Odyssey Of The Mind Medical Release: Fill & Download for Free

Long Haul Pilots are creatures of long standing bad habits which might appear as highly strange to the layman. Habits only they understand fully as only individual bodies understand these habits. The Clock and the hours of day has no meaning for them other than to inform them when to wake, when to sleep, when to eat….etcI have been a long haul pilot for longer years than I care to remember, so I guess I can answer this question with some honesty and clarity.First of all one must understand the definition of long haul flights.Long haul flights is defined as Flying longer than 8 hours in a continuous stretch over one or two sectors ( a sector is a takeoff and landing) AND crossing a time zone period of more than two hours, from the departure station.On the other hand, flying on a continuous duty of eight or more hours over multiple sectors, within a time zone less than two hours, is not considered long haul flying, Its called short or medium haul flying with typically long or short duty times. Like spending eight hours or more in an Office environment within the same City or travelling to a nearby City for work and return home.Nevertheless, the Fatigue involved in both kinds of flying are ever present. In this answer I will describe how a typical long haul duty day or days starting from home Base.The time of departure from home station influences the start of a day’s routine. If the departure is in the day time hours, say from 6 am to 12 noon, it is a day time departure and the preparation would start the night before. If it is a evening or night time departure, the preparation could start in the early part of the day. Such as the endless packing and unpacking of bags. Is it a winter destination I am going to, or a summer destination ? Am I going to need a winter overcoat or a light jacket ?Toothbrush-CheckToothpaste-Check … heck I need a new tubeShampoo - CheckShaving razor -CheckClean Socks ?….etc etcPacking bags has become a refined art for me.Whatever, the long haul pilots most important equipment is the watch or home clock ! I wear a watch 24/7, 365. A minute is a looooong time for me, in which I can accomplish much.On most of my rostered flights, the journeys or flights are longer than ten hours and requires us to operate with either a two set crew or a three man crew. A two set crew will consist of two captains and two first officers and a three set crew would consist of two captains and one first officer or two first officers and a captain, depending on the airline agreed duty schedules.That aside, long haul flights and crew complements are governed by a strict sets of Official Rules simply called “Flight Time Limitations” or FTL. All Airline Operations are governed by State Regulated FTLs , which are strictly and fastidiously required to be complied with, and monitored. Records are kept and it is not left to individual imaginations or wily- nilly interpretation. If the FTL is not followed, or busted intentionally or unintentionally, reports have to be filed and investigated. This is to prevent crews from flying in a state of ‘fatigue’, compromising the safety of the passengers, crew and equipment.OK, let me take you an long haul flight starting at my home Base. The time of departure is at 11 pm ( 2300hrs Local) with an expected flight time of 14 hrs and 30 minutes to destination X. The time difference between departure station and destination is six hours. Definitely a long haul of unholy proportions.Humans have been categorised as Larks ( early awakers) or Owls ( wide awake at night characters). Each Type operates best in his/her own time zone. I am most certainly an Owl, not a Lark, so I usually wake up well past 11 am at home Base. I can keep awake for long hours at night like an owl ( as I am doing now, at 3 am, writing this answer !)Since I am an Owl, and I have a long haul Flight starting at night…….I Rejoice. I will go to bed the previous night at something like 3 or 4 am and wake up at midday. On the other hand if I have long haul flight commencing at say 8 am Local time, I will try to go to bed as early as possible, like 7 pm not that an owl can sleep that early at night. I will toss and turn, unable to go into deep sleep, like an owl forced to sleep at night, but the enforced rest in bed for an early awakening is most helpful.For my long haul flight with scheduled off time of 11 pm ( 2300) tonight, I will have to report for duty at Crew Briefing ninety minutes ( or one and half hours) BEFORE the departure time ie 9.30 pm. I choose to report two hours before departure time. ie at 9 pm for a leisurely preparation for flight, with a cup of Earl grey tea with milk, no sugar.My day starting around midday, will have me typically preparing for the night long haul Flight as follows :Leisurely brunch or lunch around 1pm ( 1300), packing the Bags, checking Company mails and updating my Electronic manuals ( on the I-Pad), not forgetting to polishing the Company issue shoes ! Catching a late afternoon nap for like three hours from say 3 pm to six pm is the next thing I would do and up at 6 or 6.30 pm to begin my owlish ‘day’………..actually I’ve found that with this routine, I can actually stay awake right up to dawn the next day !One hour to get the three S’s done, will have me calling in a Taxi at 7.00 pm and I stroll into the briefing Center,bright eyed and bushy tailed like the proverbial Owl starting his ‘day’ , at 8 pm, with the flight plan already loaded on my I-pad. The other crews would roll in anytime from now to the official reporting time of 9.30. The Larks in the crew may be looking a little ragged as Larks do after sunset. But the owls in the crew will either be chatty or moan, depending on their crew positions.ALL the crews ie the Cockpit crew, will be present for the briefing at which the appointed Pilot In Command will hold court with the rest of the crew. An explanation of the crew complement and disposition for the flight is in order.On this 14.30 flight, requiring two sets of cockpit crews as mentioned above, we will be divided into Team A and Team B. Team A will consist of the Captain and First Officer who will command and operate this flight, who will do both the takeoff and landing at the destination. Team B also consisting of two pilots will be the ‘relief crew’ ie relieving the Team A in flight.The Crew briefing with the Cabin crew takes about ten minutes, with the Cabin’s chief purser introducing the cabin crew complement. Each crew member is introduced by name and where each will be positioned and their duties. The Chief Purser organizes chores from the front of the cabin, while the second in charge, will organize the rest of the crews and activities from the rear cabin.One of the most important aspects of the briefing is the security briefing which all Airlines these days take very seriously. Who is on board, what is on board, Company threat and security assessments for the day,’ suitable’ enroute stations for diversions, emergency response codes etc. No more can be said, sorry.The Captain then takes the lead to first of all introduce the Flight Deck crew. The second Captain is automatically the Second in Command for the Flight. The route and weather en-route is discussed with emphasis on possible areas of weather and turbulence which gives the cabin crews a heads up on suitable periods to conduct their services in the cabin. At the end of it the Captain dismisses the briefing with a nice cheery smile, wink and wave, sniffing the scent of glamorous women in the air, emulating Al Pacino …and off we go to the crew bus or Terminal to board our airplane.We will have about forty five minutes to an hour or slightly more from arrival at the aircraft to get under way, with passengers boarding as soon as we are ready.The pre flight preparation in the flight deck is intense and concentrated, not forgetting to synchronize the old Rolex to GPS derived time to the exact second. ( a long standing personal habit, which was done to the BBC radio time hack in the past ) . The cabin preparations can only be described as a frenzy. Catering to three hundred passengers and loading their needs is an intense, focused choreography of frenzied activity.Fifteen minutes to go, we are ready on the flight deck and you will hear the Captain, welcoming his guests on board, a disembodied voice, with his ass pointing at them. Where else do you hear a speech with the speaker pointing his behind at you ?Schedule time off minus five minutes and hopefully everything ready, a call is made to Air Traffic Control, advising them of our readiness. These days that can be made by Data Link, followed by a short call to a chattering ground frequency. Brevity on radio calls is appreciated and accepted these days.Like all good Pilots everywhere, one minute to schedule off time, I give the order to weigh anchor.The Tug Men, call “Release the brakes Captain”The Start up and Taxi out to take off is conducted in quiet concentration.As I lift off with a huge load of fuel and people into the night sky, and shortly thereafter engage the Autopilot, a wave of relief washes over, as we begin to relax…just a little. The activity up to now, has been intense, concentrated.The heart rate begins its slow climb down.When we reach an initial cruising altitude, appropriate for our heavy weight, usually in the low thirties, another flight deck briefing is carried out with a discussion on what we would do in the next hour in the event of a ‘situation’ developing. The situations include but are not limited to, engine failures or shut downs, pressurization failures or emergency ‘escape routes’ if we are flying over mountainous terrain. Or a badly needed diversion for ‘medical evacuation’ to suitable airports enroute. We re-brief every hour or so throughout the flight to keep everyone in the loop and ‘situationally aware’.We give the Sterile Cockpit ‘over’ Signal to the Cabin get confirmation informing us that everything is under control and that services are about to begin. And we could have our drinks…on the house !For me it is another Earl Grey, while others would have their coffees or other preferred beverages.The shoulder harnesses and ties come off, comfy slip on shoes or loafers are donned, sweaters or jumpers thrown over and the communications go on speakers, as we settle down for the night.The last hour or so from push back to start, take off to climb to altitude had been an intense period of continuous activity on the flight deck, with no room for errors, or frivolous small talk.Everyone was all eyes, and ears, mind only on the Job, the glamorous scents remembered at briefing forgotten.Now the banter begins.Everything from moaning about the Rosters to the scent recognised and plans laid for the layover. Certain scents remembered at the briefing may now be recalled and plans laid for the upcoming layover !Now, coming on midnight, the owl in me comes alive, night eyes and senses fully awake, focused and alive. The tea is stimulating.I’m ready for the long night haul.An intricate calculation now takes place on the flight deck. Usually the two co pilots are engaged in this complicated task, which I find mind boggling, so I refrain from getting involved. Except to arbitrate if necessary.The time of take off to the Top of Climb has been recorded. This is then subtracted from the total flight time and a further hour added. the remaining time is now divided in two and voila, the result gives us the exact time for the relief crew to spend in the bunks…..in flight relief and rest time.Add that time to current time on the clock and off they go into the bunks.I find this hilarious, as the crews sometimes get into little arguments about three minutes on the calculation and knot themselves up in their knickers, trying to get the numbers right.Some crews actually have an App to calculate all this using their phones. Zulu times, converting to local times if necessary. Alarms are then set on these times for the changing of guard on the Flight Deck.Three hours into the Flight…Probably 0200 home time. The Lark on board, if unfortunately having the right seat today, is beginning to look a little woozy. The Owl is fully awake, so we can decide on a ‘rest at station’. A power nap of no more than forty minutes at a time to give the lark time to recover.And so it goes, Communications watch, changing frequencies and making contact with various ATC Units as we cross borders. Weather watch and evaluation. Weather radar sweeping ahead at various ranges to check for rocks ahead. Time and fuel burns are recorded fastidiously at reporting points as the journey progresses through the night.Sometimes the cabin crews will come in and spend time with us, keeping us company.If there is a moon about, it gives a surreal light inside the cockpit and over the terrain if it is not covered in cloud. or reflects off the clouds. One of the most magical moments of flying I have experienced is over the Himalayas or Greenland on a moonlit night.Five Hours…Just maybe, if we are heading East, a perceptible lightening of the horizon ahead awakes the Lark, while the Owl now blinks, and blinks again.Night Passeth into dayIf we are heading west the night is continuous.The heart rate has wound right down and the biorhythm effects of late night takes over. One can alternate between periods of complete wake fullness, to a kind of woozy wake fullness, alert still, but disembodied.The first long haul pilot in history, Charles Lindbergh, described this ghostly feeling of disembodiment when he flew alone at night for hours over the Atlantic Ocean on his historic flight from New York to Paris, in his Ryan NYP, The Spirit of St Louis. He described seeing ghostly figures urging him on, or lulling him into sleep, which would have plunged him right into the cold dark Atlantic, never to be heard of again.Getting up and stretching or taking little walks helps restore the circulation or wake fullness. Poor Lindy didn’t have that luxury as he sat cramped behind that early bird, without the benefit of an autopilot, inspiring all of us to this day.The conversations on the flight deck, animated in the earlier hours, has died down to essentials, while we get regular calls from the cabin a requirement to check whether we are awake ! . The unthinkable has happened before. More cups of tea, coffee or light meals are ordered and consumed. Some can down a fully loaded steak sandwich at 0400. For me the best bet is apples or other fruits. Regular Hydration becomes very important in the now dry cabin and flight deck, so water replaces the tea or coffee now. Just water is best.If the sun is coming up, the horizon turns light ‘as night passeth into day, with nary a word said’ The ever changing colors of a new day dawning going from a faint streak of light purple, glowing lilac, orange and into day break, with the sun peeping over the horizon never fails to impress, however many times one has experienced it.Six Plus hours……First shades of a new dayAs Night passeth into dayThe Owl is blinking harder now and has almost had it. Changing of the guard is eagerly awaited.They come in on the dot at the appointed hour, to the minute. Three minutes of additional rest does make a difference to some.A thorough briefing to the incoming cruise relief crew is performed by the outgoing Team A. It follows a prescribed checklist of items, starting with ‘Aircraft status’ ending with ‘Cabin Condition’…..a brief if anything amiss has taken place in the cabin, such as an on board illness or other trouble.The inbound crew are in their comfy clothes, like track pants and sweaters and loafers etc, and usually continue in them rather than changing back into dress uniforms. A sensible choice.Within minutes, the two members of Team A will be on their way out to the bunks.Personally, I stay an additional few minutes on the deck to chat with Team B. ‘Sleep Inertia’ when a woozy brain after sleep taking longer to register, is a real problem, so staying for a few minutes to engage them in conversation, while they settle down to the task, is helpful.We will come on board ninety minutes to one hour before landing. For now Team B, with the relief Captain in command will take the airplane towards the destination. On the way back I will act as Team B, relieving the Team A in the cruise.A passing shipTeam B has the airplane…For now, I have six hours, three and half minutes to shut eye and recover from the long night I’ve had. I crawl into the bunk and within minutes I am counting prancing lambs. I have an alarm to wake me up precisely one and half hours before landing.Ninety Minutes to destination…I come awake on the alarm in a dark bunk, disoriented.Always the same feeling of disorientation. Its got to do with the upset rhythm over time zones. Some get up and out fast. I need at least ten minutes to get going.The worst problem is getting to the toilets. By now, the final service prior to arrival at destination is under way in the cabin and it is rush hour at the johns.Don’t laugh, I have had a go into empty water bottles in sheer desperation.Changing now into uniforms as we are landing, I make my way to the flight deck. Team B is fully awake and there is a lot of radio chatter going on as we approach destination. I sit on the jump seat taking in the chatter and outside scene as we prepare the change of guard..Call it paranoia, but the first thing I look at is the fuel state, ie the arrival fuel.Next thing I scrutinise is the arrival weather forecast or latest ATIS report, which Team B will have ready, printed sitting on the stand.These two items are of great initial interest, as they will determine the pucker factor for me as we proceed to destination.Coming into Chicago O’ Hare, on a snowy winter morning, with limited cleared runways and / or minimum fuel, is not a happy start. Both have happened in the past, so that is the first thing on the list to look at.So let’s say today everything appears Kosher, I can expect a relaxed sphincter, as we make our way inbound to destination.Team B gives us a thorough briefing of the situation, recent past and present, before the captain vacates his seat and I slide in.The First Officer also slides in and we go into action.First we do a thorough briefing between ourselves as we check everything on the airplane, fuel state, calculate landing performance, set up the approaches and charts etc.Briefing complete, the next ‘to do’ item is the PA to the people. The most important thing is to get the local time right. Damn, I have said Nine PM arrival time, instead of AM ! Sleep Inertia. That taken care of, we are now fully ready to commence our descent and approach to land.When the weather is nice, we will actually enjoy the view, as we make our way inbound to land.The transition from landing to maneuvering on the ground, to the parking gate, after a long haul flight is the hardest part for me, especially if we are going into a seldom flown to airport. Paris De Gaulle is one. The French English, the strange taxiway markings, get me. So I deliberately slow down to a crawl, as we transition from air mode to ground mode to give my brains time to adjust to the new environment, as I transition from Cloud Dancer to land lubber. Its doubly worse if it is a night arrival, as the eyes get adjusted to the myriad night lights lighting up an airport.The engines shut down at the Gate, Technical Log Books signed off and the guests out of the airplane, we are ready for the next long haul…….ride the bus to the hotel or take the Taxi home, which always feels longer than the flight, as we fight an overpowering desire to fall asleep in the bus or taxi.There will be a short de briefing with the cabin crew outside the aircraft, this time the scent of women absent or forgotten. The smiles are wan or forced.On reaching the Hotel and Check In, we wont hear from each other as both the Larks and the Owls would have had it by now, and crash into their soft beds, not coming up for air until hours later. It takes me a minimum of ten hours to recover.If I head to my current lonely apartment, I get myself a drink, sit at my writing bunker and punch out Quora to see who is asking what !Trust this gives Readers an idea as to the wonders of Long Haul Airline flying.Edit 1In a Blog I write here in Quora, I described another long haul Flight from Tokyo to the Middle East. It is in three parts with a detailed description of the process to get our Dreamliner over the length and breadth of China over the the Himalayas in an eleven hour night flight.Follow it here if it interests you :A Winter Odyssey…….across ChinaA Winter Odyssey across China….. ETOPSCrossing the Himalayas in the Dreamliner…..

It seems like it should be obvious that slaves in ancient Greece did not like being enslaved. Unfortunately, things that seem like they should be obvious are often things that many people don’t find obvious at all. There is a disturbingly widespread claim that slaves in ancient Greece were happy to be enslaved and that they preferred slavery over freedom.This claim recently received attention among classicists due to a description for a lecture by an esteemed classics professor for The Great Courses Daily, which begins with the shocking assertion “Slavery was the ideal condition for some people in ancient Greece.”The claim has been around for a very long time, however. It has been widely disseminated through books and other media and, despite the valiant efforts of some classicists to point out that ancient slavery was cruel and unjust, many people continue to regard it as benign or at worst a necessary evil.Robert Garland’s ancient slavery lectureFirst, let’s talk about how this claim most recently got brought to attention. Robert Garland is a respected professor of the classics who teaches at Colgate University, a private liberal arts college in the town of Hamilton, New York. He has written many books about daily life in ancient Greece, including The Greek Way of Life (published in 1990 by Cornell University Press), Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks (published in 1998 by Greenwood Press), and Ancient Greece: Everyday Life in the Birthplace of Western Civilization (published in 2013 by Sterling).On 11 August 2020, The Great Courses Daily released a lecture by him titled “Classification of Slaves in Ancient Greece.” Many classicists were horrified to see that the description for the lecture on The Great Courses Daily website begins:“Slavery was an ideal condition for some people in ancient Greece. Poverty and disease were so prevalent in those days that people preferred to be slaves so that they could survive those hardships. This gave them a level of economic security in that poverty-stricken world.”I’m not making this up. This is real.ABOVE: Screenshot of the description for Robert Garland’s lecture on ancient Greek slavery for The Great Courses DailyRobert Garland on slavery in his book Ancient Greece: Everyday Life in the Birthplace of Western CivilizationI do not have a subscription to The Great Courses Daily and I have not listened to Garland’s lecture, so I don’t know what he says in it. I also do not know if he wrote the description for the lecture himself or if someone at The Great Courses Daily did that.I have, however, read Garland’s book Ancient Greece: Everyday Life in the Birthplace of Western Civilization. In fact, Garland’s book was one of the very first books about ancient Greece I ever read; I got it along with a bunch of other books for Christmas one year. I think I was in middle school at the time. It played a vital role in shaping my view of what life in ancient Greece was like.It is quite apparent from Garland’s book that he does realize what a brutal, dehumanizing institution ancient Greek slavery was. Nonetheless, for some reason, he still says some extraordinarily bizarre things in defense of it. On page 116 of my edition, Garland says this:“Our understanding of slavery in the Greek world is bedeviled by both Christianity and Marxism. Each imposes value judgments upon the institution, and these value judgments tend to distort our investigation of its place in ancient society. Christianity deplores slavery as barbaric and inhumane. Marxist historians identify slaves with the subjugated European proletariat of the nineteenth century. Friedrich Engels went so far as to allege that the moral and political collapse of the ancient world was chiefly caused by slavery.”“Neither the Christian nor the Marxist viewpoint does full justice to the realities of life in the ancient world, however. Abhorrent and vicious though the institution of slavery was in so many respects, it nonetheless provided some measure of economic security in an otherwise dangerous and unpredictable world.”“It would, however, be quite wrong to give the impression that slavery was a benign institution. The fact that ‘more than 20,000 slaves deserted, most of them skilled laborers’ (Thucydides 7.27.5) when the Peloponnesians established a permanent base at Dekeleia in Attica in 413 B.C.E. is testimony to widespread discontent, even if many of the refugees were mine workers. Nor does it seem to have occurred to anyone that the existence of such a large servile labor force depressed the wages of the poor—or, if it did, no one did anything about it.”“With the exception of Spartan agriculture and Athenian silver mining, there is little evidence to suggest that the Greeks depended on slavery for what Marxists call their means of production. Overall, therefore, it remains questionable whether the achievements of Greek civilization were made possible by slavery.”Although Garland is relying on real historical sources, there is a lot wrong with what he says here about ancient Greek slavery.ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of an Attic black-figure neck amphora by the Antimenes Painter dating to between c. 530 and c. 510 BC depicting people (probably slaves) gathering olivesAncient slavery and choiceLet’s start out by addressing something that Garland himself does not actually say, but that someone could wrongly assume from reading his words. Garland never says that ancient slavery was a choice, but the wording of the description for his lecture on ancient slavery certainly makes it sound that way, with its claim that some people “preferred” to be slaves.I therefore want to be very clear about this: ancient slavery was not a choice in any sense whatsoever.There were lots of different ways you could become a slave in the ancient world. Some people became slaves because they owed debts that they couldn’t pay. Other people were captured by pirates and sold into slavery. Other people were captured by enemy forces in war and taken as slaves. Other people were born into slavery.No one in the ancient world ever chose to be a slave. Anytime anyone became a slave, it was because someone else forced them to become one.ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a marble relief carving from the Greek city of Smyrna in Asia Minor dated to c. 200 AD showing a Roman soldier leading two captives who are likely destined for enslavementThe “ideal” of enslavement?Moreover, slavery has never been “an ideal condition” for anyone. Some people have suffered less under enslavement than others, but no one who has ever been enslaved has thought of it as “ideal.” The only person who might consider slavery “an ideal condition” is an slaveowner who enjoys exploiting his slaves.The general view regarding slavery in the ancient world—even among slaveowners—was that being a slave was deeply unfortunate. In the Odyssey, book 17, lines 322–332, Odysseus’s slave Eumaios laments:“ἥμισυ γάρ τ᾽ ἀρετῆς ἀποαίνυται εὐρύοπα Ζεὺς,ἀνέρος, εὖτ᾽ ἄν μιν κατὰ δούλιον ἦμαρ ἕλῃσιν.”Here is my own translation:“Half indeed of a man’s excellence does far-seeing Zeus take awayon that day when he goes into slavery.”We don’t know who wrote this passage and it’s impossible to say how many people would agree with this opinion. Nonetheless, there can be no doubt that Eumaios’s words are an expression of a widespread belief that being a slave was unpleasant and deeply humiliating.ABOVE: Illustration by the German artist Bonaventura Genelli showing Odysseus and Eumaios in Eumaios’s home when Telemachos comes to the doorThe treatment of the enslavedThere is no such thing as a kind slaveowner. Forcing another human being to be a slave is inherently cruel and inhumane. Even if a master does not beat his slaves and he treats them with some level of dignity, by holding them as slaves at all, he is still treating them inhumanely.The extent to which Greek slaves were abused, however, varied considerably. Some masters were less cruel than others. Oddly enough, Robert Garland actually gives a reasonably good description of the kind of brutality they often faced. He writes in Ancient Greece: Everyday Life in the Birthplace of Western Civilization, page 112:“Overall the treatment of slaves must have varied greatly from one household to the next, depending in large part on the temperament of the owner. A less complimentary term than oikêtês was andrapodon, which means ‘a thing with the feet of a man’—as a dehumanizing a definition as could be devised.”“Although Athenian slaves were protected by law against violent abuse, in practice it was virtually impossible for them to lodge a complaint against their masters, because they could not represent themselves in court. Starvation and flogging were likely regular punishments for bad behavior. A runaway slave was branded with a hot iron upon capture. If a slave was required to be a witness in a lawsuit, his or her testimony was only accepted under torture. There are no actual descriptions of slaves being tortured, however, so we do not know what methods were applied.”So, according to Garland himself, slaves in ancient Greece were, at least in many cases, starved, flogged, branded, and tortured. I don’t see how any sane person could consider this “an ideal condition.”Moreover, this completely undermines Garland’s assertion that slavery provided the enslaved with “economic security.” What is “economic security” even supposed to mean to a person when their master can punish them for “bad behavior” by depriving them of food or flogging them, when they can be branded for trying to run away, and when they can’t testify in court unless they are subjected to torture?Things get even worse, though, because Garland is actually sugarcoating things a bit here; the source for his claim that Athenian slaves were “protected by law against violent abuse” is Pseudo-Xenophon’s The Constitution of the Athenians 1.10. Garland makes it sound like it was illegal for anyone to do any kind of violence against a slave, but the actual source makes it sound like it was only illegal for someone to attack someone else’s slave, which is quite a bit different. This is what Pseudo-Xenophon writes, as translated by E. C. Marchant:“Now among the slaves and metics at Athens there is the greatest uncontrolled wantonness; you can’t hit them there, and a slave will not stand aside for you. I shall point out why this is their native practice: if it were customary for a slave (or metic or freedman) to be struck by one who is free, you would often hit an Athenian citizen by mistake on the assumption that he was a slave. For the people there are no better dressed than the slaves and metics, nor are they any more handsome.”Whatever the case may be, it was certainly at least moderately common for slaves to be starved, beaten, scourged, and so forth. The comedies of Aristophanes (lived c. 446 – c. 386 BC) are full of jokes about these kinds of brutal punishments. His play The Knights, which was first performed in 424 BC, opens with a scene of two slaves complaining about how brutally their new overseer beats them and tortures them.In his play The Frogs, which was first performed in 405 BC, there is a scene in which the characters Xanthias and Dionysos, who are both thought to be slaves, compete to see who can bear the most strokes of the whip. These kinds of jokes only make sense if ordinary people were accustomed to the idea of slaves being physically tortured.ABOVE: Detail of an Attic vase painting showing a scene from a comedy of a master beating his slavePerhaps the most startling evidence for the brutal mistreatment of slaves in ancient Greece comes from the medical writer Galenos of Pergamon (lived 129 – c. 210 AD), who lived during the time of the Roman Empire. Galenos writes in his treatise On Passions and Errors of the Soul, as translated by Paul W. Harkins:“When I was a young man I imposed upon myself an injunction which I have observed through my whole life, namely, never to strike any slave of my household with my hand. My father practiced this same restraint. Many were the friends he reproved when they had bruised a tendon while striking their slaves in the teeth; he told them that they deserved to have a stroke and die in the fit of passion which had come upon them. They could have waited a little while, he said, and used a rod or whip to inflict as many blows as they wished and to accomplish the act with reflection.”“Other men, however, not only (strike) with their fists but kick and gouge out the eyes and stab with a stylus when they happen to have one in their hands. I saw a man, in his anger, strike a slave in the eye with a reed pen. The Emperor Hadrian, they say, struck one of his slaves in the eye with a stylus; and when he learned that the man had lost his eye because of this wound, he summoned the slave and allowed him to ask for a gift which would be equal to his pain and loss. When the slave who had suffered the loss remained silent, Hadrian again asked him to speak up and ask for whatever he might wish. But he asked for nothing else but another eye. For what gift could match in value the eye which had been destroyed?”In this passage, Galenos reveals so much about the nature of ancient slavery. On one hand, he remarks about the brutality of other slaveowners, while, on the other hand, his own opinion that it is acceptable for a master to beat his slaves as long as he does so “with reflection” reveals that even many people who saw themselves as “responsible” slaveowners still cruelly mistreated their slaves.ABOVE: Illustration from the Vienna Dioskourides, a sixth-century AD Byzantine manuscript, of the Greek doctor Galenos of PergamonThe horrors of ancient slavery go far beyond just physical beatings, however; slaves also had no right to refuse their master if he demanded sexual favors from them. (Of course, wives had no right to refuse their husbands either.) Many young male and female slaves were forced to work as prostitutes.Probably the best-known example of an ancient Greek slave who was forced to work as a prostitute is Phaidon of Elis, a teenaged boy who, according to the biographer Diogenes Laërtios, was captured and sold into slavery in around 402 or 401 BC.He was forced to live in a brothel and have sex with adult men until he managed to come into contact with Socrates, who convinced some of his wealthy friends to purchase Phaidon and set him free. He thereafter became one of Socrates’s students. He appears as a prominent figure in the dialogues of Plato and eventually went on to found his own school of philosophy, known as the Elian school.A girl named Neaira was born into slavery sometime in around 395 BC or thereabouts. When she was still a small child, she was purchased by a brothel-owner named Nikarete, who forced her to work as a child prostitute and have sex with adult men for Nikarete’s personal enrichment.She continued to work in Nikarete’s brothel until she was purchased by two men named Timanoridas of Corinth and Eukrates of Lefkada in around 376 BC. They forced her to work for them as a prostitute until, at some point in the next few years, they allowed her buy her freedom for a price of twenty minae.There were certainly many other young enslaved people who were sexually exploited for profit just like Phaidon and Neaira; we just don’t know about them because there aren’t detailed records. After all, ancient sex traffickers weren’t meticulous about documenting the ways they abused and exploited people.The only reason why we only know about Neaira at all is because, sometime between 343 and 340 BC, while she was living in Athens, she was brought to court under the accusation of illegally marrying an Athenian citizen and a man named Apollodoros delivered a speech condemning her titled Against Neaira. This speech is traditionally said to have been written by the famous Athenian orator Demosthenes, but it is widely suspected to have actually been written by someone else, possibly Apollodoros himself.ABOVE: Tondo from an Attic red-figure kylix dated to c. 490 BC or thereabouts depicting a female prostitute (who is probably a slave) untying or retying her himation while her male client watchesPossibly the slaves who were the worst off, though, were the industrial slaves who worked in the silver mines, who were forced to perform exhausting manual labor all day in hot, cramped conditions. The Greek historian Diodoros Sikeliotes (lived c. 90 – c. 30 BC) describes in great detail the horrors that slaves who worked in the mines in his own time suffered in his Library of History 5.38.1. He writes, as translated by C. H. Oldfather for the Loeb Classical Library:“But to continue with the mines, the slaves who are engaged in the working of them produce for their masters revenues in sums defying belief, but they themselves wear out their bodies both by day and by night in the diggings under the earth, dying in large numbers because of the exceptional hardships they endure.”“For no respite or pause is granted them in their labours, but compelled beneath blows of the overseers to endure the severity of their plight, they throw away their lives in this wretched manner, although certain of them who can endure it, by virtue of their bodily strength and their persevering souls, suffer such hardships over a long period; indeed death in their eyes is more to be desired than life, because of the magnitude of the hardships they must bear.”We don’t have any direct testimony from the actual slaves who worked in the mines, but I can almost guarantee you that none of them ever thought that enslavement was “an ideal condition.”ABOVE: Corinthian terra-cotta votive tablet dated to the late seventh century BC depicting slaves working in a mineNow, it is true that there were some slaves in ancient Greece who lived relatively comfortable lives and who worked decent jobs as scribes, tutors to their masters’ children, and even doctors. Some slaves were even allowed to own businesses and live separate from their masters, as long as they paid a portion of their earnings to them.These people, though, were still slaves and, even if they legitimately enjoyed their work and found it fulfilling, I’m sure they would have enjoyed it much more if they had been able to do it as free people rather than as slaves. Furthermore, these people were still subject to arbitrary punishment if their masters were displeased with them and they had very few legal rights.ABOVE: Terra-cotta figurine from the site of Pella in Makedonia of a paidagogos, a slave whose job was to look after the master’s children and act as a tutorEpiktetos and “economic stability”Now, there are a few ancient sources that superficially might seem to support Robert Garland’s repeated assertion that slavery provided the enslaved with “economic stability.” The Greek philosopher Epiktetos of Hierapolis (lived c. 55 – 135 AD) was born into slavery and eventually acquired his freedom. Like Socrates before him, Epiktetos never wrote down any of his own teachings, but his student, the Greek historian Arrianos of Nikomedia, writes in his Discourses 4.1 that he once said this:“ὁ δοῦλος εὐθὺς εὔχεται ἀφεθῆναι ἐλεύθερος. διὰ τί; δοκεῖτε, ὅτι τοῖς εἰκοστώναις ἐπιθυμεῖ δοῦναι ἀργύριον; οὔ: ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι φαντάζεται μέχρι νῦν διὰ τὸ μὴ τετυχηκέναι τούτου ἐμποδίζεσθαι καὶ δυσροεῖν. ‘ἂν ἀφεθῶ,’ φησίν, ‘εὐθὺς πᾶσα εὔροια, οὐδενὸς ἐπιστρέφομαι, πᾶσιν ὡς ἴσος καὶ ὅμοιος λαλῶ, πορεύομαι ὅπου θέλω, ἔρχομαι ὅθεν θέλω καὶ ὅπου θέλω.’”“εἶτα ἀπηλευθέρωται καὶ εὐθὺς μὲν οὐκ ἔχων, ποῖ φάγῃ, ζητεῖ, τίνα κολακεύσῃ, παρὰ τίνι δειπνήσῃ: εἶτα ἢ ἐργάζεται τῷ σώματι καὶ πάσχει τὰ δεινότατα κἂν σχῇ τινα φάτνην, ἐμπέπτωκεν εἰς δουλείαν πολὺ τῆς προτέρας χαλεπω τέραν ἢ καὶ εὐπορήσας ἄνθρωπος ἀπειρόκαλος πεφίληκε παιδισκάριον καὶ δυστυχῶν ἀνακλαίεται καὶ τὴν δουλείαν ποθεῖ.”Here is my own translation of the passage:“Every slave wishes to be set free immediately. Why? Do you think he is eager to pay the price of his manumission to the tax administrator? No! It’s because he imagines that, until then, he has been held back and ill. ‘If I am set free,’ he says, ‘everything will be good right away; I will turn for no one, I will speak to all men as an equal and one of their standing, I will go wherever I want, I will come whenever I want and wherever I want.’”“Then he is emancipated and, straightaway, having nothing to eat, he goes searching for someone he can flatter and get food from. Then he either works with his body [i.e. prostitutes himself] and suffers the most terrible things and, if he finds a manger, then he has fallen into a slavery much harsher than the first. Or perhaps he gets rich and, being an utterly tasteless human being, he falls in love with some petty girl and, being miserable, he whines and pines for slavery.”There are serious problems with interpreting this passage as evidence that some people “preferred” enslavement over freedom, however. We should remember that Epiktetos was not by any means a typical freedman; he was a devotee of Stoic philosophy. Everything that Epiktetos says about slavery must be interpreted with his Stoic philosophical beliefs in mind.As I discuss in this article about Stoicism that I published in January 2020, the Stoics believed that a person’s happiness is not determined by their material circumstances, but rather by their mental state. In other words, they believed that anyone could be happy, regardless of whether they were a slave or a wealthy person.What Epiktetos is trying to say here isn’t that slavery is inherently preferable to being free, but rather that being free does not automatically make someone happy and that a free person is still subject to the commands of other. He’s not saying that slaves were treated well or that slavery was somehow beneficial to the enslaved, but rather observing that slaves who had been set free would often quickly discover that freedom didn’t make all their problems go away overnight.I think he’s also poking fun at wealthy freedmen who would get hurt over the slightest things and forget about the horrors that they suffered while they were enslaved. Ultimately, his purpose is to argue that people need to adopt a Stoic philosophical outlook.ABOVE: Imaginative portrayal of the Greek philosopher Epiktetos from the frontispiece to a book printed at Oxford in 1715Slavery and Greek achievementNow, near the end of the first passage I quoted from Garland’s book, he alludes to an argument that I have often heard trotted out by defenders of ancient Greek slavery, who claim that the existence of a large enslaved population made the achievements of the ancient Greeks possible and that slavery was therefore a necessary evil. These people insist that slaves did all the work, which gave the upper classes time to philosophize, write great works of literature, and make inventions.On an individual level, there may be some truth to this in the sense that most Greek writers, philosophers, and innovators were wealthy aristocrats who owned slaves and who were only able to do the things they did because they didn’t have to work for a living. On the other hand, when this argument is applied to Greek civilization as a whole and is used as a justification for slavery, it becomes mind-numbingly stupid, because it assumes that only the wealthy elites in ancient Greece were capable of doing these things.It is true that most ancient Greek writers, philosophers, and innovators whose names are known today were aristocrats, but this does not mean that most ancient Greek aristocrats were great writers and philosophers. The reason why so many Greek philosophers who are famous were also wealthy is not because wealthy people were inherently philosophical, but rather because philosophical people who were wealthy were more likely to be able to pursue their philosophical interests than philosophical people who were not wealthy.There is plenty of evidence that many enslaved individuals in ancient times were capable of doing great things, but were held back by their status. After all, anyone in ancient times could be a slave, even a certifiable genius. Plato himself was at point briefly sold into slavery by the tyrant Dion of Syracuse, but the Cyrenaic philosopher Annikeris bought him for twenty minae and set him free. If that hadn’t happened, it is entirely possible that Plato could have lived out the rest of his life as a slave and never written any of his later dialogues.ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a Roman marble portrait head of Plato, based on an earlier Greek originalLikewise, Epiktetos is one of the most famous Greek philosophers today, but yet he was born into slavery. We only know about him because he was able to earn his freedom. We can imagine there must have been countless other people like Epiktetos who could have become great philosophers, but who had the misfortune of having been born into slavery and who were never able to purchase their own freedom.As I discuss in this article from November 2019, the playwright Terence (lived c. 185 – c. 159? BC), one of the founders of Latin literature, was a member of the Afri, a Berber people who lived in North Africa, but, when he was very young, he was captured and sold as a slave in Italy. The only reason we know about him today is because his master happened to recognize his literary talents, so he educated him and eventually set him free. Again, we have no idea how many other people there were like Terence who could have become great writers if they hadn’t been forced to work as slaves.I don’t see how any person could reasonably argue that slavery was a necessary evil because it made the achievements of Greek civilization possible. If anything, slavery may have held Greek civilization back because of all the people who were capable of accomplishing great things but who were stuck working as slaves.ABOVE: Fictional illustration of the Latin playwright Terence from a ninth-century AD illustrated manuscript of his playsThe trope of the “happy slave” in contemporary cultureSadly, it is not surprising that the idea that slaves in ancient Greece liked being enslaved keeps popping up. After all, the trope of the “happy slave” is absolutely ubiquitous in our own culture. This trope was famously the basis for blackface minstrel shows throughout the nineteenth century. It is also prominent in works from the early twentieth century, such as the 1936 novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and the 1939 blockbuster film based on it.American school textbooks up until the 1960s routinely claimed that black people in the American South prior to the Civil War were happy to be enslaved. For instance, the seventh-grade Virginia history textbook Virginia: History, Government, Geography, written by Dr. Francis Butler Simkins and published in 1957, declares:“Life among the Negroes of Virginia in slavery times was generally happy. The Negroes went about in a cheerful manner making a living for themselves and for those for whom they worked.”Anyone who knows anything about slavery in the United States can tell that this is completely false. You can laugh at this and say, “Well, that was the 1950s. Everyone was racist back then.” The problem is that most of the people who were taught using this textbook and others like it are still alive and there are many people who still think this book is an accurate history. A review of the book on Amazon published in August 2017 declares:“This book was both informative and correct in how the history was presented. I am not racist and never have been. All slaves were not mistreated, and I think that was also his [i.e. Dr. Simkins’s] perception. He spoke of carpetbaggers and scalawags, and I agree with Dr. Simkins that they were of ‘no use’ to the South after the end of the Civil War and during Reconstruction. My classes were integrated, and there were absolutely no problems using this text book. The book is clear and concise and was easy to use, especially for a first year teacher.”I think that, as a general rule, anytime you feel the instinctive urge to say “I am not racist and never have been,” chances are, you’re defending something that’s really racist.Thankfully, nowadays, slaves are generally no longer portrayed as happy about their enslavement in United States history textbooks. Unfortunately, they are still routinely portrayed this way in introductory Greek and Latin textbooks.For instance, the Cambridge Latin Course is a series of introductory Latin textbooks that were first published in 1970 and that are still among the most widely used Latin textbooks in the English-speaking world. The series seeks to teach students Latin through a continuing story about a Roman man named Caecilius and the other members of his household, including his slaves, who are portrayed as perpetually cheerful. Slavery is completely normalized and there is barely even the slightest hint at its cruelty.ABOVE: Illustration from the Cambridge Latin Course of a couple smiling slaves with the caption “servi erant laeti,” which means “The slaves were happy.”I think that most students probably realize that the story presented in Cambridge Latin Course is fictional, but other textbooks explicitly state the happiness of slaves as though it were an established historical fact. For instance, the New Zealand classicist Peter Gainsford points out in this article from June 2020 that the third edition of the widely-used introductory Greek textbook Athenaze, published in 2016 by Oxford University Press, states in chapter two:“It would be wrong to assume that slaves were always treated inhumanely. […] Slaves and citizens often worked side by side and received the same wage, as we learn from inscriptions giving the accounts of public building works. Slaves might save enough money to buy their freedom from their masters, though this was not as common in Athens as in Rome.”“In the country, the slaves of farmers usually lived and ate with their masters. Aristophanes’ comedies depict them as lively and cheeky characters, by no means downtrodden.”Wait. What? These are the same plays I referenced earlier that are full of jokes about slaves being beaten and abused and, for some reason, Athenaze is saying that they are “by no means downtrodden”? This makes me wonder whether the authors of the textbook and I have been reading the same plays.Moreover, the fact that some slaves could earn money to buy their own freedom doesn’t mean they were treated fairly. If they had been treated fairly, they would never have been enslaved in the first place.ABOVE: Front cover of the ancient Greek textbook Athenaze, which claims that ancient Greek slaves were “lively and cheeky characters, by no means downtrodden”Aside from Greek and Latin textbooks, the trope of the “happy slave” pops up in some of the strangest places in contemporary British and American popular culture.In traditional British folklore, there are spirits known as brownies, who are said to live in people’s homes and perform housework in exchange for offerings such as milk or cream. They are said to be fiercely loyal and to love their work, but it is said that, if they are presented with any kind of clothing, they will leave forever.That’s all well and good, but a rather disturbing reinterpretation of the brownie mythos can be found in the British writer J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, which were written for children and published in a series between 1997 and 2007. In Rowling’s books, brownies are portrayed as slaves known as “house elves,” who enjoy their work and generally don’t want to be freed.Although the house elf Dobby is portrayed as wanting his freedom, this is portrayed as a being merely a result of the fact that his master, Lucius Malfoy, is violent and abusive and not a result of the fact that he instinctively wants to be free. Other house elves throughout the series are portrayed as having a strong disliking for freedom and a love for servitude.I’m not saying that Harry Potter endorses slavery, but it does present a version of slavery that feeds into the narrative of the “happy slave.” It may not come as a surprise, then, that J. K. Rowling earned a BA in classical studies from the University of Exeter in 1986. During her time studying the classics, she was almost certainly exposed to works that portray Greek and Roman slaves as happy with their enslavement. Indeed, for all I know, she may very well have learned Latin from the Cambridge Latin Course.ABOVE: Scene from the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets of the house elf Dobby cowering at the feet of his master Lucius Malfoy. For some reason Dobby seems to be the only house elf in the series who actually wants his freedom.Possibly the most twisted and cringe-inducing high-profile iteration of the “happy slave” motif in recent years, however, comes from the 1999 movie Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, in the character Qui-Gon Jinn, a white man, saves the life of an alien named Jar Jar Binks, who bears a number of disturbing resemblances to racist caricatures of black people from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.Jar Jar is portrayed as unintelligent, clumsy, and carefree—all traits associated with blackface characters in old minstrel shows. He speaks in a dialect of broken English that some people have compared to various dialects spoken by black people, including West African English, African American Vernacular, and Caribbean English.He even physically resembles the caricatures of black people from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; he has dark skin except around his mouth, which is enormous and takes up half his face. He also has huge nostrils and long ears that look like dreadlocks.A common subject of jokes in blackface minstrel shows was the idea that black people were “uppity” and that they foolishly believed that were equal to white people just because they could walk and talk. Naturally, Star Wars indulges this trope as well; when Qui-Gon calls Jar Jar “brainless,” Jar Jar retorts, “I speak!” leading Qui-Gon to put him in his place, telling him, “The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.”Jar Jar insists on being Qui-Gon’s slave, telling him, “Mesa called Jar Jar Binks. Mesa your humble servant.” Qui-Gon tries to tell him he doesn’t want him as his slave, but Jar Jar insists that he must serve as Qui-Gon’s slave, saying “It’s demanded by da gods, it is.”I don’t think George Lucas made The Phantom Menace with the intention to promote racism and justify slavery; instead, I think he carelessly picked up elements of the racist culture in which he grew up and included them in his movie without thinking about the message they would send. The result is still the same, though; he’s promoting the false narrative that enslaved people like being enslaved and that they just offer themselves up for enslavement.ABOVE: Image of Jar Jar Binks, a character from Star Wars who bears a disturbing resemblance to blackface characters in old minstrel shows. He is portrayed as dumb, clumsy, carefree, and happy to serve as a slave to the white man Qui-Gon Jinn.ConclusionThe reason why the “happy slave” trope keeps recurring in our media is not because it is accurate; this trope was invented by enslavers in order to justify their enslavement of other human beings and it has absolutely no basis in reality. Nonetheless, it keeps getting recycled in all sorts of different forms. It appears in lectures by prominent scholars, in textbooks, in children’s novels, and in movies.It’s probably not accurate to say that all slaves in ancient Greece were always miserable, but whatever happiness they might have experienced certainly came not as a result of their enslavement, but rather in spite of it.(NOTE: I have also published a version of this article on my website titled “No, Ancient Greek Slaves Did Not Like Being Enslaved.” Here is a link to the version of the article on my website.)

My favourite mind-twisting/mind-bending/brainf*ck movies:2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)Humanity finds a mysterious, obviously artificial object buried beneath the Lunar surface and, with the intelligent computer H.A.L. 9000, sets off on a quest.Eraserhead (1977)Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.Blade Runner (1982)A blade runner must pursue and try to terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.Videodrome (1983)A sleazy cable-TV programmer begins to see his life and the future of media spin out of control in a very unusual fashion when he acquires a new kind of programming for his station.Brazil (1985)A bureaucrat in a retro-future world tries to correct an administrative error and himself becomes an enemy of the state.Blue Velvet (1986)The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.Jacob's Ladder (1990)Mourning his dead child, a haunted Vietnam War veteran attempts to discover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. To do so, he must decipher reality and life from his own dreams, delusion, and perception of death.Naked Lunch (1991)After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally murders his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in a port town in North Africa.Barton Fink (1991)A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.Lost Highway (1997)After a bizarre encounter at a party, a jazz saxophonist is framed for the murder of his wife and sent to prison, where he inexplicably morphs into a young mechanic and begins leading a new life.The Game (1997)A banker receives a strange birthday gift from his brother. When he actually utilizes the gift, he falls in trouble.Pi (1998)A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.Fight Club (1999)A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.eXistenZ (1999)A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged.The Matrix (1999)A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)In late 1950s New York, Tom Ripley, a young underachiever, is sent to Italy to retrieve Dickie Greenleaf, a rich and spoiled millionaire playboy. But when the errand fails, Ripley takes extreme measures.The Thirteenth Floor (1999)Computer scientist Hannon Fuller has discovered something extremely important. He's about to tell the discovery to his colleague, Douglas Hall, but knowing someone is after him, the old man leaves a letter in the computer generated parallel world his company has created (which looks like the 30's with seemingly real people with real emotions). Fuller is murdered in our real world the same night, and his colleague is suspected. Douglas discovers a bloody shirt in his bathroom and he cannot recall what he was doing the night Fuller was murdered. He logs into the system in order to find the letter, but has to confront the unexpected. The truth is harsher than he could ever imagine...Being John Malkovich (1999)A puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of movie star John Malkovich.Memento (2000)A man creates a strange system to help him remember things; so he can hunt for the murderer of his wife without his short-term memory loss being an obstacle.Requiem for a Dream (2000)The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep.American Psycho (2000)A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.Mulholland Drive (2001)After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.Donnie Darko (2001)A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.Session 9 (2001)Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back.Adaptation. (2002)A lovelorn screenwriter becomes desperate as he tries and fails to adapt 'The Orchid Thief' by Susan Orlean for the screen.Primer (2004)Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.The Butterfly Effect (2004)Evan Treborn suffers blackouts during significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life by reading his journal.The Machinist (2004)An industrial worker who hasn't slept in a year begins to doubt his own sanity.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a procedure to have each other erased from their memories. But it is only through the process of loss that they discover what they had to begin with.Dead Man's Shoes (2004)A disaffected soldier returns to his hometown to get even with the thugs who brutalized his mentally-challenged brother years ago.The Jacket (2005)A Gulf war veteran is wrongly sent to a mental institution for insane criminals, where he becomes the object of a Doctor's experiments, and his life is completely affected by them.The Fountain (2006)As a modern-day scientist, Tommy is struggling with mortality, desperately searching for the medical breakthrough that will save the life of his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi.The Prestige (2006)Two stage magicians engage in competitive one-upmanship in an attempt to create the ultimate stage illusion.Synecdoche, New York (2008)A theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play.Mr. Nobody (2009)A boy stands on a station platform as a train is about to leave. Should he go with his mother or stay with his father? Infinite possibilities arise from this decision. As long as he doesn't choose, anything is possible.Antichrist (2009)A grieving couple retreat to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.A Serious Man (2009)Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking.Triangle (2009)The story revolves around the passengers of a yachting trip in the Atlantic Ocean who, when struck by mysterious weather conditions, jump to another ship only to experience greater havoc on the open seas.Black Swan (2010)A committed dancer wins the lead role in a production of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" only to find herself struggling to maintain her sanity.Inception (2010)A thief, who steals corporate secrets through use of dream-sharing technology, is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a CEO.Shutter Island (2010)A U.S Marshal investigates the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane.The Tree of Life (2011)The story of a family in Waco, Texas in 1956. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence and struggles with his parents' conflicting teachings.Melancholia (2011)Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth.Cloud Atlas (2012)An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.Coherence (2013)Strange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.Enemy (2013)A man seeks out his exact look-alike after spotting him in a movie.Upstream Color (2013)A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)Illustrated upon the progress of his latest Broadway play, a former popular actor's struggle to cope with his current life as a wasted actor is shown.Predestination (2014)For his final assignment, a top temporal agent must pursue the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time. The chase turns into a unique, surprising and mind-bending exploration of love, fate, identity and time travel taboos.Interstellar (2014)A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity's survival.Non-EnglishRashomon (1950)A heinous crime and its aftermath are recalled from differing points of view.Persona (1966)A nurse is put in charge of an actress who can't talk and finds that the actress's persona is melding with hers.El Topo (1970)A mysterious black-clad gunfighter wanders a mystical Western landscape encountering multiple bizarre characters.Stalker (1979)A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.Oldboy (2003)After being kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in 5 days.Caché (2005)A married couple is terrorized by a series of surveillance videotapes left on their front porch.Antibodies (2005)Long wanted serial killer Gabriel Engel gets arrested in a spectacular police strike. Small town cop Michael Martens travels to the big city to interrogate him. He associates a brutal murder case with the killer's method and hopes to close the case by getting a confession from Engel. Instead the clash of the two totally opposite characters shakes Michaels beliefs to the ground, turning him into a dangerous threat, an enemy to the people around him.Timecrimes (2007)A man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences.Incendies (2010)Twins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history, and fulfill their mother's last wishes.Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)On his deathbed, Uncle Boonmee recalls his many past lives.Akira (1988)A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath that only two kids and a group of psychics can stop.Ghost in the Shell (1995)A cyborg policewoman and her partner hunt a mysterious and powerful hacker called the Puppet Master.Paprika (2006)When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patients' dreams is stolen, all Hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist, Paprika, can stop it.