Of Scut Work, Unsubs, and James Bond

El problemo with the scut work is its inconsistency. There’s a huge amount of scut work available now, for example; there won’t be two weeks from now if the past few years are any indicator. My stipend is enough to cover the monthly nut, but if I want those little extras that make life worth living – RTT’s rent & food money for the next three months (heh, heh, heh); cat toys; the occasional dinner/movie/theater/museum/cemetery/abandoned building outing; an opportunity to Spoil the Kidz over Turkey Day – prudence cautions that I squirrel up the acorns while the acorns are falling.

This leads to long philosophical dialogues between my Inner Ant (right shoulder) and my Inner Grasshopper (left shoulder) that read like Plato and Socrates quibbling over how to decorate the cave. Don’t panic! I won’t bore you with them here.

Suffice it to say that even though I really don’t want to, I should probably continue with boring scut work today. And possibly through the weekend.

To offset the boredom, I’ve been binge-watching Criminal Minds, which is a TV show about serial killers and the strange band of FBI misfits charged with catching them in 44 minutes.

I can’t tell whether the show is any good or whether my mind has been so beaten down by scut work that I’ve lost all critical faculties.

But, of course, who doesn’t love serial killers, right?

The scripts are tight even when formulaic, bizarre behavior of the “unsubs” (my new favorite word!) contrasting nicely with quiet epiphanies of the reoccurring characters so that over the course of the season arc, the show builds up a rather nuanced portrait of those characters.

There’s never an episode that doesn’t include torture, either referenced or on camera.

Which reminds me of an interview I have on one of my many dead hard drives (whose decryption is another project I need to get on since shortly they will no longer manufacture the hard disc holders necessary for that process) between Ian Fleming and Raymond Chandler. Fleming was the interviewer; Chandler, the coy and giggly subject. Oh, you always have to have at least one torture scene, Chandler confided. That’s why the reader is buying your book, dearie!

Fleming took this advice to heart with his James Bond Series.