EC-as Seen by an Amateur

[oldguy]

So I see EAR as a malignant narcissist (among other things). I have no background in English Lit or poetry or anything similar. My degrees are in history and clinical social work with additional heavy study in clinical psychology.  With apologies to CityofChill and others and with the awareness that I have not had an original thought in my life-I offer the following....


“Excitement’s Crave”

"All those mortal's surviving birth
Upon facing maturity,
Take inventory of their worth
To prevailing society.




The first word of the title is singular possessive because his identity is Excitement…a great seeker of excitement, if you will, the God of Excitement. And he is going to describe this status.



In the first stanza he "humbly" describes his audience… quite simply, all persons alive. These beings have an essential task –to take inventory of their talents and physical assets in order to discover a role, or niche in “prevailing” society.

By prevailing society, he means the mass of dull normals. (Hereinafter referred to as “DNs” for the sake of brevity.)


"Choosing values becomes a task;
Oneself must seek satisfaction.
The selected route will unmask.
Character when plans take action



He opens the second stanza with a nod to the DNs-those pedestrian mortals saddled with a “task.” Then he introduces himself-described in a distant Olympian manner as “Oneself.” This unique  self-this God of Excitement- must seek satisfaction. "Satisfaction" means the taking of any woman he chooses, in any manner he decides. And he has planned mightily regarding this. We DNs will comprehend this character only when his prodigious plans are enacted

"Accepting some work to perform.
At fixed pay, but promise for more,
Is a recognized social norm,
As is decorum, seeking lore."


In the third stanza he describes the dullness of the DNs. Those countless peasants, having done their utmost to choose have, with their limited ability, managed only to obtain fixed pay and middle class decorum. Fools that they are, they settled for making a home in "everyday lore"-that pedestrian body of tradition in the prevailing culture.

"Achieving while others lifting
Should be cause for deserving fame.
Leisure tempts excitement seeking,
What's right and expected seems tame."


In the first two lines of the fourth stanza he comes back, contrasting the achieving God of Excitement with the those doing the heavy lifting. He will not settle for "tame." And he notes almost petulantly that this God’s achievements should be cause for (deserving) fame. He is telling his readers, the unimaginative dolts,  that they have an obligation to recognize Him-and his lofty state . In the last two lines of this stanza, he contrasts his coming of age in a state of leisure; a leisure  that produced the higher aspiration of excitement, with their coming of age in a state of drudgery. EAR 's hands are not sullied by work. Only victims' blood.

Jessie James" has been seen by all,
And "Son of Sam" has an author.
Others now feel temptations call.
Sacramento should make an offer.

The fifth stanza simply describes this seeker of excitement as equal to the most notorious and infamous figures in both our country’s past and present. He is telling us his status is so profound… it is timeless.
(Oh God he is so grandiose.)

To make a movie of my life
That will pay for my planned exile.
Just now I'd like to add the wife
Of a Mafia lord to my file.



The sixth stanza suggests a manner and proportion of due recognition. Only that recognition sufficient to support him for life is adequate acknowledgement of his stature. To reinforce that stature he  indicates, as a brief aside, that it would be amusing to humiliate the most powerful criminal organization in the United States prior to enjoying his just rewards. (And he takes his capability to do so AND WITHOUT RETRIBUTION for granted... of course!)

"Your East Area Rapist
And deserving pest.
See you in the press or on T.V."



In the last stanza EAR finally comes down from the Olympian heights and identifies himself; he must do this for the unimaginative cretins who will read his work. And he reminds them, in an era when “the news” meant 6 o’clock in the evening, that he will be in their face and thoughts every night.






*****************************************************************************************

This was a young man who was deeply shamed. Very likely the weak link in an otherwise achieving  (and highly dysfunctional) family. That is not an excuse-many young men or  are  so shamed without going on to his hideous "career." But narcissistic grandiosity is frequently the result.  In writing the above, I could imagine EAR at 13 or 14, standing alone at the edge of a creek just after sunset-covertly observing the seemingly happy "normals"  through the unshaded back windows and sliding doors. He coveted their women, built his resentments, and formulated his plans. He would show them!

[richporce]

I really like this analysis. Although if we go with the narcissist angle, the poem could have also been from another narcissist that idolized/fantasized about the apparent "artistry" and grandiosity of murder, and who looked up to EAR. Narcissists often look up to people like serial killers even if they themselves aren't homicidal, because murder and rape is the ultimate in "supremacy" over a person. Fantasies of this nature allow for maximum sense of grandiosity. A narcissist separate from EAR may have sent this as a way of reveling in a crime spree that he wasn't apart of.

Though I agree with you that this is exactly the kind of thing EAR would write, if he was going to send a poem to the cops.

"In writing the above, I could imagine EAR at 13 or 14, standing alone at the edge of a creek just after sunset-covertly observing the seemingly happy "normals" through the unshaded back windows and sliding doors. He coveted their women, built his resentments, and formulated his plans. He would show them!"

Agreed. EAR wasn't a mastermind criminal, he was a loser and a failure. Even if in life he was a glib narcissist that managed to trick people into liking him, he wasn't capable of actual relationships or of relating to anyone at all. His heinous crimes come from his own bitter sense of being an outcast. His crime spree is just one long revenge against the normals, the people he hated because he could never be like them. 

He hated women because they rejected him, and he took pleasure in humiliating their husbands because they were men that he felt (deep down) were superior to him. Superior because they achieved what he could never achieve; a normal relationship with a normal woman. That's why he liked creating terror. It was his way of feeling powerful. A loser that couldn't relate to people in the real world so he created his own shadow world in which he was the lord and master. The sheer scale of his crime spree and the amount of preparation he must have done, all the phone calls, prowling, driving around, scouting out areas, stalking.. It clearly indicates that he "checked out" from the real world and devoted everything to this crime spree. He knew deep down he was nothing. He didn't even try to make it as a normal person

[soxie]

Oct 13, 2017 2:27:00 GMT oldguy said:

So I see EAR as a malignant narcissist (among other things). I have no background in English Lit or poetry or anything similar. My degrees are in history and clinical social work with additional heavy study in clinical psychology.  With apologies to CityofChill and others and with the awareness that I have not had an original thought in my life-I offer the following....


“Excitement’s Crave”

"All those mortal's surviving birth
Upon facing maturity,
Take inventory of their worth
To prevailing society.




The first word of the title is singular possessive because his identity is Excitement…a great seeker of excitement, if you will, the God of Excitement. And he is going to describe this status.



In the first stanza he "humbly" describes his audience… quite simply, all persons alive. These beings have an essential task –to take inventory of their talents and physical assets in order to discover a role, or niche in “prevailing” society.

By prevailing society, he means the mass of dull normals. (Hereinafter referred to as “DNs” for the sake of brevity.)


"Choosing values becomes a task;
Oneself must seek satisfaction.
The selected route will unmask.
Character when plans take action



He opens the second stanza with a nod to the DNs-those pedestrian mortals saddled with a “task.” Then he introduces himself-described in a distant Olympian manner as “Oneself.” This unique  self-this God of Excitement- must seek satisfaction. "Satisfaction" means the taking of any woman he chooses, in any manner he decides. And he has planned mightily regarding this. We DNs will comprehend this character only when his prodigious plans are enacted

"Accepting some work to perform.
At fixed pay, but promise for more,
Is a recognized social norm,
As is decorum, seeking lore."


In the third stanza he describes the dullness of the DNs. Those countless peasants, having done their utmost to choose have, with their limited ability, managed only to obtain fixed pay and middle class decorum. Fools that they are, they settled for making a home in "everyday lore"-that pedestrian body of tradition in the prevailing culture.

"Achieving while others lifting
Should be cause for deserving fame.
Leisure tempts excitement seeking,
What's right and expected seems tame."


In the first two lines of the fourth stanza he comes back, contrasting the achieving God of Excitement with the those doing the heavy lifting. He will not settle for "tame." And he notes almost petulantly that this God’s achievements should be cause for (deserving) fame. He is telling his readers, the unimaginative dolts,  that they have an obligation to recognize Him-and his lofty state . In the last two lines of this stanza, he contrasts his coming of age in a state of leisure; a leisure  that produced the higher aspiration of excitement, with their coming of age in a state of drudgery. EAR 's hands are not sullied by work. Only victims' blood.

Jessie James" has been seen by all,
And "Son of Sam" has an author.
Others now feel temptations call.
Sacramento should make an offer.

The fifth stanza simply describes this seeker of excitement as equal to the most notorious and infamous figures in both our country’s past and present. He is telling us his status is so profound… it is timeless.
(Oh God he is so grandiose.)

To make a movie of my life
That will pay for my planned exile.
Just now I'd like to add the wife
Of a Mafia lord to my file.



The sixth stanza suggests a manner and proportion of due recognition. Only that recognition sufficient to support him for life is adequate acknowledgement of his stature. To reinforce that stature he  indicates, as a brief aside, that it would be amusing to humiliate the most powerful criminal organization in the United States prior to enjoying his just rewards. (And he takes his capability to do so AND WITHOUT RETRIBUTION for granted... of course!)

"Your East Area Rapist
And deserving pest.
See you in the press or on T.V."



In the last stanza EAR finally comes down from the Olympian heights and identifies himself; he must do this for the unimaginative cretins who will read his work. And he reminds them, in an era when “the news” meant 6 o’clock in the evening, that he will be in their face and thoughts every night.






*****************************************************************************************

This was a young man who was deeply shamed. Very likely the weak link in an otherwise achieving  (and highly dysfunctional) family. That is not an excuse-many young men or  are  so shamed without going on to his hideous "career." But narcissistic grandiosity is frequently the result.  In writing the above, I could imagine EAR at 13 or 14, standing alone at the edge of a creek just after sunset-covertly observing the seemingly happy "normals"  through the unshaded back windows and sliding doors. He coveted their women, built his resentments, and formulated his plans. He would show them!

I like your way of thinking oldguy,except I read a few parts of this poem a little different. One part is in the first stanza, his audience. " All those mortal's surviving birth UPON FACING MATURITY, " 

I feel he is speaking to those who are alive yes,but to those who are around 16-17 years of age. Those not 18 " the age of MATURITY"

[tatica]

This suggests he does not do the type of work that the mindless masses do. He doesn't punch a clock. he's a freelancer. he is his own boss. Nobody tells this guy what to do, and he only does it (in his own mind) on the belief he has consented to do this, for now.

i wasn't mature at 18. i wasn't even facing it yet. i would say 30 i started to face maturity, when the first gray hairs, and the first laugh lines became etched in the mirror. i was stupid and ignorant at 18, also a seeker of excitement. And made so many near-fatal blunders along the way. Glad for the wake-up call I finally got. But he's sneering at the rest of us, who go along like sheep, from birth to slaughter, never realizing what we are.

There's no way the writer of this could make it through college, or the military. or work for anyone else for long, unless it offered tremendous freedom *and* resources that belonged to the company/boss to be used as he saw fit. Say, company car/vehicle that could be used 24/7. Something with lax regs.

he doesn't see himself as a conformist. i think someone broke this one's mirror a long time ago, or it got terribly wharped. And i think that somehow, he had no love, not real love. So he's a bottomless pit that can never be filled.

i have to get out of the abyss for now.

[oldguy]

Mar 18, 2018 9:07:46 GMT tatica said:

This suggests he does not do the type of work that the mindless masses do. He doesn't punch a clock. he's a freelancer. he is his own boss. Nobody tells this guy what to do, and he only does it (in his own mind) on the belief he has consented to do this, for now.

i wasn't mature at 18. i wasn't even facing it yet. i would say 30 i started to face maturity, when the first gray hairs, and the first laugh lines became etched in the mirror. i was stupid and ignorant at 18, also a seeker of excitement. And made so many near-fatal blunders along the way. Glad for the wake-up call I finally got. But he's sneering at the rest of us, who go along like sheep, from birth to slaughter, never realizing what we are.

There's no way the writer of this could make it through college, or the military. or work for anyone else for long, unless it offered tremendous freedom *and* resources that belonged to the company/boss to be used as he saw fit. Say, company car/vehicle that could be used 24/7. Something with lax regs.

he doesn't see himself as a conformist. i think someone broke this one's mirror a long time ago, or it got terribly wharped. And i think that somehow, he had no love, not real love. So he's a bottomless pit that can never be filled.

i have to get out of the abyss for now.

Last year I asked an English Lit professor friend to examine EC. He started his response with the words "This is a celebration of psychopathology...."

As for his employment...yes I see him as the problem child of an achieving family. Probably with "subsidized" employment in a relative's company. As I wrote in other posts, that was a common type we saw when examining Social Security disability cases, some fraudulent and those technically not fraudulent. Lots of co-morbid disorders filling a no-show job.