Re$urrection

A few years ago now, I wrote a blog post called Party Mu$ic all about a particular singer I'm rather fond of, formerly known by the stagename of: Ke$ha
There were some jokes peppered throughout, but it was a serious character analysis of a singer who seemed to deliberately evoke a partygirl character, and rather than deconstruct it, she expanded it to encapsulate the character in all of its depth, despite how shallow that depth ultimately may have been.

It was a fun character piece of a singer whose music I rather like, and it's not something I ever thought I'd find myself writing about again. However, the real world has not been kind to any of us, let alone the woman who performs Ke$ha.
And that's something we need to remember, "Ke$ha" is a caricature, but she is performed by a real woman called Kesha Rose Sebert (for the sake of clarity, I will refer to the real person as Miss Sebert, and the singing persona as "Ke$ha", even though Miss Sebert has dropped the dollar sign from her stage name). Whereas Ke$ha is an unemployed, partying, simply-minded, functional alcoholic, singer and occasionally mildly romantic and sexually explorative young girl . . . Miss Sebert is an unconventional, highly-educated, Californian, talented, young musician and artist. Unfortunately, whereas Ke$ha is a fictional character, an exaggeration of reality impervious to conflict beyond that inflicted by her medium, Miss Sebert is a human being, and so when she was abused and assaulted by the hands of those in the music industry, in particular a man who goes by the name of Dr Luke, born Lukasz Gottwald (the record producer that owns Miss Sebert's contract), she was hurt in more ways than one.

[Blogger's Note: It occurs to me that, throughout most of this post, I include the accusations, and in some case explicit details of actual claims of rape, assault and abuse. I don't want to go triggering a panic attack or PTSD episode in any of my readers, so if you have reason to believe that will happen, please consider yourself warned and take necessary steps to avoid that.]

In October 2014, just a year after I wrote my original post in fact, Miss Sebert filed a civil suit against Dr. Luke -  for infliction of emotional distress, gender-based hate crimes and employment discrimination. She claimed that Dr. Luke had sexually, physically, verbally and emotionally abused her for the entirety of her professional singing career, and that he had drugged and raped her on more than one occasion; made threats against her and her family and called her derogatory names which were directly responsible for an eating disorder that she suffers from.

Unfortunately, her suits have all been denied by both the courts and the alleged perpetrators. However, some of these have been thrown out due to technicality, such as the statute of limitations and insufficient evidence. So, whilst you or I may have enough reason to believe that she is the victim of abuse, there is legal precedent that shows these reasons would not stand up in a court of law.
But, I'm not here to condemn or redeem alleged abusers. Not because I don't think it's important, but because I'm underqualified and uninformed as to many of the facts of these cases, so I hope that someone else might have more information in this regard.

All you need to know, for the purposes of this blog post, is that Miss Sebert is a musician who performs as Ke$ha, she claims to have been a victim of assault and as a result of the legal battles she has undergone, did not produce any music for four years (early 2013 to mid-2017) as a result of the prolonged legal proceedings.

See, after all that time, she finally released a comeback single on July 2017, called Praying which has thinly-veiled references to her abuser and the suffering she was put through. The song managed to reach #22 on Billboard's Hottest 100. Not long after on August 2017, she released her third studio album, called Rainbow which debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top 200.
It may not seem like a big deal at first, but there was a very high likelihood that after these allegations surfaced, Miss Sebert would never have been heard from again.

There have been several cases in the past whereby being the victim of abuse, assault or suffering was career suicide, especially if you went public with it.

Taylor Swift is a famous singer who claims that during a photo-shoot she was groped by David Mueller, a morning radio host, and when he sued her, calling her claims defamatory, she countersued him for the assault. Despite the courts finding in her favour, and also donating $250,000 to Miss Sebert after she lost her own court case, people demonized her actions, and the only possible "reason" seems to be that Taylor Swift wasn't very popular at the time of her trial. She had a reputation in the media for being a liar [you can look this up for yourself, but  her latest album, Reputation is about that controversy]. Despite winning her case, several people (including some celebrities I won't name) claimed that having a man forcefully grab your butt without consent "didn't count" as sexual assault.
As a direct result of retaliating against her assaulter and responding to sexism, Swift was publicly criticized and her image suffered.

Janice Dickinson is an actress and model who claims to have been raped by Cosby in 1982. When Dickinson wrote a memoir which included the details of this rape, she claims that Cosby and his lawyers threatened legal ramifications if she did not remove said details.
As a direct result of being raped, she was threatened with legal action. If she had gone ahead with the memoir, she could have lost a great amount of time to that case, which for some performers can be the end of their career.

Corey Feldman is a former child star who claims to have been molested as a child by several different people in the film industry, amongst which he has named Ron Crimson, Marty Weiss, Cloyd Jon Grissom & Alphy Hoffman. He also claims that he has good reason to suspect that paedophilia is rampant in the film industry.
As a direct result of these abuses, he and fellow child star Corey Haim fell victim to drug addiction, as one of his abusers was a dealer. This led to his co-star's death in 2010 from an overdose, and due to being sent to and from rehab throughout his life, his acting career has suffered.

Timothy Heller is a female musician (with a "boy" name, but Miss Heller is a girl), who claims that on or around the date of June 25th, 2015, she was raped by her best friend, Melanie Martinez, a fellow singer. After being solicited for sex multiple times over the course of two days, and saying no in every way she could imagine, the two smoked cannabis together and Heller claims that despite rejecting Miss Martinez's advances, she was molested and penetrated with a sex toy without her consent. Because the accused is also female, it appears as though Miss Heller's claims of assault have been largely ignored, but more importantly, because both of these women have a large online following due to their indie music reputations, an allegation of rape appears to have become a bizarre fandom rivalry. But, in a very sad twist to this tale, it appears that Miss Heller still held some favour for her rapist, to quote her directly: "I still love them in a fucked up way", and so seeing the accused suffer backlash from these allegations - despite how slight that backlash has so far been - has also impacted Miss Heller negatively.
As a direct result of being raped by her friend, Miss Heller (who already suffered mental health issues) struggled with codependency and insecurity. Her own reputation has been sunk as she is continuously called a liar, and a fake by zealous fans of her accused rapist.

And these aren't just my own speculation based on hearsay - the Guardian wrote an amazing piece with firsthand accounts from several women whose media careers were ended or derailed as a result of being sexually harassed or assaulted.

As it turns out, that whole "rape culture" thing that people talk about isn't just something feminists made up. Because I was so right it almost hurts, I'm going to go ahead and quote Festering an Unclean Culture, my blog post about rape culture:

"Rape Culture is the concept that certain attitudes and practices of a society - especially those which are sexist and promote inequality -  can normalize, excuse, tolerate & even condone rape and sexual violence.When I say "certain attitudes" I am talking about sexual objectification, victim-blaming; misandry/misogyny; rape trivialization & desensitization towards sexual assault."

—The Absurd Word Nerd, 2014

But, I'm not here to congratulate myself on my genius . . . well, not exclusively. Rather, I'm actually here to congratulate Miss Sebert, Kesha herself.
See, it appears that not only has the greater majority of Miss Sebert's reputation remained intact, and her credibility has not waned, despite the length and difficulty of her legal battle. Not only does it appear that she has overcome the greater pain and personal struggle of what she has suffered, in whatever capacity that took. But even moreso than that, she appears to have defied the odds and returned to her career without waning in quality, or (perhaps more importantly) losing her audience.
Don't get me wrong, at time of writing her legal battles are still ongoing and the legal system seems to have, again and again, failed to achieve anything resembling justice. But, the unstoppable partygirl is dancing again and making new music which she'd been prevented from doing for several years due to her contract.


I admit that when I first heard about the Kesha v. Dr. Luke lawsuit, I thought she was a goner. For the reasons I've already written about, and because of the history of past victims that I've just listed. In fact, there is an amazing piece written for the New York Times detailing the contractual limbo Miss Sebert found herself in, since her producer was unfit to do his job. I thought that she would disappear, perhaps return with a fizzle, but be lost to the mainstream and hidden. And since I had found her so fascinating (and because I'm a decent human being that doesn't like it when people suffer), I was saddened by that.
So, when she came back not only hitting the ground running, but when she came back swinging with an album that is an anthem for the oppressed; that celebrates female empowerment; which expresses her rage at those who made her suffer, that encourages self-worth and self-forgiveness & promotes moving stridefully into the future . . . that's not just a comeback, that's a goddamned resurrection.

My personal favourite song from the album would have to be Hymn, an anthem for the irreligious; with Praying, her visceral, heartfelt open letter to her abuser a close second. However, in regards to this whole mess - including what I've spoken about in this post - it is most fitting that the song which gives the album its name is Rainbow, a song all about how she has learned to move past depression, suffering & stress in her life, and encouraging others to finding the rainbow on their horizon after the storm.

And since Miss Sebert has changed a lot herself, Ke$ha, has as well. Whereas in the past, Ke$ha was singing about liquor and glitter, and enjoying the life you can live in them, now she's singing about rainbows and monsters and aliens, adding a touch of magic and fantasy to her repertoire of things that makes life more exciting. But as well as the fun and excitement, she has songs about sadness, anger and pride.
She has changed quite a lot, I can still see that same partygirl in there, wanting to get up and dance. But this time, Ke$ha is a little older and a little wiser. Sure, she's still just as refreshingly crude and she still just wants to live life to the fullest and dance, but now she also wants to encourage others to dance - especially those who have fallen off the dancefloor . . .

You'll find a rainbow, rainbow, baby
Trust me, I know life is scary
But just put those colors on, girl
Come and play along with me tonight . . .

You gotta learn to let go, put the past behind you
Trust me, I know, the ghosts will try to find you
But just put those colors on, girl
Come and paint the world with me tonight . . .

And the most amazing part of this? The Ke$ha persona we see now is much more akin to the character that Miss Sebert always wanted to encapsulate her music. To quote from Kesha Rose Sebert herself:

“I was like, ‘I am fun, but I’m a lot of other things.’ But Luke’s like: ‘No, you’re fun. That’s all you are for your first record.’ . . . To this day, I’ve never released a single that’s a true ballad, and I feel like those are the songs that balance out the perception of you, because you can be a fun girl. You can go and have a crazy night out, but you also, as a human being, have vulnerable emotions. You have love.”

—Kesha, Interrupted by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Oct 2016

The reason her partygirl persona intrigued me so much was because I could see artistry and depth in her despite how unashamedly shallow she was, and I wanted to see more and as it turns out, so did she. Now, that depth is more than just a shadow, and she's portraying a rounded, human experience. I wish I could say that I expected that, but I genuinely didn't, I just thought that person writing the songs was incredibly talented, and it's fantastic to see that realized to a greater potential, when all I was hoping for was just to hear more from that glitter-soaked partygirl.
In fact, I still do. I hope you do too, because this isn't the last we'll hear from her. . .

The Meaning of Life, An Analysis

I have a lot of fun on this blog, crafting fiction; telling personal anecdotes; writing editorial think-pieces and analyzing stories. But, I want to offer people more than just that on this blog, so what about answering one of life's supposedly most difficult questions? Personally, I don't see why it's so troublesome, but people like to overcomplicate questions when they think it's "profound".

What is the Meaning of Life?

And no, this isn't a joke, I'm going to answer it. But, you see, the reason this question is so difficult to answer is because the question is vague. I mean, we've all heard that joke-response: "If you want to know the meaning of life, look it up in a dictionary!". Haha, yes, very funny... and I will offer that answer as well, but the reason people can give this answer to the question is because "meaning" is an ambiguous term. The answer to that question depends entirely upon the context of what you mean when you say 'meaning'.
When people say "what is life's meaning" they could be referring to life's worth, origin, purpose, or in fact definition. But, if you know the context of the question, then the answer is pretty easy. In fact, I answered this over 11 years ago now, I actually covered this in a note on my computer, and that's where some of the content of this blog post comes from (although, I couldn't help but update some of the information to reflect my greater education). So, today, I will answer every single possible interpretation of the question "what is the meaning of life" starting with...

What is the Definition of 'Life'?
Well, if you're curious. Luckily, the Word of the Day is: 'LIFE'

Life /luyf/ n. 1. The condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally. 2. The sum of the distinguishing phenomena of organisms, especially metabolism, growth, reproduction, and adaptation to environment. 3. The animate existence or period of animate existence of an individual: to risk one's life; a short life and a merry one. 4. A corresponding state, existence, or principle of existence conceived of as belonging to the soul: Eternal life. 5. The general or universal condition of human existence: Too bad, but life is like that. 6. Any specified period of animate existence: A man in middle life. 7. The period of existence, activity, or effectiveness of something inanimate, as a machine, lease, or play: The life of the car may be ten years. 8. A living being, especially a human being: Several lives were lost. 9. Living things collectively: the hope of discovering life on other planets; insect life. 10. A particular aspect of existence: He enjoys an active physical life. 11. The course of existence or sum of experiences and actions that constitute a person's existence: His business has been his entire life. 12. A biography: a newly published life of Willa Cather. 13. Animation; liveliness; spirit: a speech full of life. 14. Resilience; elasticity. 15. The force that makes or keeps something alive; the vivifying or quickening principle: The life of the treaty has been an increase of mutual understanding and respect. 16. A mode or manner of existence, as in the world of affairs or society: So far her business life has not overlapped her social life. 17. The period or extent of authority, popularity, approval, etc.: the life of the committee; the life of a bestseller. 18. A prison sentence covering the remaining portion of the offender's animate existence: The judge gave him life. 19. Anything or anyone considered to be as precious as life: She was his life. 20. A person or thing that enlivens, cheers, or brightens a gathering or group: the life of the party. 21. Effervescence or sparkle, as of wines. 22. Pungency or strong, sharp flavor, as of substances when fresh or in good condition. 23. Nature or any of the forms of nature as the model or subject of a work of art: drawn from life. ♦adj. 24. For or lasting a lifetime; lifelong: a life membership in a club; life imprisonment. 25. Of or relating to animate existence: the life force; life functions. 26. Working from nature or using a living model: a life drawing; a life class in oil painting.

That's one possible interpretation of the question, but it's not what you meant, is it? See, people asking this question tend to mean something more spiritually or cosmically significant. But, now that we know what life's definition is, it's meaning can refer to its , origins, nature, significance, value, or purpose. So, let's have a look at some of the more existentially pertinent questions regarding the meaning of life . . .

Why does Life, the Universe & Everything Exist at All?
This is a fascinating question, most commonly written as "why is there something, rather than nothing?" and whilst we may think that the cause or circumstance of how something can exist may be cosmically significant, as Lawrence Krauss has pointed out, this is is actually a question for physics, not philosophy. This theory takes into account the expansion of the universe, dark matter, spatial geometry and Einsteinian equations . . . so, I have to simplify it. If you want a more educated explanation, check out Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss. But, for the sake of this blog...
There is "Something" because Nothing is incredibly unstable. When you remove all matter from space, it isn't weightless, in fact empty space accounts for around 70% of the weight of the universe. This is because on the subatomic scale, Empty Space is full of virtual particles which appear, exist for a miniscule amount of time and disappear, and in large enough volumes of space, gravity can act upon this energy, resulting in these energies coalescing to create matter, such as in the big bang.
Of course, this answer has some interesting questions, but I'm not here to explain theoretical physics, I have several more iterations of an existential question to answer!

What is the Origin of Life?
Well, lo and behold, once again, we no longer need philosophy, but science. I thought that, perhaps, I could at least switch to biology. However, biology is the study of life and prior to life biology is irrelevant, just like how prior to to the invention of language, spelling is irrelevant. Technically, the field of science we need to look at is chemistry. Because, that's all life really is, complex carbon-based chemistry.
So, what is the origin? 38 Billion Years Ago, we have evidence that Life began, and what evidence we have suggests that it all began with RNA, which is a kind of polymeric molecule that encodes genetic information on a single strand (as opposed to DNA's double-helix), Just like DNA, RNA can store and replicate genetic information, but it is also a molecule which can arise through simple chemical reaction with materials which we know to have been common on the prebiotic Earth. Because RNA is capable of replicating through a catalytic reaction using ribosomes (or perhaps an intermediary molecule), once you bring replicating genes into the picture, then you have a kind of chemical evolution. Molecules can get larger or smaller and change over time and natural selection comes into play. Molecules which reproduced using abundant elements were capable of reproducing more. In fact, there's evidence to show that this would lead to the development of cells, as molecules with some kind of protective layer would have an advantage over more vulnerable molecules, and in an aqueous environment, molecules can naturally coalesce into a lipid bubble, a kind of oily substance that molecules can stick to to create an outer wall for a cell. These lipid bubbles over time and further replication can evolve into a cell membrane which would then protect the RNA within from the competing RNA molecules that are consuming them.
Now, I freely admit that I don't know at which point you would call that "life" however, nature doesn't care, because once you have these cells, then they can continue to evolve into multicellular organisms, which can become sentient, then sapient, then . . . well, us. It takes billions of years, but it all started with a chemical reaction.

What is the Nature of Life?
By nature, life is ordered chaos. Life is the randomest of random, spreading out with high extremes and low extremes, from having no legs to having fifteen; being colourful and glowing to almost totally transparent; from the size of a hillock to the size of an angel dancing on the head of a pin. Life is completely wild and untamed and crazy . . . but, there's some order to it.
Because, if things becomes too big, they will collapse under their own weight, things too small won't have the necessary space to grow a brain; if something is too aggressive, it will either starve itself or kill itself off, but if something is too passive, it will be eaten alive. The nature of life is kept in check by the nature of . . . well, nature. Natural selection is the force by which life is kept in balance and allowed to truly evolve. It is the great equalizer.
But, this doesn't apply just to biology. In art and culture, we create anything and everything, but the forces of the zeitgeist decides what is appreciated or depreciated as the case may be. Ideas are shared, discussed, adapted or rejected based on critical thinking or subjective approval. Even in science, you can hypothesize any claims, but once it is tested the results of that testing determines whether a claim is accepted or rejected.
That's what all life boils down to, ultimately - absolute chaos.

What is the Significance of Life?
Finally, we approach, not science, but philosophy. In response to this, I think it was best said, in The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus (apparently that's pronounced 'kahm-oo', not 'kam-iss'):
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest— whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards."
That's quite the statement, and I feel that it's apt. After all, what is being discussed here is whether or not life is worth living, and ultimately, if it isn't, then death is the only logical solution. Now, if you personally are suicidal - please, seek help, there are some great mental health hotlines available internationally.
For, you see, life is significant because we experience it. But, more importantly, we give the universe significance.
I'm not being grandiose, far from it, rather what I'm saying is, significance is a quality that is inherently subjective. A rock cannot tell you how significant something is, because a rock isn't a thinking subject. You can't "measure" significance, you can't "weigh" it or put it under a microscope. That's because quantities, things you can measure, are objective, undeniable, unchanging. But, qualities such as significance or worth, can vary from person to person (or, subject to subject), it depends on their perspective. In a sense, significance doesn't "exist" except in your mind. So, if you remove that mind, where does the significance go?
Well, it disappears. Without Life, significance isn't possible, because there would be no one who could discover what they consider to be significant. Even if no one was alive to see it, a beach two kilometres long would still be two kilometres, because that's objective. But, if no one were alive, then no one could determine the beauty, serenity or significance of a beach, because the universe itself doesn't care.

What is Valuable in Life?
Okay, now this is just foolish. What is valuable to you? What is valuable to your neighbour? What is valuable to anyone? It is all different. Just like significance, value is subjective. This is the one which mostly rolls down to opinion. Value in Life is up to you. What is valuable in life to me would have to be truth, love, freedom and happiness, but people can, and most definitely will, disagree, so there is no wrong answer to this question, just what you believe.

What is the purpose of, or in, (one's) life?
The purpose 'of' your life? Well, that's simple . . . there isn't one. Scroll up, I went through a simple explanation of abiogenesis above. So, we weren't created "for a reason", since chemicals don't have agendas . . . we were created "by a natural, chemical reaction". In a sense, I guess that technically makes me a nihilist, I don't think life has an inherent purpose.
But, that doesn't mean that I think life can have an inherit purpose. Which is to say, although there's no objective purpose, that doesn't mean you can't have a subjective one.
So, the purpose 'in' your life? Well, that depends entirely on what you find valuable in life. If you find family and community valuable, then your purpose in life may be to have a family of your own and become a part of your community. If you find money and success to be valuable, then your purpose in life may be to earn money through becoming successful. Personally, as I said, I find truth, love, freedom and happiness to be of value. So, I consider my purpose to be searching for and teaching the truth, finding and sharing love, promoting and securing freedom for myself and others, and being happy (through writing, since that makes me happy).


Anyway, that's my answer . . . or, I guess, answers to the ultimate question of Life, the Universe and Everything. I can see why people prefer the answer 'Forty-Two', it requires less knowledge of physics, biology, philosophy and language. Although, very few people seem to get the joke that forty-two is literally "The Wrong Answer to a Meaningless Question". And, that's kind of the point isn't it? I honestly don't think the answer matters that much, that's how I came up with these answers eleven years ago. I didn't bother putting in the research, I usually just said "ask a scientist", but, at the end of the day, the meaning to life is either something complicated, fascinating, but ultimately useless for most people or, "Well, it depends, what do you think?"