"The David Mamet/
Glengarry Glen Ross/
A.A. 'Sell' Shrine"

David Mamet on the set of "Heist".

Don't expect much here concerning this small shrine. This is a tiny part of an anti-addiction web site. ;->

Intro
Photos
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Filmography
Raves and Ravings

Note that this webpage contains language which may be misconstrued as "vulgar".

Intro: Mamet, Alcohol Addiction & "Sells"

I have always liked David Mamet's work. Nobody can do dialogue and suspense like David Mamet can. Nobody. Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson come close in terms of dialogue but I have yet to personally witness them coming up with work which requires as much attention as David Mamet's thrillers. Mamet's dialogue is the type of diction which has its own rhythm and meaning which doubles back upon itself just as the plots do in his most labyrinthine work.

As a writer who was, at one point, a part of the recovery group movement I always wondered about the hard-sell promotion of Alcoholics Anonymous known as "The Lead" in Buchmanese. I have witnessed many "Sells" during that brief period of time which I consider to be The Dark Period (July 21, 2003 through March 2004). My former home group was a speaker meeting. I have witnessed many styles of "sharing" from outright bombastic arrogance right on down to stupefying boredom. In the end each "Sell" was nothing more than the same old pro-A.A. propaganda which stated absolutely nothing on how to quit drinking. That's right. Nothing! It was just the same old war stories of how much these people can drink and drink and drink and drink then "hit bottom" and find a rescuing deity (as A.A. understands it, of course) within the aftermath of their own volitional debauchery...then do it all over again.

Since I valued my mind and knew exactly what I wanted I wound up deprogramming myself from alcohol addiction by learning AVRT^TM from Rational Recovery's website (http://www.rational.org) within the privacy of my own home in one hour. As of this writing (2005/03/02) that would be nearly a year ago and I rarely, if ever, go to meaningless meetings of mutual masturbation of protracted procrastination celebration.

There was a brief period of time where I wondered if I would be called upon to perform a "Sell". I always pictured myself along the lines of Blake from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross pissing off the sad sacks. Imagine, for a moment, what if Blake was attempting to teach AVRT^TM? Now that would be a "Sell" to remember and, interestingly enough. it would dovetail perfectly with A.B.C. and A.I.D.A.

I realize in the end, just as Blake realized, that it would be a wasted effort. A.A. is an alternative to quitting as AVRT^TM is an alternative to addiction. The Buchmanites have made their decision to "Keep Coming Back" and remain in misery instead of looking around, realizing that nobody gets better within those rooms (in fact the ones who stay, the "miracles of mental health", seem to get worse with the more Time they accrue) and just leaving! Actually, 95% of the people coerced into A.A. do bolt from the cult by the end of one year (50% in the first three months alone). I just hope that they weren't deceived into believing that A.A. wasn't the only thing to beat alcohol addiction and decided that a drunken death was better than A.A. Woe to the deceivers who foster such narrow-mindedness of claiming that A.A. is the only thing which "works"!

If there's anything which keeps me stoked it's certainly not a lame bunch of bombastic Buchmanites. I'd rather enjoy some Mamet or work on my website or any of a number of projects instead of wasting all those hours with people more fixated upon not drinking for only twenty-four hours, "Just For Today." They have no other ambition left in their lives except for their own shaky tentative abstinence called "Sobriety." They'll drink whenever they like tomorrow and brush it off as an oopsie-doopsie drinkie-poo "relapse." They're free to do that just as I'm free to call them on their bullshit.

Anyhow, my favorite David Mamet film is Glengarry Glen Ross. The entire movie, from beginning to end, is definitive Mamet from the stylized dialogue right on down to the "whodunnit" aspect of the plot. Like Pulp Fiction the dialogue is very rapid-fire and you never realize that time is flying as you get hooked into its rhythms. We get to see a bunch of losers attempt to appear legitimate as their fragile little world within a real estate boiler room operation collapses around them.

It's just like the recovery group movement and its business arm, the addiction treatment industry...except the people are more fluent in English, can dress better and I'm sure the coffee is marvelous. Nonetheless they are all a bunch of liars who will do anything to swindle you through their "Sell".

* dr.bomb Ph.D. AVRT^TM (2005/03/04) *