Month: July 2020 | the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

July 15, 2020 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Denise is the host.

Something a little different this week.

Last week, Len, over at lensdiary, posted quite the enjoyable story-ette. In my comment, (on his Six), I wrote: ‘Who doesn’t love a good time travel story?’

Len concurred and added: ‘Be interested to read one of your takes on time travel, Clark.’

And, I was, all, “Welll!”

I went on to describe how, a couple of years ago, Val and Pat wrote ‘spin-off’s’ from a Six I wrote in the Ian Devereaux storyverse. What made it fun, and very popular, was that they both took elements of the story and ‘found out more’.

Looks like you get to read one of these spin-offs this week, as Len graciously assented to my suggestion.

For maximum enjoyment, first read the Six Sentence Story Len wrote last week, Time Travel.

Now to this week’s Six (btw, the current prompt word is ZANY)

No sooner had the man shimmered into existence, on the far side of Thrall Street, when a hansom cab, racing towards the relative safety of Commercial Road, blocked my view; the half-second it took for him to reappear, reached back, according to my notes, at least one hundred fifty-one million years.

I waited.

Earlier, on this fog-dimmed day, Brother Abbott, on the pretext of helping me carry the soup pot out to the sidewalk, handed me a glue-stained square corner of a flyer from the Adelphi Theatre promising ‘high drama and zany amusements‘; written in broth-smeared ink was: Genesis 2:18-20; the traditional reference to secure one’s mind against sudden changes in the reality around it.

The chronos-effect manifested in the expected proportion: embedded in the mass of the hungry and the poor, like tumors not yet killing the host, the slumlords and the money-changers mirrored in their appearance, if not numbers, those of a higher social caste, the frock-coated, bejeweled rulers of the city, all now clearly of Saurian decent.

The natural cruelty of a cold-blooded species was not poorly suited to their innate view of life, as I took note of flesh-tearing beaks and extra arms among the more permanent citizens of Whitechapel; for the lifetimes I’ve spent among my kind, secretly guiding and quietly limiting the excesses of the descendants of Eve, no one promised it would be simple or easy.

Consistent with the natural tenacity exhibited by members of my branch of God’s grand experiment, my whiskers twitched and tail swayed in anticipation, helping smooth the hackles ridged around my neck; I followed him with the knowledge that witnessing the effect of his arrival was only half my task.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Six Sentence Story, the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

July 11, 2020 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

This is the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop.

This is where you get to write about the people, places and things that elicit the emotion of gratitude and, by linking your post to our host Kristi‘s join in with a group of talented bloggers, all offering a stylistically-unique accounting of their experiences.

The beauty-part of this bloghop is found in that variety. Of course, there is no shortage of ‘hops with gratitude as the unifying theme, many are quite good. None as enjoyable as the TToT, imo. Not the least of the reason, for this discrepancy, is that none of them have a certain Book, among the resources available to participants. (The Book is referenced, cited and slightly-explained in Grat Item 6 below.)

My list of Ten Things that elicit the topical emotional response includes:

1) Una

2) Phyllis

3) new (prototype) drinking vessel

4) Fun in the woods with a chain saw and a barely-sufficient cardiovascular system. Hey, the adrenaline potential inherent in the former will surely offset any sub-par performance by the latter. (See photo at the top of post)

5) the cedar trellis

6) the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) is a true gift, especially for one as emotion-challenged as YHN*. At it’s heart, the BoSR/SBoR provides carte blanche to all TToT bloggers; we may invoke any rule, cite heretofore unknown references and, generally, get out of any trouble encountered when writing a TToT post. Provided that we write a convincing reference to the rule we choose to cite. (Including too many or too few Grat Items.**)

7) Grateful for Kristi noticing that, although I posted a TToT post last week, I overlooked the linking to the group. She took care of it. She’s that kind of bloghop host.

8) Six Sentence Story. Something interesting coming up in the week ahead, over in the Land Of Brevity. One of the participants, Len, wrote a Six involving time travel. I wrote a comment and mentioned how much I enjoy the subject matter. He graciously mentioned he’d enjoy seeing what I might do with time travel and Six Sentences. And, with the peculiar secret-push-from-behind-to-stumble-out-in-front-of-the-gathering-exo-impulsiveness that has been characteristic of my experience since starting this blog about the Wakefield Doctrine, I was all “Sure! It’d be fun!” I proceeded to tell Len about the fun Valerie and Pat Brockett and I had doing a ‘crossover Six Sentence Story’ a couple of years ago. I wrote my Six from the story world of ‘The Case of the Missing Starr’, sent Val and Pat a copy of my Six, (ahead of the deadline), and they both wrote Sixes that had my story as the jumping-off point for theirs. Very cool.

So, in the interest of breeding butterflies and cranking up the spotlight, I’ll come up with a Six set in Len’s story, ‘Time Travel‘. See ya Thursday at the ‘hop.

9) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE. Anyone desirous of participating, but just want to try it a little, before committing to a full post, send your Grat Item in a comment and I’ll paste it here.

10) Secret Rule 1.3

* Your Humble Narrator…. like the designation

** Not that there is a hard-and-fast rule on the number of Items.

Music

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: psychology of personality, Six Sentence Story, the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine

July 8, 2020 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

This is the Six Sentence Story bloghop

Denise is the host.

This week’s Six Sentence Story rightly falls into the category: ‘summer writing assignment’. (My efforts to learn to write good has lead/brought-me-to/forced-an-acceptance that I need to do the extra assignments. Had I only taken the years and years of English, composition and grammar classes more seriously, this would not be necessary. But I didn’t and it is.)

This week, the assignment is to write a Six in the story-world of Ian Devereaux, the detective in my first-person detective story, ‘The Case of the Missing Starr‘. As you see, I’ve linked the title back to the story, in case you want to check out the backstory. If you go, we meet Dr. Leanne Thunberg in Chapter 4.

(PS my tertiary rogerian aspect* insists that I state: ‘This is a new story. Perhaps better to say, a glimpse into the lives that continue, even when the Reader absent, for surely all good characters live somewhere in the multiverse.)

The prompt word is:

FABRIC

“For a private investigator who divides his day between lunch with members of the underworld at a strip club and seeing clients in an office two doors down from a pawn shop, you come across very much at home here,” Dr. Leanne Thunberg, despite being a head shorter than my six feet, lead me across Harvard Yard, without once turning to make sure I followed.

I’d met Leanne last year, on a missing persons assignment and, despite her being the chair of the Department of Advanced Anthropology and Cultural Semiotics, we clicked; she had a Noomi Rapace thing going on and we all know that any self-respecting cobra falls in love with the mongoose, if only for a brief moment.

She’d emailed me an invitation to come to Cambridge, saying only she had a problem best served by talking to a private investigator; I stopped by her office and, with a smile, she informed me she had reservations at a new restaurant, ‘Craigie on Main’ that she was certain I would enjoy; Leanne had a way of making promises that carried the undertone of a dare.

The restaurant was everything she promised and, accepting her suggestion we have a drink at her home in West Cambridge, I found myself wondering who, among the founders of most established religions, was shrewd enough to insist that the devil was a man.

“Are you familiar with the story of Adam’s first wife?”

The whisper of silk drowned out all other thought and, not for the first time, I was amazed at how such an expensive fabric can be so costly; in the dark it sounded like both the cry of love and whisper of danger; I gave up all hope to steer the night, at least until dawn.

Music

* one of the three ‘personality types’ of the Wakefield Doctrine. The majority of (commercially) successful authors are rogers. They tell their stories with rounded-word, incessantly familiar prose that is easily read without risk of consequences. Words of the Herd, one might say

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Six Sentence Story, the Wakefield Doctrine

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “…in which the tale of a discovery is recounted and the lessons re-cast.”

July 7, 2020 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

The story of the Discovery of Referential Authority.

I wrote the post below as part of a phase we were going through, i.e. application of the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine to situations encountered in the ‘real’ world. It was truly a remarkable time, here at the Doctrine, during the first three or four (or five) years. Everything was new, and the world around me was filled with blank canvae and nude models, all urging me to take note of how the Wakefield Doctrine has an attachment to everything.

But, before I wax too philosophical, here is the abashed edition* of that post:

(May 3rd 2012)

In our First Post, “Won’t you have a seat, Mr Andrews will see you in a moment“, we examined the strategies available to a person seeking a position in what is often referred to as ‘the corporate world’. In that first Post, we focused on the ‘pre-Interview’ phase of the employment process. With today’s Post we will stay with this convention, as it seems that, if the first episode is any indication, most Readers find the Applicant’s efforts to deal with the appointment process entertaining and instructive.

Small Business Environment:

….a small restaurant, in a coastal town which is also home to the State University. With only 10 tables and an open kitchen layout, the Owner, (who is also the cook), is able to greet and interact with all the patrons. It’s quite evident he enjoys what he does, is reasonably skilled and, as a result, the business is successful. The increase in business has been rapid and the Owner is finding that the part-time help from family and relatives is insufficient, and so, the ‘Help Wanted: Waitress’ ad in the local newspaper.

…The Interviewee:

The wife of a faculty member at the University, following a Sabbatical from Field Work, you have been unable to find employment in your area of expertise, Paleo-sociology (and) Urdic Languages. Rather than spend another summer in the overly-large home that you share with a husband and two cats, decide that being a Waitress wouldn’t be the worst thing to do, at least until the market for Sociologists (fluent in Farsi) improves. So you call the number in the newspaper and get an appointment to meet the Owner. Wearing your best Interview suit (a subdued brown pinstripe) and carrying your trusted iPad, you set off to the restaurant, confident that you will be able to recall your undergraduate days of work-study working in the school cafeteria.
(…. oh! do we need to mention that you are so a roger?)

…(Second Interaction)

…you have been sitting at the table 15 minutes (30 minutes later than the scheduled interview). The ‘breakfast rush’ has finally quieted down and the woman at the cash register brings you coffee, asks (again!) if you would like something to eat and tells you that the Owner will be over in a minute.

Do you:

ask the woman questions about the restaurant, how long has it been in business, what background the Owner has in the restaurant business

Look annoyed and ask her if it is always this busy

smile, hand her the Application for Employment that you have completed (and somehow stapled your curriculum vita to the slightly grease-spotted form) and say, “Thank you so much! I am sure that I will enjoy working here!”

The Question: if you are a roger, which of the above is likely to be your initial reaction and which, (of the three actions above), should be your reaction, in order to increase your chances of being successful in this Interview?

Well that should be enough to get us started! As with the first Interview, consider not only which of the three personality types the people in our scenario are, but tell us why you think they are (clarks or scotts or rogers )… and while it is helpful to know the correct way to get this particular type of job, add what you can about what the Wakefield Doctrine gives our Interviewee, in terms of tools or aids that will allow her to get whatever the hell it is that she wants…. (yes, Molly and Claire that is a totally leading question!)

So what makes this little story so landmarkistic?

As soon as it was published, every roger within reading distance was all kinds of upset and outraged. (Yeah, like that’s a surpising response…lol) But they were!)

So, naturally, I thought, ‘Hey ho! Whats the problem? She’s just trying to be helpful to another human being.” Then, enjoying the benefits of this here Doctrine here, I said (out loud) “Hey! Why so upset?” And, after much discussion, it turned out that the job applicant was taking liberties with the social order (of the restaurant) and that the only way she should have done anything was after receiving permission from whoever was in charge.

I thought to myself…”Holy smoke! I have discovered an artifact in the predominant worldview of the Herd Member that is not visible, even when employing the list of characteristics contained in the Doctrine. …. wait a minute, I remember the story…. bathrobes… no, bath tubs…. streaking (streaking?!?!) Greece…. Eureka!!***

* an early example of a rogerian expression. An associate at my office was a movie buff and was holding forth about an upcoming release of a complete set of Star Wars movies on DVD, it was to be complete and unexpurgated , except he was a roger. He said, “I already have my pre-order in, in a couple of weeks, I’ll the complete, unabashed edition of George Lucas’ masterpiece.”

I excused myself and made haste to my computer to record this fine example of how a roger exhibits near-scottian aggressiveness.**

** no, nothing wrong with asking me to explain that reflection. Thats why god invented comment threads.

*** yeah, kind of a long way for a laughtette

To make you feel old:

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: psychology of personality, relationships, self-development, the Wakefield Doctrine

Monday* -the Wakefield Doctrine- “for Outsiders (aka clarks), asterisks are the ‘X marks the spot’ written in nearly invisible ink’

July 6, 2020 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Thats right, you do see what appears to be an infant in a WWII leather helmet.*

*as to the ‘why are you seeing an infant in a vintage pilot helmet’ you’re just going to have to read the post.**
** ok, seeing how you’re still reading, paragraph 8

Before we get started, a quick note to New Readers: three personal realities; highly reliable identification; learn more about the other person than they know about themselves. Try the middle column, back on the homepage. Any of the three will get you started. Questions? Best way to sort through things and get started.

Speaking of New Readers, a long established insight is, if a person comes back here and reads a post more than once, its a lead-pipe cinch they are a clark. If not, they’re a scott or a roger with a significant secondary clarklike aspect. This observation is less significant than its meant to be reassuring to those who feel there’s something to this thing and just want it to start making sense.

Should this apply to you, I hate to say it, but you picked a bad post to start your education in the Wakefield Doctrine. But then again, who am I to say what kind of post is most likely to encourage a Reader to connect the dots that are starting to appear.

That said, we need to continue the conversation begun in yesterday’s post. The topic: How best to learn the language of ‘the other two’ predominant worldviews of the Wakefield Doctrine?

(Reminder: the predominant worldviews that account for the existence of the three ‘personality types’ of the Doctrine are, for all intents and purposes, reality. The reality, the world of each of the three types. To wit: A place where one is intrinsically separate and apart from; a world where everything surrounding us is predator or prey and a place that is established, with rules that exist separate and apart from the person who finds themselves in the middle of.)

While our theory of clarks, scotts and rogers does, for reasons less understood than totally enjoyed, describe the characteristic behaviors and social strategy ‘go to(s)’ of each of the three, we can only infer the nature/character of the world they are inhabiting. These, admittedly superficial, descriptions allow us to infer what it is like to be in the reality of the predominant worldviews other than our own. We cannot, as of yet, know what it is like to be: a clark, scott or a roger unless (it) is our reality.

Fortunately, the Doctrine provides that, while we settle (and develop) in only one of the three realities, we retain the potential, the capacity, to experience the world as do ‘the other two’. Unfortunately, we’re limited in how far into the (other) worldviews we can be aware of, due to our lack of language.

So, lets return briefly to our language metaphor. Mentioned towards the end of yesterday’s post, we likened the experience of one’s predominant worldview as being the one, of three countries, that we flew over as tiny, babies, the country in which our plane landed. (Sure, you can misconstrue my words as implying that we were the pilots, but if you choose that interpretation, then we’ll have to insist that you include, in your visual, wearing those leather helmets from the wars of the last century and, as long as we’re in the 1900s, you’re flying a B-25 type airplane. Because, well, you’re a baby and can’t really be too choosy.)

Without claiming any qualification for understanding linguistics or the teaching of foreign languages, (this properly falls in Cynthia’s domain), I will assert that, for our purposes, one’s native language is a major element in the fabric of a person’s reality. To genuinely experience another culture, it surely must be necessary to be so fluent as to be thinking in that (land’s) language.

Otherwise, like Denise‘s trip to Paris, France, we are walking, as confidently as our little ‘Let’s Speak French’ books can help, hoping to encounter situations we studied up on. You know, a bistro or a cafe (with an accent over the ‘e’) or a guy with a beret or a young woman wearing black-silk stockings and smoking a Gauloise.

The Wakefield Doctrine is our little book. It is better than nothing. (For that matter, compared to the guides to other personal realities available in all those other ‘personality theories’ it is better than anything else available.)

Tomorrow, let’s meet here again and I will relate the story of ‘The Discovery of Referential Authority’.

(though I’d love to take credit for being consciously clever with this choice of music vids, once again, the award goes to the iceberg part of my mind.)