characters and situations that (for me) were unnecessary and boring. 

Now, from a creative point of view, the idea was very good and controversial, so with a different narrative it would have been a great book, and it actually was, since for what I read on the Wikipedia article, he then created a play version of this book which was successful and that even a Television Series was created based on it. 

Back to the story to talk a little about the plot, this book narrates the tale of Mr. Verloc, a Secret Agent, who apparently had left his espionage behind and settled down with his wife, mother in law and special brother in law, in a small shop. But his bubble pops when he is called back to take action or lose his job and salary as a Secret Agent, which he always retained. So the book revolves around about the anxiety and stress of Mr. Verloc having to accomplish the mission that was delegated to him. 

To conclude, I gotta say that I have mixed feelings about this book, because as it was annoying to read, but the idea and the plot were good and in a way it exposed secret agents in a more realistic way, so I cannot say I disliked the whole book, yet I can’t say I like it entirely neither. So It is really a mixed feeling, because I cannot state that the book was good nor bad without disagreeing with myself. 

So if you wanna read it and try to get your own opinion for this book, you can find it and get it in iBooks for free or download from any public domain library. 

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Review of Olga de Pitray’s book: Voyages Abracadabrants du gros Philéas

In English “The bizarre travels of fat Philéas” was published in 1890 by Olga de Pitray, and I was completely fooled by it, because of my wrong understanding of the title, since my rusty and not so wide French thought that the word Abracadabrants meant something like magic, or magical (you know, for the word abracadabra), but in reality it means “bizarre” so I ended up reading a “comedy” book instead of the fantastic magical one I was expecting. 

Unfortunately for me, this first deception was just the beginning of this tedious and boring book, because I dislike it from almost the beginning, because despite the hard efforts Olga made for making it bizarrely funny, I just found it plain null. 

The book center’s about Philéas, a fat man who is rather slow (intellectually speaking), and how he goes on a hunting travel with this mean man who just wanted to make fun of him and make him his personal clown. 

So, the entire book is just about the poor fat guy being bullied and put into random awkward position just for this other guy’s amusement. So, instead of being “funny” I just felt sorry for poor Philéas and found myself annoyed pretty fast. 

Luckily for me, the book was a short one, just 270 pages on my iPad, so the pain was not that long. And the vocabulary and writing of the book is very simple, which is the only good thing I can pull out from it, since I read it in French and it didn’t gave me any headache, like Notre Dame, or other French books I’ve read. 

To conclude I don’t recommend this book, so if you ever cross path with it in iBooks, just ignore it and try to find something else more worth reading. 

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Visual Art: Wild Nature.

Wild Nature

As you may already know, I am always reading and searching for knowledge, because it is true that knowledge is power, and one of the things I’ve learned is that despite we, humans, are the only “rational thinking” beings on earth for the moment, we still have lesson to learn from other species that may not be as rational, for example:

We have to be brave, fearless and royal like the lion to face all the obstacles that life put in front of us.

Also we have to be light, and soar the sky, so we can look below and have a better eye, like the eagle. So we can take different perspectives into consideration when making decisions.

And let’s not forget, that not matter what happens we have to keep a calm and focused hard working attitude like the ox, to accomplish our goals.

So from now on let’s try to incorporate the wild nature’s nature into our nature. So we become naturally better. Because if we incorporate the teachings of this animals into our life, we will be unstoppable like nature itself.

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