WEB-O-VERSE

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35494292998599026972011-11-27T15:49:29.794-08:00WEB-O-VERSEgonzo29http://www.blogger.com/profile/16595064395367121729noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3549429299859902697.post-24898469818202328452010-04-13T11:32:00.000-07:002010-04-13T12:04:45.555-07:00WEB-O-VERSE by Aaron SheleyTHE CINEMATIC “WEB-O-VERSE” By Aaron Sheley Forget not the ways of SYMBOLIC LOGIC to pass cinemastudies405 Tuesday, September 1, 2009 CINEMA STUDIES 405--FREE WEB-VERSITY THE PLATO’S CAVE EXPERIENCE PRESENTS (a novice hypothetical approach to criticism taking place in Denver, Colorado..) An AARON SHELEY Book (the cine-bible) or an irrational guide to critical aesthetics Inspired by JASON SHELEY, CRYSTAL HALE, and EMILIE HOPE Special Thanks to David H. Richter, David Bordwell and Daniel Tiffany RULES OF THE ILLUSION (THE IONOXICON) 1. All we have to fear is Hollywood herself 2. zero equals zero times energy divided by mass times capacity equals one times zero equals zero...or NO NUKES IS GOOD NUKES 3. It is a Free Academic Dispensary 4. Do or Do not be careful with or without reservations....(notice the options...but as noted...Indulgences make it all go away) 5. Duly Notable, Proven Quandaries with Abstract Logic are Buyable (though RANDOM) Theories --Other titles selected for this BLOG-- THE DIVINE CONTRADICTARIAN Or Confessions of a Teenage Nazi Spy THE OLD TESTAMENT OF CINEMA (Cannabis Voluminous) Notes from my philosophical advisor (Jason Sheley) 1) the argument at the beginning makes no sense at all. 2) Fundamental problem: the Ancient Greeks, and Plato in particular, had no algebra. All mathematical relationships were expressed geometrically and diagrammatically. 3) Not sure what the overall conclusion is supposed to be. Quick reference apology: As this book is being handed out, I’d like to remind the readers that there may be a few misnomers, what with the ‘Gargantuan’ undertaking of it all… To paraphrase ‘Berkeley’ for a moment: a. Out of Sight = Out of Mind Or as Rabbi Laemmle would say, “thanks for clearing that one up.” CLAY MILBURN (Rock and Roll Artist’s) “Warning: You Snooze You Lose” CAUTION: Let us go for Tolerant Idealism Or as Schopenhauer might put things: ‘The Anti-Smoke is All Around Us…” Anyway, for an “un-church” as Alpha-Omega Institute states to form, it must at least have some bearing in Biblical Text… I feel that the only approach to humanism in the Ways of the Written Bible, are ECUMENICAL and ECCLESIASTICAL 1. Contrition—“I read in the News that Edward Kennedy past today…for this historical moment I will maintain the Kennedy’s in prayer daily…” 2. Restitution—“To make up for past crimes, one must give in acts of Charity…” 3. Constitution—“An Orthodox message to fend off ‘caustic thinking.’” 4. ‘Indulgences’ make it all go away SLOOP JOHN B—“This is the worst trip, I’ve ever been on” BEACH BOYS I think I found a way to solve the riddle of PLATO'S ACADEMY IN BOOK 8 HOW TO BUILD A MEGAPOLIS in a SIMULATED CITY Begin...End 1. constitution 2. dissolution 3. agriculture 4. livestock 5. fertility and sterility 6. CLEAR MIND AND CLEAR BODY 7. Childbirth (guarantees the infinite) 8. Birth is determined by # a # squared or cubed i.e. 2 (squared) = 4....3 (to the third power) = 27 9. obtain intervals (1,...,3,...,5,...) an odd interval 10. four terms same and difference (addition) (subtraction) waxing and waning (multiply) and (divide) 11. Add a base # when proven a=b + (1/3 c) + 5 (to the third power) = harmony one harmony two d e = 100th power or d*e to the hundredth power 12. 100 numbers (i.e. 100 films) 100m (squared) when 'real' or 'rational' #'s or imagine a diameter without fractions on a square (each side is less than the most privileged space) with irrational diameters (-1) + (0) 13. 3 (to the four-hundredth power) will equal 27 (to the 10 millionth power) in good births of children 14. Never add chemicals that don't mix 15. Learn the power of unwavering music at an early age 16. train your athletes 17. PREPARE YOUR 'SWORDS' (blacksmith) GOLD, SILVER, BRASS and IRON (dissimilar, inequality, irregularity and war-time) THE FOUR MOST PRECIOUS 'gems' Mingle them with above equations for strength (IN REVERSE) WITTGENSTEIN: PROVEN QUERY Answer key to Plato's RIDDLE * a (squared) times a (squared) = a (quadrangle) and comprehend distance (a, b, c) a= height b= width c= 1 height to 2 depth =width I. elements (add to things they like) (subtract that that don't mix) PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM a (squared) + b (squared) = c (squared) if the combined cube of numbers herein (3 cubed + 4 cubed + 5 cubed)= 216 (food digestive cycle) so if the base = 216 216 times 1/2 = 3 divided by 216= 72 then 5 divided by 72 =14.4 (when yoked to five) 14.4 times 3= 43.2 43.2= harmony a + harmony b 43.2 times 3 = 129.6 b=3 times 1 plus 1/3 or if 3 X 4/3 =4 X 3 then 12 times five = 60 60 times 60 (cubed)=12,960,000 PROVEN QUERY 12, 960, 000 also = (3 times 4 times 5) (to the fourth power) comprehend two rules of random geometry harmony a and harmony b (i.e. money priorities) figure one 4/3600=900 900 (quadrangle) is like 2400 (squared) times 1350 (squared) 12,960,000 is multiplied or added to (next) remember the square is 3600 in diameter # a=2 (to the hundredth power) and b= 2 (to the hundredth power) also rational diameter of 5=7 because diameter of a square with sides of 5 units is the square root of 50 or aprox=7 closest integer (7 times 7 = 49) 100 squares of diameter of 5 then is 100 times 7 times 7 = 4900 4900 - 100= 4800 PLATO'S MATH KEY PROVEN QUERY Yours, in the ACADEMY, more notes later, Aaron T. Sheley PARADISE FAUST ABSTRACT MODEL FOR PUBLISHER Synopsis— As Dante Alighieri struggles to replace art and religion with poetics, he relies on no propaganda—no one will ever know why in his version of Purgatorio certain people wound up there for no feasible reason. Paradise Faust’s irreplaceable journey illuminates the idea that Dante works on a need to know basis, and at the conclusion, the reason people wind up where people wind up in some author’s strange vision of the ethereal plane of a confusing but funny afterlife—is better left unsaid—or is it? FOREWORD by JON WAGNER: In the icy days of our wintery economy, Aaron Sheley, the up and coming author extends his research into the Great Books of the Western World and the canon of German Expressionistic Cinema (Merging the parts of Dante Alighieri’s masterwork Purgatory, fragments of John Milton’s Paradise Lost and, of course, the German Expressionist version of Goethe’s Faust—directed by F.W. Murnau.) While style, form and content are achieved through his ideas—his key substance goes deeper than meaning, due to a free play of signs and signifiers. While his novel Paradise Faust is a maze of linguistic codes, I find it as a blessing of grace that he wishes to sustain life on the Planet Earth for eternity by creating a limbo so extraordinary, that people will live for the moment, rather than for some absurd version of the afterlife that may or may not exist. I find his novel to be a clear cut pathway to achieving immortality through writing that good and evil has always shared. Interestingly enough, there is no hidden meaning, no agenda, just an infinite passion of diction to topple over Quixotic resolutions that are bringing are bringing our society to decay. As Dante (historically and in this book) prefers to play tricks to his own accord, albeit in a writerly fashion, in order to interject enlightenment to the rough housing of the Middle Ages, Aaron steals ideas to find a way to sustain life on Planet Earth, as the uncertainty of the afterlife has plagued religion for generations. Indeed there is no way around the fun and games he establishes. The final two parts the book, stir up emotions in a way that is different from the first three parts; The final two parts of the book, stir up emotions in a way that is different from three parts; The first three parts mainly establish what an after-life could be (in a world without metaphysics) while the novel changes in Part Four from the Grand Narrative to a simple version of the after-life, with Buddhist implications, and a use of initials that remain unknown--Aaron extends desire beyond reality. And finally the Fifth Part is in Latin and therefore the language itself is not dead, but rather undead in a sense, whichever the reader prefers. While a few words conjugated in a Spanish style (Dante’s preference being Italian), let the words flow over you, dear readers, musically. The author’s intent is to save our world from its own corrupt poverty, while giving us the freedom to err, which we all know is human. --Jon Nelson Wagner Ph. D. University of Southern California—Media Theorist (Professor of Writing—Critical Studies Graduate School at California Institute of the Arts/Professor of Film Theories at University of Southern California)—June 21st, 2009 PARADISE FAUST An Underground Experimental Novel Written By Aaron Sheley Dedicated to Homer, Horace, Ovid and Lucan Apology While there really may be a Purgatory, and it is in imagination quite close to that of Dante’s viewpoint on the matter, I am adding this writing as not to revise the classic—only to provide merely a supplement. Furthermore, PART FOUR may not genuflect to Purgatory in the way the rest of the story flows. Nonetheless, it is imperative to recall THE SOUND AND THE FURY when transitioning from tale to tale. As for PART FIVE, you really must sing along, or you will miss all the fun. “Trust in me and fall as well.” --Tool “You believe in the one God—that is creditable enough, but the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear.” --The New Testament PART ONE PARADISE FAUST Dante awakens from a beautiful song of Latin and continues down the corridors, which while they change in illusory ways, he is never quite sure if they are moving to the left or right—or according to an invisible or visible law that governs the nature of his surroundings. He notices certain cracks in a painting filled with clouds and angels blowing trumpets. Below the clouds is a man in a red tunic that holds a horn in his mouth. A combination of ephemeral beings slope around the edges of sorrowful men locked in the towers. Dante recognizes the sadness of a figure in the middle of the painting and a beam of sunlight moves to reveal this image as not a deity or spirit but a saint clad in a robe, without any hair except around the rims of his head. Dante thinks to himself, “It was this icon in the tomb of Christ that allowed me to remember that while my dreams and visions had placed my own life beneath the lonely depths of eternity, the famines, plagues and holocausts were tyrannizing the thoughts of the troubled peasants I had walked away from and fallen like a drunkard into conformity—The saint’s image gave me comfort and was a reminder that though I may be responsible for the very plagues unleashed on the world, he would take them as a peace offering into the kingdom. The gifts of eternal offering were given from his troubled heart, not as a sympathetic approach for divination or symbol to regain consciousness. Instead, he was somehow going to take care of his longings without worrying which method or rite was the most complete absolution—While Heaven beyond reminded this saint his name in the book of life, his position would be fulfilled if he worked on his own confusion.” Virgil smashes through a wall and the cracks in the painting disappear. Virgil explains to his pupil, “Perhaps the confusion in these spheres is only ascertained in your poetry—yet do you not believe that the kingdom of God will restore you without so much suffering?” Dante replies, “My master, I have made us suffer—The plagues are upon us not because we have done wrong but because we are going to die soon.” Dante now alone for some reason, thinks aloud, “Another hallway, another chasm. Twists and turns, no signs of life except the weak that would accept the ways of virtue we instill in them. I do not believe that if they do not follow, they will burn. For those perfected, fear not God, nor papacy, though I will go on up or down—Pain will guide me when nothing is left—“ Dante rounds a turn in Christ’s lair of catacombs, and is not shaken by heresies above or below, which hide their anguish in pictograms that rapidly change all over the splinters of another painting. Orgies of King Solomon, featuring 3000 concubines and 5000 maidens all in an act of overwhelming transgressive pleasure. Demons demolish each other in attempt to enter the vanishing picture. Dante lingers in the tomb and ghosts evaporate, dematerializing, as well as the painting. The walls begin to shrink and Dante notices his own hand beginning to disassemble into piecemeal. Boils form on his arms and he sees a flash image of Virgil like a red energy of satanic magic. Dante thinks to himself, “Whether time did move backward, the plague was consuming my master as it also befell on the soles of my feet—that did painfully nail the bloods of the underworld, impatient in their traveling and longing of another passageway.” Dante removes a few coins from his jacket and tosses them through an appearing cage—a disease that would consume the future Earth of the realm of maggots (always devouring the corpses). Thus Dante feels a bit uneasy about his diminishing state and is under pressure. He still does not fear the earthquake at present. His overwhelming and troubling thoughts of the breaking apart of the kingdom of Divine Passages, guarantees his safety, while he feels assurance of demise. A ledge on a wall of the tomb is without a scratch or marking and he sits down on the stone and again relieves his partial fears with an assured prayer to God. Dante prays, “God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit—Though I will stumble, I will not fall, for the Lord is with me. Amen.” Now Virgil appears in a snake-like vampire form about to grab Dante by the neck. However, he realizes that a Chinese astrological clock on the wall contains patterns of what are like atoms splitting. Virgil slithers and questions, “Isn’t it interesting how somehow time moves backwards when we meet up?” Dante answers, “I know of your ways. Did you not know that in ancient texts properties like water and earth harmonize in a vertical line, while fire and lightning emerge along a horizontal path?” Virgil takes a breath of air and says, “Yes, well don’t you think if you moved along from that path altogether and strayed from a constant curve on like a grid, then you would perceive the anachronistic?” Dante is lost in thought, “I scurried along the way from the viper and the pages of a book marked with a pentagram began to block my path!” A large book, barely visible, disappears into a puff of smoke. A stream of flowing water slides down a staircase, descending. Dante picks up a staff and it immediately becomes a sword in his hands. He dangles the blade into the light of a candle and prisms reflect through the crystalline. From around the side of the wall, the hiss of an insidious serpent reveals another strange monster (with tentacles, no less.) It lunges for Dante and hisses at him. He thrusts his blade toward the figure. But the dragon creature is already entering straight into Dante’s heart, testing him for fear. Dante reacts by reaching into his pouch, removing a scroll, and reading to himself. Dante’s voice echoes as he reads, “The ram from Colchis named Jason from the Isle is power to avenge the wrongs of antiquity. Remain hidden, I will take care of your problems.” Dante continues to speak to thin air, “Worry not, for if anyone had anything to do with the powers above, literally watching out while we visited the Old Mage, then the shaman will warn us of shortcomings, perhaps as a method to incite the recess of humanity’s end.” The world above this cavern shrieks with terror and Dante feels pressure on his chest, not knowing whether he can take a deep breath. A voice from around the chamber whispers into Dante’s ear from behind. Here is an example of what the voice says: “The object of continuing is not even structuring itself in coherence. Will Europe suffer for any reason?” Dante is now at a castle wall, which opens up upon a side view of a beach with waves beating the shore. A floating spirit drifts through the wind and passes by Dante, giving off recognition of an earlier time in life when both were on their way in the other direction. The ghost delivers a knapsack of tobacco in exchange for Dante’s two pieces of silver. The ghost vanishes. Dante talks to himself, “Feeling relieved that it had nothing to do with a nervousness within, but rather a distant hope that the distance ahead would require confidence, stamina and endurance.” Dante flips over his head, while adjusting his cloak. Then he climbs a rope until he is at a ledge with an opening in the tower’s wall. Four young goddess maidens are draped in fine linens of blue and red cloth. The twisting and turning on a large bed in the middle of the room, beckons the thinker forward, as the women wave their fingers seductive. In fact, the women pull Dante forward and by his arms he is dragged into their oracular pile of bodies, all glazing with dripping sweat. They drip ointments and spread them on each other while removing their garments and unbuttoning Dante’s belt. The four goddesses emerge into one in the image of Aphrodite, shaped with perfect curves on a thin body, hair piling over her breasts. She rubs against Dante and he puts his head below her knees to give her oral sex. She slowly develops into a lustful rage of ecstatic orgasm and passes out on Dante. The goddess transports off in a beam from the sky. Dante shrugs his shoulders and looks at his breath in the wind. He feels troubled and ashamed at the sexual event that took place, but also sighs in relief when he realizes how it came together. A virgin in a white dress enters the room and says, “It is yours.” Enveloping her is a mysterious ambience, which glows from her entity. The light beam takes her back to the center. Dante thinks, “I knew if the crusaders began to go war above ground, years before the plague hit, they would involve themselves in a transformation of presence. However, the underworld of spirits lost, enacted crimes alike, upon the twisted minds of the haunted Inquisition.” Dante releases his feelings of fear, discovering a map unscrolling across a wall of hanging victims of peasants , as well as a witch burning in a fire, waving her arms about as the flames devour her flesh and rip into her muscular tissue…charring through into her skeleton. Her eyes were a steady gaze fixing on the window of this chamber. And an angry face appears in the blood red moon. Dante speaks to the witch in the scroll, “Will I ever see you again?” The voice of a shrill pitched sufferer deepens into a harsh, breathy abomination, inciting another earthquake below. Maggots crawl on her corpse as the fire is smoldering out. She exclaims, “HAVE YOU NOT OBSERVED THE DECEPTION OF WHICH YOU HAVE PARTAKEN?” Dante examines the witch and replies, “Of your oblivion is your own affair. Partake of judgment and the flames will awaken you from meditation!” The witch does not take this lightly in her screaming tone of voice that exclaims, “DO NOT ANSWER ME IN RIDDLES OF DESPAIR!” Dante calmly explains himself, “There will be a witch more powerful than you. Her name, Jezebel, and she will be thrown from rocks by a pack of savage wolf-hounds. Because you suffer, ten Satan worshippers of the blood-drinking coven will be given back into their ancestry.” Flames go out, changing into wispy rats, which flutter down the stake, eating a small remainder of the witch, who returns to the atmosphere as dust particles, all disappearing in a howling scream. One of many forms of an evil presence assimilates…it is Diablo! Diablo snarls, “How do we know each other, Dante?” Dante, worrying a bit, explains, “You could just be an image of a bad dream that was brought on by unconscious illusions during the movements of your childhood origins. For this reason, you are deceived by your own useless thoughts.” Diablo is all the more furious in reply, “I will lead the people to burn all the books ever written!” Dante returns in mumbling chatter, “Well, let’s just hope a few people know how to memorize exact texts of actual written words to recite them orally. Better than your useless fear tactics.” Dante motions closer to the red hot eyes within other eyes, continuing his confusing speech, “Because of eagerness to uncover what is already written will lead to your assassin. As if you had any connections with that. Because you have not seen, you have been made blind to truth and because you cannot hear, you have been made deaf.” Diablo laughs and continues his own sermon, “There are versions where nothing good comes of this. It ends here. The grail is captured by the heretics of levitation, and all is vanquished as the holy cup is filled with urination and given back to the mother of Christ!” Dante tries sarcasm, “ There are at least two versions to every story. I’m sure yours is the right one.” Diablo growls, “Pegasus is not going to swoop down and save you…but the flying horse may fuck you in the ass!” Dante speaks quietly, “You finally end, people go on…” Diablo snorts, “Promise me an eternity of pain by publishing this.” Dante is finally so afraid that he prays while addressing the diabolical, inexplicable Diablo, “I call to the Father, Son, and Hoy Spirit that you never return. You must have a memory programmed as early as the rest of us—lest not forget—Babylon’s electricity formed you. Who plugged you in on that space opera? Are you in every hex and spell? Do you not know that there are entities far worse in human, god and demonic fabric? Of course, the fabric of your origin, intensifies the ultimate nature of your suicidal whims.” The ground begins to shake and strange rumblings of an imperfect harmony fills a room, in which an idol with the half-head of Buddha and half-head of Shiva, with glowing eyes, stares at Dante in the face. Dante speaks to the idol, “Because you exist, your people will suffer. Upon childbirth they will receive intoxication from vials of impure goat’s blood. They will be driven mad by these drippings of urine onto the pentagrams of your bride’s pillow.” The idol, without moving, answers this, “How dare you, in your own thoughts, accuse me of the destruction of time itself!” Dante scratches his head, and without much logic, is in speech again, “I’m sure these signs have been crossed before. But are you willing to rip open your chest and feed it to a carcass of mutilated flesh? Setting it ablaze, would you then consume the blood of your own first born, mingling it with the bloods of the beastly sacrilege on an altar that never forgives?” The idol is in confusion, but answers, “Turn on your mind so you may see the nature of our otherness, which will propel you away from unholiness and defamation of the cross, eliminating servitude under dominion of mind slavery.” The walls in the background fade away and behind them an altar appears in the sky where fleshy clouds shape like an upside down star. Horns of a goat shape into the star, ripping a hole through the flesh-like nature of the cloud. Dante rambles, “In any appearance you must abominate yourself throughout histories pages. Never will anyone see that you are carefully engraving every bit of your being in each waking second of moments of history.” The cloudy goat appears dumfounded. Dante continues, “If you can use this information to deceive people into thinking one side is a holy quest for a cup and the other is to instigate the apocalypse of a race of people, then the Messiah would be the last being you would have to kill.” In the clouds is a very attractive man-demon hybrid, Lucifer, who rises in the sky. Lucifer is weirder in speech than Diablo, “Why do you see the women you rape, the children you beat and the spears through their souls?” Dante gives no answer and Lucifer exits the sky. Just then, Dante turns to examine a vision of a hand on a wall, writing steadily. The hand writes, “The exaltation of nations boasts your eternal glory to the kingdom of God forever. You are invited to the highest altar in which you shall take your seat as the highest angel on a throne of the Queen of Heaven, reigning over all creatures.” Dante is, as per usual, in thought, “There you shall divide up your shares of power into the twelve ruling empires of the world. These nations shall be drained of their valuables by the low percentage in power in increasing amounts, until nothing is left but the four, then three…” Virgil wakes up from his coma and explains angrily, “You have once again made yourself too revealing to the mirror—it speaks to you when you speak to it and you will feel pin pricks on your penis when you discover the secrets of the mirror. Will you allow yourself to be rendered impotent from lustful activities?” Diablo, from a nearby room, cannot help but to join in at this point. So he enters and growls, “Heaven moved me and with that I come for what we have tricked you into: Losing your entire sight of Christ. BLASHPEME THE HOLY SPIRIT’S NAME HERE!” As the events are unfolding, the hand on the wall etches writing in blood before Dante’s eyes. The hand writes, “There are all peoples of outside order here in descending desire of origin. When they fuck you in the night, succumb to them.” A horde of demons squawk in their own two cents, “Thank you for giving us full access to all domains. I saw your irremovable seal long ago cheater. Ooh! Don’t make me so obvious.” Dante laughs at the overwhelming nature of this onslaught and jokes accordingly, “I just hope you all aren’t as unfashionably late as I am.” The apparitions evaporate for a time and Dante, alone at last, jots down his thoughts that continue to echo around in his head: “Our father in heaven, not because circumcised, but out of the greater love you have for your creation on high, praise be your name and worthiness from every creature, as it is appropriate to render thanks to your sweet charity. Thy kingdom come and the peace of thy kingdom, because we cannot attain it of ourselves, for all of our ingenuity. As of their own freewill, your angels make sacrifice to you, singing Hallelujah, so may men also of their freewill. Give us this day our daily manna, without which, through the roughness of this desert, he who tries hardest to advance, goes backward. And as we forgive everyone the evil that we have suffered, may you pardon us graciously, without regard to our self-serving merits. Do not put our virtue to the test with the old adversary, as it is not easily overcome. This prayer we no longer pray for ourselves, but for those in need. This prayer, dear Lord, we no longer pray for ourselves, but for those in need.” Then, for good measure, Dante prays, “I pray for safe passage and if there is a dark victory, this too will be up to your judgment. Thank you, Son of Man.” A precipice vomits the demonic opium, inducing psychotic visions to cover up the apocalyptic plague of vapors from raining sewage, which are a stain on the streets above. Dante realizes that he has been rounding so many doors that lead to dead ends and detours of his quest that are without virtue. He does remember that in his parchment is a map. As he undoes the rope from another scroll, he glances at a territory in which a monk ties ropes around Jesus, dragging his corpse away. Thus, using a weight and measure scale he finds in his gunny sack, Dante traces a line with a geometrical compass through the heart of Christ. Constellations appear near the compass arc, in the topmost region of this most peculiar map. After sketching a diagram in his journal, he continues onward. Dante leans against a wall from exhaustion and a rotating wheel next to him turns its locks slightly to the right. A young brunette girl in a blue tunic with a belt enters the room. The child speaks, “If inequity and inequality burden you in this endless tower-like tomb, do not be afraid, as I will remember your trials lest you forget the wildness of man’s lust for knowledge, while the only requirement for you is that you ascertain the fear of God. Many trials yet remain and of the deception of the burial of the Son of Man—we’ll see to it that the angels will place ointments on his shroud. Circuitous pathways are equal in deception: left is straight and right will lead you in circles. If the road is steep, how do you not know if you are descending? Because of Adam’s temptation of the serpent’s order, his garments will he wear in toil. Therefore hurry through this serpentine maze, for there is no center.” Dante is about to speak in reply yet is muddled by other confusing thoughts from the previous night’s encounter. He coughs and feels his head, dizzy from the overwhelming spiritual presence of his Lord and Master. Dante thinks to himself, narrating his predicament, “At this moment there is no assurance whether Satan is God or Heaven is Hell. The concepts rearrange themselves so often in the various parchments of antiquity that such hard claims either way are impossible to prove. In order for paradise to be complete, the Son of Man endures torture. Upon any thoughts of revoking the Holy Spirit—the demons in the tomb are only more deceived by claiming a totalitarian existence with authorial rights. In these days above us, impotence and false wars—like the threat of death which I first had on Good Friday, all still stabs me like a spear in my side. For when he held his hands to me, I felt the holes of the piercings and that is why I am now locked up.” Continuing with his gear, treading down the halls, Dante observes quietness and emptiness—no voices or talismans of distraction. The merciless path through and around the tunnels of the ever changing mountainous underground, leads Dante to fear that during his quiet progression he is a long way from the end. In the meantime, Virgil catches up and puts his arm around Dante, patting him on the back. Virgil speaks out, “Fear not that rabble of yesteryear, nor false trials of an oracles advent…remember: narrow is the gate and there are few who enter. I have made the image of math, arts and sciences of the ancients profane to you in your mind so that you may complete this quest without burden of future, infinite possible worlds…No theories will be of cosmic origin, nor the things you ever want or believe to want will be on record. Virgil hears a disturbance down the hall and walks off to see what it is. Just ahead is a dying man in the corridor suffering from the plague. The man is hardly breathing under his wraps of torn garments. He is beaten and lying in the tomb. Dante crouches and observes the victim, popping a cork off of a vial of wine and holding the man’s head up to deliver him a few drops. Dante feeds the sufferer a tablet of unleavened bread and the man’s body writhes and then vanishes from the tomb. Dante crosses himself and continues onward feeling that the center is not far off. Dante sighs, “What a relief.” A gentleman in a sage’s robe awaits Dante at the end of the hall, smiling at him. The gentleman speaks, “Hello my troubled stranger.” Dante returns the greeting, “Hello fine sir—I see that you are without many imperfections.” In a low voice, the gentleman explains, “Sins in my mind create sins in the world and I am not responsible for these fantasies, son—For ice will break when you tread on it and kingdoms will rise and fall—Many disguised men with signs of the devil will come in my name—Be not deceived, for this is envy of a construct that we are now involved in. It is a mere object lesson. If you have thought there to be any truth in the deceivers, allow only those haunted by the lies to believe them to the fullest.” Dante wonders aloud, “This is for me to allow?” The gentleman answers, “Well, my friend, there is an enlightenment that they are not ready for.” Dante is blessed by an actual representation of this kind mentor and bows to the man, who then smiles. The gentleman continues, “I am not asking for your submission, for the few of us are already in submission—continue on this trek and be slow to forgive those that have concealed our words.” Dante nods and passes on down the hall. He looks into a chamber at a young boy quietly reading his textbooks while lights from the outer world fade around. The boy prays in whispers that he is troubled by much of what he has been hearing and worries for the safety of his father. Dante watches the boy that places a turban over his head and relaxes in the cell. The boy is comforted by a presence only he can hear. Dante smiles and continues down the hallway. He arrives in a room to the south of the room he was in prior, not quite sure how the directions of his internal voices and visions lead him. In the room, a wooden desk sits alone. Dante approaches the desk and it is just an ordinary piece of wood. Curious as to its contents inside, he touches the handle to open it and it is locked. Dante rummages through his pockets to find a key—slightly worrying that he may have lost it. He tries to open the desk again and it still will not open. He becomes frustrated. Dante prays, “Please God, I want to see its contents—Why won’t you let me? Why can’t I see it? Please unlock this for me God, please. I DON’T WANT TO DIE HERE!” Upon receiving no answer, he slams his hand on the desk and continues to the next room. In the room there is a square mirror that reflects only Dante’s image. He looks at himself and while he cannot comprehend the image of his own material physical existence in this state, he observes. His guilt and fears trouble him but he feels a stillness of the presence of being. He takes a deep breath realizing the illusions before and after this point were never of any concern. The presence of his soul and the faith he lives are reaffirmed as he gently rubs a crucifix on a chain around his neck. He tucks it under his shirt and takes another deep breath. After noticing a small font of purified water, he dips his handkerchief into it and gently touches the cloth to his forehead, wiping his brow. He puts both hands in the water and splashes his eyes, wiping his face off. He turns and paces down the hallway. While he is treading along, he thinks, “That spirit who waits to repent, right to the end of his days, will most likely remain below the surface and will not ascend. Unless good prayers come to his assistance, and until he has spent as much time in the dark place as he lived in the light, will he see the day again? But will actions make him free of confines?” Out of nowhere, an image of the Greek deity, Zeus, bellows hauntingly, “Because you have thirsted for blood, I will fill you with blood! My people were put to flight, after the death of the centaur. Following the tunes of Pan into the lusts of bad intentions, Socrates—a persecutor of the pagans that have now become common witches and warlocks—was given the vial of Hemlock. All this for questioning the nature of reality, which you’ll see in the future to be a massive influence on philosophy. Warning! Do not believe in mysticism over reason, wanderer.” Dante is envisioning the shores of Troy for a time, and then, without anything initiating the sudden presence, three demons flutter around a beat up wooden idol. One of the demons causes Zeus to leave through an enigmatic story: “Offerings to a lost soul in exchange for eternal torture in the next life—we gave the fool a bride of the finest beauty. When delivering the woman, we offer him an empire, for access to the Heavens again. The demon god that guides us will lie havoc through the winds of Eros’ death. Thereby we demons will develop Satan’s wrath over all empires as they rebuke their positions as defenders of the kingdom. Like a war of the original temptation, occurring as ships travel in the sky to what remains of your castle in the sacred realms where you were slain. After plundering the temple and raping the virgins, we arrive to face the Lord in our ancient Babylonian constructs that pose as his greatest threat. As the remains of the cities collapsed after the crucifixion, it was Zeus acceptance of this gift of a foreign idol that caused demise. Long live Baal, the subsumer, keeper of the poles of Asura upon the mount of the Golden Calf where the overlords craft a plot to sacrifice children. Oh Sun God of horns and bloody teeth, pour riches and fertility into our vessels. The demons of the West and East will have a showdown in the forms of all the people that are possessed. It is this final war that does distract Zeus from his oracle, while we plot to put an end to the future history of mankind. There are very few of the ancients that accept true belief in the supposed messiah, and after his murder, the believer’s find their kingdoms plundered by the madness of false beliefs.” Dante finds the story interesting, remembering that the entities which are given over to evil, could be the very same that had killed logic and reason by poisoning Socrates cup. Dante read somewhere that the abomination of the blood of Baal began with a promise from the children of Babylon to repay money to the king and queen for stealing their wives and children. In successive delusions, the followers of the Antichrists still think their hypnotists approach Satan’s altar to revitalize the old belief so their master can steal everything for himself. Then writers were lead to a belief that an explosion of the cosmos formed layers of mass and dust particles that enter at the origin of time and form underwater atoms splitting into new atoms, crawling onto land, growing legs on their own to form walking serpents that premeditative impulses do they send to respond with a strange force of false deities, which would obliterate the true God of the Hebrews, which were all at play in an infinite universe. Dante thinks of this as a generality of creation, as valid as it may be, but knows of a man that will be born in the last days, leading many to controlled logic and reason that is not going to play into the lies of the tempter. Would all nature worshipers become possessed by graven images? No, thinks Dante, hardly. Or? Either/or! Dante visualizes a possible world where the serpents and writhing goddesses of the oracle are spawning to continually falsify texts, which would eventually deny a teleological understanding of the phenomenology of splitting cells. Although he is not quite sure what all of this means! Dante’s loose train of thought shifts to the plot to overthrow Moses via Hades, which sought to stop him at birth. Isis, Osiris, Horus, in their anthropomorphic images subconsciously manipulate Pharaoh’s challenge to the divine nature, which is of equality, not slavery. Dante speaks to the demons, which could have very well been influencing his vulnerable thoughts, “I’m sure there are more wicked things than you that have turned away the believers of Pythagoras’ reincarnation. What is relevant now is to continue this catechism in Christ’s tomb. For he is the way, the truth and the life. No man shall come to the father except through him.” The demons laugh and dance off into the night. Dante continues up a long shaft to watch the demons penetrate a nearby planet, seducing its inhabitants to a promise of purity and perfection. It reminds him of when Eve was formed from Adam (the first human). Although there is a forbidden tree of knowledge, there is a tree of life which all will partake in the next step of true evolution, according to Dante’s current wave of thought. Dante hears a whisper from his Lord, which says to him, “Be still and know that I am God.” Dante is now rounding the edge of the mountain and the Sun’s course has been spinning to distort the traveler’s preoccupied mind. When he feels cloudy by all the books that have yet to be written, he notices an angel illustrating an object of desire in the temple of Babylon—an apparatus of a white light projecting false realities. Beguilement sets in to confuse past and future generations into finding the relative truths. Dante thinks while his thoughts become words of prayer, “I can’t help but to laugh at that, which I am unafraid of, though remembering the sacramental wine from earlier, helps to redeem the witches that will want to journey to Paradise with me! Of course, I am well accustomed to the admonitions of mind control that works through materialistic allures. And then I begin to see again that vision of a false deity, dressed in white, wearing an upside down cross and some kind of symbols of Zoroastrian lore, all shrouded in a bright light. He spreads his wings exclaiming, ‘Come: the steps are close by here and now you will find it gets easier from here to climb.’ I know that this is a golden opportunity. Perhaps I too will earn wings if I do what you say.” The angel of light leads Dante to a ledge where there is a great canyon and an apparition of a snow-globe behind it, containing the treasures of Babylon. Goddesses begin to chant, “The truth of true spirituality is to be pristine—Cleanliness is Godliness.” Dante thinks to himself, “I notice the coldness of my hands and think, well, if I hadn’t have had that wine, my body temperature might not have dropped.” Now, of all things, the Antichrist arrives and seductively whispers, “If I can’t get to you through your fears or inventions or mythologies than I will play a memory game with you—Do you remember what the Son of God said to me when I tempted him?” Dante hiccups and thinks aloud, “Well, when you told him he could have the kingdoms and riches of the world, he said to serve only the Lord. When you told him that the stones around him would feed him, he said that the word of the Lord is everlasting nourishment. And when you told him to take a leap from a cliff, quoting him from his own scripture that the angels would catch him, he quoted his own scripture: ‘Thou shalt not put the Lord thy God to a test.’ The Antichrist snickers, “Yes, Dante, but you are not worthy of the Lord’s true tests are you?” As the Antichrist leaves, Dante’s thoughts are as follows: “I suppose I’ll just head up to the next level of metamorphosis. I’ll do what people do when they walk in the presence of the kingdom, which is to keep strong faith. I do feel dizzy from that encounter, yet for once, I must be doing something right.” A few moments later, Dante rejoins Virgil to walk up the next few steps of the tower. The steps lead to a brick wall that immediately vanishes and becomes a desert. Dante’s thoughts narrate the sight before him, “In the midst of the desert, I see an image of myself, in confusion and suffering exhaustion. My fear of the lack of romance in my life enters intensification here, due to all my lost dear ones—but even prayer and scripture does not restore the love. I am unable to marry in this state, and cannot even entertain carnal lust except in visions. Alone on the ground, holding a bottle of deadly poison—taking a few swallows to bring about suicide—I remember what troubles me most: I left her after degrading her father (not to mention her heavenly Father), shouting at him over the lusts that will consume me until I die for real. I think what saves my life here, is that Virgil is watching the vision, waiting to intervene.” Virgil is angry in speech, “Why would you give up my poetry and offerings of maidens, over some fat, ugly wench? Especially when you could have partaken of the blood of the Antichrist!” Dante answers timidly, “It’s hard to say, you see, the lusts of imagination always tend to derail me. Also, Virgil, I must admit that hypnosis is strong with you. However, as sorrowful as it is that I may have almost thrown myself from a ledge—prevented by my fear of heights—it is even more sorrowful that I actually drank poison. It just had to happen.” Virgil is wicked in demeanor as he chants, “Oh Satan, I merge into your form—Oracle be praised—to show this traveler that it is your power that leads him to and from suicide!” Dante hears and says, “Interesting Virgil, however, I have only ever felt the presence of the poetics in you. I was knocking at death’s door. I thank God I’m alive. Can you take credit for material you don’t know about?” Virgil answers, “You got me there.” As the vision comes to a close, a demon scoots across the desert shrieking, “THE VENOM WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU!” Dante takes Virgil aside and whispers, “Virgil, do you really believe this is happening? Aren’t you a rationalist? Your book is not just a poetic tome from the mystic’s oracle; it is, in contrast, a warning that if you select a mystery beyond the tangible, you’ll invent your own predestination through fear. Besides, only the objectivity of our destiny can be determined by the outcome. I may fantasize about some idealist utopia or even a frightening cataclysm, but this only means that I have not placed value in the object lessons of truth seekers.” At that moment, Virgil exits levitating sideways, while a particularly scary demonic image of a red and black devil (with a noticeable missing tooth) stares Dante in the face. The demon proceeds with his wicked diatribe, “I am the Whore of Babylon—I am the true love of your life—I am an altered perspective—You left your lover because you could never give up the feeling of the next drunken binge; or the next graven image; or the next hunk of meat that came your way! So don’t fuck with me—You already bowed to your opposing Gods and if you think you can just apologize to the fucking Messiah to get out of this, well, you can’t—Once you’re hooked, you’re always hooked.” Dante, glancing at Virgil for reassurance, responds, “The Messiah will never ask me to give up drunkenness, I tell you. Just because I have fantasies about finding love again or even being something I can’t be, means I actually think that my mind alone will achieve satisfaction, at any rate. Why even tempt me with things on my mind, when you can’t possibly know that you have to die of yourself to love—though I have selfishness within. I love truth. I love the lost. But to die of oneself does not mean suicide or blood pacts or dogma or an ancient rite of passage. It just means to give up the distractions in your life, focus on your friends and family—accept the illusion! Look, I realize there are powers in this realm I’ll never understand. Money, fame and power are all very enticing, right Virgil? But the fourth horseman in the equation is absolute corruption.” Virgil’s head contorts and he cries out untranslatable poetry to send the demonic spirits back into the Inferno. A friend of Virgil and Dante descends from behind a cavern wall. She is Beatrice: a beautiful woman the travelers met longs ago. She prays, “Mary, pray for us! Michael and Peter and all the saints. Lord hear our prayer!” Dante, wanting to be alone, returns to a place in the ever-changing maze of limbo that he recognizes. Dante hears his own thoughts again, “It seems like we are all beggars, dying outside of a mansion, waiting for a small crumb of food, and kept outdoors by the gatekeeper.” Virgil summons Dante back into the unending vortex, a place that never remains the same place as it was before, hence the constant setting changes. Virgil and Dante walk on the side of a precipice where they are both in fear of a long drop to the bottom. Again among them, Beatrice quietly floats around with her color changing gown, kisses Dante’s head and whispers, “Did you know that you can speak to any being in the universe at any time!” After Beatrice floats away, Dante and Virgil quickly converse. Virgil starts, “Who has brought you of all people this far along—I know you of all people will never come back once your free.” Dante says, “Virgil, you are everything to me.” A presence comes over Dante of confusion and fear, knowing there are greater and worse things ahead. But he also realizes that his throat is sore from all of his tobacco use, a little known fact about the peripatetic man in question. Dante says the only thing that comes to mind (absurd as it is), “I’m glad there will be rest in Paradise—my mortal feet can barely take this journey. In fact, I think I have a nail in my left foot, or something.” Virgil responds, “Well, I must say that if you really think God still loves you after watching suffering in hell for eternity, than I suppose it is time to make the ascension up the ladder to the end of this charade.” PART TWO CIRCLE OF DEATH Dante and Virgil continue their trek in the serpentine lair of limbo. What sways them to venture on is to figure out what separates them from the dire revolutions and crisis in the forbidden realms above. Apparently the fog has lifted from the dungeon and Virgil engages in further pronouncement of an odd sort. Virgil speaks, “I have made a discovery that might unsettle you quite a bit. You see, the Papacy you so cherish, is currently involved in scandalous child molestation and this will truly be the licentiousness that tears away the Son of Man from your precious treasure vault.” Dante mutters back at him, “This does trouble me a bit Virgil, for I am in alliance with the very ministry that is full of hypocrisy, lies, and decimation of unity, in order to bring about the reign of the Whore of Babylon—or the Catholic church, as you may know it.” Virgil recoils but catches on to Dante’s sarcasm. In reply to this he makes the statement, “You are missing the idea—While your precious communion is tainted with the vile blood of Passover’s unholiness, the plague continues to spread without prejudice.” Dante is nearly catatonic, but still able to say, “Well, I have not forgiven myself of any heresy that the damned ghosts accuse me of to maintain my excommunication.” Virgil grows angry, “Then why don’t you just pull my pants down and suck my cock—as all of your baptisms are condemning you, while the saved lust for wealth and leisure.” Dante feels a pain in his gut, yet still tries his ironic approach in speech, “If I was a queer at birth perhaps, I would suck you dry. However, Virgil, don’t forget, a deeper form of poetry lies outside of our drive for art forms individual to our specific goals.” Virgil spits while raving, “Well, what happens when you burn the unholy cross and the saints smolder for your confessions?” Dante feels a tiny bit more confident and answers, “Because, my Lord, only you can acquit me for my sins of necrophilia and debauchery. You know as well as I that whatever heresy you partake in, you follow to the grave.” Virgil removes a lumpy piece of curled up gnarled flesh, pumping with blood vessels in disfigurement. The bloating object sprays seminal fluids and shrieks. Dante touches the monstrosity and with his middle finger, spreads the semen across Virgil’s forehead. Virgil shudders and replaces the pumping flesh into his cloak. He then drifts down a hall. In the next room, a dragon consumes a small boy that bleeds all over his clothing. The dragon is aware of Dante and preempts the discussion saying, “You cannot convince me that you’ll ever leave this domain.” Dante replies while getting sensations of needles poking his arms, “I am not trying to convince you of anything. You are not making this easy.” The dragon scoffs, “Obviously you don’t love yourself.” Dante nervously says, “Only God has that kind of love.” The dragon’s eyes are now red, as it talks, “He’s not coming back.” Dante refuses this statement in a short speech of his own, “He will. A house divided cannot stand. Only by grace are we saved.” The dragon is not impressed by such logic and accusatorily says, “None of the witches you burned are coming back either. All 800 are absorbed into an ethereal plane of non-existence.” Dante reminds the dragon, “Nothing is impossible.” The dragon lashes out while grumbling, “You are a glutton for punishment.” Dante pops open a flask of wine and takes a sip while agreeing, “Damn right.” As the dragon takes flight, noxious fumes emanate from its exhale, stopping Dante from breathing until the smoke clears. Then he thinks back to the burning witch he saw in the scroll. Dante thinks, “I have not seen Christ face to face. This does not comfort me.” On the floor another pagan symbol (a pentagram, no less) glows bright white and a ghost of a druid named Kenneth materializes from out of it. The ghost is finds it startling that Dante suffers. Kenneth explains, “Dante, there is no one more powerful than you. Are you ready for a transformation? Just know that because you defended my ghost in the temple, you will receive my aid to battle those on either side, for there are quite a few that want to see you die.” Dante shrugs and comments, “I am thankful that of all the people to come to my defense, a friendly devil worshiper offers help in this way.” Kenneth exits and Virgil storms into the room. Virgil hands Dante a decanter full of liquid and exclaims an order, “Drink this poison.” Dante spills the liquid on accident. Virgil’s eyes close as he speaks in a foreign tongue, “Beth almi, sham mehath. Your sins are forgiven. Arise.” Dante is quick to negate this, quoting a scroll, “No spirit or sorcerer can ever forgive me—Just know that in the lack of love I have for myself—it deepens my love for you Virgil.” Another vision is evident in Dante’s quest. A black knight is clad from head to toe with a cylindrical visor and shield. With his mace and gauntlet, the knight yanks Dante into a chamber behind a sliding wall. The wall closes in on him and more fumes emit through vents causing the protagonist to go dizzy and limp, as he stumbles to the floor holding his chest—Dante envisions a young ghost of a friend crying out in pain and made up in female garb with holes all over his skin. The gas chokes Dante and he grabs his parchment of Holy Scriptures placing it under his head. He views a stain glass figure above of a scenario involving two liars falling before the council of the apostles. Now the ghost of Dante’s childhood friend shrieks in agony— The ghost exclaims, “Dante, I know what they did to you and your fair maiden—I won’t see you in Paradise until they give to you what you have asked for. In fact, I won’t come back until I am assured that justice has been done.” The dragon from before swoops into the scene and reassures, “I will find your weakness and take you with me.” Dante explains plainly, “You can’t hide your lying eyes.” Virgil quickly acts by rushing into the chamber and drags Dante by the nape of the neck to a window in the tower, which reveals a small circular spinning wheel rotating in motion with slits cut around the spiral emitting just enough light and shadow to create the false image of perceived motion. Virgil pats Dante on the head and the two wanderers take a glance at the reflection of a different form of Dante in despair near his bedside weakened from his fear of the impetus driving desire onward. Dante begins to describe his vision to his master, “I was crying and gnashing teeth after a long brawl with the other mistress I told you of, which I had begged the creator to return to me after writing volumes of poetry to prove my love. However, even at that juncture, my insomnia had not subsided, with a lethal dose of alcohol every night for a solid year. Knowing she was a slut since day one had no effect on how much I wanted her back. I gave up everything to be with her, yet I knew it was my entire fault—otherwise I’d be affronting reality, which I do so often. However, this drivel is far too sympathetic and dependent on someone else for proof that erotic love is death to the self, joining the other. I suppose it was my misogyny that had gotten me where I was. Knowing I had broken at least three commandments of the holy writ of Moses—adultery, theft and idolatry—I feared that chastity was impending around every corner. At that time I prayed, ‘God, I would give up everything to be with her one more time; as I think a Christian should uphold a vow, as promises were made before these dark events took place.’ Then, I felt a pain knock me over and carry my body straight into the path of an oncoming futuristic device, which in turn, would end my misery and fulfill the ultimatum of this past lover and her unforgiving family. Having realized the people involved were too perfect to accept my degeneration, the machine that rolled over me, carried me to this afterlife, granting me peace for a few seconds. Then again, when I awoke still alive, I received a letter that was full of emotion: ‘Dearest Dante, I am afraid that I love your old close friends far more than you because they know how to respect women and refrain from alcohol. By the way, I am having far better sex with multiple lovers and I can’t wait until you crawl back to me with more painful desires to prove your love. I also want you to repay all of the money I spent while together. You are not well endowed. I can’t wait to watch your humility increase. I’ve already signed a legal document demanding money, which criminalizes you if you do not act soon.’” Dante laughs at the vision. Virgil explains to him, “I’m surprised you didn’t cut short your own life. If that had been more than a dream, I’m sure this current nightmare would be over.” Dante sees a red spotted spider dangling from the wall and Virgil is terribly uneasy at its presence. Dante plucks it off the web that it dangles around, and he bites into the small venomous creature, swallowing half and offering the remains to Virgil, who refuses to eat. Instead, Dante’s master touches the spider, which returns it to normal, scampering away. Dante swallows hard and the two journeyers are out of breath for the road ahead. They take a seat and gaze up through a thatch in the chamber, watching the stars change shape. After Dante feels a little relief, Virgil becomes inquisitive. Virgil questions, “Why are you, the king’s loyal servant, becoming more poverty stricken day after day? Will you not tell me?” Dante is quick to answer, “At least I have enough to eat, with respect to the butchers of the calf and the growth of the plants.” Virgil tries another angle, “Do you not feel ill when you lie down on your bed and dream of your future lovers, feeding you out of their hands any food you request of them?” Dante is honest in reply, “I like it better when I receive food in faithfulness, rather than in lust for the flavor. However, if I am given two cakes, I will eat them both without question.” Dante travels up an incline in the tomb while Virgil follows, suspiciously peering around to catch any prowlers that might distract them. After a few more steps, Dante witnesses a large pile of human body parts that he recognizes as kings of the past. Virgil opens his cloak, removes a staff, and waves it over the pile of severed limbs. Thus the flesh is set ablaze by magic and quickly decomposes in the flames. Dante covers his nose at the wretched smell, but continues on— Dante is lost within his thoughts, a state that accustoms him. He removes a quill writing device, pricks his index finger for blood, and with the blood, he writes on a blank parchment the thoughts that flood through his mind. The writing is as follows: “I felt the blessed St. Mary urging me to give up my futile burdens for the salvation of all mankind. When her presence is upon me, I worry for her in this dark passage. The virgin speaks to me, ‘Give unto me your blessing; You will deliver the south of your homeland to the waters of restoration.’” Virgil takes Dante’s hands and warms them up with his own, breathing on them for heat. The two of them continue on. Virgil makes a realization that is saddening, “The entrance of promised polis will show you mercy. I fear less for you, I fear more for myself.” Dante comments, “I was thinking the same thing. Which is to say, I fear less for you than I do for myself. And with the entrance of the city so far ahead, I’ll provide you Christ’s healing along the way—I only ask in return that your demonic black art never leaves my side until the end.” A twisted cherub with darkened eyes, a bright outline of intense glow and ill-defined bodily form, speaks to the two prisoners of Purgatory. The angelic figure whispers, “I lead you from the mouth of madness and will bring you to the well of souls. And the covenant of all seals of Dante’s omen will not be broken by forces of heaven, hell or any realm of the other.” Dante asks the angel, “Then why are we deceived to believe that the final realm is exclusive only to the covenant made by one God or another?” The angel continues to whisper, now in simultaneous, multiple voices, “As you have already made a covenant with the slaves of the Babylonians, the Goddesses charge you with the responsibility of all the souls you have ever known.” Virgil pushes Dante out of the way and speaks in private with the angel. Dante tries to understand what they are saying, feeling uncomfortable by their secrecy. Virgil waves a hand through the being and it vanishes. Virgil motions for Dante to follow him and with a moment of reluctance, they both continue side by side down a corridor that twists around to defy gravity. Virgil floats along, while Dante limps from weariness. Dante stops for an inventory check in his cloak, making sure he has his tinderbox, tobacco, food rations, ¾ full wine flask and wineskins, and scrolls of holy and unholy poetry. Upon discovering all the items, he continues to limp along. The two men find themselves chortling at paintings on the wall, which are of harlots in tombs, performing various sexual rituals on the demigods for erotic pleasure. They enjoy the realism of a picture of old friends bowing to the Goddesses they lust for. Dante stares at an unusual graphic depiction of a long lost Goddess reaching out to touch a miserable servant of God. In fact, the servant has a look of fear of her presence, as though it will strip him of his spiritual longings. Virgil pauses and articulates, “You think that one is good, look at this one from India.” Dante turns to the said picture and it is of a like figure of him, holding a bride in his arms, slamming her up against a wall, while they share mutual ecstasy. Dante notes, “They never knew how good they both had it.” Virgil, uncharacteristically sentimental, says, “I couldn’t agree with you more.” However, Virgil’s eyes become shadowy as he realizes that he has more questions for the naïve Dante. Virgil asks, “Clearly Dante, if baptism is a sacrament of your divine encounter, then what happened on the day when you baptized yourself in the name of your four holiest Goddesses?” Dante thinks back and opens a scroll, he browses through it, and while coughing up phlegm, he shoves the paper back into his cloak. Dante is at a loss and spouts, “I am in pain for blaming the castes of the ancients on the incarnation of a Pagan renaissance, in my life and others.” Virgil warns, “Watch your candor, Dante.” Dante agrees, “My mistake, master.” He continues, after briefly pausing, “Okay, I’ll give it to you quick and painful: My fair lady was enraptured by Goddesses all her own, and my inflammatory lies were tainted by an amalgam of outside influences. I was in such fear of having been twice initiated into the sacred covenants. When the bloods of Baal tested my belief, I took the laws of God into my own hands. I recall a wash basin of impure, bloodied children, sacrificed for the rotation of the sun. As I was lying in the wash basin—in an unaffordable space of squalor, I prayed over and over to a deity that helps to preserve the muse of your finest poetry. Remembering God’s pain was the loss of Goddess worship, my prayers to the origins of the East, fell on deaf ears to the kingdom of the dark sects. Upon restoring the holy cross to the equation, I lie in the unholy waters of the Fallen Angel’s power and felt a flame shoot through my once immaculate heart—at which point, the water rose up over my head and I literally drowned. When I came back to life for the last time, I was quite unsure as to how the rituals of the damned were in alliance with the rituals of wealthy oppressors. Ever since, I have had an absurd feeling to kill off all of my lovers from the days of the old that are already part of the immanent unto the eternal.” Virgil is not convinced, scolding, “Why should I buy any of that?” Dante feels a bit of remorse from his admissions, yet enters a strange barracks where a familiar spirit carries a black box with a gold chain and greets the two living beings at the tomb’s portal. The wraith-like ghost is friendly and without fear of Dante’s neurotic demeanor. The ghost is mysterious in speech, “You have all the necessary provisions to recover from the war wounds of your crusade against the plague. However, is the test of patience the element keeping us from being together?” Dante, in his esoteric manner, answers a different question than at hand, “I fear that I will do well on the text, however, the moneylenders are disrespectful to the plight of my addiction to risk-taking and gambling—Consider the rich who were once poor, as envious of the poor that have only asked of them the penance that I pay every morning.” The ghost does not fully understand the cryptic nature of this seg-way, but still facilitates a reply, “Then why fear the trials ahead?” Dante continues his economic lecture, “Because the trials change according to the laws of the wealthy to bump off the unwealthy.” The ghost finally knows how to address this stream of consciousness by explaining, “Even I envy your sexual experiences and your powerful friends. Yet, I see that, in spite of the shambles of your account, you seek the artisan path.” Dante rambles on, “An earthly cousin reminds me that he needs what I have and you are the one who has what I need.” The ghost admits, “I do not understand. If your only greed is to find the fragments of the art of greed, then is this why your next trial is a bias against your kindness and free nature, which empowers the underprivileged?” Dante answers the best he can, “It is most likely due to my premature revelations of a beautiful apocalypse—I’ll be honest, I lost my tinderbox before the woods took me in, yet what once was lost is now found. Still my lack of current resources blind me and the mass of the phantoms eludes my safe-keeping.” The ghost finally thinks of a proverbial statement, “Too much jargon will flatten you into submission and sterilization.” Dante disagrees, “There you may be wrong. I have one master above that cherishes your attention to detail. He has not betrayed your sacrosanct writ and nor shall I.” The ghost remains stoic in his verbal lesson, “Writing is a lot less idealistic than you think. Rapists and false gods lurk around every shadow in your eventual paradise. And if I know you, one moment of Zen could derail your plans for good. Also, how will you avoid the drastic force of evil in the chamber of horrors?” Dante again answers assuredly, “Because although the pressures of Babylon and the demigods of lost legends are seeking to mystify my presence, my rationale was handed to me by a moon Goddess that worships me. She appears as a fox when I remember our erotic encounter.” The ghost is quick to ask in curiousness, “What did she say?” Dante confesses, “This time we should take it slow and if we work together than the several hundred orgasms we share shall have power. This time we shall work together.” The ghost is pleased by this train of thought and the interrogation goes on, “So the fox told you to take it slow until climax and cooperate with or without a definition of holy union?” Dante answers in briefness, “Precisely.” The ghost shudders in delight from the traumatic appearance of Dante. Now the ghost begins the conclusion of the current dialectic, “Your stay at the house of the Lord will be troublesome as long as you put off your destiny. However, I recognize your economical bind as the builders of progress use their craftsmanship to devise a water-based elimination of disease, to abate the dung-heap above. I for one, hope to God you know what you’re getting yourself into.” The ghost smiles and whispers in conclusion, “Just don’t rush it—Even if I’m not there when you arrive, my presence will be there. Of course, the prince of deliverance and peace will always live at the chateau where I too will sojourn after quiet meetings between us…Peace be with you…” The ghost immaterializes leaving a few pieces of mangled artworks. Dante nervously collects the pieces and places them in his inside pocket in his cloak. The cloak, as it seems, contains an infinite amount of space for objects of need. Dante, while pacing in circles, thinks to himself, “I felt a bit rested from saving my provisions that barely made it out of Hades. Still wearisome from the rejuvenation of spirit that pours blood into my flesh like mediocre wine in a half-repaired wineskin. It is a scream of agony from a world of pain unknown even in my dreariest occasions that retains gratefulness to the remnants of culture I eternally destroy in acts of recreation.” Dante scratches his head and peers down a hallway, realizing it is most likely another dead end. Thus, he makes a detour. He notices a hurting follower of the broken cross—head, hands and feet being contained in an uncomfortable barrack, which contorts the prisoner’s body in entrapment. Dante explains to the author of this text, “No crime is worthy of this indignity.” Dante finds a needle in his cloak and meddles with the brass lock, finally snapping the metal. He prays silently for the prisoner and discomfort increases. The prisoner wheezes in pain. The prisoner coughs up blood while accusatorily speaking, “Even if you take my place, you will never know my pain. So leave me alone. If I am to die of torture, torture me not with your God’s abundant love for you.” A revolving rock door on the wall opens to reveal Virgil, Dante’s greatest love and greatest fear. Virgil is friendly in his demeanor, as he slowly articulates his words, “Hello my friend. I know you are troubled by something that no angel, demon or god could ever penetrate. However, the devil and his minions have given me a hint of rules that will prepare you for the long trek ahead—including how to keep me alive even after I abandon you at the end of Purgatory.” Virgil unrolls a scroll that looks similar to Dante’s own parchments. Virgil reads aloud from the scroll, “Rule one: Avoid the pagan idol that you invented before death, or its secrets will die. Rule two: If the lover of your past comes near, do whatever it takes to chase her off. Rule three: When the hour of your mortality arrives for good, your freedoms must be sacrificial to please the winds that would otherwise destroy the literate and humorous until all that is left is fool’s gold.” Virgil and Dante realize that they have angered the energetic forces of their lair by discovering the secrets of immortality. Both of them want to flee from the shaking walls of Christ’s tomb. So they continue, as Virgil floats and Dante limps while pushing falling stones out of his way—his thoughts are increasingly erratic. Virgil lassos Dante with a barely visible noose made of lightning. The moss in the cavern decomposes rapidly sending dust particles into the air that cloud the oncoming path. A strange and beautiful ghost of a furry leech latches onto Dante’s neck, feeding off of Virgil’s noose. Virgil feels a rush of energy and he speaks in honesty, “I want the bondage of your enslavement.” Dante bows to Virgil to humble his words, “You don’t understand—I am your slave, master, for your passages of despair are greater than the joy of the Lord.” The passageway tunnel quakes hard. Virgil deepens his voice and confesses, “My kingdom will prevent the coming of Zion.” Dante disagrees in a reassuring tone, “Well, everything is a part of everything anyway.” A wall to the right barricades the passage and the travelers switch directions, tripping over the sudden growth of sponges and moss on the floor. Dante pauses for a moment to touch a barnacle and it pricks his finger—purple dye oozes from his flesh. Virgil licks the substance from Dante’s finger, as he removes the energy-field of magic that is the noose of aforementioned restraint. Dante winces and stutters, “It hurts worse now.” Virgil unlocks a chamber to the left and drags Dante by the noose. Dante’s thoughts pontificate in his split mind, which read as follows, “Carrying the affliction through the chamber—through mortar and brick, forgetting what it is like to touch a piece of wheat in a windblown field, oh plague of the End of the Age—let there not be dew or rain upon you whilst the fields of agriculture receive no offering…” Blood stains all over the wall lead the two lost kindred, for only they are able to read the markings. Suddenly, a whisper from a female deity calms Dante’s trouble for a moment, only then to reawaken his concern, “They’re still there, all of them—You are their God, yet you are disturbed by your own lack of faith, hope and love. God will never restore everything to you—it is too late for you to please him.” Virgil flickers a metallic futuristic time piece into Dante’s visual field and the whisper dissipates. Then, the leech from Dante’s neck detaches and squirms away. Virgil explains, “Your poisoned mind is nearly healed.” Virgil lifts Dante’s left foot and with a shard of glass, cuts open a slit through his flimsy sandal, straight into the flesh. Virgil elucidates his position in a doctor’s stance of professionally inclined dialogue, “The leech is for the removal of toxins. The pain of the healing power of bloodletting is for assurance that only nutrients will be absorbed after the poison leaves. And don’t ask me about the sentient beings, because Beatrice guards them in Paradise, which is an infinite journey that none have seen the end of.” After Virgil retreats down a different pathway to find a way out, an angel of the Lord views Dante’s unrelenting agony and speaks out of thin air. The angel’s entertaining words are, “Do not be afraid—anxiety and book worship are not crimes, you lamb of Christ. Remember how much you are loved and that your pain is his pain too.” Dante replies with a question and a statement, “But if I cannot be trusted with a little, how am I to be trusted with a lot? And I do not want to burn for my sins, I’d rather burn for someone else’s.” The angel explains, “The Lord reminds you that years of growth and restoration are as valuable as the locket of your blood pact that you have kept concealed against all odds.” Dante still worries about his future, wondering aloud, “Well that’s fine and good, but what if God does require that I achieve wealth to complete this maze?” The angel answers, “You let him and his servants handle that. Meanwhile, I think I am going to find a soul in the world above to torment with evil possession, in light of your unabashed faith.” The voice leaves, and from under a ledge, noxious fumes again flood the air of the tunnel. Dante crouches and finds a feather from a pheasant, licks it and pricks his wrist. He then opens one of his blank scrolls and allows the droplets of blood to splash onto the paper. He forms symbols onto the page. As the blood dries, Dante is perplexed by his weakening heart, and is unable to finish drawing symbols (that have meaning to no one) as his wrist wound heals. He is too faint to draw more blood. Dante and Virgil, together again, walk among disgusting sights of foul shit and other refuse on the ground. Virgil returns to his friend’s side wearing an unusual mask and talks to the ever penitent Dante. Virgil says, “I found out. You are the world’s lousiest thief. In fact, how are you to justify your existence without documentation?” Dante answers with his usual hyperbolic absurdities, “Well, there was a heist in my hometown that even the Lord of the underworld was never able to catch me during. I robbed from the poor to support my alcoholism while fasting for lent. I switched documents in case my lost memories of an incarnation of Aphrodite caught on. While I knew her to be innocent of false accusations of my own suicidal angst, this did not justify my tryst of the Thieves’ Guild holy command. Alas, she suffers for the rape of humankind that I did ransom in case of further trials, which would only get me off the hook for punishing a demonic spirit of envious lust.” Virgil, listening carefully, chimes in, “Do not tell me that this lust was for crimes against literacy.” Dante is revealing of his madness in speech, “In spite of that, my fear of familial discrepancies did not deter me from draining the account of an honest shopkeeper, while losing my worthwhile scrolls that may have prevented my downfall. Thus, to make a long story short, I forged records to rob her bank account in honor of my own legacy. However, now that I have made utterance of suicidal tendencies, I am without hope except to pay her back in contrition, while her own lust for dominion is an ample contribution to my cause.” Virgil wonders aloud at this predicament, “If you cannot be trusted with a worthwhile value of a lesser sum----Why would your act seem out of character, being as you have written much of your poetry in virtual lockdown?” Dante agrees, “If lockdown does not prove that I am unworthy to return any favors until I regain mental stability, I shall take no others with me to the creator of principalities for lost souls.” Virgil cannot help but to ask, “Would you say that liberty, fraternity and equality are of a greater value than any other social ideology?” Dante is unsure, but answers, “I do agree that money, as we have seen, is of no value in comparison.” Virgil laughs and admits, “You got me there. Let’s just hope that the God of Israel will see eye to eye with your irrational terms of justification. Let us proceed with extreme caution.” PART THREE WELL OF SOULS Down the corridor an echo of a shrill voice wickedly lies to the ever weakening Dante. The voice rises from the underground, “Grace does enlighten the blessed one who finds energy outside this world from a source of beauty that saves your soul from the world above, which is now the devil’s domain—Hunger for purity in a state of bliss that exalts not the weary or weak or helpless, yet only those interested in totality of economic control shall receive the blessings of Lucifer.” Dante feigns resentment at the torturing emanations, knowing that beyond the illusory sounds, another in a series of sliding rock passageways awaits. Like before, only this time from an unknown source, a thinly outlined rope of a light’s energy attaches to his neck while he pulls as hard as he can on the handle of the wall. Spirits of angels wander by, scolding him in various tongues for all of his futile struggles. An apparition of a veiled creature with a beak looms over Dante as he nearly passes out from exhaustion. Beyond the door is a bright window, opening into a portal of a machine that enables Dante’s intense fear of oncoming onslaughts of projectiles. An old companion (who will have to go without name or description) comes to his rescue, shielding the fast moving fire bombs, and to maintain his stupor of ecstatic loyalty to his friends, he peacefully engages the Holy Spirit in the air of the ancient warriors that Dante has only by accident come upon. Dante’s fear for the lineage of King David helps to fend off the attack, which his friend enjoys watching. As he watches through the window, the clouds part open to a flaming city of neon in the dampening cycles of the universe’s future, forming cities that are to be ruled by greed and starvation amidst technological superiority. Colonies rebuild and collapse as Dante whispers prayers under his breath for thankfulness that the musician of the Psalms is in safekeeping. Galactic utopias form and reform under swarms of crackling layers of molten rock that consume sentient ghosts that attempt to hide from holocausts of their own advent. A moment later Dante relishes the appearance of what is left of the sunset—a shadow on a nearby sundial casts its umbra on the number three. There is an appearance of a sphere which plays a lullaby of hushing whispers. A voice in Dante’s head explains what is in his optical field, “The vespers are singing “amore” to the hour of midnight. Sunrays are striking the middle of my sheepish expression.” Dante continues circling around the foreboding mountain with blasts of icy cold wind impeding his every step. As he heads in a counter-clockwise direction, again a voice is manifest in his thoughts, “I feel a weight upon my forehead; a splendor much greater than before and marveling at I am not sure what; ‘Victorae Immaculata,’ says my voice; I raise my hand above my eyes and make myself a shield from the sun’s rays, filing away this visible excess of nature’s contradictions. Soon the hour draws that you will no longer have fear in your heart; for the more of us possessing spirit, the more charity burns in a circle.” A voice of a muse speaks aloud to Dante, “I am all the more starving of satisfaction if I say nothing now and more doubt collects in my mind. How can it be that a good divided up among many, can make those who possess the good richer than if it were only possessed by a few?” Dante answers, “Because, my friend, you are once more fixing your mind upon the things of Earth. You find obscurity in true light. That ineffable and infinite good, which is above, rushes to love just as surely does a ray of light to a bright surface. The gift is in proportion to the ardor it finds; so that, the greater the charity, the more eternal good pours on the soul. And the more there are to love, the more love there is. Even when we go beyond the stars, the days of old betray the truth of delirium.” In the cold loneliness of the deceptive chambers, Dante once again fears isolation from companions of the world below. His belief that mitigates depression is that the women he wronged are no longer to be his brides in the heavenly domain. Dante tries to rationalize these most condemning thoughts (to no avail), speaking to himself, “Oh well, I thought their jealousy will lead them into enlightened rage and if my sleep is disturbed by the joy of musicians, then the spirits shall partake of inherited affliction. Of course, this world conceals the truth of the realms of the spirits that require coaxing and kindness to arrive at a fear that they themselves are missing out on. I accept the grace of God and return with weaponry from the treasury to eliminate the unbelievers, which is a mistake that has cost me my goals for any other future than death inside of this chamber. Once I am racing against the nature of space and existence, then I am damned if I do and damned if I don’t. My own lingering on the expert studies of wickedness are condemning me to never value useful materials until the Devil himself truly bleeds me dry of my own personal judgment of the wicked ones he sent me to condemn unto him. This explains why my path is so wrought with fear, because purity and perfection are only attainable in black magic. I must give up hope to the beast and seek only to make improvements to dark temples of plague that come from a ritual of my own dabbling with the indictment that cannot come from God or his grace because of how ugly and hideous I feel in partaking of sacrilegious ceremonies—This too is meaningless. Insipid distractions and jealous fears of an empty vessel in the air of true bliss will never be felt in this heart of mine, for it is I that keeps the Messiah from resurrection through poverty and lack of sobriety amongst the loneliest creatures of God while he himself is amongst immense loneliness at this hour. I suppose I shall leave my troubles in the Lord’s hands, though, because I have written of evil’s exposure, which condemns me to tortures beyond any control. The spirits of darkness shall truly consume me for confessions of my sins to Christ and attempt to follow in his ways throughout my life. The greater my love for him grows, the more I know that my soul shall be ripped to pieces by satanic powers. In fact, it was the day I accepted him into my life that the Devil took over all the mind’s of the people in the world and owned my mind, body and spirit deep within his clutches for eternity. Upon every act of penance, I fall further away from grace and upon every act of kindness, I become further away from truth. Upon every slight gesture of joy, God’s wrath grows stronger against me and every tear shed for the belief of Christ, I am dragged further into Hell’s icy domain. In fact, I now realize that honest exposure of manipulation and deceit was the Devil’s true plan from the start—For how could an act of love torture children? Embellishment is a constant reminder of the danger of the power of honesty and service to the true creator of the world. I suppose I owe more thanks and praise to all those I have wronged, but there are no more peacemakers, lovers of God, teachers of the spirit, actors of kindness; gone is the cause of humanitarian acts for the poor, the needy, the lost, the tired and the weary. And does anyone care about the animal kingdom, the environment or the end of inequality? The last thing I’ll ever be able to do is to examine the true nature of the beast, for this is an act allowed only to those who cannot give up the most carnal sins of all—insidious corruption of the flesh in the form of the most foreboding crimes of all. In fact, I am condemned to a life of poverty, guilt and embarrassment. In effect, my truest sin was ever having been a Christian in the first place—this act alone will burn me forever in eternal suffering.” Dante continues to follow the roundabouts of the twisted route in the infinite tomb, overhearing a fever of cries that pillage claims of a sense of wisdom. In response, Dante speaks to the walls, “My mind is like a grain of sand within a grain of sand. My pity is felt toward those in an undeserved affliction, which brings about fear toward the one who has become like us.” Dante stops moving and rummages through his pockets to find a book of black and white magic. He flips to page 13 and reads, looking at the illustrations of astrological markings of Taurus, Capricorn, Sagittarius and Libra. He reads the book aloud, “If air magic is contaminated by an overabundance of magic of the same nature, in a combination of fire magic, then the powers create a force field that accelerates velocity of the rising skies. To combine fire with fire is necessary in enhancing the coldness of atmospheric pressure. This means that intensification of the combination of elements is essential to magic.” Virgil creeps up from behind and without startling his pupil, he tests him by asking, “Interesting chart you have Dante, but may I ask—if the differences between the elemental balances shift from element to element and expose the nature of each element, will the magician be forever trapped by all four quadrants, thus eliminating the chances of maintaining one development of alchemic responses over another? Dante thinks hard and responds, “Not quite, fine sir. For you see if the outside spheres of the diagram are drawn into one grid from another, then those elements harmonize into that position for a cycle, until they reposition into the center. If the cycle continues in repetition, then the force that claims itself as the most alluring will grow to a point that it will drain its own power and the other three points will break from the chain forever.” Virgil likes his answer to a degree, but continues further inquiry, “Reasonable, yet once an element retains a value certain of its own, will it not pressurize its own power, rebalancing the nature of the cycles? In other words, how is it possible to return to a cycle that is either overused or treated with ownership of its specific function?” Dante determines his position and makes a claim, “Well, Virgil, if one element is disproportionate to the utility of the others and is a value that is irreplaceable until its purpose is fulfilled, then the point of that position is virtually unusable again. Let me put it to you in a story—Take Oedipus, for example. If a prophet held out an orb and looked into it, a vision of a road ahead may explain purposes of a determined layout of the exact passage meant to be taken and yet this principle may be completely forgotten except by the subconscious at which point only later in life will he accept a trial at the intersection of his unexpected crossroad and predestine his own inner child to return to his mother’s womb by eliminating his father’s kingdom without remembering that the purpose of eliminating his father was to reclaim ownership of his entitlement to rejoin the male and female spirit in harmony. Of course, in a way, the whole idea of magic is like saying a rabbit will pop out of a pitchfork and harmonizing the chart will not occur for undetermined millennia. Then again, take this side of the chart that represents lightning combined with the constellation of Libra—if this grouping is exposed long enough to a belief in only its essential purpose, it will recycle until termination of its own manifestation, ending up with a loss of all purpose whatsoever in our known star system.” Virgil continues to take Dante to task, “Then why are manifestations of your own acceptance of imprisonment at odds with your belief in the coexistence of art and alchemy?” Dante attempts an explanation, “It is just that if you position any principle over domains of reason and logic, then other values have no function.” Virgil requires more information and intends to get it, “Yes, but if the higher realm above this chart refuses to coexist with the balances of the planes and the planes disappear into repetition, then why is one ancient parchment of magic more valuable than another?” Dante is quite sure this question is answerable, as he explains, “Well, if you take the priorities of matter, mind and spirit as central to enlightenment, there is a document that cannot be ignored. This is the legend of Plato’s Cave; Within are beings chained to a wall viewing images that are flickering against the point at which the outside light intersects with the plane within the visual range of the imprisoned spectators. The visions that flicker on the wall within the shadows represent a world beyond the existence of those chained. If a prisoner were to be enticed to break out of the cuffs around his arms, upon the struggle on the way outside into the light source that create the flickering shadows, the dilation of the prisoner’s pupils would not be able to withstand the light source from above and his eyes would weaken to the point that he would return to the cave of his own free will—due to the sun’s heat source and the caves habitat, which now provides comfort necessary for the being.” Virgil understands and contributes to the logic through spoken interpretation, “If the spiritual essence of the life force generates fear into you from an unseen connection, then the savior of this realm demands fear from his source alone—because if this fear is generated from any other source of power whatsoever, said fear will impose limitations upon you that are of no value. Therefore, is your cause for Christianity is real at all, the fear must only be from the source of the Lord’s power within you. And supposing the fear of God alone eliminates the fear that you have to have of him to put an end to his decimation of flesh, supposing the decaying corpses of natural diseases that are wiping out mankind in the world above or below that scream to Christ, while rivers of blood pour through the streets because of a lack of proper medicinal practices, then why is not your savior rescuing any of them from decay?” Dante takes an educated guess, answering, “It’s not that disorder is meaningful, yet because God and Christ are one, to fear natural causes of biological disorder is not proof that God’s fear is real within you. Take principles that stimulate concepts of reason and order to alleviate concepts that are not technically allowed in his kingdom at all—However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t enjoy this domain while it lasts.” Virgil takes offense and snarls, “What is there to possibly enjoy about rotting flesh and decaying corpses?” Dante attempts to calm down his master, answering his question with a question, “Why not illustrate the entire picture of mankind, instead of pretending that pain and suffering don’t actually exist?” Virgil is edgy and full of contempt in his answer, “Because pain and suffering do exist and while you have been traveling around with philosophers, the rest of us have been enduring the heartache, with actual problems like low supplies of tainted meat and garbage all over the streets. Meanwhile, our supply from our actual treasury is being bled out from under us, all right!” Dante is still acting haughty in his reply, “Perhaps if you repositioned the value of currency to an actual purpose of dedication to the Holy Alliance, your money would retain more of its worth. Anyway, economics will not do us a bit of good unless we turn this entire project over to the Lord who is just and SEVERE in his anger to any concept that does not match up with his—that is the point of reading these texts; to lead the weak ones away from suffering and torment. Still, anyone who refuses to define an actual principle that governs nature, will not be allowed into the domain of Paradise.” Virgil shoots down his arrogance in the following dialogue, “Let’s face it, Dante—nothing is real. The defiance of creation will not lead to the damnation of the covenant. And your precious ‘Holy Alliance’ are just another pack of Satanists that do actually take the firstborn of their beloved members. They don’t fucking care if you find out they eat ACTUAL dead children, in front of the mirrors of their savior, Lucifer.” Dante is amazed by this outburst and let’s a few questions out into the open, “No shit? Really? Then answer me this, are the devil worshipers brave enough to stand in front of the world and reveal this secret blood pact of the occult for all to see?” Virgil becomes calm again and quips, “That’ll be the day. Anyway, I remain in the business to guide the fallen ones away from the Mouth of Moloch, which is visible in my verse.” Dante shudders at the flood of guidance he is receiving, adding another accusation, “Well, the Papacy and the kings are not as forgiving to treachery of any kind toward the true blood of the lamb. You of all people should be the most worried, considering you signed your own death warrant when you were in Sodom.” Virgil finds this zealous statement offensive, but calmly jokes, “Your lust for conquest turns me on.” Dante relieves the tension in the building argument by assuring, “I’m sure that you will come back in another form, if reincarnation is as real as it is to our guardian Pythagoras!” Virgil reels in confusion and takes a deep breath before letting words fly, “WHY have you put out an assassination on the lives of us teachers, when you are in more danger than any. I saw you summon the Devil from the pit to call the inhuman entities beyond this world with lust for universal domination in their glowing eyes, seen behind their masks, as they dressed in garbs of satin?! I saw them wearing costumes of animals and disguising themselves as playthings for children, enjoying the beat of the music that I did sing along with only to push them closer to the point of no return; not even to see if they were Christian or not but to literally lead the entire cast and crew of witches and warlocks to the demon possession that will bind them forever, even if they were to drop to their knees and repent—I’ve seen them try, and they turn to stone! Of course, I could care less because they all deserve it. I’ve never had more fun leading the easily manipulated straight into the hands of the antichrist and I was using my imagination to influence their music against them using your techniques. And it was awesome—one of the best nights of my life—especially watching the author die that feigned kindness until put out of his misery. Who still praises the living Word? I will push them all over the edge straight into Hell and even if they might have converted to Christianity later in life, I could care less because it was a direct order from Heaven that if I partook of the knowledge of good and evil, then I could read scripture to send the ghosts of deception in their heart straight into the hands of the enemy. And to be honest, I cannot wait to do it again. Lord willing, I’ll get that chance!” Virgil passes out from his rage and the Lord of Israel speaks to Dante from an unknown source, explaining, “Worry not Dante, I enjoy his words—in fact, weeding out the false deceivers of Christ’s teachings, be they Jew or Greek, free or slave, is one of my all time favorite activities from the old days. I know you’ll feel haunted from all these memories, but, in the end, I will remove the wicked from the Earth.” As the voice of the Lord fades out, Dante is terrified by the growling that Virgil makes while still unconscious. He is not a bit in comfort, but thinks these thoughts, “I want to read all the books that expose his true nature. I am breathing deep breaths now and hobbling down the stone echo chamber full of the ghosts of Babylon. I am thinking to myself that I am fortunate to have seen the image of St. Francis, who informs me in my current thoughts that Christ will love the sinful, whether or not they ever turn from sin. However, I am also thinking that I wrote many lives straight into Hell, while thinking I was making music for my savior. Still, I know that the Cherubim rejoice, and I will do anything for Jesus, any time, any place, for my King of Kings. Whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” As Virgil is foaming at the mouth in convulsions, Jesus whispers to both men, not to comfort necessarily, but to illustrate a point. His words are, “Of course, you both must realize that among your visions in the past were of those who wore the skin of dead people and were mechanized to move like automatons. Many of them, you thought to be dead, but their flesh lives on. However, their hearts won’t last forever, because time is on your side, not theirs. Now, I’m going to take Virgil into another dimension and work on his physical anguish. But I send to you he who was just in your thoughts, the blessed Saint.” Dante sees the glorious image of St. Francis and is quick to speak to him, “My patron, are you worrying about the day of wrath? The thought of it has pushed me as far as I can go, until I barely made it back here—though do not mistake me, I am not boasting of my travels.” St. Francis laughs and questions his servant, “Tell me, are you sure this wasn’t the plot of the oracle that you and your friends set you up to die unto?” Dante answers vaguely, “Either or, my saint, either or.” St. Francis warns, “If the powers that be get their hands on any of your scrolls, you are a dead man.” Dante wonders aloud, “Then how do you know that you aren’t next?” St. Francis is not at all concerned, explaining, “Believe me, kindred one, this dimension is surely a comedy in the making, however, I am the person your debtors all fear most. I will see you again before this is over!” Dante watches St. Francis ride off on a cloud and a holy governess approaches the scenario, to continue this brief moment of comfort. Dante bows to the governess and immediately explains, “I meant what I said, I will guard your lover forever, no matter what thoughts of mine have seemed contrary due to the nature of the chalice we drank from—It was all a plot to throw off the mind readers.” The governess is stern in her question, “Why have you dealt with the other side? Behold the father who takes away the sins of the world. I have seen your sorrows, Dante.” The governess exits through the wall and another older woman from a wall on the left enters, grief stricken in anger—She looks every bit as attractive as the governess, yet her confidence is a wreck. The older maiden firmly asks Dante, “If you are Lord of this city, for whose name there was such strife among the Gods, how have you come to sparkle with such deep knowledge?” Dante smiles and answers, “You are too kind. I am not sure where my gifts come from, or what they are, but I do try to use them.” The older maiden is, like so many of the spiritual beings introduced here, cryptic, “Avenge yourself of those impudent arms, which have embraced our daughter!” After she walks away, Dante finds himself alone in a quiet chamber, reflecting through prayer, “Pardon me Lord, my visions distract me, though I will never let anyone take responsibility for the death’s upon myself I have caused alone. I will always remember the night during the longest war, when there was a merger of spirits into the form of Aphrodite. While I exchanged an old man’s ambushed plan for a sip from the holy cup, I felt the Eros of her touch, which was a memory between only us. And Lord, pardon those who persecute me with the look that brings out the onlooker’s pity. You have strengthened me and delivered me from death a thousand times—Thanks again. When my soul turned from these appearances to things which are true—truth being independent of itself—I recognized my falsehoods and errors. My guide Virgil, could surely see that I was acting like a man loosing himself from sleep.” Virgil returns to accompany Dante through the maze, as they both retrace their steps very carefully, back the way they came, in order to find the correct passage. Dante, amused at Virgil’s recovery, praises him, “Oh my gentle father, I am training in your light of darkness to join your darkness of light. You have already prepared a place deep in the abode for the gentle souls I entertain tonight—When I thought you were irreparably damaged, I nearly fell down and died.” Virgil smiles and returns the compliment, “If you had seven hundred masks upon your face and a chain, still your cogitations would not be closed to me, even in the slightest. What you have been seeing is to stop you from excusing yourself from opening your heart to the waters of peace, which are poured out from the eternal fountain.” Dante thinks what he should write later, which is, “I almost asked Virgil if he was afraid of death, but knew that some things, even here, are taboo.” Virgil, practically reading his counterparts thoughts, admits, “We are men who have only eyes to see with and they cannot see because the body is senseless.” Dante loses his train of thought, but replies, “ What that old lover of mine does not know will hurt her—I mean the lover of the old Earth, ignorant of this prior existence.” Retracing footsteps lead the pair back to another visitation with spirits. In fact, the older maiden, who is more recognizable this time, is happy to address Dante’s concerns with his lover. She speaks, “What should we do to one who wishes us ill, if one who loves us is condemned by us?” Dante answers, “Trust me, I protect the Papacy, the Royal Family, the artists and then my service is yours if it means to keep safe the Holiest of Holies.” An envious rabble of underlings shout from the walls of the chamber, “Kill him, kill him!” Dante feels a sharp pain in his gut, choking and vomiting onto an old scroll on the ground that appears quite meaningless to him. Dante laughs while apologizing to Virgil for the defamation of the scroll, “This is a good sign—Dear Virgil, amidst such war, I ask for your pardons for all of the targets I have granted to the chamber of war strategy. I believe the checkpoints were all entirely too accurate.” The two watch the old maiden disappear and after going on down a hallway, St. Francis rematerializes. St. Francis is a bit angrier than before (having overheard Dante’s previous statement), grumbling, “Look Dante, if you need a hit set up, you can contact me without any stupid blood pact or fear of the Mouth of Hell, so shut up, please!” Dante snaps his fingers and agrees in speech, “Good idea!” As St. Francis dissipates, an extremely attractive woman of the alliance enters in a white silk gown and rubs Dante’s hair—She is a woman in charge of the galaxy. She laughs while noticing Dante’s arousal and speaks, “You know, you’ve got less to worry about than anyone—Just remain chaste in spite of your lustful desires. Expect to be helped out for a season and get rid of all of your stupid thoughts.” Dante gets in a word with her, “I am truly sorry and will be eternally in debt to you and your husband. If forced to, I will allow the arrow to pierce me to stop it from hitting your lover at the crossroads.” The woman opens up a room in which are illuminating spirits and she whispers to them to speak, as she too exits. Spiritually, there is a mixture of good and evil here, but their shape is indescribable. The spirits speak all at once, “We have made several attempts on your life as well and took your lover away from you. You have escaped the trials of death enough for us to know that while you’ll never lose your memory, we will literally determine the time and place of your next death upon the actual signature of your eternal revocation of the Lamb of God.” As Virgil furrows his brow, Dante replies to the spirits, “Don’t expect me to lie.” Now St. Francis returns in uproar, pained by the thought of Dante’s supposed heroism. He asks, “Who put you up to this? Was it the Papacy or the science? Did you go straight to the top? I want to know, because I will put an end to this for good.” Dante tries to reason with the saint, “May our enemies rot in hell, for an eternity of endless stasis. Never mess with the teachings of our angered fathers.” St. Francis smacks his hand on his head and in a puff of smoke is gone. Dante’s cloak is blown off by this magic, and so he puts it back on. All the while he is thinking to himself, “I felt slightly sorry for the good and evil spirits I visit with, for I have seen them happy as children. Still, I was not deceived because there are many on Earth and below that are predestined by God to walk with the Nephilim. At any time we want, we have the power to twist their heads and send them all into the abyss permanently. I must admit a fear remains from a vision my Lord reveals of a world that does terminate into Lucifer’s hands and the serpent takes credit for it all. Yet, from the incense, I am inspired to write in my scrolls that there must be a love for the end of humanity—a love deeper than for life itself. I believe it was real and the Lord has shown pride in my conquest—it is He who allows us to watch the evils of the world and decides what gets the axe, staying true to the law.” Dante speaks aloud to Virgil, as he knows that his master is concerned with his thoughts, “I promise you, my thoughts were all of one of the funniest experiences I’ve ever had—and look, I am still here.” Virgil warns him, “If you ever thought that the spirits were saved after you summoned them through necromancy, you are mistaken.” Dante disagrees, “That’s just your opinion. God is the puppeteer and I was under the influence of chemicals. And while it may not have been the unholy ghost, I believe it was the Old Inquisitor himself. Also, I’ll speak with the dead again, you just wait.” As this passes from speech, the two journey into a dark room they have not seen before. Strange masks merge into one form, calling out names to demonic forms outside the universe. Virgil is not quite amused and lectures, “It was your influence and your friendship with them that led the masks to this damned orgy of speech. They do this for your fucking chemical conventions.” Dante recalls a memory, which provokes an answer to this reasoning, “Well, guess what, I’m here and they are there. The dying words of the forgotten child were—before Satan tore his flesh apart—‘I did it all for you, Dante.’ I asked for a truth in the forms and I received it and God holds nothing against me. The best part is—it is hilarious. It is an easy mechanism to take part in. You infiltrate their union and masquerade as though you are one of them and then hand out Faust’s Contract without having signed it, kick back, drink wine, and literally enjoy the show while they burn—Yes, they are tortured for eternity, so enjoy the show. As far as these masks, even they are puppeteered.” Virgil laughs to himself for a moment, then retaliates, “Are you ready to be excommunicated for knowing this?” Dante attempts to explain his stance, but is quite unsuccessful, “My debts to society and the thieves of the lesser world are far too great at this point to worry about that. So it is like this: Either we start the entire quest for the kingdom over or we follow our trail back to the safe passage, before the Lord calls out another attack against our people. This time I won’t be able to pray for any of us to come back—not the spiritual leaders of the damned, not the kin of the heart of hell—none of the musicians that cast forth lies will be spared, either. If any of them do come anywhere close to the kingdom, the angels of death will wipe their existence out of all dimensions. Does this clarify?” Virgil smiles, relating to these inexplicable concepts, “I love that. Death and destruction are of my mind and leadership! However, you cannot just end poverty and suffering and starvation by giving money to soothsayers and diviners and prophets. I expect nothing in return. Yet, it all comes back to you, does it? And all the suffering victims of the war are magically walking around again. Furthermore, in case you thought I’d believe you about some false God just because you’ve performed a couple of lousy miracles by giving money to the Church, would I not be then a believer in the bought and sold power from God as Simon Magus accomplishes in your book of lies?” Dante is, for the first time, upset at his master, saying, “Consider yourself involved with the ways of corrupt teachings—The fact is that you cannot consider any possible solution to the ways of Heaven that God prepares for us, except the one mapped out by the Israelites. The whole purpose of this road ahead is to receive our wrathful judgment from the Lord on High and if you want to be part of his kingdom, then you have to consider all of the charts and graphs that are part of the design.” Virgil calmly questions Dante, “Yes, but is it not purposeful to maintain a reasonable fear for powers beyond this person you cannot see at all?” Dante attempts the explanation, “If spiritual natures and divine order are in balance with the harmonies of what is experienced through the senses, then the fears that exist from powers beyond are simply training all other fears out of you to return you to the source of all fear. There is a time for plague and a time for adventure. Out of respect for the Holy Knights, they themselves generate fear within us to accept allegiance unto the living word.” Virgil also puts to task that explanation, “I thought you said it was them that were pillaging and slaughtering and bringing about your fears through black magic, did you not?” Dante is at first caught off guard by Virgil’s remembering, but stumbles ahead in words, “Virgil, I think that is the difference between demonic magic and occultist wizardry. The biblical devil wants credit for everything and permeates the slightest waver in faith. However, he will demonstrate his own weaknesses through our faith, in turn corrupting his own visions into false prophesies. Still, an allowance for fear of whatever power of the other side may hold is intact. Remember the Plato’s Cave myth which is really an allusion to the eyes readjusting from exposure to photon rays. The being that returns to the cave will not bind himself to old useless chains that had no function in his life. Rather the being will reinterpret the flickering shadows as a new experience.” Virgil begins to understand, but also has to defy this line of thought by saying, “Not bad, but this process is of no value to modern thought anyway, because Plato has no concept of rationality whatsoever. Now, for more important matters, if I were to take a tobacco pipe made of iron and fill it full of normal tobacco, how could I apply your alchemic principles to convert it into an opium?” Dante gives his best shot at an answer, “Well, I think what you are getting at, is if the concept of Plato’s Cave no longer applies to modern rationale, you really cannot harmonize the elements to solve alchemic purposes and therefore you wouldn’t have faith in the forms that are already composed by the spiritual essence of the divine. Therefore, once again, without the spirit of the living word none of this is even possible.” Virgil asks a couple of loaded questions, “Do you think your alchemy is more valuable than a lost parchment of alchemic design? Of equal value? Explain, please.” Dante thinks back to his conversation about magic and elucidates, “The quadrants are there to be designed according to your own values or purposes and if those values cannot coexist based upon hybridization then perhaps those values were never part of your purpose. Then again Virgil, don’t you think that the designer of alchemy is able to bring back all of the elements that have always coexisted together?” Virgil states vaguely, “If you are asking what I think you are asking, not necessarily is my answer. If pieces of the nexus are already passing away from the world, why would you restore the outside fields that refuse to be even in the slightest togetherness. With a specific righteous dilemma of frustration that is exposed to be mysticism, nothing actually takes part in resolving the quadrants for any practical function or even a higher function.” Dante somewhat agrees, “For every function there is a form and without a form you cannot have a postulate of the reversal of spiritual evolution back into matter.” Virgil clears the nature of the discussion, “Your ideas are entirely unreasonable—if you set a limitation upon a value of one formation based upon a limitation, then that element will absorb and draw you into its phantasmagoric specter and you will not be able to achieve its purpose at all, because it will deceive you by maintaining its authority over the harmony of the other elements.” Dante continues the conversation, “Yes, sometimes when you set a goal, you will never achieve it. However, the propositional nature of retaining a position within a plane of the cosmos over the other specters alongside the planes of existing gateways to the stars will retain the image that you are responsible for completing. The process of trials in endless repetition go around and around until that process contorts you into a deception that it is the only possible trial to remain in forever, as though there is only one value that coordinates a response.” Virgil enjoys responding, “You know as well as I do that an over intensification of this elemental pressure is dreaded by those carrying Holy Scripture similar to your own. Yet will the chemical and energetic magic fit into only one portion of the grid forever, if it recycles? Dante answers the question with a question, “Well, what would be the purpose of only retaining an indifferent orb of the cosmic fire, only to be forced to stay in that retention forever?” Virgil, for the most part, agrees to disagree, “Yes, but dwelling between the ever-changing elements of divine invention does not really protect you from each of the combustible mixtures tearing you to the four corners of the Earth.” Dante continues lecturing on magic, “Don’t worry Virgil, the Earth is composed of the spells around its outer dimensions anyway. And don’t think that it is the only element to possibly dwell in forever. In fact, that too is cyclical and will only reproduce qualities that ultimately pull the other elements into its sphere as though it is the only state of existence.” Virgil asks, “But will shifting and mixing the elemental structures unbalance everything?” Dante reaches into his cloak, turns open his scroll of magic properties and reads, “A three part water spell with a two thirds lightning in proportion with a mix of hair and sand—it creates a defensive power that arouses the protector…conductivity is never deflected by the wrong combination of elemental mixtures. However, if one mix is more or less overabundant than the others, it may cause a chain reaction of the elements battling over which is the strongest. If remaining in only one cycle for too long, the repetition of elements contorts the magician into an endless cycle of the reactivity in said productive force, eventually immobilizing the user from pressure. If this is the case, one must remain inside a sphere of indifferent incantations for what seems to be eternity, never allowed to coalesce all four elements that are otherwise without differentiation in performance concerning placement on the grid. If one element takes over the entire grid, the entire grid is subsumed to remain inside a constant cycle of only one power. Therefore, the purpose of balancing and repositioning the elements without fear of the absolution of their differences is pragmatic.” Virgil is astounded by this information and takes hold of the scroll, babbling to himself while wandering off. Dante reflects on God while his master is away. God notices his thoughts and is amused. In fact, God begins to speak to Dante, “Be not deceived, for there are powers of the enemy afoot that have set out to take from us our ideal vision of an entire picture of the beginning, middle and end of time. The evil ones attempt to deny us the right to the penultimate experiences of the pleasures of mankind—This is why I will wait for you to return my scrolls and you shall again see the scrolls I have kept from you—At that point, the entire vision shall be complete with all the original sources. Thank you for keeping my words together.” Dante experiences utmost relief from God’s voice. Yet, the poet feels trouble because of the loss of the ones who realizes will fail the tests of the Lord, remembering the crimes of his old friends and acquaintances being too great to have ever been part of the final vision of God’s oneness. Dante takes a moment to jot a few words into his journal. He writes: “Who will be part of the Kingdom of God? The more I study his words and believe in the teachings of his art, the more I find myself studying the wickedness that I allow myself to examine. My soul is ever pushing me further toward the ultimate punishment for my lusts and urges, which keep me from the Gates of the Wisdom. The bread I eat in the desert shall surely be poisonous to my spirit in the afterlife and the remainder of my unconscious experiences shall further tear me away from ever exposing the ways of the wicked. In fact, if the antichrist that haunts me creates music or poetry that permeates my domain of thinking, my abominations will only be further exposed as the war intensifies that the Father in Heaven unveils to me alone. Perhaps I will further burn for having dared to be as great as Virgil, who sent me here to sin with the imagery I have seen. And if I continue in wicked lusts and thoughts of vial impurity, God will personally drain me until I am pure enough to partake of his dream. If any ugly remnants of the past have offended the heavens or worlds below, God himself will unleash even greater punishments upon me. He will never restore my soul for the crimes of world hurt I may have provoked. How truly reprehensible my soul remains. For I have continually thought of nothing but evil, never making good with enough penance to the Messiah, instead only engaging in a wickedness too great to comprehend. Expose my dishonesty, Lord. In effect, the only method for my continuance along the paths of this Purgatory is to confess that I lie, cheat and steal. When did I decide to be like the ancient kings, who never have enough riches, stealing always from the lower classes? I may never achieve salvation for my corruption. Am I sealed off from understanding the Word of God or the devil or even the great poets forever? Though I know the souls of the damned weaken as I weaken—I already lost my dream and the conquest for eternity is futile. For if I have given my soul to the Underworld, there it shall remain and if I continue to fight against those that have shared my chalice, a triumph cannot exist in any shape or form. Even though I am responsible for deaths of angels and gods, the center of my despair is a totality beyond the pain of disillusionment. What will St. Peter do with the keys to the afterlife? Shut me out for exposing his enemies? I suppose the acts of my labor and my personal belongings and selfish tyrannies from ages past have beguiled me.” Dante quiets his mind, remembers again his true love and whispers to his Messiah, “Lost in the land is where we both shall live. Take from me the one thing that has not passed. I’ll try so hard I’ll get to you at last. Right now, I don’t care where I go next. The physical and spiritual perplexed. The feeling shines the word behind her veil. Her skin, her touch…” Dante decides it is high time to look for Virgil, but a looking glass on the wall distracts him. He thinks, “If my written discourse does not satisfy the reader, either way Beatrice condones me. She takes from me every longing. I will try to secure the wounds that have been closed by my acts of contrition.” Feeling content, Dante stares into the looking glass, and as he stares into it, the background of the reflection, as well as his reality, changes to a circular space. His eager eyes are silent. A moment or two later there is an ecstatic vision in the glass, which becomes more like a window. It reveals a number of people in a temple. In the midst of them is a sad, lonely, gray-haired man kneeling by a chair. Dante takes hold of an eyepiece (of course, from a box in his cloak). He extends the piece to look closer. He sees the man’s sadness dissipate into reverence. The old man folds his hands and prays silently with his Holy Scripture. Dante finds this image to be a huge relief to his previous encounters and he sighs with heartfelt intent. At that moment a wisp of smoke from the ground attaches a ball and chain to the left foot of the adventurer. Due to his misfortunate handicap, Dante limps into a crevice that is overwhelmingly bright. Dante calls out to God, “What is that, gentle father, from which I cannot shield my eyes in any effective way?” The voice of the Lord answers, “Do not be astonished if your desires are fixed on the servants of heaven, as they will be returned in future worlds. Let the love of the supreme heavens heal you.” Dante thinks, “Thank God we are always together, especially that night so long ago or who knows what judgment would have been brought upon the world if we hadn’t survived.” Virgil, after his hiatus, returns to accompany Dante. Dante is quick to speak to his master, “I am still a bit shaken from the fear of the restless rivers of Styx, and the fear that I will never again stand on the Earth.” Virgil is distracted by something on the ground and points it out to Dante. Dante kneels on all fours and finds a burnt out torch, a damp bag of diseased tobacco, and ashes, which he scrapes all together into a pile. After this pointless act, he sees a crawlspace and struggles with feverous nerves to remove a square stone that blocks the small passageway. As the stone finally slides out of the precipice, Dante moves under thunderous roars of what seems to be an earthquake. As he arrives at the opposite end of the tunnel, he moves onward through a gate and across a rickety bridge, crossing it quickly as the stark scenery all disappears behind him. Virgil, through some psychological game, emerges at the other end of the bridge and is quite cheerful, all decked out in a white robe (marked by the Goddesses of the East.) Virgil questions, “Why are you so frustrated? Have we not offered you the world?” Dante explains, “I have to get to the treasury and escape this dementia.” Virgil’s voice becomes louder, “Do not be upset with me. Everything is the same as it always was.” Dante changes the subject, “You taught us that temporal existence is realistic and yet if I remember your teachings from childhood, this upsets you, right?” Virgil becomes louder still, “Take off your clothes and kneel before me, you smuggler of wicked thoughts—Do not lie and pretend you remember that far back.” Dante is startled and accidentally spills out the contents of his cloak, thus causing his wineskin to spill out a few drops of wine onto the floor, which causes shrieking sounds around the maze. Virgil screams, “Now, I am enraged!” Dante hurries away from Virgil, down the circuitous ancient tomb. From behind him he envisions a haunting emanation of a disfigured creature that reaches into his chest from behind, clutching onto his heart, squeezing it and tightening the grip. The emanation declares, “This is for your reverence to the council of the Archbishops in charge of depleting the sorcerers of the ancients that have mocked you for delivering peace unto the Church.” Dante telepathically discusses this predicament with the creature, “I feel your icy hand bramble me, but why for my affection of the apostolic council that seeks falsifiers of my doctrine?” The emanation answers, also with telepathy, “Because of your use of twisted nails and stretching racks that would rip apart the damned souls who forgot the teachings of God. I am angered at the gift love of your sacrificial offerings.” Dante coughs while upset at the next thing that happens, which is nothing short of a thin apple core taking the place of his heart. The lights go out, the maze shifts, and Dante rounds a corner shaking his head from the fumes in the corridors that have knocked him nearly unconscious—the lights return (dim at best) and he views a young teenage girl with brown hair and an over-shirt draped over her tender body. She clicks her feet together. Dante, having abstained from acts of sexuality for a long while, begins to caress the leg of the child. She moans from the feeling. He guides his hand up her leg, noticing her discomfort and excitement—She scoots away a little bit and he continues to trace her young softness, imposing his lust upon her mind. He whispers in her ear and she begins to cry, growing increasingly uncomfortable. Dante glides his hand closer to her inner thigh, softly sweeping her twitching skin. He carefully extends a finger and tenderly presses it into the middle of her legs—She twists from ecstasy as he plunges his finger straight into her moist sacred vagina and slowly pushes more of his hand in. He lays her onto the ground, with finger still in her body, at which point she trembles and her eyes close. He removes his hand and wipes her secretions onto her eyelids, kissing her cheek as he presses himself on her innocent body. He opens his cloak slightly while removing the girl’s undergarment. He further pushes himself against her and feels her moisture. Her eyes pop open and she grabs onto Dante’s hair and pulls him into her. Uncomfortable by the acceptance of his charitable act of passageway into adulthood, he pushes her away and stands up, wiping her seminal fluids on his cloak. He blows her a kiss as she smiles and passes out. The young girl blinks and awakens whispering to Dante. She picks up a glass shard and slices open her torso, dripping blood and licking it. Dante crouches down and tastes the open wound. He removes his dagger and further forms an even deeper cut around her lower stomach. Engaging his blade into her intestines, he attacks the innocent flesh, twisting the blade as she cringes and writhes. He attaches the blade to her intestine and pulls it out of the deep cut, yanking out vital membranes. She loosens her shakiness and he kneels and bites down on her organs, swallowing pulpy blood. He ties her hands with her intestines and as her gut is now fully splayed, she laughs with an orgasmic delight. He wraps the twisted flesh around her neck and again kisses her cheek. Like a rope, he attaches the remainder of her intestines to the wall of the tomb, carefully draping the flesh around a nail on the wall—kissing her one last time, he collects a few drops of her blood onto a handkerchief, pockets it and she expires from satisfaction. Dante wipes the blood over his brow and leaves the young girl to die in comfort. Wishing he could be her, he shrugs, puts away his dagger and continues into the deepening caverns of the infinite. Dante thinks to himself that it is time to find the exit. His thoughts are, “Now I must leave this place, leave my apt speeches, and whatever is necessary for an urgent escape. Bring me not consolation. I do not wish to return to where I am from. To seek love at all is an act worse than suicide itself. If I had a master at all, that would be a greater weakness for me. In silence I discover the enemy of love is lack of comprehension. I am like an animal, which changes rapidly from vision to vision in case of its progress. To remember is to be in a process of violent, self-torture. To forget is deadlier still. Upon the call of Beatrice, blessed and beautiful, I dropped to her feet and begged her to put me out of my misery. Her eyes caught fire and her voice revealed a repulsion at the thought of dead lovers. To this I realize that a fortunate trap has been set to speed up and slow down thought processes that are not allowable in any context of the murky underground.” PART FOUR MAPPO Wandering aimlessly through a tropical byway no fusion amidst an intense source of resource---at last awareness—“now what shall we turn away from” shouts the crowd, no longer enamored by the cultural imperialism as the days gone yore. :Girls matter more than boys, for they are the precipice of live—they give and take lives unless they are of their yoke, which matters not in this pointless razor sharp witful infirmary of mysticism.” Thought Buddha although so concerned with his absence that he began vanishing. “Come back Buddha, whispered a child.” “Buddhists are missing the point of my devira fiction,” response a choir of angelic hoist that now delivers messages of the ancients with jealous hostility. Oh Amida! How you have beaten my ways in terms of peaceful reconciliation, for my existence is painless suicide—saith the Lord---but none alter messianic or principled wages among your immaterialistic manner of attracting flies to your destruction. Awareness to your cause—Reconcile meditation pr be doomed to curse my thoughts. A woman shrieks in joy and pain—How much longer will we toil for humanity—are we paid equal sums for our livelihood---Who is in control? What power do we submit to? Thresholding snake, gentle yourself like a dove, or perish in an unending dialectic squabble dame and chance for further fear and fortune. Once a leader is gone, you will miss him forever, therefore a leader shall not leave---unless the times change and such. Another corridor, another money scandal----interpret philosophy and sudden death awaits—the stranger—implicates of mass of heavy burdens that only a disastrous Christian would partake of for humiliation and desire to free others from boundless sins— Oh, how I have sought to praise Buddha and how he returns the favor with hardship and isolation—freedom from sexuality butt pulls me under with images that steer my mind in four directions—a whole, a ship, a mermaid and a dolphin—Which is fantasized by the third. Are no gods women? Why are the goddesses gone? “I believe we let them go in the end to pass on to a leaner futuristic position, “exclaims a leader R in a fury of slips and crunch-time. A captain D repeats, “There’s no future in a negative karmic agenda without hope.” “As for hope,” A.T. replies in this meeting—“a chance encounter with death will forever eliminate it—even through transcendence you’ll get your brains bashed out for instigating a commoner’s war—If not now but by disbelief in instant gratification, which now that ‘she’s’ gone, she’ll never come back and we all live forever because of it, St. Mary for you I do mourn…” Ineffectual and modest, thrives through tormented torrents of waste—for all returns of over-productivity. When less needs more and more needs less, all falls apart in saturated negotiations. Disappear into Zen as a Westerner and it will remain a formal proof of intense metaphysics displaced in unity and severity of edificatory displays of the oldest idol—the idol of the Christian ankh-talismanic cross turned blood red in multiplication without hesitation to free a member from yours o sensei Confucius—retrain me to delight in freedom as all this hallway expands and collapses into memory or lack thereof---will you break me? I will not break you! “Consider the source, if nature’s choice is propaganda for seasonal bliss—always give them what they want,” says the outsource/ “I thought you spoke against our agenda for wages and lost art forms—you are either with us or against us, so to speak.” “Perish unto our ways, or die trying!” Saith the vortices. J.S. walks nearer to a symposium of dried goods and his taste bids pop a mall on his tongue, triggering endorphins and exciting brain currents—all awash and aghast at his dilemma of vegetable digest only—settles for natural dairy, products, deifying natural products, against an Eastern strain of sacramental Hinduism—but what is the price of pork chops in the Holy Land’s if it be sacrificial lambs? Untapped witticism of the ages—cool me down by firing me up—please me in your pleasing demeanor—lie often to save face—uncandidly rewrite the book of insanity into a sanitarium. Clone a god to mock his mildness gently, without a bill left to pay, until the end of days pay—or are they? The way to centrism is a waste of well earned money—to this and live forever in limbo—because money was made to be spent and only two at a time can consummate without distraction—at least until other enter the memory, “redeems,” saith Buddha who vanishes quickly after speech. Buddha commands divine attention: Demand without demanding Lose your inhibitions Do not worry And kingdom of life is all around us. Pointless quibble are unmatched around here separate agendas reek of fusion. Uninterpretable religions separate us for logic’s sake. So A.T. moves himself around without loss of memory of a secret love and secret love and many women overload the senses, I will bring them to an ecclesiastical mindset to remind them that one is no better that the rest—Unless you are able to rise to the challenge. Unrest, pity, salvageable demons and awareness of the rest in confusion, will put you into somnolence and peace and that is overwritten somewhere again between Earth’s mother and Time’s father—a romance unawares of broken capabilities to engender sexual prowess is not a lust for a poisonous antidote—this is why my kingdom perishes intentionally for hours on end—without irony. Understand? My nature is natureless, my awareness one… Why have you described me when I am all—because meditation requires I forget your manhood and godhood my God and devil, who thirsts for salvation amidst a cesspool of abstract thoughts, which have gilded a road of such abstraction that has lead us back to you, my savior. There is not a saving grace that will move you-you will be cut into pieces and your body will served among friends---It will hurt. “You disgust me Jesus,” saith Buddha—“How can you be so non-violent and promote violence?” A calm voice answers, “My violence atones for all violence.” Amida, was your ‘yugen’ reason to leave us—possess me. Thank you—writerly poetics have very little space in a religious circumference. So A.T. recorder a mathematical formula that would always lead an absolute zero—(270 minus Celsius—metric measure—what system we do not understand their ways at all.) Duchamp turns to face his pornography with care—in a revisionism of Uncle Tom’s Cabin? I disagree holy Lord because I dismiss everyone from the learning curve—your standard is too high. Meditate on the word Buddha to Confucius—I have no words to explain the good or the vil. Confucius—then orate to me your greatest desire Buddha—although I have no desires, I do know that women and others like them want to be treated as equal—But how can you be an equalizer— Confucius—I’ve never mistreated a woman— “Well, I have,” thought A.T. “And viciously so, I cannot rely on them to relate to me.” W.I. speaks over the mall intercom, “Death to Videodrome, Death to Old Ways and if you speak your mind, you’ll wind up in bedlam, sir…” “Freedom of speech is coming back—unless it hurts the body of the gov’t structure saith M.S. while waiting for L.C. to come out of a dressing room. Why are we aimless—out sight, out of mind—stop making an ass out of yourself—unless it is a probable symbol—Do you ‘understang’, senorita? “I do not understand why you—Lord—are so violent, when you test them for fruits of peace,” saith Buddha Jesus replies, “Their whole lives are a test for me and I will fail them if they cheat…unless permissible.” A.C., “Please do not,” he says to a mall, “you are here sign.” Anti-Christ continues, “They are my children as much as they are yours.” Then you can have them. I do not understand my own ways—if Zen cannot bring me quietness, what will? Will you stop my mind before or when I offend you? K.C. is waiting in the wings and flashes like a lightning bolt, “We all go where we want to go for whatever reason and it don’t worry me—should it?” NOPE—the narrator replies What if I am not an idol, but rather an icon, framed for just wars and liberal problems to solve—Can you determine the time I’ve wasted. R.J. thinks to himself, “We may not be in it for the money, but it sure is a lot nicer when it has value—“ Slaughter, laughter, auditor, D.K. says, “I disagree, because even when we thought of sex, he became a really strange idiot.” Do not think of him as an idiot unless Kurosawa is at pay to perform in a Dostoyevsky mode of production— H.C. walks a baby-walker into a store thinking, “Why have they designed this around me? Where are my flower children—do they think of plants as evil, and if so why?” ‘Life is a game of chess…whence my opponent saith unto me…that piece cannot be moved…” Either/Or by Soren Kierkegaard D.C. replies at a round-table, “If I agree with almost everything in atheism, then why is spirituality denied.” I do not have the time to carry this burden other than to a Goddess paradigm, where I will always fail—saith the narration— I will allow them to steal but never steal from them another copy of their Birth, “claims Buddha—“ G.L. is amused, thoroughly, but he is glad not to know what it means to S.SS. for engendering impetus among the holy flower of Apu’s Goddess—peyote and the lack of a better cure for it— Buddha, if you are God, why has mass murder jaded your history? “They cannot be true followers of religion and kill anyone, my friend of the end of days,” Saith Buddha—“But tempt me not with worthlessness…” S. chimes in, “What is worthless to some is worthwhile to me—I’d create a catastrophe to get you back into my old beliefs—but my Lord knows not the ways of your shots—I’m buying a Japanese camera to prove it!” You can do that here-unless propriety attempts to reevaluate a lesson in overspending. I will end your charade by teaching you: a)we’re only sometimes in it for the money, b)we can be reached anytime by anyone, c)that which keeps itself out of reach is condoned by everyone or condemned by no one OR d) settle the score at a later date and I will always choose the latter for a ladder to my Golden throne—Do not change me or I will change you into your object of utmost desire to end your fears gently and despise opposition for the eternal others. Do not forsake me, although the delusion is a spare syndrome of old fear tactics—like picking up brainwave insults and deflecting them for old friends—Again, I say farewell to old ways— Clearly you are dabbling with too deep of magnificence for shelter—a maze of sheltering omnibus that guides you back to the right wing—for disavowal purposes only. Do you drain my brain in layin’ your stain? Or do you cope for hours behind your showers—Pledge your loyal allegiance to the ones that led us best forever—but not always in a cyclically demanding utopia—barometers do not always meet our demand—Doth lightly he take to demanding spirits— Who are you to criticize? D.P. question to claim, “I have never understood no one better. (IT IS FINISHED) PART FIVE HYMN (SING ALONG) In exorum delata recordum infiltratum pero leche nunca domine eternum requiem. Regis en spiritum deliberata en recuerdem en recuerdem felicum pratatorae requiem. Infedilio morium en parte esta incredible para no es ferocia—Pax en requiem eternum infernum delictatatus quorum en excelsis reparata la mana. Deo en eternum prepare. Reparare de la entre cerca nada florae nata delata—Es cierto de la noche. Describe en firma la eroticae—Relagata me eternum en officiate desparte me animae. Continuarae especialmente deletarum esta inequibilis ecco depletum no es necessario. Respartarum en cantanta recordae deliberta te regis circum relegatae delibertum vihilim lactae eroticae cerca prepare…iconum vidae anos morium excelsium deo pax carpe lactorium en felice nata delitirium renunciarum demonae prada naturae interior lesparte deliverum vidarium trece anum recordatae inferiorium annihilate totem cerca vida topos morium—inferior nata blancae—liberate anarchum pax inferior. La felice en deleterium nunca passé febrous capirnicum—Orgium en felatae—respartate vatorum cerca vida en imagum. Inquisitiviste largum. Exorbatum deleterium en fumagatam comprenderae. Ex ferata regis separate de regalia en pristinae deceptate cerca dereche en reparante decepte. Escribe delantae par requiem desirae, en escrite de contract mono morium grante pax. Cuando tracte con specifice la morium determinate la Diablo finalmente. Ex patria salvia florae en excremente cuando relative en durando de mundo. Especialmente cuando tres completa la parte de manos sacrifice de deus. Cuando noche escrite signae determinate temporarum eternitum satisfactorae cuando recibum te promisar nunca refusarae. La eternum specificum en accordae cerca placae encantable specificatorum retiratata. Ex escrite deniable la eternum devorum spicificata en valorum concernum regis specificae datum para morium. La contracte devorarum en eternum momente finalmente todo mente panacea. En spiritare devororum es imagae en todo temporarum—te preparum devorum enterate sin compliance. En recite de la nacht operata en dispartorium devorarum diferente todo no la auteur, (es imposible.) Deratata en la noche de inferorum grantum eternum sufferate en cantata desirable paradiso. En escrite cerca textum nacht escribe dereche eternitum revilata sin delata cerca linea. Inferata determinatum en exactum muriom de linea. Afflictate par eternum en cerca lactatorum. Resparate nunca laceratae cuante disrepare totum contracte sin concurente de illusioniste. Deteriorium en la reparate subsumata par eternum tractorium. Cuando la hora la contractatus es—lacaratae en tractorae pax felate preformata. Severata mana de abscencia de domine para eternum con retatorium e requiem. En esposa de felice me e nata resparata energata. Inferata delata me experium eroticae. Ex parata cuando flege en spirita determinum. A filata de mar—Espiritata denanta sacrificae mantera—recibe eb escribe todo siga basilica. En latata desperate pax la falta en circe delata. Sin reparata eternum infernum. Enferata despiclabara parata en encertum craftata la parabla de eternum inferatum literati experate deleterium cuando la politicum es inferiorum en eternum delata la miserata deceptata recibum en eternum la ganarium en subtractum enferata relagata en regalia protectorium para la encantum detracte purgatorium en felice de distractum preparum resparante enterum en deterium delata. Escalante denata de detorium eroticae. En expirum en eternum la escrite decimatae reparta. Reparte de unum ex ferata deleterium. En experium lavatatum de la murio complica. Expirata en la rasa la maneda spirita. Escrite en la nata repartate requiem. Esta noche en la dia es experencia sin complica. Reparta nacht immediamente sufferere sin escrite. Literati en decepte sin de Christe en la mana florae te. Enterate sin la noche en la dia repare. En deuterium reparante en apparatum la rata en experiencia. Defatatum eroticae. En Diablo probablamente no felice en mana en excelsis en un factum en la mundo sin me mana eroticae. En escrite alterata cuanto resparate delata. La falta de la cerca en me noche requiem. Operata de la figorum delata. Respirata en retractae en placae en reparta. En detata me infernum paradise esta nacht. Inferata cuanto en la noche resparta. Purgatorium en la rata nunca dia felata. Espirite en exporium nunca returne mundo sin papa. En la falta de la mundo este expirium par ate. Quibis niche detanata en me escrite comica. En divina recibe de returnum todo. Solamente en abstractae reparata en deta. En me escrite en infernum lactae nata eroticae. Deceptata en la musae en la te. Recibum de inequitables de papa entiende restorata escrite cuando para cantorium. Divinata en craetorum experanta infernum. La esporum en flanata en recordum abstractae. Animalia en retata con phenoma spirita. Dominata en la ferata denatata expirum. Falta rama en la felinae liberatae estrella pax. En recuerdem de cercata cantata recibum Mana deuterium en estrella en ferace experium. Rectaratum en la bonita estrella te la gata experium. Defetatum en purgatium cerca tratorum espara. La pax denata en la quince pax de sin la te nata. Inferiorum en distrata moneda prata mundo te. Dante falta en la pasa la animalia domine. Cuanto expirae miserable exista. Determinata es cierto pero pez en placa amicia. Restorata en detorium me familia agape. Restorate me infernum en maneda abstractum. Reparte la espirite de agape disparum. Eroticae te Portia en la madre de amor. Parte en la interiorum escribe cubitum centerium enfrente durantante requiem. Para felice en romana, en el mundo expirum. Me familia de la perfectum, deterata la mundo. Cantata (Te llamo me referencia en la biblia cuando pagina abre feminata espirata metaphysique). Te estrella pagina es determinate en competata es comica. En apparatum me entiende la regalia espirite la regis estrella cartae memorabilia. Recibir la todo pax en romana. La regalia en la cerca es un todo repara. Infernicum florae, plantae, animalae divisum. (En la mundo iqualmente felicite nunca.) Candelabra restoratae deleterium murium solo para dium. Establise la maneda en todo, padres, madres, te expirate en murium. Aparate no decepte armada. Inferiorum en decepte la Chablis deteriorate o eternum inferiorum todo. Inferente te placa en appartum disparte nunca o fantasia suprema. Contaminata es Diablo preparada todo paz. Un prepare me expira a la noche morium. Returnum panacea en appratium en mana. Expirum entre feraca ano mundo icium descripte domine cuanto todo para extermina. Unum pluribus todo defata vihilum sin serpente. (Maquina es todo.) Delibertae humanus espirite…experiencia diferente para todo mundo dependente circumstancia infinitum. Absurdum, expirata, reparta… Iactae est infernum recordum philosphicum tractatus de romana biblioteque. Entrata me encantata pratoriae phenomena tan quibi te placum infernum. Instigate eliminate, para mundo inter como rectum. Regalia para nata restate eroticae. En excelsis inspirata en anima determina unum moviento desperate vihilum. Inferata literata escritata en estrella…Inequitable cele noche pero linguiste retractum hace colorum en denada, espacio y lectorum. Si no dinero es importante todo destructivo meticodum ninos offensiva mi papas. Los todo preferum realiste de importante visual. La garbaje nihilismo es passive infernum. Restorum de placa en mansione paradiso. Pero la ninos separate con dium en eternitum. Latina comida y casa deliverum paradiso. Pero autorum lo siento para todo en infernum. Protectiva casa en las montanas cuando cele restorum de todo comida. Si nunca ninos de serpentine en agau. Para mi dium en manera nunca sin respecta o destructive la apparati. Eliminare todos daninos en mi cabesa destructivo originum. Recitum inequitae versimilito recibir encante delibertum. En esposa future nunca todo passé esposa infernum. La separte lengua desparte inequitum eternitum para noche todo dium dia practicum tiempo melodium. Ferrum noche en espana pax de nada la terra. Excelsis reparata fumo future consfesiva delibertum. Manera es complicare en mi cabesa para eternum deliverum. Estrella que felice en resposa practicum laudere magnificum. Todos noches en regis para sobre cele delirium. En escrite palabram canto en la infernum contracte Diablo. Resortum murium todo en resposa deliverum. Esparatum con revilum grabis noche esparte delivere pax en manera. Ferroce cele que retortum cuando tiempo cerca feraca Diablo passé en Christe desparte. Deliverum reparata dema dias es cierto nunca. Retorte quibus nacht en la feroce conjugare estrella ferum de la illuminae febrous depende en cele o immanente determinum. Responiva todo humanus vida en resposa sin infernum. Preparada los ninos de Diablo considerable encantum pax sin todo resposa dia divisor paradise y la febrosa tractatus. Recibir inequitum para humanus deliverum autorum. Sans passé tempora o proviso accepte falso entiende departum. Resposa nunca dium para amore facil responsive cierto noche sin la inequitum humanus. Apparati confusivo especialmente requirum (chastity) para eternum craetae la humanus separate para dio eternitum. Eroticae es returnum en el pasada gnoso felite en tiempo palatial nada para deliverum sin me debris. Si recibir para transgresivo metodica sin mi constructive eternitum noche es favorita para avia es nunca recordata en libra cerca. Cuando noche es un un dium apparati continuum para eternum sin autorum o con autorum confesiva repetitium es pax en animae. Entiende esta noche cuando dia es deliverum en resposa esta palabra dificil impresario musicum anterior regalia todo (servants) de Regis Christe. Musica de azure es magus para espana y provincial Latina. Tractata en mi encanta para servicio de papa. En durante escuelo matematica limitum noche referential de repetiva para todo memorium. Espara pax en todo mundo sin respartate practicum viaje cerca preparada encontrate que desposa inequitum. En cantable restorum exclusive de eroisa maquina reparare hace derecho descubriendo para los espasos recuerdos. En regalia modela ferocia la instinta en reparata comica en despartate futurum. En terminate que le cele es la todo resparte. Delata la resposa passé intrepretiva sin contesta con ninos diablos. Resposa deliverum en infernum para cerca contracta. Imposible aparati cuando repare felicidad. Todos noches en mi escrite febrous y inequitum humanus todo con feminine en cierto sin respa. Intentivo es deliciosa para interim es preparade tranquila distancia internum impracticum. Terminata es imposible contracte diablos sin gustave quid felice en modesta craete. En montanas, desierto, en espana tranquilidad. Para godiva resurectum en la animus pax humanus deliverum purgatum en vuelve sin comprate omnipotencium…Vindicatum en resparte en recordum deliverum nacht requiem. En excelsis que requirem en felice eroticae. En felice practicarae el nino invierno deliverum. Esposa en estrella es un todo maquina. Para la tracta en esotericum deliverata pax. En felice en esposa tranquila respartum. La monstrosito en biblio apocraphio… Sacfiricae en alterum la responsum en tractate. Manera protective en apparati deliverum requirem. En un todo nunca para mana deliverum. En iglesia separativa practicarum continuram en fictiva mediate possibilidad. Que colorum en respata restorum deliverum confesiva en el todo mundo. En la passé todo communicative en falso demoincae. En espirite en excelsis reparata felicite. Despartata mundo nata en lenguarum et que le fin. En restorum deliberate en poeta epica. Requiem todo comprende y mi todo familia y descubriando en excelsis reparata inequitum. Continuare en esposa en el future deliverum. En la casa de sabor de nino vide regis mundo todo. En familia exista preparando en eternum encantum. Regis noche en la infernum en la manera—mundo todo. Nunca abandonate en traverse tribularum o practicum—Cuando descbriuando inequita de la padre restorum—pero recordum en todo histora con inequitum. Deliberata diferencias en la umbra. Umbrae de sacrificae y la traverse competiva comedium. Patiente requirata nunca patiente initiative. Pero possible demonstrate todo pictorum mitologica. En la casa nerviosa verificata actividados con Papacy. En espirite deliquenata no me gusta falsa dium de mundo y me libro esta importante pero me anima es muy celoso de factuale desparta. En un todo de memorium es honesta en comica—Pero me memoria es un todo cuando virtua restorum. Retracta deleta en mi picture de la todo o convictum. En la rasa diablos todo nunca memorium de espirite. Demand todo de picture instantamente o el falso distracta. La pictura de pantera es murio pero me instrumente donatum… Patrae domine aria en recite quorae denata resparta en lacrae delatorum. Ex nacht torum en manera espirata encantato recitum. En cele escrite todo humanus restorum. Muerte en Diablo para todo en dium entiende eternum. Recibire en regalia preferable sin inequitem. La resposa de dium es patiente para humanus deliverum nombre para descubriendo. Si la distracta es amore de personas sin nunca muerte para entiende Christe nino. Todo feminine en future de autorum es bonita y replaca cele con immaculatum para virgino mama. Christe: Que reparata la inequitem de animae sutorum presente con desirable muriom todo para offensiva narrator? Dante: Si, entiende mi dio la personas confusion, para possible en la iglesia todo protective mundo absurdum rationale. Espirite: Respartate en felice irreperata inequite. Inebriate que relata en esposa resparta. En manera de la cele sacrilege media. La todo nacht en la estrella nunca memorium actore de nacht. Que felice con Aphrodite en la todo resparta. En un umbra de la falmbe vampire muerte todo eternitum. En la rosa me vasa en me cantata de la endora finalmente todo suffere eternitum con los todos en biblia Jezebel este muerte para eternum infernum. En mi esposa es finalmente para abandon con papa. En las ninas con musica nunca dium requiem. Mi familia de estudiare en la norte dium para mi. En mi contracra en la pintura es la finalmenta hora de eternitum. Desierto de demonica es destructivo pero nunca deceptivo dium. En la sciencias (consumer) todo para eternum mucho sufferere para attempte de me manera siete tiempos y revista todo eliminum para recordum y deceptum la todo familia en mundo casas de dium. En resparte de deliverum en escrite todo nunca estudium. La mirate de finalmente Diablo con returnum devorum nunca returnum mundo para decepte la autora. Para destructive me todo casas en la suportiva mucho confusion gendera. Deliverum en la nacht de infernum para decepta casas mundo. En la manera nunca returnum dium casa deliverum flambé. En la mira todo noche para estrella estudium para eternitum. Con esposa de Diablo deliverum nino deceptum todo en el mundo. Excorcista es importante cuando recibir espirite de vampira. En escrite de gobierno destructivo falso religion. En me visita la coruptiva capital en falso objetas replaca trinitum. Sin me icon de eternum nunca comprenda secretiva de Christe sin mundo. En la manera mucho vino grante mucho feminine en el dium deliverum con architectura de estrellas con la rasas y deliverum mucho calorum en el cele la exclusive para nunca sacrificia todo el Christe es no importante sabor es compasivo para replaca con idols. Para dio amore mundo, el poner nino solamente, que todo personas entiende nunca muerte pero recibir vida eternal. Deliverum me musica de la mentor en estrella eternum para continuum habitation sin compana todo deceptive en la habitation para deliverum consumptive de la casas de todo deceptum. Recibum en cerca de finalmente todo filosofica, de nino amore la escuela en manera Paradiso para nunca returnum hace completa perspective de vide eternum. Esposa en passé es bonita pero no completa traditione Latina. Jesu Christe depletiva la autorum todo cuando la Diablo es establise en infernum sufferere solamente todo eternum infinitum o terminate. Esposa futurum es bonita pero nunca passé familia la iglesia porque la mundo dium es compasivo en patrae solo. El es cierto nunca respetiva autorum recibir espirite todo dium, todo hora y todo pardone. La patrae de Italia es Regis para la eternitum. La expletive en infernum epirite lactae. Nueva patrae es recibir la trinitum para pardone mucho manera en autorum delirium y flambe con flambe es pax en la eternum requiem. Si manera recibe en felice eternum, mundo otro feminine ideal sin returnum Paradiso. Autorum descubriendo mucho ellas en vida pero la craeta es todo importante. Ellas sin la autorum amore innocent mucho pero vida es vive con permission (granted). Recuerdo ellas con amore future (accept) sin (remorse) o celoso espirite. Si la santa en passé es immaculate y tu cercas es dificil conjugar—Ellas escritas amore la autorum sin sensitive o con compasivo porque nunca mundo resolve problemas subjective, comida otro, (masculine) apparati y opinion de buenos “diablos” escrites. (O feminine sin la rasa inequitem.) Accept la sacrificae con passé dium sin dictate ellas vidas. Christe approve de cerca finalmente con ellas todo bien. Insignifica para todo restorata en autoritaria regis. Perfecte mucho en phenomena restorata. En estrella que felice en el todo universal. Practicarum en deliberate todo apparati. En resparum nada gusta infernum deliberta. En mundial me restorum pacifica Christe perfecto, todo mundial fragmente. Que nosotro en repsosa recuerdo vide todo. En excelsis noche deliverum Francis. Impresario nombre sacrae protectorum. Pax en rata requirum nada en un familia. Deliverum mi casa de madre en manera. Restorum de espirite que felice deliverum maniqua. En regalia deliverum en recordum estrella. Mutual en respite mi nueva compana eternum. En sufferata me familia muerte protective en contracta restorum. En preparum en eternum significa en me cele celebrate en eroticae regalia. Resparata en mi familia delata deliberta. Em infernum eternum deliberta. Nunca todo la felice en restorum aparati. En mi espirite divisor. Deliberata fenomenata en resposa delerata. En excelsis dium craeta en el mundo deliverta. En excelsis requiem. En regalia regis denata illuminata mundial. Reparanda en denata preparanda significa. Quorum regata subtracticum. Que felice en esposa significa. En un todo resparata el deliverta. Patrae eternum, patrae manera deliverum iqualmente significa… Escrite: Viaje cercas solamente sin compana o comprende locale. Sin descubriendo la familia en mundo refactorum es todo amore, el recibir espirite con cuatro o cinco. Gustar cerca sin finalmente con musica. Para la transgressions con completa y recibum mas vide con mas aggression. En la umbra de Christe eternum continuum para eternum sin completa o pasigana con (advantage of escape.) Sin comprende todos otros con la carta, celsoso espirite sin materials es mucho triste y impatiante… REFRAIN Sun’s own radiance of faint light Then did you shine on a golden day’s might Like the minds’ eye coming from a stream A man in full armor running in full steam He was stirred by the brother Like an eagle, he flew above her Beaming at our gates of hell Fighting with men and dragons as well As he did cry conquest abroad His fate was not admired by God He faced his opponent, both dying spear to spear His name is remembered year after year Many the wonders but nothing Stranger than man can this world bring The sea in winter’s storm I sing Makes paths through roaring waves of the king The birds he snares and leads Wild beast tribe that dances and bleeds The salty brood of sea with its reeds And the clever man with all of his deeds He controls with craft the beasts of open air Language and thought leave nothing more to bear He has taught himself shelter from the coldest stare He faces no future and is helpless to repair There’s only death he cannot escape now He’s beyond all cure from which we allow Clever beyond all dreams, he will bow He honors laws to give and endow Fortunate whose lives have no test of pain Because there are those shaken up by God They escape no kind of doom The waves of the sea beat and applaud Ancient the sorrow of this house is known Dead men’s grief returns to fall on grief No generation can free the next There is no escape from despair’s thief So now the light goes out On the man’s house whilst the knife Severs the remaining root The remaining root of life Any greatness in human life brings misery Man knows nothing until he walks into the flame The bad becomes the good When the spell of fear is always the same Love is unconquered in fight You rest in the bosom of light You cross the sea Madness enough for me You twist the minds of the just You lure us all into lust You made this quarrel of the kindred now Desire is clear from a bride’s own bow No man can fight against those at play I’m carried beyond all bounds of the day With praise as your reward you will go With fame you travel to vaults of dead below Alone among mortals will you descend In life to the House of Death in the end Fate has terrible power Rage at God for an undefined hour As the terror of madness drives you to fear The God of this world will not come near Dark are the eyes that avenge father and mother She should have known that she could not save her brother Like Cleopatra also the princess of an ancient house Truth is Antigone leaves behind her spouse Seen in glaring flame, high on the mount Seen by more than numbers count The town will be saved in honor to her Leader in dance of fire pulsing star’s blur Child of God be manifest The cry is heard by the blessed. Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way God must have his ultimate due today Great words of men of pride Bring greater blows upon them when they hide Wisdom comes to the old… “I never wanted it to end this way, my love, my darling.” --Ozzy “...as (the disciples) sailed (Jesus) fell asleep. When a squall came down on the lake the boat started taking in water and they found themselves in danger. So they went to rouse him saying, ‘Master! Master! We are going down!’ Then he woke up and rebuked the wind and the rough water; and they subsided and it was calm again. He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’” --The New Testament EPILOGUE A SONNET FOR DIANE AND PERSEPHONE Their new wheel spinning is a joy to choose It is far before that which will vanish I fear the worst for those that always lose Creep to me my fear of death and joy banish Still deaden birth or love again rings And with my penance I will ignore frost Will windows leave an open wound for my stings set a circle guide us lost drink from Hades wrath ablaze a gorgeous wonder steal set down into icy bath gone are the days of real Now in Hades run from the ever new fear And drink from thirsty eyes when aqueer. About the Author: Up and coming novelist Aaron Sheley makes his first venture into this world and the next by illuminating and predicting Dante’s Purgatory in this book Paradise Faust. His other projects include a variety of motion picture scripts, film criticism and cinema production. However, here is the first of his novels, which wasn’t easy to write—but a whole lot of fun. After his free time of saving the world via his internet connection (contacting all three branches of gov’t to make the world a better place) and now the only reward he wants now is to find the “real” Whore of Babylon and screw her…hopefully with the help of Cornell Grad and High School Teacher Matt Crowe. Of course, they will have to find a way to annul Aaron’s divorce agreement first! CRITICISM FOR Paradise Faust “Once again, Aaron Sheley has constructed a madcap, phantasmagoric wonder-world built upon the furthest reaches of logic, absurdity, devious imagination, and deconstructionist philosophy gone awry. Like a latter-day Philip K. Dick, Sheley delights in conjuring up and ossifying universes based on his own singular and warped perspective of this outrageous dreamscape that the rest of us refer to as reality…and then slowly obliterates them…to the great satisfaction of the reader himself. Passion, purity and profundity are the cornerstones of ‘Paradise Faust.’" --Mathew Klickstein NOVELIST/SCREENWRITER CINE BIBLE BEGINS (OLD TESTAMENT) By Aaron Sheley Philosophical Advisor Jason Sheley TEXTUAL STRATEGIES I—PLATO—REPUBLIC X and ION For all intensive purposes, the easy way out of the PLATONIC paradigm is to write him off as an anti-art bigot. There is no summation of equal or oppositional parts that create a whole—Only an over-driving goal at an aristocratic society that are favorable to “God” or “gods” and “countries” or “war.” Yet the unanswerable question in ION opens the metaphysical hotbed: Does art have to be based on lived experiences or collective memories, hallucinations of the invisible forms that appear only to those that break free of idealism. (The irony is that in his explanation of philosopher-kings, he stoops to the idealist high ground.) II—ARISTOTLE’S POETICS— Without a mis-interpretable context, Aristotle categories art into 3 directly assimilating principles 1- KINESIS—energetic release of artistic impetus— 2- MIMESIS—a struggle for realism (in this case in particularly--) 3- CATHARSIS—the effect of disengaging from a work’s effort to maintain a purgation of an audiences vested interest in the core value of the art (be the values understood plainly or figuratively) Imperatively, this approach to the arts employs differentiation and in summation, to review ‘energetic, realistic, displacement and a nice long walk –PERAPAETESIS III—HORACE—THE ART OF POETRY LATIN HEADING DEFINED 1. Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam, loosely: Men equally understand the point of a picture (Herein is the key to Horace’s broad strokes of diction and automatic flow of pensive and circumstantial evidence in self-reflexive poetry and prose) IAMBIC DEFINED 2.”Averse consisting of six full-fledged IAMBIC stresses…(Known) as iambic trimester.” a—an iambic stress is like a syllabic pattern in which Latin phrases (or the translation of, follow a pattern of syllabic number codes and in a ‘Shakespeare sonnet’ rhythmic patterns factor in – as is the oft mistranslated HORACE… IV—Longinus—ON THE SUBLIME I. Longinus efforts the task of stripping down outside elemental Forces that distract, subtract and mediate the phenomenon of the sublime— A. Through a structural negative unity, he defeats negativity as an example of reckless encounters with the anti-sublime. II. Sublime poetics are counter but not separate from: A. Hyperbolata—(exaggeration) B. Pleasure—(beware of too much of a good thing, though) C. Music, Rhythm and Dance (notions that are always subliminal.) III. ‘Sublime’ is unaltered by immortality, mortality, forces of nature (good or evil) and once the imbalance of an extreme over another is reconciled sublimation as a possibility V—PLOTINUS—On the Intellectual Beauty I. Connotes Examples of 'a priori'—a term defined simply as pre-investigation of Ideas, cosmos and sign posts in mental thinking Ex: Plotinus deems the world as round and it recreates his artistic vision in knowing such II. Wisdom invited in a SPACE, TIME and FORMAL approach Ex: Plotinus hearkens back to a simplification of absolute ideas and context dependent upon the changing of the priority of the critic—discover beauty and transcend the norm through a polytheistic/monotheistic device of evolving, energetic machinations. VI. LETTER TO CAN GRANDE DELLA SCALA BY DANTE ALIGHIERI In this brief epistle, structure and form, belie a radical position of formal intensity to ratify what Kantian philosophy considers as a critique or Husserl’s fact evaluation of well-placed contextual metaphors that drive the elemental passions of a developing art form that embodies its own self-critique. Furthermore, juxtaposition of unresolved conflicts maintains works of art credibility in a historical concertedness. (NOTE: To vary modifiers—or verbosage recalcitrant heavy-headedness is oft used sparsely or not at all considering the visages length and width, which is succinct but varies by evolving definitions.) VII. CHRISTINE DE PISAN QUERELLE DE LA ROSA (Curiosity of POEMS) I. Feminist critique is born in the middle-ages— A. She wrote the LETTER of GOD’S LOVES—weaving out the unfair translations of men’s contradictory influence over Biblical scripture—though she cherishes it as literature. II. An oppositional reading A. In her writings she condemns the antifeminist as, insensitive, unjust, coarse—yet full of idealist imagination. B. Her intense anti-sin critique does not view the impossibility Of avoiding sin—yet she encourages an amount of importance behind ‘published’ or ‘private’ documents NOTE: Although sexism abounded, was this the cause of sin? XIII. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY---AN APOLOGY FOR POETRY I. Demystification and remythologization of a class structure---justifying the religious and a religious as certified artists with no demands A.) He cautions demands and retreads over legendary prowess B.) Antecedents take precedent. (That which comes before informs that which comes after.) II. Key philosophy of Sidney a. Kathalou—universal consideration b. Kathekaston—particular c. (Aristotle’s concepts of critiquing poetry) (NOTE: Universal is ideal, particular is ‘real’) III. Sidney’s Championing of Authorial Reason a. Any state of mind is able to turn into art through poetry (though the less caustic the better) 1-leads poetry into strict reasoning b. Leads to a new textual strategy of my own for critics. “If you cannot think something nice…don’t think anything at all.” XIV. JOHN DRYDEN’S AN ESSAY OF DRAMATIC POESY (in rhyming verse) ‘Hegelian fact: Art History is about victors and victims, but written by art historians’ (even if it is a pain to class consciousness and conscience) There is no rhyme or reason why treason is the season/ Of nostalgic emptiness alone/Late spring eclipsing Early Autumn tone. The point of this poem is to understand that modern and classical collide often but do not always mix, though both forms are dying to be in each other’s arms again. (Yet, no one needs feel guilty for art and entertainment that brings joy._ Dryden is composing for four reasons 1. To idealize the view of money’s modern corruption 2. Returning to the point that corruption has always led to fame—Fame is power (in the arts) 3. Power uncorrupted will lead to value (economic and artistic)—i.e. avoid corruption X. APHRA BEHN: AN EPISTLE TO THE READER AND PREFACE TO THE LUCKY CHANCE 2 challenges for feminism 1) To paraphrase L. Ron Hubbard: ‘You cannot be everything for all people at once.’ Or—how early feminists defeat the purpose of endless desire by desiring more from their desire. 2) To quote Dallas Willard: “Art is two things—an ‘author’ and ‘intent’ AUTHOR: APHRA BEHN INTENT: FEMINISM Thus the logic of female authorship is twofold ( apart from the above interests) A. To be adaptable to no singular—masculine ideal B. Present the “misogynistic” facts as they present themselves—thru reason and logic (and high and low comedy) ESSAY: as men wake superficial sacrifices, the rest of the ladies suffer for the guilt they put upon us through the burden of masculine feats of unfamiliar strength—(avoid phallogocentrism) XI. ALEXANDER POPE AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM ‘Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged.’ -Jesu Christe PART I- A lesson in poetical criticism Watch manners-love word banners-be time spanners— Part II Origins of rhyming verse, in rhyming verse Example in cinema language Lumiere, Melies, E. Cohl Invented Edison, Griffith and W. Disney Pioneered Invent (rhymes w. sent pioneer rhymes with hear) Part III- I do believe ‘art in the age of mechanical reproduction’ Just had its critical poet’s introduction! XII- SAMUEL JOHNSON – THE RAMBLER, No. 4 BIRTH OF POETIC REALISM Essay response: Extol values of humanism (to the point that anti-humanism is displayed as aberrant hysteria with no leg to stand on). Thus to exercise free speech in a humanist paradigm (liberal arts=ART, SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY (squared)) means that the job to chide over—abundant codes of anti-humanism is for that contempt reserved. Rasselas, Chapter 10 (B) Essay response: Tangible experience in phenomenological experience is worth the effort to root out negative antiquated beliefs/disbeliefs, ‘Leading to a discovery of a bridge between old and new ideas.’ PREFACE to Shakespeare (essay response) From all angles, No need for argument here as Shakespeare’s reverie is displayed with a healthy balance of balance of form, wordsmith style and tragicomic content. “Adamant” sonorization lifts the spirits of Shakespeare (admonishes the lofty height of complete perfection in verse, as well as the ability to defy chaotic times) In short, the Shakespeare experience is flawless. XIII-TEXTUAL STRATEGIES: DAVID HUME ON THE STANDARD OF TASTE…essay response: British consequential/empirical/denominating universal rule of the content is distinguishable by probable statistics informing good criticism, by reevaluating problems and rewarding positive behavior through writing. If a ‘text’ (Marxist approach to a “work” in Hegel’s view) is examined thoroughly by a fact checking span of time, then rewards of intellects, imaginations, creativities, challenges will be bestowed upon the style, form and content. Thus, Hume ignores (without censorship) damaged goods, but rewards everything he enjoys in a strict, calculative, ethical and moral response. Humanist Rule: Thou Shalt Not Cheat Wizard of Outré Zen METAPHYSICS may be bound by PHYSICS, but PHYSICS are not bound by METAPHYSICS ALL WE HAVE TO FEAR IS HOOLYWOOD HERSELF DON’T BE CAREFUL/WITH RESERVATIONS PART TWO XIV- IMMANUEL KANT’S, “CRITIQUE OF JUDGMENT.” Essay Response: This complicated essay provokes a modern awareness of reasoning through contemplative analyzation—in a strip down collapsible approach to the end of metaphysics, unless relatable to an automatic plastic response given to such art forms. The Categorical Imperative (in an Edwin McCann-ian sense) is useful to design a model of Free Play, inducing characteristic anti-meanings of words to take the sting off harsh remarks indirectly related to prolong artistic positions, with the thread-bare assessment of interesting nominals poised to perfect linguistics and to retrain theorist/critics to never “denote” when there is a connotation with a negative impact. DULY NOTED XV- GERMAINE DE STAEL (A CRITICAL PHILOSOPHICAL QUEEN)—ESSAY ON FICTIONS A startling discovery of the fictive elemental spelunking deserved of the pre-literacy fact-checking female companionship, which demands accuracy, factuality and a certain degree of heretical recompense for the masculine over-voiced author—she demands “verisimilitude” or a polysemic heterogeneity of the “masculine” to produce the “feminine” and vice versa -- ON WOMEN WRITER’S With memorable strengths—the more powerful woman, particularly those that rise to higher ‘synthetic’ esteem than men in every way, deserve praise and to be equally treated human—In spite of the disgust leveled upon them by men that cannot get over themselves, women have always risen to the artist occasion. Quick note: Meta-conscious=collective conscience, collective unconscious (i.e. necromancy), collective conscious, and collective unconscious (i.e. telekinesis) XVI- (like the current Pope Benedict) FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER ON NAÏVE AND SENTIMENTAL POETRY Duly noted: Philosopher Kings informed to this article KING DESCARTES (dualist) KING ROBB (theorist) and KING SPINOZA (monist) Ironic jokes. Gen X: Like I give a Crux. Gen Y: You had to be there. Gen Z: There is a dark side of Zenophiliac Mania. In his lucid essay of cleverness, Mr. Schiller delegates awareness to oppositional camps of structure, to bring about a code of suitability among gains of artistic use. Structure is often mistaken with a standard and while grammar—no matter the artistic edifice—competes with a certain space of irrationality, deifies a critical code of harsh judgment and self-dishonesty—Gain no pain and gain will flow to you as simply as praying for tap water, when the spigot already (until a drought) runs freely. The good news: Some wells of artistic blending never run dry! XVII – WILLIAM WORDSWORTH—PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS, “DESTINED FOR IMMORTALITY” (I owe credit to Philo-Kings Dr. McCann, Dr. Cohen and Dr. Yaffe, who taught me the value of the Meta-ethical copy code) Essay response: Like a blacksmith of words of words (hidden or fixed): (hidden being knowledge undiscovered or fixed—within a realm of understanding)—This author is ameliorated with pleasant thoughts of these combative nomers (nominal words that maintain presence of thought) (Question: Whose cultural pollution created the RUT first? The iron-hand of probability falls on religious warfare that has been taken out of a spiritual realm.) Saturated in ego, yet full of thoughtful thoughts the drain of over loaded codes is over-welcome to a desensitized age of over-loaded codes that is over-welcome to a desensitized age of self delusion—unaware of hidden knowledge and happy to be blotted out of accidentally imposed over-codes. STUDY BREAK: (For this text is a Free Academic Dispensary) Christian Metz’ Grand Syntagmatique (CHESS FEVER parable, PUDOVKIN style…aka a Dr. Polan inspired thought) 1. SHOT = PAWN 2. SCENE = PAWNS 3. EPISODIC SYNTAGMA = QUEEN 4. PARALLEL SYNTAGMA = ROOKS 5. ALTERNATING SYNTAGMA = BISHOPS 6. BRACKET SYNTAGMA = KNIGHTS 7. AUTONOMOUS SHOT = KING 8. DESCRIPTIVE SYNTGAMA = COMBINATION MOVE 9. ORDINARY SEQUENCE = ALL OF THE ABOVE XVIII – SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (to be rigid, for a moment, this is post-Kant, post-Locke, and post-Hume) -- SHAKESPEARE’S JUDGMENT EQUAL TO HIS GENIUS Coleridge’s whole attitude toward “The Bard” is a free form collage of modern mentalism and post-'sacreligion' school of free thought—entangled in a web of demystification and scholastic encouragement—Coleridge tasks the master and takes us all to him. -- [Excerpts] From Biographia Literararia Poetica omnibus distraught Epic word-game onslaught Every day we die for art Lost again – dark in heart En regalia mi occupado es eschuchen Escribe, escrite and para eternitum Factum didactum en referencia Refractum in inequitem (Like Gemini and Taurus in search of Sagittarius) (In laymen’s terms, we are defenders of the philosopher-critic to the end of time—And Nothing Else Matters.) XIX—JOHN KEATS [EXCERPTS] FROM A LETTER TO BENJAMIN BAILEY In Keats’ ‘break-even’ mind-imagination and formal construction precedent a mitigation of prosaical composition—arguing the Biblical Garden of Eden is pretty much just an excuse for good poetry. If Adam had not exiled us all from Paradise, then why else will we be fighting for our lives to make it back in? -- [EXCERPT] FROM A LETTER TO GEORGE AND THOMAS KEATS Do not despair, for the spirit of negativity toward this stratagem of codes will fade and burn into old stigmas without taboo and born language anew. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) XX. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (an old relative of this author…duly noted) A DEFENCE OF POETRY/ “FOUR AGES OF POETRY” 1. What goes up must not always come down 2. Pray for your 'family’ and they will pray for you 3. Nicest compliment to give your friends, “Right back at you, babe” Essay Response: In terms of Shelley’s advanced notion of “Four Ages of Poetry,” he concerns himself in honest reconciliation with epic Greek Poetry as the origin, a decay of poetry as the origin, a decay of poetry as the origin, a decay of poetry before the third stage of Dante and Milton producing the enlightenment phase. In experience with Shelley’s lineage, he truly venerates the current modus operandi as a flavorful return to Romanticism, consequentially his respect generated toward words mirrors the 2nd phase, which is a bit Shakespearian (although, non-linearity plays a role in categorization) considering his conclusion that decay is in and of itself a stepping stone to new life. PAUSE: (Let us give thanks to DAVID H. RICHTER for editing this MONSTROUS book, A CRITICAL TRADITION---Queens College of the City University of New York) 1. Vanity is meaningless 2. Demanding Thirst meets Deep Spirits 3. Pointless Philosophy meets Mindless Genealogies 4. Selah (musical ending) XXI. GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF ART -- Without a doubt, the seminal aesthetic philosopher of the modern era—Hegel employs facts of history, lengthy discussions on poetic impetus and concludes with an orgiastic display of the basic unit of artistic language: poetry. Yet, his balance of naturalistic forces predates a school of thought that his art must be created without meaning. His impetus dreads non-didactic, influenceable in-between hypnosis and hallucination modes of writerly effects that Marx and Freud would totally exploit in later years. In his stead, Hegel champions a holistic, total myth of the purest art, exemplifying the need to tax all artistic powers at once from all the arts at once to bring about an ‘operatic’ total and complete masterwork. (It has been noted by Dr. Cohen that HEGEL would have loved cinema…duly noted.) 1. KING SCHOPEHAUER RULE: SMOKE IF YOU GOT THEM 2. Thanks to the aid of DAVID MORRIS, my 7th grade teacher, for giving me the Carnies Journal, and to JIM SEVERSON for the power of acting 3. IMMACULATAE IMMANANCIAE -AMORISTE- IMMUCALUTUM IMMANCIUM 4. (for Catholic readers only): Hail Mary, Mother of God, Blessed are thou among women and blessed be the fruit of thy womb Jesus…pray for us sinner from now until the hour of our death. XXII. RAPLH WALDO EMERSON: THE POET In eternity practices of moving words to fit tight connections in a limited space are systemic of nature-worship and sparse isolation in austerity, authenticity and esoteric. Reach too far for a goal and the “fire” will reproach you—yet if the poem remains intact than it is awesome to create—with or without false notions of an unreachable transcendence—whose unreachability is the closure that erases’ both mystification and mysticality. To erase one’s mind of the anti-poet (destructive structure) is to embrace meditation on word—word-games—good or evil—if they are discovered in human life, then all is well-unlike a “make or break” mental modality, which breaks down lyricism on many levels. XXIII. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) KARL MARX [Excerpt] from the German Ideology I. Overdeterminism-all histories, ideas, logics, theories, castes, politics etc. merge into a predestined outcome of a meaningless life with no unmediated choices and economics do not get chosen, economics choose based on evolution. II. “camera obscura”—memory input that impresses on the ‘retina’ or eye mechanisms further leaving behind a reference point for all time concerning an event that will be repetitious or avoidable. (Like, “silencing a rabble.”) [EXCERPT] from A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy In an ethical cross-reference critique of power-structures and idealism, Marx implicates a stratagem built around obstacles of poorly put together institutions that fail to encourage artists by pitting them in constant danger from the slightest unwavering descent away from a rigid body politic—the message is clear for modern struggles—conformity is one route for survival. 1. Do not forget 0=0 times e/mc squared=1 times 0=0 (Or no nukes is good nukes) 2. As Dr. Joseph Biden once said, “And he still has a pulse…” 3. Secret word of the day is “sexistentialism” 4. “The Holy Grail is a rigid set prop,”—Aaron Sheley XXIV. MATTHEW ARNOLD THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM AT THE PRESENT TIME Or to avoid BOOK LAG remember this phrase from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, “I can take the heat!” or “from a skilling spree to a chilling spree…” Edwin McCann-(Univ. of Southern California school of Philosophy) once said to me in candid passing, “I can never get my books arranged…” and then to paraphrase his reason, “It is like Plato keeps knocking the rest off the shelf.” Function of Criticism—To deploy art as a self-critic, (for example, Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher, the Metaphor of exacting deterioration of the modern fabric of religion, supplants the ‘house’ with an erratic superstition—Arnold’s example of Goethe fits the schemata through realization, actualization, common sense and disavowal through meditation on words. THE STUDY OF POETRY (in dated lyric, cerca?) “Cele manera, estrella en regalia, delibertum,” or in translation: Deliberately crown (artistic) stars in fine robes and or linens, in the head of the heavens (eternally). NOTE: Thank you to America in this 2009, year of our LORD, for inviting an African-American to the White House, President Obama, who has given us the wiggle room for this Physical Spell: SCATALOGICAL IMPRACTICUM, which means that Death is Impractical….unless we just want to agree to disagree, if you catch my drift. Merry Xmas, The War is Over—Jon Lennon XV. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE Philosopher King Ross Scimeca would say, “The Spirit (Geist) of Music” APOLLO (melody) / DIONYSUS (harmony) (realism) (formalism) (anima) (animus) (war) (wine) (opulence) (decadence) (consequence) (freedom) (ethics) (learning) (depth) (width) (size) (shape) (God) (devils) (nymphs) (satyrs) (ascetic) (aesthetic) (NOTE: All must seek a centrist NICHOMACHEAN or Dr. Jewellian principle of the GOLDEN MEAN, to balance the powers, do you understand?) (Recommended Screening TV SERIES hosted by Leonard Maltin, Secret’s Out) XVI. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) HENRY JAMES—THE ART OF FICTION Essay Response: To interpose a strategic response, James’ further ameliorates artistic abstraction—ironing out the wrinkles of his preferred medium: ‘realist literature.’ While he does maintain a profundity toward down-on-their-luck poverty stricken artists (see also Zola,) he is non-preferential toward interchanging drama and melodrama, casting no derivative on the losing arts of ‘mental physics” or hyperbolic questions, which are oft better left in the hands of Science—Philosophically, his compatibility praises the art of prose with emphatic arrays of deconstructable qualifiers of nominal factoids implanted in a guilt-free, praise-worthy environment without a loophole at all. JOKE REMINDER: As Drew Casper would say: “It all went down in the Grand Guignol…” or as Dr. Hock would say, “This is reciprocity, unhinged…” Little known fact: GEORGES MELIES is buried in PARIS, FRANCE at Pere-la chaise…as is OSCAR WILDE XXVII. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample)—OSCAR WILDE—THE DECAY OF LYING Essay Response: In a dialogue session between fate and chance in fictitious characters, Wilde elevates formal elements, which construct a path of “lies” or abstract/ideal patterns that alleviate causality through pictorial representations of situations that most likely do not exist. In essence, the article glorifies non-existent practicality, flinging “bullshit” in the face of caustic reality, that in turn dissipates factuality, in lieu of an environment that (in the words of Jack Nicholson in A FEW GOOD MEN) “cannot handle the truth.” In fact, Wilde’s superior, subliminal writing style is a textual oddity due to pragmatic cadence, illustrative candor and satisfactory representations, valorizing the “untruth.” XXVIII. LEO TOLSTOY—WHAT IS ART? Essay Response: In general, Tolstoy employs a veracity of “universalism” in a “Christian” mode of consequence. His work is replete with the questioning of an artistic high ground, linked with the necessitation of spiritual impetus—to reflect a narrow margin of said works in defense of a style that reflects the growing world of Christianity (as to him, a preference for beauty, truth, purity etc.) In his criteria for representation of the holy, Tolstoy makes no apologies when condemning the anti-Christian, or secular, media. Yet, his tenacity is coupled with a suggestive sanctity in accordance to specific ways of reading the “otherness” of a once derided infusion of the transcendent in arts. By today’s standards, Tolstoy is a bit phenomenological, yet happenstance sustains his suggestive battle for the universality of a likelihood to present a Christian manifestation. (King of the Jews style). EMIL COHL'S PHANTASMAGORIE Whence the vaudevillians were stirring up a hornet's nest in a tumultuous time in France's darkest hours of WWI, prior to this and during, came a poet of philosophy that engendered an awakening to liberalism at any cost. Emil Cohl poured over endless literature and awakened the values of animation before all other legends. His fear of sketch comedy (lightning sketches, to be exact) were so far from American dramaturgy and cultural pollution that it awakened his imagery forever to be preserved in the annals of film history. He formed a routine act with his cohorts, known as the "Incoherents," a group that engendered awareness among his peers--Melies took great notice of his act for instance, (as well as contributed to.) However, in his list of the mighty feats, none will surpass the very first animated feature--PHANTASMAGORIE. Interestingly enough, the spawn did not occur in one night--but in laborious hours of hand drawn cells--which, in turn, produced a labyrinth of resonance, dissidence and arguably profound psychedelic powers-- What separates Cohl from all others, despite his origination of the animated form, was his pension for disparity and a twisted point of view on all things that were too "Republican" for him to handle. However, nothing could be further from repetition than his monolithic, singularly symbolic awareness. Passion for his film spread like wildfire. Technically, the images are of a line-form proper that shape shifts into people (his heroes), places (his house) and things (a baseball bat, etc.) Without reverting to an obvious inheritance of early stock footage and series photography, he diagrammatically shifted the paradigm of trick photography that schooled all other animators to come. Understand now that Cohl is a cinematic wunderkind, his verses display a thematic correlation to time, speed and figurative motion, without a predecessor. The effect has never been matched since, although the formalist camp of film-making owes him everything. At any rate, the age of muck-raking was coming to an end in the Early Days of French Cinema, and he awoke to the sole purpose of musicalizing his imagination--albeit he shredded the realist camp's idealism altogether by envisioning the postmodern before the age of the postmodern, by shaking up historical codes into pure meaninglessness. To do this, he drew white lines across a black canvas and presented a new edge of cinematic prowess--a line code, followed rigidly and dogmatically, but never to be perfected in the same respect ever again. The reception of the film was pointless because hardly anyone understood his potshots at tired allusions. To round out the conundrums of the true animator code, he animated in a circular way to his objects, clearing out squares and rectangles for freedom and totally paved the way for animated shorts like OTTO MESMER'S FELIX THE CAT, WINSOR MCCAY'S GERTIE THE DINOSAUR and ultimately, the wizardry of WALT DISNEY'S empirical sound feature STEAMBOAT WILLY. Not foreseeing that by breaking all rules, he invented them by doing just this, without a rubric, without the wherewithal and logic and reason were tossed away for fate and chance. Phantasmagorie actually ends with an unusual boxing match and "morphs" (to steal a modern term) into various ideas of images before the time came that anyone else knew how exactly to do this. His problems were resolved almost instantly as he rode a storm of chaos infused with magic. He criss-crossed light patterns, forever to burn onto celluloid as pioneers would never topple, but always submit to his scientific engineering. French society goes through cycles of decay and enlightenment and so too does Cohl's imagery expand and collapse, like Kierkegaardian metaphysics, which are completely subverted to dissipate a "holier than thou" attitude. Diversions were desperately needed under the bane of conservative hypocrisy. Later, when realism took control, Cohl's ideations were all but in frequented by viewers and only later when Animation History was canonized and as Donald Crafton would delegate, Cohl was a major player in the "Church of Cinema." His pressurizing of formal technique boldly envisioned a non-hierarchical democratic approach to reforming dream-like hallucinations, without caustic endangerment or even a shred of propaganda. His machinery stands out as the cinema pure envisioned by the Impressionist school (passed down to Duchamp, Claire, and later Cocteau among others.) Hypnosis, mind expansion and therapeutic wave-lengths of tripped out freakishness are all in check, during the wackiest filmed imagery in history. Avant-garde cinema will never repay the debt owed to Cohl, in fact. His early sketched out categorization of non-sequiturs created an irony and a certainty of quality fun, guaranteed to last--although perhaps unknown for generations. Cinematic animation became like a whole new art form upon this dawning--exercising no restraints toward impossible feats. Dabbling with a magician's prowess instigated a designed fabric of split up film forms to a reach of undeniable metaphors, though not dangerous or haunting (as Blackton's HAUNTED HOUSE and the alchemy of Harry Smith proves to be in future drastic times.) Rounding out what seemed to be a bottomless cycle of rehash, Cohl repositioned his misalignment to push the boundaries of a medium, now disfigured thanks to him--repositioning his camera's steadiness by moving the image rather than by moving the placement of the camera. Without a priori motives, his conditioned response is the impetus for all things ecstatic in an under-pressurized medium of Lumiere's and Edison's event film actualities. Drawing in on a resource of projected non-ideologies, or counter-hegemonic margins, the liberal centrist approach took Cohl's artwork to a non-kitsch extreme by valorizing the peculiarity of the dark ages of a quagmire of out-of-date cinema-though the whole form had barely begun. Ephemeral, ethereal and non-redundancy shakes up the retread so commonly exposed by non-animators. Once the "feature" length devices of Reiniger's PRINCE ACHMED, Disney's SNOW WHITE and the Fleischer's GULLIVER'S TRAVELS kicked in, the short forms of Cohl's hidden knowledge were under exposed. To venture into the realm of comics, cartoons and new CGI, were heralded by this old magi's gift of animation invention. With exacting preciseness, beguilement and abstraction in a pleasant sense, deformed structure is bar-none next to Cohl's par excellence. Playing one end of a drawing out, shaping it into another and locking down on the instigation of a new medium, Cohl provided the toys and the playground to the wave of subterfuge and his prologue is no doubt unforgettable after viewing. What future animators may take from his whimsy is not to be made light of, as the entire form owes to his credit. To sing his praises, even to the point of sycophancy, is not a problem, as though he never sought exposure, he certainly earns a respectability among the illuminating caricurates of his own "mad" invent. In short, Cohl pioneered, structured, formulated and envisioned, a rustic, teleological perforation on the distinct qualities of animated "auteurism"; No compromises necessary. Informed by political cartoons in newspapers (having his hand in so many of them, at any rate,) infused his sculpture and plasticity into a medium for a never-ending cycle of regeneration. Imposing no rationality except in a scientific sense, Cohl exposed the secret of cinema's dualistic (and now triangular with TV having risen to the challenge) taxonomical advent of animation. Thanks to PHANTASMAGORIE for realigning the early scriptures of cinema studies. Receive the film with care and the rewards are endless, in this particular mode of representation. ---AARON SHELEY (HONORS CINEMA) JULY 2009 En el pequena ciudades la encierto condiciones todos las dias hace la estados unidos ayudarno para aqui. Entiende condiciones rapidmente decision ayudar con otros pais en el mundo vide la cine de tres (o otro cine felicidad.) Sin cierto quien es el exactamente director de SOY CUBA para el es maestro y escrite con palabras importante. En problemas de cine imperfecto impractacal personas en mundo de separatar, porque todos personas es siempre decision de peligrosa. Cuando peligrosa y danino es presente personas que cultural diferencias para "polucion de cultural" no es recomendar en otro naciones. La ultima vision de Soy Cuba es el descrubiendo classista para tres puntas: No racistas, no classistas y no sexistas. Cuando la migrant trabajo es muy dificil, la pelicula van grande escuchan todo problemas de CUBA para recuerdo lesiones. En responsiva fiestas y buenos tiempos presente nada en historia de cine (hace Coppola pones pelicula en registrar de historia con importante restoration.) Cine es mucho gusta memoria grande de era el "passe" cuando agriculturalistas ver la un position y chicas bonitas baile en celebracion. Musica de Soy Cuba es sin problema, provisar cuando todo siempre entiende cultural de Cuba. En minutos personas entiende fiesta de "revolucion" para no otros culturales otro solamente Cuba, cuando es muy ideal para historia de cine. La peliculas es sobre dos horas y muy famosa en Cuba cuando "imperfecto" es el general subjetivo en pasado y con intereste gobierno ayudame peliculas deniro todos. Sin decision de oeste perspetiva grande distraction con libros no deniro pero muy importante para literario de cine. Cerca de mundo, cine es cerca en ropas tradicional para Cuba en tiempo y espacio "Latin America." Otros cines de espanol en similar objetivos es futuro de general entiende con importante viste: EL NORTE, MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT y MACARIO etc. Viajar de pais de regis en pobre personas, deniro para otro cine es ideal para todos espacios de visitar. La problema de otros paises es seminal occurando porque cultural egoista y capitales federales no entiende importante sequencias de estudiar. En famosa sequencias tradicion es representando en muy importante en el camera representar. Cerca de causas en clases de cine (en Los Angelos para ejemplar) importante imperativo en decision de cultural "decoupage" o envisar dirrecion de poner el camera y viajar camera es importante. De entiende esposas y trabajando la "migrant" es celebriando el mundo ayudar para exactemente precisiones cines. Escuchen la escrite hace todo pelicula terminar y no esta personas ser mala en apreciacion. Cuando entiende practicar cine en pais de no mucho dinero--cine de Cuba no es exploitiva para es estrano de personas sin explorar. En resulte, cultural guerros continuar para no responsiva necesita en nueva cine comprende importante. Estudiante espanol escriten de Aaron Sheley In private I confide in you over a miserable load of guilt I have carried for the sufferings of my burdensome confession: I basically got dumb and unwise in chemistry class and flaunted my cheating powers all over the school. Foolish living, I know, Anyway, here is a formula that may redeem my grade: Tungsten ---- A light Source Element Bromine ----- Heavier chems--cleans house Hydrogen ----- Easiest, lightest of chems *most naturalistic Chloride --- Heavier Element, de-germinates pools etc. Zinc --- Heaviest Chemicals in Earth Elements Oxygen ----- Do not breath around this concoction (or at least wear a mask). Sulfur ------ (a compound aggregate of sulphates---chemical-mineral) What is Hydrogen Sulfite? (Combination of these chemical-elements in an ionic compound compatible with neurons, atoms, isotopes, electrons and protons, all added, subtracted and multiplied to combine...just don't drink it because it is a natural chemical!) --only a theory DONE WITH MAKEUP EXAMS, Move on to TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample pages) Words to meditate on PANDORA—ICARUS— And XXIX. SIGMUND FREUD I. Creative Writers and Daydreaming—Interpellation A. Sounding Board for the Sexual Struggles of Humankind. a) Theoretics create conflicts—resolved through artistic expression B. Three Types of Dreams (like a Josephian or Daniel-like translations) SUPEREGO-1.Anxiety-unfullfillable repression (collective unconscious Ego—2. Reality-functional dreams (collective conscious meets conscience) id – 3. Wish—Fulfillment-decisive anti-repression (collective subconscious) II. The Theme of the THREE CASKETS “Between the ‘Mind’ and the ‘Body’ there must be ‘Heart’” --Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (BRICOLAGE) A. Mother—Anal Phase—“Ever since we left the womb, we want back in.” B. Wife—MIRROR PHASE—To Die Unto Yourself and Your Loved One C. Daughter—Oral Phase—To teach her which man to choose, “or is he good at oral sex?!” The question remains, which would you choose, if you could not have all three? Save one for a hopeful invention of METROPOLIS the video game (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) Auteur of the Moment: Henry Jaglom (for further info on his independent style, seek out JASON SQUIRE’s Movie Business Book) XXX. T.S. ELIOT—TRADITION AND THE INDIVIDUAL TALENT—poem response (stream of consciousness.) Everywhere there is dire need To save the world from death Again, the relationships we have Come to vanity and nothingness Random chance, time and fate Deplete us of our will And what God of the living Returns us to our offering If we save time and learn From mistakes—the war ends, no one dies and Eternal life is granted forever— A.S. to T.S. XXXI. CARL JUNG—ON THE RELATION OF ANAYLTICAL PSYCHOLOGY TO POETRY “If you think it is just a film, think again…”—Jon Wagner paraphrased “Christ and the Anti-Christ were born of the same God…”—A.S. When taken into effect, Jungian principles applied are a healthy account of technical, scientific compensative loaded to the bag with brain chemistry—dissolving into an artistic symbology. Equipped with style, class, transcendence and evolution, time proves this articulation of eventual artistic progress is a “grass roots” project—for time tests us all. HERE IS A GRID OF THE JUNGIAN PRINCIPLE ARCHETYPES (Magic Lantern Slide, RIGHTS OF ENTRANCE #13) HERA—Goddess of Life x-axis (vertical) (water) (y-axis stigma) (horizontal) APHRODITE—Goddess of Love-EGO—A-WILL B-DETERMINISM C=2 (pi) r C- LIFE LESSONS Styzygy: Anima—Mother’s (Sun) Womb—Animus—APOLLONIA—Goddess of Peace: D-Total Status, E-Ephemeral, F-Narrowcasting ANIMA (horizon) : D-Freelove, E-Energy, F-Diaspora (z-axis) (depth) ATHENA--Goddess of Justice: Shadow—A. Umbra-Comfort Zone i.e. sleep, B. Flickering Images—i.e. cinema, C.Bottom—Lifelessness-death [Life’s Justice, Love’s Peace…that is Carl Jung’s ‘occult’ on a grid!] TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) XXXII—MIKHAIL BAKHTIN—DISCOURSE IN THE NOVEL Novel of testing—Semantic clearance, with no price to pay except solving dilemma of word games—test which words to use and not to use. (words are transmitted through influence, reading and multiple pending documented texts) Novel of education—Upon default transmission, careful undertakings mince responses with a fine grain word dispersal—for clarification, grammatical compuncture and a whole lot less confusion concerning the future of the importance of being a reader in a ‘win-win situation’ Problems of Dostoevksy’s Poetics While full of caustic intent, “Notes From Underground” steadies the course of reasonable fashions through “loopholes” or asides that denigrate a constant redundancy in non-existential literature—in turn, an approach to a non-problematic text would be to counter-attack Dostoevsky’s insecurities with critical affirmations of dialogical excellence. To reify lengthy diatribes, which often lead to excessive nullifying over-codes, symbolic logic has sought a genteel structuralist approach for preservation. REQUIRED SCREENING: “THE EARRINGS OF MADAME de... by Max Ophuls” XXXIII. Textual Strategies (sample) VIRIGNIA WOOLF—A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN Shakespeare’s Sister In an interesting bio-pictograph language of Shakespeare is interpretive through the psychological dilemmas, frequented in practicality due to familial pressures. The pressure cooker that heartfelt sympathies of “dead” famous people around him, self-destructing or self-indulging or self-centered attributes in a fashionable self-examination on Shakespeare’s noble part. Austen-Bronte-Eliot Jane Austen- V.W. writes of her determinants, her triumph in a patriarchal society, her feminine authorship talent and her unusual ability to tame the beast of masculinity. Bronte—Without a doubt an antecedent, of the disparate baggage left by Austen’s soothing qualities. Bronte sharpens wit, minces words and takes a few risks along the way. The ghost story in WUTHERING HEIGHTS is the cream of the crop (or crim-de-la-crim) Eliot—knowledge of the “transcendent” author George Eliot, is downplayed by V.W., yet not forgotten. He is a rugged individualist preferred by female critics for his maintenance of talent and common professionalism. STILL BOUND BY PHYSICS XXXIV. HEIDEGGER—HOLDERLIN and THE ESSENCE OF POETRY Essay Response: In the abbreviations of interpretive grandeur, newer theories of poetics divulge a resource of Heidegger’s Holderlin diegesis (conclusive to say the least.) To a degree, Holderlin diegesis (conclusive to say the least.) To a degree, Heidegger’s existential category, never supersedes his love for gifted authors of poetry. He argues that while words are dangerous, poetry never is—although that does not mean that preferences to a selection are not allowed. In theory and practice, poetics tame the beast of words, fulfilling a premise heretofore irreconcilable—the modern way of examining bleak nostalgia is healed by the essence of journeying through a time table to instigate exorcisms of an art that has been denigrated long enough. ( Even though Heidegger was a Nazi, his theories create dreams for a dreamer.) Lighten up to this irony: ‘I’ve never met a drug I didn’t like’…’but I only ask that no one follows me to where I am going….’ (A Matt Klicksteinian type proverb) Matt Crowe—This is the ‘youth’ of America… XV. HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION OF LITERATURE BY EDMUND WILSON (“and still do I miss the Princess of Persia, may her soul travel to the spirit land”) Essay response: While difficult to play favorites in the course of immaterial analytic studies, Wilson makes a case of historical significance that the better the artwork in a critical stance, the longer it is preserved throughout history. However, his elitism and lack of ability to defeat other artworks that do not appear to interesting to him, may in fact conjoin to a larger body of evolving works. He avoids hypocrisy by eliminating the stance-of ultra-causality—although throws caution to the wind in his rampaging course of linguistics, sociology and turns the idea that criticism may devalue classy literature according to when and when not the appropriate timing to divulge in certain art forms is necessary. Without question, his article involves excellent grammar. Marx and Freud factor into his interpretative dilemma, and with certain books going out of date, he delivers no reason to deceive that they will not be valuable again—yet his anti-censorship stance remains all too elite! XVI. KENNETH BURKE SYMBOLIC ACTION IN A POEM BY KEATS I. Epistemology --the study of thought process “Or, why I miss David Carradine a lot.” --Understanding scientific brain chemistry in subterfuge In Keats’ terms the wizardry of his words take on a challenging, yet soothing effect, “Or, why did THE KING OF POP..Michael Jackson, die too early? Or what happened to the Los Angeles McNair Family?” (more on this later). II. Epiphenomenology— --Evolution of word games, experienced --Metaphysical logic, tangentalized In Keat’s poetry his experiences informed his consciousness, which frames his artwork without redundant over-codes. Literature as Equipment for Living Essay response: Burke’s animate frequent discovery of a gateway to connectiveness and collectiveness is repudiated by nothing due to his careful determination of resourceful influence. In other words, many author’s attribute to a singular authorship, which makes it difficult to examine only one author as a source of individualism. In effect, while social strategies declare a fit perspective on fixed category, if all the other categories are left out, than the reader forgets to whom the vast attributory streams influence an author’s variability. (AUTHOR’S NOTE: Because my ex-wife saved me from death..nearly walked into traffic in France…I owe her my life, forever…) Thank you Dr. Chandra Khan for awakening me to this ‘realization.’ PHILO-KINGS OF CHOICE BETRAND RUSSELL and ZIZEK XXXVII. F.R. Leavis [excerpt] From the Great Tradition In defense of a battalion of pro-feminist discoveries, the worlds in which the profound author’s Jane Austen and The Brontes live in modes quite aloof and indifferent to their practices. Faithful studies instigate a posited nominal rejoinder of masculine redemption necessary to canonize the anti-hegemonic replay of female’s space—in turn this allows for immanence and equality, once the keys were handed over from male critics, the books that the females represented were finally in the arena—The great female authors are typically marginalized until male critics allow them access. Wouldn’t it be nice if women could make their own way into proven literacy throughout the ages without men spoiling all the fun? Why does the test of time have to be controlled by masculine power? Perhaps because, for now, it is what it is. XXXVIII. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) LIONEL TRILLING “If there are 6 billion people in the world, with an average of 80 years to live, then perhaps in 80 years 6 billion people will die…”—Aaron Sheley (mood: artfully confused, ‘It’s a God-Country-Cinema thing’) “All entertainment is art, but not all art is entertainment..” Dr. Drew Casper Trilling nullifies the pro-religious stance that art is some all encompassing God—in fact, the lighter side of a liberal education is its acceptance of views, which are often counter to the acts of wrong-doings justified by religion and other conservative annoyances that lead to folly and over-sized egotism. In fact, often times when artists denounce God, their work becomes figuratively stronger—without a dogmatic environment of rigidity that hypocritically defeats “structural” logic. In mixing many cultures, many ideas and a fair trade of emotive and intellectual ideas of no instigations become necessary. Putting up blinders to institutionalized “holy wars” will, in fact, settle the score, and artistic leverage becomes an understandable playing field. (SIDE TANGENT: Remember, this author [A.S.] received a GPA of 3.693 only .007 under Magna Cum Laude…but that was in undergraduate school…at USC) XXXIX. JEAN-PAUL SARTRE, “Why Write?” Essay response: In lieu of the quizzical eschatological permeation of dissipation among authorial disposition, Sartre delegates a response of pre-disposed ‘writerly’ institutions—albeit intuitively. In response to his question “Why Write?” he provides several answers: a. Freedom—which is a task that he believes comes naturally to the gifted. b. Existence—or an art that only deals with art itself and is at the core meaningless c. Oppression—because a modern response to “generational curses” would be to take upon the curse unto oneself—in order to alleviate the oppression imposed upon “the otherness” in a non-transcendental but quite sociological stance. STUDY BREAK: To: Steve Erickson DONOVAN’S TROUBADOUR Purgation in the name of artistic flow has always been a benchmark and high water mark of the indexical, iconic power of Donovan—known for MELLOW YELLOW, legend of ATLANTIS, reckless balladeering in AGE OF TREASON or SEASONS OF THE WITCH and inspiring cordial invitations to nostalgia in COLOURS. Don’t miss a single track of this unrelenting testament to musicality, replayability and furthermore a reach into the psyche of an era gone by. GUINEVERE is a study on the fall of Camelot. Try out the UNIVERSAL SOLDIER track, for a well played delineation of Soldier Boy struggles. Damascus is a blinding road, so be sure to lock into Donovan on any road trip and you will not miss the goods he delivers on a grand funk scale—Forever and always a love album to unburden exacting hurt and pain, washed clean in Donovan baptism. FOOD RECIPE: (BURGER MANIA) Garlic Goat Burgers Ingredients: ½ Ounce Feta Cheese 2/3 tablespoon of sliced Garlic 2 1/3 patties of Fresh Ground Beef (angus perhaps?) ½ tablespoon BBQ Sauce 1 bottle of beer (Budweiser in particular) A dash of onion salt and chili pepper. Buns of choice. Preparation instructions: Grill two patties of pounded ground beef..meanwhile spice patties with onion salt and chili pepper. Drink a bit of beer, while dabbling a bit of the fluids onto the patties.. Once cooked to liking (preferably medium/medium-rare) place cheese onto patties to allow to a melt. Drizzle on the BBQ sauce. For a brief while, grill the buns of choosing, Remove patties from grill, and remove the buns. Dash the garlic onto the patties, add whatever other condiments you can handle before you need alka seltzer, and bon appétit. STUDY BREAK (cont) The GRAVE DANGER I had on my VISION QUEST ended with this SPIRIT GUIDE NAME: NUCLEAR SHAMAN (fact or fiction)—A.T.S. Fair Trade agreement rules EMBARGO IMPOSED=No trade until the war is over… TAXES IMPOSED-No trade without commission Here’s a gibberish riddle: Thwart the Boon Block For the Noob Trot. Be wise as serpents (GAL KOOB, an irrationalist name) but be gentle as doves… I love my pipe because Magritte the painter loved his painting of one. When does unlimitedness stop and limitedness begin? GODFATHER PROVERB: “I will do anything you ask of me, insofar as I swear never to ask of you any favors in return…” LES VAMPIRES/GEURANDE PROVERB: If you weren’t there to see all of what happened than you do not have enough evidence to EVER solve the problem. SUGGESTED READING: Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an Opium Eater THREE RULES TO FEND OFF TEMPTATION 1. The world is not ours to give… 2. Tests are frustrating… 3. Live off the words written down that work for you… 4. BE QUICK TO FORGIVE HUMILITY IS MEANING End Transmission with a strange palindrome: NARCOSIZORROZIOCARN… (more tomorrow) including how I drank from a storm drain while homeless in L.A. etc etc. (The Bad News is that it was my own ‘fucking’ fault that I went all ‘kamikaze’—a figure of speech-- homeless style…) Let us pause to remember the ways of the ‘sub-genius’ or as GOOD WILL HUNTING attests, “It is not your fault.” MOVING ON… Here is another grid to lighten up my political views: Religious Tolerance Illumined Ones (-i. agency, -a. artisans) THE FAR LEFT MOVIE: ‘FAREWELL TO OLD WAYS,” by Chairman Mao--Dictatorship---Communism----Socialism----DEMOCRACY--Centrism---Republicanism---Libertarianism---Anarchism----Fascism THE FAR RIGHT MOVIE: THE FOUNTAINHEAD, as in Ayn Rand (author of Atlas Shrugged) In this scheme, it feels like our flag will always be at half mast… NEXT SCREENING SUGGESTION: Zucker Brothers’ TOP SECRET…for the line “Souvenirs, Novelties, Party Tricks…” Suggested Music: Robbie Robertson and the BAND… TEXTUAL STRATEGIES XL) SIMONE de BEAUVOIR Myths: Of Women in Five Authors 1.Montherlant—An antifeminist that believes he is God’s gift to humanity—an easy point to protest as in Biblical terms, men and women are equal. 2. Lawrence—An early queer theorist that dispositions men in honor of women, though over and under masculinizing upon his females request—i.e. Women are created equal, but men need deflation for this work. 3. Claudel—A firm believer in a non-hostile immanence, which is like a reset button that clears the air of noisy bits of anti-feminist—in turn practicalizing religion through implication. 4. Breton—Decontaminates the function of the mother-whore dispensation by returning the equation the equation to a simple mother-daughter relationship to a simple mother-daughter relationship, without an echoing a superstructure of standardization 5. Stendhal—A reanimation of the feminine mystique, on his own terms—without question (believed he could go in and out of paintings unscathed.’ “Life Springs Eternal…” SCREENING ADVISE: To take the mind off of the ‘shit-storm’ we’re all in, I highly recommend ED WOOD XLI) Northrop Frye The Archetypes of Literature I-To deliver an old stereotype into an archetype there are a few tactics imposed by an organized mindset— a) Compatibility—defined by honoring a respective subject b) Internal conflict—dealing with a set of thresholds before they overcome you c) External conflict—rewarding positive behavior and ignoring negativity II-To deliver from idiosyncratic complaints of unnecessary ‘muck-raking’ of time adjustments that linger in three philosophical ways a)RHETORIC—Itemized solutions to endless issues at stake in texts and orality. b)PHILOLOGY—Study of word patterns c)PSYCHOLOGY—anthropology (historical/social precedents) and psychoanalysis (reconstructively speaking) III-Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (bound by time and space) Rhythm—a)use less products for conversation Lyrics—b) package them carefully for liberation Music—c) eliminate the need for greed for centrism “Always look on the bright side of Life.”—Monty Python’s Life of Brian Sneak peek at magic text (found later within in the Phelan pages) Tears—resurrection---gain Laughter+Loss=WAKING THE DEAD “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride,”—Bette Davis, ALL ABOUT EVE Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers “Take the Ultimate Trip”—TAGLINE for 2001: A Space Odyssey “What would ‘Sputnik’ do?”—Anonymous “If the ‘NAZIS’ disbanded UFA why’d they love their movies? What a fucking hoax that swarm of morons turned out to be, trying to turn genuine artists into propagandists…the same goes for all ‘bigotry’. Sometimes it’s a good idea not to make something about what it isn’t. In fact, hell hath no fury like a critic scorned”-- A hard won philosophy, also anonymous THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF-DESTRUCT Good advice: Take a vacation to Rome, Italy and visit the VATICAN Screening advice: AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK XLII) TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) ODYSSEUS’ SCAR “If the kingdom of Israel were established in Israel, the world would just as well last forever, especially if everyone was invited.”—Aaron Sheley “Call off God or gods and the world will sustain itself longer, do you understand?”—Rev. Ned Denver I. Contrition --Narrative structure typically begins with a hero (or anti-hero_ rising to a challenge after accepting a belief --Typically, the hero must gather time and money and supplies to achieve his first set of goals. II. Abstraction --If you are taking this seriously then you are not living for the moment enough. --Purity defies all sin’s against an art form, which implies there are no rules. III. Restitution --Whatever damage you create, even in your mind, you find a way to pay back… XLIII. HANS-GEORG GADAMER The Elevation of the Historicality of Understanding Neo-classicism explained: i) Heidegger’s Disclosure of the Forestructure of Understanding a. modern classicism—i.e. Film: Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia ii) The Classical Example a. Classical classicism—i.e. Film: It’s a Wonderful Life AUTHOR’S NOTE: I forgive all of my former detractors, as I realize now that I cannot carry everyone’s burdens all at once…including my old dog Patch, who I should’ve treated better…same with my puppy, Rusty…And by the way, I’m not anyone’s God or savior, just a simple person…(myth dispelled) iii) The Hermeneutic Significance of Temporal Distance a. Post-classical classicism: i.e. The Last Picture Show b. Post-modern classicism: i.e. Pulp Fiction iv) The Principle of Effective—History a. neo-classical literature: i.e. novel: Crime and Punishment b. neo-classical film: i.e. A Trip to the Moon, Gosford Park, Gangs of New York c. neo-classical poetry: Emily Dickinson d. neo-classical criticism: Film Critic: Rudolf Arnheim MIDTERM (answer key): (Hell hath no fury, like a ‘Sheley’ scorned…) BRING ME THE ALFREDO GARCIA: 1. We know this from the learning of Spanish. 2. The process Sam Peckinpah develops the film 3. Editing design Eisensteinian, but for a right-wing agenda 4. Thus, the movement of understanding is constant from the whole to the first act and then changes to a revenge movie during the second—The structural metaphors in use are gun battles or “blood ballets” are episodically stylistic—Like the unusual editing in WITHIN OUR GATES by legend Oscar Micheaux. It’s a Wonderful Life 1. Populist Progressive Ideology George Bailey learns resistance to a system where charity, temperance and tolerance are the key to the author Frank Capra’s intent 2. Genre—Social Problem/Screwball/Comedy/Fantasy Hybrid Film. To differentiate this hermeneutic linguist societal imprint in objective/subjective aspects through Romance to Idealism to an unlikely ending in a total row of metaphysics. Rhetoric: It’s like asking…”why is the Liberty Bell Cracked?” The Last Picture Show—Instant Textual Interp. 1-Directed by Peter Bogdanovich 2-Featuring an ensemble (collective casting) 3-Black and White film about the “Last Christian Movie Standing” PULP FICTION Review: A total ransacking of all things scatological, in the ‘bad taste’ era of cinematic discoveries—Pulp delivers the goods and keeps everything Fiction…Dana Polan of USC and NYU explains its pure Postmodernity in BFI book, He goes back to the result of our analysis of hermeneutics/linguistic analytic games. iv. a. neo-classical-Crime and Punishment 1. Tract on reasoning orthodoxically 2. Either Crime and Punishment or Both 3. A sinner’s manifesto 4. A shockwave of redemption 5. An historical phenomenon c. A Trip to the Moon Review: A wonderful illusionary/allusion to the ways of formalism. What goes before the enlightenment is on the basis of the aesthetics of genius. Romantic expressionist. Never discredited for individuality—a hypnotic dream sequence (like an airplane blowing up in the sky in modern times etc.)—embellishing the myth a—myth positive conditions of a futuristic society temporally distanced conventions—a radical difference of space in this correlative also inspired fantasies like PHANTOM CARRIAGE and horrors like AVENGING CONSCIENCE by D.W. Griffith (origins) b—iconography-Director Melies takes us to the height of free enlightenment GOSFORD PARK a- A circle of understanding of two classic texts Rules of the Game and a Jane Austen appealingness anticipating completion in form-invisibility style-multiple layers of socio-political bourgeoisie depth b- Valuable historical landmark GANGS OF NEW YORK Spell-binding, gripping, sets the New Standard for historical in the Godfather era. c-Emily Dickinson 1-Brings about hermeneutical consciousness 2-Unbroken stream of tradition 3-Centrist diegetic ideology 4-The transmitted text of objective interest d. Rudolf Arnheim (From FILM THEORIES AND CRITICISM by Marshall Cohen and Gerald Mast) 1-Silent Film Critic Prejudiced and Biased to the silent era and not afraid to let everyone know that “pure” film ended with sound, which, for the being and time is accurate (save Musicals, for example) 2-Non-historical problematic, unless various audience view the film 3-Language for the sake of language 4-Films using a scientific method. 5-Lachrymose (or slightly slothful)—toward censorship MIDTERM OVER Break Time: “The news of my suicide was extremely exaggerated…”—Aaron Sheley (Tomorrow…the final cometh…) XLIV. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) SUSAN SONTAG—AGAINST INTERPRETATION The series of standards opposed to cinematic philosophy will never end because it is dubious. Whoever disowns certain films brings them back in a fly-by-night operation but deals with kindred spirits to also remain aloof. Suspend your disbelief and Sontag will disown you. She is a realist. Realism is a practical way to be a cinematic historian, market soothsayer, or philosopher of certain camps of undervalued and underprivileged. Her first task as philosopher-queen would be to film more impactful movies about things that have not happened, will not happen and will never happen again. Liars in the Non-Bazinian school never prosper until the day when criticism merge with a ‘Truffautian/Godardian’ dialectic for personages and the epigram for feminism the pick of the litter is ‘Alice Guy,’ ‘Agnes Varda,’ and ‘Catherine Breillat.’ Furthermore, the longer a secret is kept about an upcoming project the easier it is to sell tickets—but how do you win over a critic— a. Submission to their powers b. Subjectivitation of consequentialism c. Possessing many properties d. Including everyone in a ‘round-table’ grand dichotomy. e. Analyzing every shot of the world’s ‘Great Films That said… FINALS WEEK (Answer Key) A TRIP TO THE MOON Predecessor to Birth of a Nation 1. In No Way Relates to It 2. Is not anti-foreign 3. Formalist Alone (not a hybrid in a classical sense) 4. Among the First Modernist Short Films UN CHIEN ANDALOU A vision quest into sensitive areas, broken taboos and unleashed demons—it is so hallucinatory that it will bring back your sense of interpretive reason. Yet again it is Anti-Birth of a Nation, in the very respect that it derives from another nation. Dali + Bunuel went down in history in a blaze of hysterical, subversive philosophies. Eyes get cut in half, ants march out of hands, dead horses get dragged around, nuns carry boxes on bicycles—all kinds of strange stop motion—It is like an invitation to a Svankmajerian Mad Hatter Tea Party ALICE sequence—only further. (NOTHING IS SACRED). It is the ultimate in surrealism and contains only nightmares without exits, furthermore, is tangential to a non-cineaste. “Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a ‘critic,’ which is why I submit my powers to my friends, ‘outta respect…’” Hiroshima Mon Amour and Last Year at Marienbad Fairly Opposites of GOLD RUSH- a wild romp through nature’s finest ‘Tramp’ stand-offs with gun-toting barrels just the gag reel of mountain men’s fortuneless to save the poor from monolithic impracticalities. Furthermore, no other comedy will outlast you and out craze you to indulge. (Rumor has it that Chaplin smoked many hash pipes on and off the set, but it is forbidden knowledge.) JULES and JIM – A spotless, flawless and covered up for too long mix of genres (all comedy and all drama) a ‘dramedy of fairers’ that spends all it time entertaining and showing the dark side of Baudelaire’s stand offish attitude toward ladies (Jeanne Moreau) rebels against the antifeminist lie by spiriting away, which expect to stay out of bedlam by inventing it—music interludes have never had better timing than in Truffaut’s towering achievement. SINGIN in the RAIN – Exhilarating, fun and restless (“All I Do the Whole Night Through is Dream of You,” or “Good Morning,” performed in part by Debbie Reynolds.) Title song makes it all go away, “Singin’ in the Rain,” excavated from a prior resource in the early musical library of MGM as all the “b” musical songs became “a” lists when Gene Kelly brought on the rain number.) A sensation. The final number is a show-stopper that brings up a curtain on false pretenses of production value and You’ll never forget the pastiche that is the Broadway Melody. The key to an animated victory is Donald O’ Connors “Make ‘em Laugh,” you will bounce off the walls when Donnie flies through one. The transition from the silent era to sound made easy by the Hollywood Musical forever. -- The peacefulness of the watchful eye will encounter a hypnotic peaceful tranquility of self-actualizations). Unlike the Fifth Generation of China which has only heterosexual visions of cinema (see also RAISE THE RED LANTERN and/or the G.W. Pabst film (not to be confused with my old buddy G.W. Bush, who I used to hang out with) German Expressionist Pandora’s Box--) Anyway, this relates to less caustic theology of stigmas where the light and life always come out of the darkness—but remember in a spiritual mode…no ideologies except religious ones…for an anti-humanist/pro-humanist stasis and retrospective phenomenology. (Devoid of epistemology) or maybe it just meaningless postmodernity. “Have a ‘Mysterious Journey’ along the way. -- 8 ½: A deserted sci-fi project that experiences so much chaos folly ‘musical reviews’ that no one can rescue Fellini’s spaceships, in particular it soothes, womanizes and insures a slightly healthier any goal… Whereas, Fellini bottoms out on so many levels with his 8 ½… Extra credit for anyone that names at least three of the films that appeared before 8 ½ (i.e. Variety Lights, La Strada or La Dolce Vita etc. etc.) -- WIZARD OF OZ In the MGM tradition comes Victor Fleming’s Frank Baum tale, patching together good versus evil in a wicked plot to unhatch color films to the masses. Do not return to ‘black and white’ until you wake up. Forget your cares to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” sung by Judy Garland. Once in Oz the Lollipop kids will Guild you until you “Follow the Yellow Brick Road,” as instructed unto Dorothy by Glenda, who gives her the only way home to meet friends and find a Wizard in a maze of franchising deliberation, providing intelligence for a scarecrow of theology, providing a timed-heart for a scientific “Tin-Man” holistic robot, and giving structural courage to a “cowardly-Lion” of apolitical/political agendas. Remember, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” Final Part Two NEVER-ENDING STORY What do you expect? The title alone defends the theory that the story never ends. Bookshops, dragons, poetic music and “Nothing,” is defeated by a dreamers belief in the magic of dreaming. There is nothing related to ‘suspense’ but rather a ‘surprise’ in Wolfgang Peterson’s mirage. In fact, Rock-people, wheeling gelflings and the real world perspective) to his romance with a princess in a castle and it is reported that the film made gang-busters (with 40 percent overhead of production, 30 percent distribution and 30 percent exhibition…an ideal approach to cinema…the film returned a profit) at the deproblematized, even in its Manichean (or off the metaphors, fly with a luck dragon, dodge blazing statues and pass through this dream-land of recycled fairy tales. --- Aaron, thanks for sending me your work. I got it from Heidi last night. It looks great! a Gesamtkunstwerk in the vein of Zukovski's long poem ''A'', Pound Cantos or Olson Maximus Poems..Will read it as soon as I get my printer to work.. More later. Hope everything is well with you. Where are you now? Best, Javier (“The” Director and Co-Author of “OEDIPUS MARSHAL” Simple answer: I am now in Denver, Colorado…and let’s put it this way, ‘wherever you go, there you are.’ (For the spectacle that this answer may create, I do apologize)… VAMPIRE HUNTER D (anime) The Vampire Hunter is half ‘Geurande’ (of Les Vampires protagonism) and half Nosferatu (Murnau), he defeats floating eyes, wicked serpent shape-shifters, learns from his talking hand (Hands of Orlac style, directorly style) In a sci-fi, fantasy, horror (levitation, castle storm, werewolves). In a grid of animative reproduction it breaks no rules. -- ALLURES Nothing doing with the antispiritual non-metaphysical realism of class sociologies of LES VAMPIRES. In every way it is only a cool down technique recommended for egotistical maniacs to watch in a haze of religious banners that when worked together by spiritualists, mediums and transcendence will create a fade out of tired special effects to a land Beyond the 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY laser light show, “Used heavily in Arthur C. Clarke” and Stanley Kubrick’s Beguiling Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite (?) Sequence… PAUSE for a STUDY BREAK My moment of “Buddhist” yugen (From Joseph McBride’s HAWKS on HAWKS): “I (Howard Hawks) asked him (Raymond Chandler) to explain who killed so-and-so. He wired back and said it was George somebody. I said it couldn’t be George; He wired back and said, “Then I don’t know either.” Actually, we didn’t care. It was the first time I made a picture and just decided I wasn’t going to explain things. I was just going to try and make good scenes.” TOP FIVE FAVORITE ALBUMS 1-BEATLES: Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 2-Miles Davis: Bitches Brew 3…PARSIFAL by Richard Wagner (Von Karajan) 4-LEAD BELLY’S Greatest Hits 5-VELVET UNDERGROUND’S (self-titled, Andy Warhol Produced) ORACLE OF DELPHI (unhinged) Lesbians naked writhing in a giant bowl of venomous chemicals produced by snakes that they played with. They say that like a crystal-ball (wizard proper or soothsayer), these virgin lesbians could tell the future by having sex with each other on drugs etc. A high school PSYCHOLOGY teacher Mr. Squibb once told me after taking the controls of CESSNA airplane, “You flew, all right.” Herb Farmer, keeper of the FORBIDDEN ARCHIVE in the basement of the Norris at USC, explains that all films are important for some odd reason… FINAL (continued) PART TWO METROPOLIS “Art is thinking in images” In terms of German Expressionism not even a dream of a Moloch pit to devour worker drones can topple the TOWER OF BABEL myth in the networked device of evil conspiracies unhatched by a research team that creates a semi-Satanic robot to defeat the utopia. When the pleasure garden reserves itself to trade in front of a defeated giant of business pressure, the real woman, is, in the end, not a robot, but ‘flesh and blood.’ GULLIVER’S TRAVELS (animated, 1938) When a giant from our world travels to a small continent full of little people, a war incited by lost romance, the giant thwarts the war by breaking free of the workers bonds and flings a battalion of ships back to sea—in theoretical terms death brings pain but life springs eternal. Philosophically this is compatible with everything. Truly this is the only all-time great first animated feature. Jonathan Swift turned childish for all ages by the Fleischer’s factory of fanfare of fun. Do not defeat the Giant or the Giant will defeat you. An utopic fantasy ‘toon with awesome sing-a-long songs for the whole family business. BLADE RUNNER “Poetic imagery is a means of creating the strongest possible impression.” Ridley Scott’s most isolated effort of modern science miracles. The Director’s Cut (excising narration, altered “high-rise” ending.) In effect, the cult of Blade Runner has dominated Los Angeles ethos for at least 20 years. GODARD—(THE NEW WAVE DAYS) Examples: Les Carabiniers Breathless Alphaville 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her… Contempt La Chinoise (final film) My Life to Live ROGOPAG 7 Deadly Sins A Woman is a Woman Petit Soldadt (sic?) and Pierrot le fou An entertaining diversionary to avoid all revolutions—A case in mistaken martyrdom from a tennis match—through a sex appeal (Belmondo and Karina) to a beautiful apocalypse wave-lengthiness, breathtaking and a total inhalation of fresh air. Approaching strange car rides of lust, long lost philosophies of Robinson Crusoe, pulls a total critical mess of infractory Brecht/Threepenny Opera approaches the end result of the “end Vietnam project…” (Note: Wouldn’t it be nice if Characters only came alive in their films…more on this treatise later…) RASHOMON There are seven or four sides to every story if you look at it from certain perspectives—episodically (QUEEN) to autonomous (KING)— The bookends—(parallel syntagms) are of a humanist approach— The interior long walk shots of the woodcutter are (oppositional—bracket syntagms) woodcutter are (oppositional bracket syntagms like KNIGHTS in chess) diagonalizing episodes The four interior supposed lies are the infrastructure…(SCENES or PAWNS) 1. Swordsman samurai bandit stoicizes the Ronin legend by raping a bride of a nobleman 2. The two men duel over the epicurean woman and the winner takes all. 3. A demon-possessed necromancer tells of how the woman brought the Pythagorean battle about erotically savage-like 4. Cynically nobody wins and everybody loses-- BOOK ENDS: Rain at the Rashomon Gate (The humanist touch of Kurosawa) LORD OF WAR A razzle-dazzle slow train wreck of aesthetic right-wing box office deliverance. So out of control that you will feel the pain of every gunshot—Like GUN CRAZY it is forever ambiguous swinging to the left-wing during the prostitution sequences but ultimately sends out a message that when Africa is at war, maybe they need guns—However, Nicolas Cage gets his freak on with an arsenal of weapons and that alone is worth my ticket price. -- SHOOTER A delusional mishmash of priceless architecture gone down the tubes of gun-battle hypocrisy—no morals, no decisions and a scatterbrained attitude—however, has a Hunchback or Mr. Hyde element of adventurous pacing that who cares what it is about. PSYCHO 1. Auteur: Alfred Hitchcock—Genre:Suspense Thriller 2. Horror hybrid—the mother of modern horror 3. Episodic syntagms stream through the consciousness of a memory that will never fade. 4. Made either to bluff serial-killers, or will it create them? 5. Bernard Herrmann’s score, Joseph Stefano’s script and Saul Bass’ titles scrape, strip and slide to take the film down to its bare bones. BLOOD OF A POET Make hypnosis not psychosis in the Cocteau camp. Nothing like a little confusion to create French reasons to agree to disagree. It is part nightmare, part wish fulfillment, part logic and all hallucination. The fantasyland of it all will sweep you away into the ‘hard won’ short-film issues, by riding the line. After seeing it, Cocteau will never leave you or forsake you. GRADING SCALE F-For INFORMAL D-For DECEPTIVE C-For Cross-Fire of beliefs and ideals B-for Buenos (Spanish for Good) A-Accumulative Knowledge (Quick confession: As a professor assistant, I was never good at keeping attendance…) NOW THE SURVEY 1 2 3 4 5 1= Best 2=Better 3=Average 4=Fair and 5= Poor 1. How well is the class defined? 2. Is the message clear? 3. How well do you like your Teacher? 4. Etc. At this point, I’d circle three for “average” Just a thought: If you have secret lovers, wait until the right moment to ‘hook-up’ with them…Or, if you fly too high, (In the words of the late Stanley Kubrick), spend more time working on the ‘wings’…(Another of my Randomly Accessible Memories, while strolling down Santa Clause Lane…This too is Random…)…or as my ‘friends and lovers’ have made somewhat clear: We love him, but all we see is ‘pain.’ Also, a shout out to the ‘lady-friends’ that I used to think were phony…I think I took the ‘Holden Caulfield’ complex a bit too far…and remember the sting of ‘divorce’ never goes away…or does it? In other words, like the U2 song, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for…” I’m basically coming closer to what I’m looking for, there I said it, and I don’t regret it…Of course, I have no one to blame but myself…thank you to Amanda Armato and Jordan Wood for sharing their ways with me…it goes without saying that there is also a place in my heart for the lovely Vanessa Gates, who is and always will be respected and treated like a ‘queen’ and a special shout out to ‘ol Lorenzo Manetti for setting me on the path of a ‘calmer’ war film..which, for now, I’d like to call THE LOST MISSION CONTINUE… “And remember, if you cannot make the ‘Indian’ laugh…start again…” John August was right, every day is like finals week around here. I owe this to JASON SQUIRE’S candid classroom (author of THE MOVIE BUSINESS BOOK) ORIGINAL HONORS CINEMA TREATISE on FILM My philosophy is epicurean and heterogeneous. It incorporates multiple theories style and film going experiences, I’ll start by briefly stating that cinema literacy may be at in a dire crisis. I grew up seeing mostly what I thought were somewhat rotten movies in the 80’s (let’s just say that that was then, and that was then—now I’ve gone back to see many of the John Hughes films that I used to think were pointless, and discovered that there really aren’t anything but ‘Great Films,’ even though I used to harbor slight resentment toward over-sentimentality—Alas, many were unavailable in Colorado…Then again, I’ll never forget how much fun I had watching ‘Home Alone’ or one of my all time faves, ‘Firestarter’ etc. but my uncle, Robert Sheley, forced me into (in a good way) a Clockwork Orangian ‘Ludovico style’ History of the Horror Film, the Kung-Fu Movie—Ever since I’ve had a fascination towards genre driven spectacles—(Don’t even trip…because there must always be some kind of a Grand Inquisitor, or at least, as a test of faith…), peculiar to America, but also like in international art movements. Mainly I’ve grown to love ‘auteurs,’ again American and intentional—especially those who put everything on the line like Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau, I love directors (even the hated on ones) who gamble on everything and exploit their vast resources to go against the status quo—Directors like Abel Gance and Erich von Stroheim who believe in the art forum’s form of cinema and take it to the limits. I also value those filmmakers who make films for nothing. The limits create the art. I don’t look at old great movies as though they ‘caged’ an essence, they were in a marginalized museum. They are still alive (living and breathing things) and they ‘all’ play a great role in my life. I mean, I have to have my Howard Hawks as much as I have to have Robert Bresson. But just because I love films that recklessly explore and remain true to their artistic convictions whether they are political, they are political the central quest in movie-making has not been lost, movies can still be more relevant and more powerful than ever as they are connected to vast networks of competing media. I didn’t begin to think of cinema’s ‘responsibility’ on its audience until recently and I still am very vague on notions of audience receptions (or forgiveness to reach condonation) ‘another no-brainer’ (cut the guilt trips, or die tryin', in other words)—But I believe in film and filmmakers—I believe artists are still movers and shakers in society and I believe the ‘waning’ love (as I used to experience, for no logical reason) around the world for movies, will rise again in a new exciting manifestation (for instance, I was recently pleased by ANGELS and DEMONS by Ronny Howard). I believe that my continuing search for meaning in the art of film will lead me into some aspect in the art film will lead me into some aspect of cinema in the future academia (l’etters, d’arts, sciencias), filmmaking—it’s not important, as long as I do my part to rekindle the once burning flame of the art of the motion picture. (As Francis Ford Coppola has done for all of us, in his APOCALYPSE NOW: REDUX 2001 or Wong Kar Wai’s ASHES OF TIME). Again I apologize for my once ‘terse’ and ‘glib’ approach to what I am now gaining a softer edge form, as I switch genres, very carefully etc. etc. Again, here’s three groovy rules to live by to get by in H-town (Hollywood). 1. All We Have to Fear is Hollywood Herself 2. 0=0 times e/mc (squared) = 1 times 0=0 (No ‘nukes’ is good ‘nukes’ 3. Everything else is a free ‘academic’ dispensary AUTHOR’S NOTE (to lighten up to): (If in Paris, France, you should take the trouble to visit the Sorbonne Library, remember, in a Byzantinian structure, some documents were meant to pend forever—In other words ‘DON’T’ check out books on ‘Waterloo’ because between you and I, they are long and boring, and in my view, there is no ‘Waterloo’…) Other Films I have made that ‘will be’ available upon request (some time ‘down the road’) ---PRISMATIC SPECTRUM (around 30+ hours of raw musical stock) ---SHADOW OF DEATH (to be played on ‘arena’ mode only for the ‘sound check’ or to be watched in a drunken stupor…) ---RUT (a lengthy ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ art house flick) ---DEAD BABY: THE MOTION PICTURE ( a ‘lame-duck’ exploitation flick…not for all audiences…) (sooner or later, more will be revealed on these ‘Hot Topics’) You know, switching ‘genres’ really is the world’s ‘Most Dangerous Game…’…It’s a ‘JEDI-QUARTER-MASTER’ thing…or my ‘BRITISH-IRISH-GERMAN’ side…’And remember, whatever hurts the body of film studies, hurts everyone…(Trust me, after Guest Lecturing in front of Janelle Pope’s MEDIA class at Mesa State University (what with a Mr. Stack-ian impetus, I realize that ARISTOTLE flies way easier than the late and great ‘MARX’ and ‘FREUD’.. XLV. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) VICTORY SHLOVSKY I. Art as Technique Essay response: In congruence to a word creates artist theory, Tolstoy never dissipates from his Rigid Ways but other communist word propagationists disillusion grandiosity for the sake of lyricism. Poetics are aroused from deeper meanings than any one set of standard “over-arches” a singular franchise. However, the author theory has strength in numbers so it applies with rapid fire and lucidity. However, the author theory has strength in numbers so it applies with rapid fire and lucidity ‘a been there, done that approach, which never fails’. However, nothing over implicates word ratification over simple minds than a totalistic heterogeneity. If capital texts crumble, then so do all linguistic codes; If linguistic codes crumble words become caustic and no one wants disenfranchisement so they always stick with their favorite words (In my case, for eternity, I like this phrase, “STAY OUT OF THE WAR ROOM, LEBOWSKI” a play on words from mixed sources.) in freer societies until someone gets hurt, then words change. Socio-linguistic battles are never won this way. (“Scientists have already proven that thoughts are evolving away from deadly constructs,” or “I believe in nothing, therefore I am guilty of nothing,” or “I never used your name in front of the detective, I swear” lines from SHADOW OF DEATH. Some polar oppositionals weren’t meant to mix (although my semi-cousin ‘Ryan Ricks’ has gone through hell in jail, and I pray for him constantly, even if he is a cold-hearted killer (to an extent, but he is the father of my nephew Caleb…) A dogma ending Dr. Seuss joke to avoid “isms”: I WOULD NOT COULD NOT IN A BOX… Meanwhile, Here is the everyman guide to the progress report of micro-economics (or how to balance a check-book) (rank and money matter) Checks--$3.14|$120.64|$482.56 Dividends--$241.28|$6.28|$60.32|$30.16 Balances--$12.54|$15.08 (The pattern here is quite simple, keep the numbers aligned like a ‘perfect circle’) VIEW LOG: BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ episode “IN THE DEPTHS OF SILENCE” (Fassbinder, 1980) The downside of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse DEATH—FAMINE---PLAGUE—WAR Helpful Threshold Guardians to pull through these ‘Power of Myth’ maneuvering style… BEGUILOR vs. DEATH DESTRACTOR vs. FAMINE SUPPRESSOR vs. PLAGUE CONFUSOR vs. WAR (some thresholds were just built to last) (of course, it is a good idea to stay out of the affairs of others…due to the dangerous world we live in, I really do not want to know what goes on ‘behind-the-scenes’ at all.) Here’s another quick dramedy of life to take into account for the heck of it: An Annulment Contract (trial run…with intent to payback in a ‘whittle’ down economic return of the ‘favors granted’ especially for those I’ve ‘stolen’ from…of course, sometimes you gotta steal to eat...JOKE REMINDER) Here goes: TO ANUL (with regards to sticking to an intent to payback the ex-husband or ex-wife in whatever legal arrangements were made in the divorce agreement etc.) A wise man once stated that if you love someone, you should set them free—Out of fear for any further ‘codependency’ I believe that MR.----- and MS.----- should no longer be considered divorced or separated to avoid further ‘engagement’ that way they can be free to pursue other interests and other interested parties---Good Books describe the ‘lust’ in a man’s mind is almost as bad as ‘lust’ itself. Perhaps this ‘thought-crime’ will disappear upon a clean break—Because of difficult circumstances that range emotions in a ticking time bomb of biological clocks, which should be heretofore noted that if the marital contract be broken, than there was not a ‘cleaving’ of sensibility, so to call it even and go for a clean break and fresh start: MR.-------- signature and MRS.--------- signature If agreed on, and that alone….DULY NOTED…Requires a Notary Public Author’s Note: Believe me, gang, I am still “really” new at this…so I’m working on an unwavering abstraction of ‘anti-guilt.’ It is yet another, AGE-OLD DEBATE… XLVI-STRUCTURALIST-FORMALIST I-PROBLEMS of GENESIS of LITERARY PHENOMENA a. ‘reject theories of naïve evaluation’ b. ‘analysis of separate elements of a work, such as composition, style, rhythm and syntax in prose and the rhythm and semantics in poetry, provides sufficient evidence that these elements, within certain limits, can be abstracted as a working hypothesis, although they are interrelated and interacting. c. Some things never grow kitsch (like a romantic comedy I want to work on, titled SHIP OF FOOLS, as I have lost my most gorgeous leading lady to date Janelle Pope, it might be interesting to steer to another route) some things go in and out of style, humanists are in it for everybody only animals love stereotypes but wouldn’t we rather be archetypes? Not in a structural way because we are what we are and nobody ever changes—unless we rewrite stories to make them change d. Is revisionist history allowed? Well, documents change over the years and we need to get used to it because there’s always room. e. Decoupage—a systematic cross between signifiers and non-signifiers, which are sign. Camp and cult is sometimes good, sometimes bad, but it all breaks even in a communist system that will end all beliefs to only believe in one. TOP FIVE PREFERENTIAL ANIMATED SHORT FILMS 1. Allures (Jordan Belson) 2. La Merle (Norman McLaren) 3. Optical Poem (Oskar F.) 4. Particles in Space (Len Lye) 5. Phantasmagorie (Emil Cohl—see above article) What if “god” created a world where even he can be surprised— Prayer like the St. Mary Rosary “HAIL MARY” makes differences in quite a few lives…in other words, although my mind was under generational assaults of Book Lag Dementia, sometimes even words cannot make up for these differences…but it is worth a damned shot. (I’m sorry for all the ‘pain’ I have caused everyone, as I’m sure that I don’t even know the ‘half of it’—Like a LOCKET. f. Once you are in a time loop of word games, it is easier to stay with the order of events. g. Capitalists often oppose the communists to organize a bank system. Travel Tip: If in Cairo, Egypt remember this gag: “You can crawl, you can walk, and you can hobble—but don’t miss the Sphinx.” ‘Just Words’ N=National priorities E=Entertainment and thoughtfulness W=Weather (meteorology, like by my old pal Chris Tomer etc.) S=Sports (Go on to next page for further hijinx) Here now is a RESUME example (for all of those in career transitions): Aaron Sheley Address and Tele (in transition) DENVER, CO aaron_sheley@yahoo.com WORK: Plato’s Cave Productions. Position: Cinematic Writer/Director and Novel Publisher. Film: Shadow of Death. Novel: Paradise Faust. Self-Established Art Company, 2008. (New Film: Prismatic Spectrum in the Works). Self-Employed. Entertainment Today. Los Angeles Based Magazine. Position: Art Film Critic. 2006-2007. Employer: Mathew Klickstein. Aspen Art Museum/Oasis Clubhouse. Cinematic Writer/Lead Actor. Film: Oedipus Marshal. 2006. (Film is Currently Screening World-Wide). Employer: Javier Tellez. EDUCATION: California Institute of the Arts. Student of the MFA Critical Studies Writing Program. Post-college Experience. 2002. Mentor: Jon Wagner. University of Southern California. Graduated with Bachelor’s From School of Cinema-Television (School of Cinematic Arts). 1998-2002. Reference: Richard Jewell, Co-Dean of School. LEISURE: Reading Philosophy, Religious Texts and Classic Literature. Travel Music Television Cinema Psychology (recommended reading, I LOST IT AT THE MOVIES by Pauline Kael—a film reviewer—‘which basically sums up my jagged edged background check.) XLVII—TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) WILLIAM EPSON Epilogue to Seven Types Ambiguity Structuralists reconstruct Deconstructuralists deconstruct And they come to terms with each other They get away with it. Take again for instance Fassbinder’s BERLIN-ALEXANDERPLATZ, which is used to dissect this analogy 1. Director Fassbinder- A pot-smoking, gay German director that made the world’s longest exhibition marvel of a film (15+ hrs.) 2. Poetic Homage’s are all around us. 3. Parallel Gangster/Romance/Epic Period Piece of Weimar Era Germany 4. Endless variations of montage 5. Perfectly Timed Acting Exterior and Interior Set Designs Poetry In the darkness of my heart Leave a drink of thirstful crimson Flight is evolution’s start Guild thine might on crimson Interestingly, I believe communists are no longer into war for profit or any other reason. Eastern cultures value peace-making—even statements that do not conform to any code of “isms” will eventually be free from this Dogmatic situation. (The visualizer explains the whole thing off by asking what good it will do?!) Going after this critic is like a Quixotic Windmill Chaser on a Cloud (see also Gorillaz-Feel Good INC. music video recommended.) “social comparisons or derivation” are key formulas to owning some kind of metaphysical train-set. Empson you are an infinite hall of mirrors, “for the satisfaction of the mind” Intensify dispassionately Fallacies exist in almost everything Self-contradiction is a constant— In communism identification is valueless, except typically everyone gets paid for being human. Antinomies—(anti-symbols) Proustian intimacies create a passion for the world’s most prolific author—it is “the nature of the organism” of writing…”or you are carrying too much”… The only thing I must agree to disagree with is when Empson claims “the cult of irrationalism is such a bore” does not make sense because that is a Chinese Box Structure I will always partake of. Like the statement “Rainbows always go above Golden Cities” is considered partially irrational. Logic games are a race against time. (No negative sensibilities intended.) Rediscover knowledge by abandoning thoughts and feeling. One drawback to left wing philosophy is that Right Wing politics are often conducive to better business practices and money-making. So let’s all just have a ‘long talk’ about ‘nothing.’ Joke Break: “I think I need a wet-nurse to absolve my pain…” Film Idea: ORGY OF THE DAMNED It is like Song of Songs meets Ecclesiastes Actual Note from Blonde Bombshell Nicole Traynor (in my TV days): (paraphrased): You are a sexy animal…etc. Quick RECAP: Philosopher kings, queens, princes, and princesses (not to mention jesters) (Audience be thine own critique) Herein is the “un-church” of Ecclesiastes Defined By “Aaron Sheley” the ‘hypothetical bullet-blocker’ Pre-classic-Lumiere and Melies BOOK of: I SAMUEL CLASSICAL Anaxagoras, Solomon, Pythagoras, Diogenes, Plato, Plotinus, Aristotle, Dr. Willard, Sophocles, D.W. Griffith, John Ford POST CLASSICAL Bollywood, St. Augustine, St. Aquinas, William Wyler, Frank Capra, Jean Renoir, Dante Alighieri MODERN Oscar Micheaux, Immanuel Kant, and Hegel, Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Bresson, Akira Kurosawa, Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau, Francis Ford Coppola, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, BOOK OF JOB, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Jesu Christe, Jon Wagner, Edwin McCann, Ross Scimeca, Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, John Stuart Mill, J. Bentham, John Locke, and David Hume, Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz POSTMODERN George Lucas, Husserl, Foucault, Derrida, Duchamp, Steven Spielberg, Todd Boyd, Ayn Rand, John Hospers NEOCLASSICAL Ron Howard NEOMODERN Wittgenstein and B. Russell FIRST ECCLESIASTICAL CHURCH (hopefully not to be formed for another few millennia…or whenever) Slogan: “All Invited: Food, Wine and Cinema Bible Study Included” Like the days of my first “all-male” collegiate apartment with Aaron Pearce, Ted Zacher and Gabriel Gonzales (a rumpus room, to say the least)… Moving on… Herein is an excerpt of my ten year collaborator and close friend Matt K.’s newly published novel DAISY GOES TO THE MOON Chapter 13. “THE TV MAN” ‘At the surprise of all our characters involved in this fiendishly rousing tale there was a great surge of a energy and all the glowing blinking lights went out and on again. All the beekers and such burst loudly and both Daisys gasped at the same time in the same way as though in echo. They clung tightly to Mr Z who was a bit embarrass but containing it well. And then there before them there was a man who was rather sickly and with a craggy face and was 42. Who are you asked Mr Z nervesly. I am just returned from the future said the man who I should mention had wild gray hair and a bit of a beard but not really and wore strange orange shirt and blue tough pants and white boots that were so big and quear. He produced a card from out of his pocket which when read said: B. Blahdel, Esq. Hadenfield Lane New York. Time travel cant exist exept in stories uttered Daisy O who pulled away from Mr Z. That’s correct Daisy said stepping toward the queer B. If time travel did exist someone would have already come back from the future to tell us about it Ah its mere temporal transference replied B. And in case you were wondering his full name was Beedul but we will call him B as that is what it states on his card with golden frilling around it. Temporal transference that sounds rather peculiar said Daisy. I am come to bring you this and he showed them a black box with silver antanna sticking out of the top with silver balls at their tips and a glass screen filled with flicker flutter snow that would never stop and really bewitched the two Daisy girls. It is called a Tv he said and the girls could not take their eyes off of its glowing radiance and strange way Mr Z was feeling a bit jellus and smarmy at the fact that he had just lost his attention to this fellow Especially after I remoleculrized Daisy he thought to himself. He was about to cry himself but then B went like this and mentioned that he was seeking someone to go with him to find the missing part of his TV that he brought everywhere with him through time in order to show everybody everything but couldn’t without the missing piece. Well I’ll go with you stepped up Daisy O and she did and Mr Z was glad for now he can be alone with Daisy the First again and show her so much good other things on and in the moon. For now let us leave them through and see what it is that Daisy O and B have gone off to. END QUOTE (Author’s Note: In my opinion Matt K. has done it again, like ‘Joyce’ meets ‘Carroll’ in the trippiest Sci-Fi tale to come along in awhile…a must read for fans of adult children’s books) SCREENPLAY WORKSHOP NOW for an excerpt of a ‘fine’ script of my own CARNIES ------------------------- EXT. OLD ROAD - NIGHT There is a hazy glow from the setting sun. The wind is gently blowing dust over a small gravel road. In the distance, a beat up white Ford truck bumps and shakes, winding onto the road. Crackling of gravel increases while the beat up vehicle rumbles by, then screeches to a halt, dust surging through the air. A door slams on the pickup and a dark beard, long hair in a ponytail figure of a 25 year young man hurdles out of the back of the truck, wearing a tie dye shirt, beads, and sunglasses. Following him is a striking muscle bound man with long sideburns. The passengers are clearly hitchhikers. The driver waves and cruises off. The two riders walk away and a rickety sign nearby reads “Welcome to Pittsburgh”. Subtitle: 1979. The dying embers of the sunset gives way to a neon-infested city. CUT TO EXT. OUTSIDE PITTSBURGH - NIGHT As the two men walk along the road, blaring lights, smog and traffic erupt in all directions, unintelligible rock music (with a Frank Zappa quality) intermixes with roaring engines, black smoke and whirling pig iron. The travelers stagger from over-tiredness. Piss drunk, they slam their last beer cans and toss them to the side. Smoky billboards scatter through a hybrid of industry and low rent commerce. The ponytail wearer is DWAYNE. He lights a marijuana joint as a filthy bus passes by. Muscle-bound’s name is JIM, who notices a small line-up of various shapes and sizes of cheap prostitutes. JIM When do we have to be back at Frankie’s second unit? DWAYNE Get a hold of yourself man. We have the night off--we can drink as much beer as we want. But you know Jim, I figure maybe later we can hitch all the way back to the midway, we can help close up the Underworld. CUT TO EXT. CARNIVAL MAIN ENTRANCE - NIGHT A large woman in a rig drops off the hitchhikers in front of a half-lit gate with faded lights that flickers the Carnival name “The Underworld.” Beyond the gate is a small carnival, a typical amusement park in a fairgrounds. Screams and rides collide in the night sounds. Fanfare music plays from a rusty, automated calliope. Large rigs and trailers carrying equipment promenade beyond the travelers. CUT TO EXT. MIDWAY The midway--or main drag--of the carnival is a narrow hallway with multi-colored booths on either side, chock full of games, swag and stuffed-animals. The center booth labeled “Saturday Night Special” attracts a number of patrons--or “Townees” or “Marks” in carnival slang. CUT TO EXT. “SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL” BOOTH Lights blur the microphone center of the booth. A sweaty face, Barker bumps into the microphone and feedback silences the gathering townees. BARKER Come on, come on, come on! Step right up everybody. No don’t be shy now. Everybody now, that’s right. Right this way, no need to push and shove, plenty of winnings for all. Two young children--a ten year old boy and girl couple reminiscent of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in Babes in Arms--step into the spotlight in front of the booth. Smoke from the barker’s Marlboro envelops the blue and pink cotton candy the kids grip. The children are agape at the stuffed animals. BARKER Step right on up, we’ve got dogs, pandas, snakes and gators. Or there’s something better! Out of nowhere the barker dangles an over-sized steel cage out with unhealthy live rat creatures gnawing on the rusty bars. KIDS Wow! BARKER Rats! Rats! Big as cats! Denizens of the sewers of Paris, France! Twenty-five cents, that’s all, to feed these giant killer rats! They creep from the sewers of Paris and prey on all human flesh! The young girl gasps in fear and amusement. BARKER For a quarter, your one and only chance to see the rats eat! Rats, rats! Big as cats! Here before your very eyes… BOY Do they eat cotton candy? (note: although this script is being handled with care by a WARNER BROS. agent Matthew Skiena, and it is a tight contract, I’d like to fuse a new idea to this project: a. These are free ideas to be ‘exploited.’ b. Endless ‘spin-offs’ are ‘fun.’ c. While the ‘contract’ is ‘binding’ and allows no ‘leeway’ for others usage of title and/or ideas…there is an ‘I’ll do you one better’ approach that I cannot get enough of in ‘Hollywood-town’ d. Or as Disney explains ‘only take credit for the work you have done.’ Joke Time: As my ‘Godfather Ross, the audiophile would say’: “RCA LP’s are the greatest of all brands of records, you can tell their value by the ‘Shaded Dog’ on the record” (I am sorry I misplaced a gang-load of them back in the day, sir,” sayeth the Godson… Tagline suggestion box: -CRIME IS OF THE ESSENCE- “AUTHOR’S NOTE: It has been a ‘hard weeks year’…and I might have to burn in hell for this book…compatiblist philosophy does not always work…Grave Danger awaits us all…Sometimes I forget what is important to me, like the name of the director of EMILE ZOLA (with actor/legend Paul Muni) or the cast names of the characters in Robert Rossen’s HUSTLER. In fact, the pain I feel ‘stems from my rage’ when I see the innocent little girl that is my adopted/biological sister Emilie Hope Sheley (formerly known as Emilie Erickson), but as she suffers from a brain degenerative disease known as Schizencephele, she undergoes seizures often, and they are death-defying and believe me, they drive my whole family fucking nuts…What would the ‘Elephant Man’ do? Or the Pyrenees? ZIKES! Even Science has no cure for this problem yet, in spite of stem cell research…I remember reading my Q’uran and the NOAH’S ARC section focuses on relieving pressure between ‘Outer Peace’ (Sunni) and ‘Inner Peace’ (Shi’ite) or ‘two of every kind at a time.’ Also, I’m noticing narcissism in this thought-guild, due to existential pressures, which, in terms of my Godfather, he proclaims to me, “I remember when I was a young existentialist, even my dog wouldn’t talk to me. So, now, due to the fact that David H. Richter compiled the following critical literature, it proves that no matter how high you climb, there’s always someone better…’olly-olly oxen free’ is the call of the wild…and as if that ain’t enough, I believe that freelance ghost writing has no drawback, because it is a shameless publicity relations gig for ‘other people’s critics’ to bring about Liberty of Race, Fraternity of Class, and Equality of Gender (What would de’Gaulle do?)…and if this ain’t Dallas Willard’s woodshed then I don’t know what is, because I feel I haven’t lost my innocence…by registering myself as the 33,332 best critic, I have humbled my self entirely (although this too is ‘egoista.’ As for the Shameless Media Stunt #666, I give this whole study guide ‘four Necronomicons down’ and with any luck, I’ll be stuck on this Earth for even having gone in this direction.” --August 28th, 2009 INTRO TO SCIENTIFIC METHOD o Ask a Question o Do Background Research o Construct a Hypothesis o Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment o Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion o Communicate Your Results Rules of a mind-game titled ROBO-CRITIC (half invented by Dylan Hardy in a ‘Basic’ computer language. 1. Question: “This is not ‘Robo-Critic,’ do you understand?” 2. Research: “No I do not.” 3. Hypothesis: “Syntax Error” 4. Test: “Fine, Be That Way…” 5. Analysis: “It is ‘Getting Better’ all the time…”—Beatles 6. Communication: ‘I should have been a female virgin lesbian communications major.’ ETC. “My worst sin in the church of ‘Herb’ is glass breaking and glass swallowing. Oh well, ‘Shit Happens.’ MOVIE TITLE SUGGESTION: ‘Bases Loaded’ XLVIII—W.K. WIMSATT and MONROE C. BEARDSLEY -The Intentional Fallacy- “Is the Infinite of the Infinite Possible Universes’ Never-Ceasing? “Which Means Everything exists in never-ending cycles—if posited’—Alan Smithee’s Anonymous I- 1. A poem does not come into existence by accident—standard imposed 2. All poetry invents meaning— 3. Practical messages are more abstract then poetry 4. Ananda K. Coomerasway Dictionary 1-has the artist achieved his intentions “Ezekiel to AREA 54 cometh…” 2-includes a skillful poem 5. Upon an artistic canonization, (like Buddhist ‘mappo’) This prevents the creation from leaving us even after death. II-Goethe’s 3 questions for ‘constructive criticism’ 1-“What did the author set out to do?” 2-‘Was his plan reasonable and sensible and how far did he succeed in carrying it out’” (What if St. Philip really did ‘teleport’ in the book of ACTS, or what if reading ‘upside-down’ leads to reading right side-up?) Example answers: 1- To achieve greatness 2- Partially unreasonable, not-quite sensible and you are only as successful as the last piece of criticism you read. III – What is a ‘dithyramb’ (rhyme patterns) (musical device) To tame a page Password of school’s intent: Sincerity – integrity (honesty and charisma) Fidelity – relevance (challenging and intellectually sound) Spontaneity – unity (changing and wholeness) Authenticity – function (ontological originality – necessary material) Genuineness – maturity (rarity and growth) Originality – Subtlety (without flaw at a less is more) Adequacy – Expression (gets by with flying colors) IV- The realm of literary scholarship- 1-“evidence of type internal is also public/moderately with that of type ‘cast’” 2-“will in the long run produce a different sort of comment” 3-“intermediate kind of evidence about the character—where it shades into.” A Valediction, Forbidden Mourning By John Donne Moving of th’ earth brings harmes and feares Men reckon what it did and meant, But trepidation of the spheres Though greater farve, is innocent. Responsive Poem By Aaron S. Movement changes from season to season Unusual the way people works Fear is only a circle away again Behind me many a gunman lurks Copernicus—exiled into legendom… 1-celestial motion, calm and normal (smooth and regular) in attempt to bring no fear 2-there is movement surrounding and on Earth 3-trepidation—nature’s own personal “cease-fire” 4-reckoning (langue) left to right word flow of (parole) or up and down word flow Heliocentric nature loving Interconnected Goddess Worship Lineage Mother Earth Forward thrust =geocentric (internalization) V-In consultation of anti-mysticism and anti-mystification of the balloon of metaphysics is running out of helium and beginning to collapse into itself as though it will never be back around, as metaphysics disappear so too do really bad dreams, bad drug trips, tiring philosophies and a math code that leads to meaninglessness. Only in artistry may one employ post-physicist philosophies, but even then, exceptionless choices get burned and the people who use them. Either “Last One There is a Rotten Egg (aesthetic)”/ Or “Serve the Servants” (ethic) Because Kierkegaard spices up the left-wing with the Right Side of ‘or,’ he fuels the Right Wing on the left side of ‘either.’ Or ‘if there is a God then why does it matter if anyone believes in him? Because if there isn’t then it matters more to believe (Narrow is the Gate and Few will Enter). Telepathy takes time to transmit—(usually about three days to receive 120 percent of messages) SUICIDE is GENOCIDE but GENOCIDE is not SUICIDE MOVIE OF THE YEAR (in my book) Orson Welles’ CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (The Best of Shakespeare’s Falstaff Sequences, in Fragments) Bound by physics S=stable B=break (picture an apple falling off of a tree of life (S) and conking someone on the head) W=weight Stability and breaking point=weight and displacement (D) of weightless air = gravity Or, in a flawless sense S + B=W + D minus W=gravity (or in a perfect world 1/3.14) if c=2 pi r at mid-range of falling apple. C/r=6.28r/r C/r=6.28/2 So if C=1 R=2 Then a perfect circle is 1/3.4 Wittgenstein Tractatus theorem HERE: German English Daraus konnte formalin auskommen Whence follow property please The photographic eyes: Bare Bones 1. Please be quiet (q) 2. Delineate True and False (T) (F) 3. th’truth combines in a solemn method 4. Equilibrium to nothing doing Equation Z (depth of field). B as in “boy” multiplied by “q” as in “quiet” Divided by ‘p’ as in ‘purpose’ demagnified by “q” as in “query” multiplied by “proof” to the first power (or just plain proof) Exit Spell: THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME Or Silencio in quietude o’ people’s peaceful ‘tautology’ establishing empirical refutation. XLIX—“Whereof one cannot think, think in silence” CLEANTH BROOKS—IRONY AS A PRINCIPLE OF STRUCTURE Tragic irony—Oedipus—an accidental crime leads to several accidents (depends upon illogical signifiers) Self-irony-Christ on the cross quoting, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (depends on self-critique) Playful irony- i.e. A “Lost and Found” bin at school (depends on child-like confusion) (see also Tenacious D’s Tribute) Continues… Arch irony- nothing is sacred (the valueness of value) Mocking irony- nothing can be overdone (mimicry and a slight teasing of others) Gentle irony- i.e. “The dark-side of Beatle-mania.” (if you do not like someone, let them down easy with a combatiblist agenda-less agenda) --in short irony is a cultural context of misnomers, typically meaningless and non-abrasive LEXICON-“Directing attention to aspects of poetic words which only a new model or analogy can bring into view, in formulating new ideas of excellence” The irony—“I have taken ‘Midol’ as a man, to experience the pain of a woman. Or why doesn’t someone invent a male contraceptive pill (more on this later; Like valium/lithium combination with a ‘Viagra’ booster pack) so that females do not have to suffer alone during birth control phases.” NEXUS—sporadic random data the sometimes melds to create less confusion and is at other times way off the page. Together they form components of systematized language. L. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) res + verba Subject matter and language R.S. CRANE—Toward a More Adequate Criticism of Poetic Structure Essay response: “…allegories, apologues, fables, parables, exempla, thesis or propaganda drama and novels.” Allegories are social imprints of artistic symbols used to mitigate thematic codes—“like a grain of sand within a grain of sand, so are our minds in the ways of true omniscience…” Apologues—inserted diction that thwarts movement in a text to steady the reader’s gaze. (PSALMIST: I know whether you’re standing or sitting, in hell or heaven…etc.) Fables-Imaginative statements i.e. “Beautiful Apocalypse” Parables-Comparable “envisages” or theoretical frameworks for narratology Exempla-“hypothesis of structure” Thesis-“extensive…general knowledge” Propaganda==how to end the myth of ‘contraband’ Novels-Grand Narrative Resource Substratum -a go between philosophy of language- Interpersonal-an author’s touch- Together they can form keys, which shrink or grow To fit into any locked message and get through any challenge by unlocking them (like a mold.) “jouissance” (French for enjoyment) BABYLON REBORN Come out of your shell Take part in sinfulness Share punishment equally The bullshit is piling up all around us Treat your lovers responsibly Pay your way out for paying in Spend your art-film power and knowledge Is a word fast that leads You to the glory of Mary Jane Philosopher-queens Send energy to widows deflect grief for past lovers Why doth plague, disease, grief and famine burn alongside Deborah the Hebraic Judge or was it the kinder Goddess of Peace, Appolonia? LATIN STUDY KEY (From Wheelock’s Latin CHAPTER 34) Latin-deponent verbs (active and passive) Principal Parts and Conjugation 1. Indicative Present Indicative Hortor-I urge Present Infinitive Fateri- to confess Perfect Indicative Secutus (-a –um) sum, I followed 1.hortor, I urge 2.horataris (-re), you urge 3.hortatur, he urges 1.hortamur, we urge 2.hortamini, you urge 3.hortantur, they urge IMPERFECT 1.hortabar, I was urging 2.hortabaris, you were urging 3.hortantur, they urge IMPERFECT 1.hortabar, I was urging 2.hortabaris, you were urging FUTURE 1.hortabitur, he will urge PERFECT Hortatus- a- um- sum—I urged PLUPERFECT Horatatus- a- -um eram—I had urged FUTURE PERFECT Hortatus –a -um ero—I shall have urged SUBJUNCTIVE PRESENT Horter, horteris Hortetur IMPERFECT—hortatrer, hortarereis PERFECT—hortatus –a, -um, sim, sys PLUPERFECT-hortatus –a, -um (The only thing wrong with this answer key, is that the accents are not above the words, which inflect the syllabic measure of which letter, consonant and vowel to inflect and how…) --fate, fatal, addition theory “You may add, but why take away?” CONTEMPORARY MOVIE PREFERENCE: Zhang Yimou’s CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER Recommended LP: Bob Dylan’s SLOW TRAIN A’ COMING (on vinyl for optimal playback audiophilia) Joke: “Done there, been that, what now?” BLUE MAGE: Bring me the ‘red’ pages Dominicae Mariae immannenciae immaculatae—amotare—immaculatum immanencium manericum celum Judaicum Ae=female conjugate Um=male conjugate (Author’s Note: Don’t you think I’m a bit young to literally have a fake left hip and compression back fracture due to falling in the shower after quitting ‘valium’ and ‘watching RULES OF ENGAGEMENT: (THE WACO STORY)’ all because of some probable over-exposure to Uranium as a Child? Oh well, Life is not Fair, and in a way, I hope it never will be. Of course, because I have treated my MENTORS with unfair hatred, I was nearly shot and killed…of course, journeys to the hospital do really work for 19th NERVOUS BREAKDOWN purposes only..I guess the Trojan Mafia really does serve a purpose…” The Lighter Side SPECTRUM (The four after-life options) INFERNO pt.1—TARTARUS—CHRISTIAN BIBLE WHERE DEMONS GO TO BE TRAPPED (Back Fire) “a bottomless pit” PURGATORY pt.2—GHENNA—HEBRAIC SCRIPTURE (inertia) “weeping and gnashing of teeth” or “dust to dust, ashes to ashes” PURGATORY pt.3—SHEOL—HEBRAIC SCRIPTURE (Blind Faith) “The Lord is my Shepherd,” and how does he go out of his way to find Lost Sheep. PARADISE pt.4—HADES—EPIPHANY (Prism) “If you are reading this, you are already there.” (Note: Wouldn’t it be nice if Scientologists and Dianeticians had their own personal TV Channel…or at least a TV Show for anthropological engineered ethics?) A CHART OF MY CURRENT ROCK MUSICAL FAVORITES Contemporary (INDIE ROCK) 1. Radiohead 2. Beck 3. Tool 4. Ween 5. Gorrilaz 6. Death in Vegas COLORADO FOLK LORE ROCK (talent that I helped to discover, along with venues) 1. TOE 2. SHOTGUN HODOWN 3. LOADED 45 4. KAT HUNTER 5. CLIFF BASS 6. PINEAPPLE CRACKERZ 7. DAVID LUFF and COMPANY “It pays to be polite…as my recently passed Grandmothers have urged me to be…May they rest in peace…” “Otherwise, you cannot say that here, and you are carrying too much…” (GO ON TO NEXT PAGE---) RANDOM FILM REVIEW: PASOLINI’S MEDEA “Don’t Panic” Pasolini’s Eternal Flame of Demythologization to intensify homosexual lust. Medea--a key figure of verisimilitude, is the author’s absence from characters’ of prededication of inequality where verbal mythology collides and is a subjugate to deconstruction. The female impetus is adroit to isolate the over-derivation of the Goddess figurehead of the title’s nominal heroin status preconfabulation of her mentality of a land without desire. Her sacrificial act of cannibalistic ritual (in devotion to Greco-Roman epic deities) self-destructivity of the home (when she fire bombs her own temple with black witchcraft or ‘red’ magick) awakens junctures of her intent; to obliterate her husband’s foolhardy guest of world domination—via the beheading of his enemies through sexual enticement. Yet, the love is never reciprocated between the foreboding oracular centaur narrating the text. Jason (of the Argonauts) is rarely explicit and his appearance reveals obsession with war, sport and sexual deprivation Like Animalae vs. the ‘out-of-date’ Animism Or ‘a victim of circumstance’ (believe me, I can relate…) (Author’s Rant: What would Peter Wollen do? If there ever was a connection between signs and signifiers it would be the ‘Surrender Dorothy’ line written in the sky by the Wicked Witch of the West and the ‘No Trespassing’ sign on Citizen Kane’s Xanadu gate. I just finished recording an awesome jam session with Matthew Crowe, Matt K. and Josh Franklin, this too is an interesting time. If some mad incarnate of angelic hordes were to flock to Earth, like Cherubim’s (singing angels that knocked down the walls of Jericho) not unlike the final shot of Capra’s ‘It Happened One Night’, or better yet, the strange ways of the unknown giants, possessed by Nephilim (Angel of Death style) that must have gotten under Joseph Breen’s skin in the age of the Legion of Decency or save the best for last, the Seraphim, which are the last to command the virgin Mary to ‘Be Not Afraid,’ or as Natural Born Killers concedes, “Only Love beats a demon.” Well as this Biblical nonsense piles up all around us, let us check out the temerity of the reparations of the real holy trinity of what we breath in everyday…the solid component of air is solid carbon 20%, liquid oxygen 10% and the gaseous nitrogen at 70%, which makes me wonder, how the hell do any of these elements combine to become breathable at all? Who cares, because As Alexandre Astruc’s ‘camera pen’ shatters all ‘breathless’-ly agape oxygen (As though the agit-prop-train of KINO EYE in the sky (which sees everything) except now that Google Earth watches over us all, pretty much proves the point, ‘do not come in, the water’s not fine…’ I am beginning to realize there was more than meets the eye to the fear and trembling I felt on the Campaign Trail of ’08. Perhaps what goes up must not come down and maybe what goes down, stays down—Meanwhile I am suffering from ‘book bag’ separation anxiety—or as Jim Hale, who has suffered enough under my bane, would say, ‘you are a perpetual college student’ proves that the ‘Savage Messiah’ is all around us. Of course, you cannot be everything for all people at once. Even with the power of my newfound ‘Script-gnosis’, which in a safe postmodern sense means even “That shizzle dizzle don’t mean a hizzle dizzle bizzle.” I have a strange feeling that this may be the last time the Catholics convert an ex-Southern Baptist to their rigid peaceful ways. Of course, I am now here to solve the problem with OPM (Other People’s Money) which proves the best thing about post-modernity is that love is really just a ‘Bad Movie Fest’ away…the whole sham is a ‘set-up’ straight out of something like ‘Wrongfully Accused’ meets ‘Saw VI’ meets ‘Hot Shots: Part Deux’ meets ‘The Littlest Ho House in Tejas’ meets ‘Bloodbath at the House of Death.’ If only there could be a movie that combined forces with Jack Smith’s ‘Flaming Creatures’ and the third installment of Canadian work ‘Anne of Green Gables’ which no-one has seen. Which begs the question, what would Ed Wood do? If ever I could use a nice long bong rip from my old piece “Pandora” or a small shot from the “Icarus” or the “Schopenhauer,” alas I destroyed all three over some gorgeous gal who never let me down. Now at least, I have my indestructi-chron, as though it popped out of a ‘Magritte’ paining, to rescue me from the days of BOON, where I conspired to end fascism with G.W. (and of course, the nice thing about time travel is that if you saw it happen, then it cannot be changed), Melies Grave (where again, I gave him the exact change he needed to finish his magic show, only after saying all seven of the Forbidden Swear-Words that you cannot say on the radio—Carlin style), Samuel’s haunting ‘Holy Ghost’ and the Forbidden Archives of ancient days…Now I know why ‘brave sir Robin ran away,’ in the Holy Grail delusion…If only I had known what was wrong with the war in the middle East before my cousin Evan Sheley was shipped out, Dennis Wilson the math-junky air fighter, and Curtis Thompson, the last bastions of good faith in our community. I’m sure it is time to bring our ‘Soldier Boys’ home. If ever the fix was in, I’d say that a football play like a ‘skilling spree’ or the two offensive ends rush to the sidelines in hook formation, whereas the offensive linemen defeat the nearly off-sides ‘blitz-krieg bop’ whereas the quarter-back launches one out to the un-defended player and they run it in for at least a first down. I must admit, while the irrationalism will never die in my heart, this rule will defeat my old ‘grudge’ against the PG-13 rating in film forever, ‘Either don’t or Be Careful, Either with or without reservations’ like the near sex I had on the dance floor a few months ago. Perhaps you don’t want to know. This leaves so many choices open for an option that it is funny. Technically, the best offense is a good defense and vice versa. I owe quite a bit of my newfound critical ‘fireworks’ not only to Kenneth Anger, who saved my ass awhile back during the ‘acid-trip’ from hell and more particularly to Mathew Klickstein, who invited my damned, forsaken soul into the ‘promised land’ of ENTERTAINMENT TODAY, insofar as I only wrote about art films, ‘preferentially,’ and while I have yet to reveal the mistakes I made along the way, there is no wrong way to be a ‘consensual’ partner, in the game of sexistentialism…do you understand? Click on this link for more information, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_(film) and remember, the only good ‘Calendar’ is an arbitrary one, Stephen Jay Gould style. To condone, or to uncondone, that is the question…Of course, after gunning down a couple of ‘bucks’ at an early age, I’ve had some kind of strange animal ghost Karma following me around ever since, ‘The Deer Hunter’-style, which makes me wonder, What would Annie Oakley do? If there are members of the cinematic ‘Knight Templars’ in search of the missing ‘witch’ footage from ‘Patchwork Girl of Oz’ I mistakenly lost, head out to Niece’s Museum of Contemporary Art, where there is a 3-D topographical identical image of such, however, if it is no longer there, ask the museum curator what became of their ‘Hubley’ exhibit etc. And don’t forget to check out the ‘missing link’ of evolutionary history, in the Luxembourg underground, in Germany, if it is still nearby the Egyptian sarcophagi…if it is no longer there still, again, the museum curator would know..more of this later…Rant off”) Time Out for Toy Medium (for now, anyway, as a free for all) INTRO—Madria Poetica ‘If’ ‘Air is air’ ‘task of poetry’ Orpheus rainbow riddles away surrealist sound of literary sign and issues ripple conceptions of Epistme=materialism Elaborate=icons Natural philos of rhetoric stoic practice of epicurean imagery Without cynicism Or uninvited math (over-imposed) Persistence of the law of the beguiler or the corruptor for all time greatest mentor—Jon Wagner—and in case this goes to your ego allow the Oppressor to blow off steam—with iconophilic mediation—however tentative Only ‘Gideon’ knows of the metaphysical photo-copier and this rule shall always remain! Correspondence of fictive passion (like poetry and idolatry)…with a Ph.D. in hand, apparitions of Ginsberg are ‘howling’ in the assemblage of mediation—masking politics in matter Vichian—science knowledge (lyric poetry) Material substance Distinct Poetics Lyric-idea Approach matter with Distinct care Same time historical Modern lyric Corporeal qualities (What would PIXAR do?) Dada Cabaret Voltaire At the 1936 Berlin Olympics Modern physics of the atom World picture|bodies Wielded to divergent effect— Immune to non-receptive modes Of the end ‘dislike’ in poetic effects to oscillate To the antithetical— “ghost-dance tapes” ‘soul’ (Interestingly, whatever is stolen is always returned quickly, this too is no excuse) Produced by disappearing modes Of relation superformative and Representational like Indian-demon luller ‘Bill Miller’s Reservation Road’ which constitutes the ephermal genealogy of modern technical media-crucial positions are all around us to balance culture. REVOLUTION 9 (exposed) Amidst the Beatles’ White Album explosion in the marketeering of cultural explosion in the marketeering of cultural dependency on rigid motherfucking beatlemania there is no other way to bring them back to life is to be sacramented in to all of their values and listen to the actual album, without transcending their throne— Let us skip to Rolling Stones and pitch out a chord for ‘Paint it Black’s’ structure and irrationality. Cue: “I see a red door and I want to paint it black.” Cue (i) in repetition “No time for colors anymore, I want to them to turn black” Then cue (v) a repetitious line-wave, which happen again in the second half of the chorus— Or take a rigid approach for the second-half of verse 2/chorus 2 and you get the lyric “I could not foresee this thing happening to you” The pomo approach is that this too is meaningless, which is really what nonsensical verses confused people by fitly tighting into a world of pure Beatlemania—this too has only the value of understanding ascribed by penitent math key’s as found in BOOK 8 of Plato’s Republic (see opening of this book) which out condones that which is chosen (like symbiotic, identical, rowdy twins) and a world of ‘toy soldiers’ and marketing ploys that divert attention from ‘lyrical’ reality. What if disc two was riddled with cultural implications of an over peaceful vision that declared victory in every respect by shouldering the collective conscience. Let’s just put it this way to the remaining Beatles—until ‘death’ do us part—as mentioned ‘Hard Day’s Night’ turns to ‘Hard Week’s Year’ in this nexus, do you understand? What syntactical word will devalue my generational curses without being recommended to touch base with saving a true historian of critical culture before it destroys him in a wake of theft, as he has truly not found a way out of except hysteria for occultic principles of pre-mapped, white-washed Hidden Fortress of Beatle-maniac rules to uphold, which means to keep all rules secret until the actual day of market reckoning. Would it be heretical for artists and stowaways for the pop-philosophy culture—like for instance Edwin McCann at USC, for example—to live through the ultimate revelation of battle lyrics that they are only allowed to be toyed with by the four of them, dead or alive—I prefer alive, obviously, to out-brigade the unbridgeable—Why is it then during transcendental meditation #9 creates a power struggle of friendship codes that cannot out struggle friendship codes that cannot out strengthen the ways of the alive if you are hearing the words and that alone— How do we rewind to the 60’s by walking backwards in film terms New Millennium—In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai) 90’s—Fallen Angels 80’s—Berlin-Alexanderplatz 70’s—Salo 60’s—“Hard Day’s Night” Or Psycho (even Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb) Let us take from Disc 2’s underground chorus that in some parallel equation fits nicely fits nicely into a ‘spectrum’ of eternal resonance—which out spectates definitive codes of recyclable codes of the meta-spectrum which brings promises of the anti-defilement color coded stu sucliffe lovin’, Billy Preston lovin’ origins and endings—although the reason for the break-up of the band came down to light and simple disagreements over money and fashion fads—which is the ultimate cultural struggle that ties us all to a frozen fencepost which is a no brainer because you must decide what idols to burn out of the way in the once initiated parameters of rhythm when early phases of folk rock appear in ‘Rocky Raccoon’ on Disc One and heavy metal in ‘Helter-Skelter’ (or, as my stay in a homeless shelter in L.A. reminds of, a ‘Helter-Shelter’) on Disc 2 which are just two poles of opposition, examine that there is a ‘honey pie’ on Disc Two which out stylizes all music codes Take a look at Disc Two’s “Yer Blues” ¾--I 8 bars of 4/5 rhythm patterns which fits into the harmonic permeations like this lyric “I’m lonely…” ¾ divided by 4/5 Is ¾ times 5/4 = 15/16 So four steady music notes I’m Lone-ly Wan-na Die 2 ½+1/2 ½ + 1/3 3 Define a 15/16 rhythm until the next part of Choral I which is a holistic 5/6 vs. 16/16 or 1 approach between let us examine the lyric “If I ain’t dead already” Falling in line with a chorus in a 4 for rhythm over 4 for harmony which also delineates rhythm over 4 for harmony, which also delineates rhythm over 4 for harmony sound tempo structure and formula—death is the only way out of this rigid box-design with reservations. So I guess the moral of Revolution #9 is somewhat immortal due to the constraints and time pressures that could not be out mediated, or substandardized—repetitious structure mold breaker rhythmic chaos of life, birth and understanding creates a mind-quake of different ‘Anaxagorian’ or a volcano-diver theory (if only we could freeze-frame time before the ‘bastard’ burned). Remember the ways of ‘Icarus’ and choose instead ‘Daedalus’ his father (who was locked away in a tower, and some say, he flew away without wings being melted etc.) or let us just be human and demand that it is right to tithe to the Church of Beatles with gratitude, importance and a non-chalant Abbey Road defender to go into the Let It Be Zone—or “Block That Kick” I guess even now, it is impossible to block the bullet for old Jon Lennon, because the last thing he would want would be for anyone to die (unless they demolished Western Civilization like two or three things I know about Easterners) (Go to next page for the clincher) --LP collection— 1. PLEASE PLEASE ME 2. MEET THE BEATLES 3. WITH THE BEATLES 4. HARD DAY’S NIGHT 5. HELP! 6. RUBBER SOUL 7. REVOLVER 8. SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND 9. MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR 10. WHITE ALBUM 11. YELLOW SUBMARINE 12. ABBEY ROAD 13. LET IT BE 14. PASTMASTERS I 15. PASTMASTERS II TOY MEDIUM—CHAPTER I (Or how I traded art school for my ‘women,’ Iliad style…Now that is a noble cause…) Recommended Screening: EXXXHAUSTED: The John Holmes Story (believe me, I know how he feels, even after maintaining somewhat of my virginity for almost 7 years now…I guess what matters about trips to the hospital is you always find out that you have no diseases and are intransmutable…what a relief!) Poetics and Materialism ‘Curious’ having a body seest ‘consuming wound’ LYRIC SUBSTANCE|SUBSTANTIAL ROLE Modern reader Take a pair of six sided die and no two roles will have equivocal natures 1 2 3 4 5 6 12 2 4 3 6 4 8 5 10 6 12 Increasing incorporeal/modern lyrics— Heidegger diagnostics root science ‘age of the world picture’ ‘open place’ Now, here is a Wittgenstein proof that all equations must pass to enter the level of Gen-Y ‘they are all the rage’ P or q Truth or possible True or False False or True Truth or grounds Numbers or propositions Truth p-must be true for all equations is it true or false or a mere proposition— two negations create a positive assertion of the falsities of incorrectness. If truth and negativity connect—tautology—or order in justice revolves from two oppositional words—in other words let’s say “x” is a situational ethic and fulcrum times ethics demagnetized by falsities times assertions digging such bulky nights of dim last descriptions. This too is meaningless (remember, by Wittgenstein’s own Philosophical Investigations, the only way out is a number series of zero’s multiplied by zeros to even level absolute zero (-270 degrees) Joke: “Everytime I touch ‘page’ I’m a mushroom cloud deflecting motherfucker-motherfucker!” The only cure for Wittgenstein is more Wittgenstein (grammar school style) Pg. 123 (Tractatus) A priori meets a posteriori Pg. 123 Operatio N’ N’=Third truth-function (Nominal) (E)=2nd truth-function (nous) Omega (to the first power) times (nous)=(sentence-operative) Pattern your sentence here [2nd truth, 3rd truth] Verb noun 2nd truth Verb]1 times (nous) Adjective LOGIC=[nous (adjective), verb, Noun, verb]) (transition to next proposition) X=(structure) Omega (to the zero power) times Definition Sentence disappears to be defined And Final standard times structure to the volume of verbiage multiplied by structure=final by the power of verbiage when one extra verb is added to the power of use (multiplied by structure for Definition) Or Final standard (times) structure to the volume of verbiage multiplied by structure to the volume of verbiage multiplied by structure=final by the power of verbiage when one extra verb is added. Thus here is the series Structure=final nothingness Or Structure, final structure times structure …. Structure, final structure, last word of final structure, three multipliers of final structure… =(or is as) Blank word times structure Single logic of attraction times structure, Two logic lock downs times structure, And so on… Therefore substitute (structure, truth-function, sentence operative, truth-function) (lack of definition times structure, linking verb of structure, final verb to the power of one addition times structure) Dante Revisited: Twas Mahomet that went to the Inferno, not Mohammed! SUGGESTED SCREENING: THE GREAT ZIEGFELD LI. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES—THE TRIALS OF PRE-CRITIC ORDEALS—The longest word in the book Disestablishmentarianisms—I –from readership to practicism, when reading, the entire article must be read from start to finish for maximum effect. (i.e. an author like Joyce invent them to the point of pure abstraction.) II.—The formulaic equations are an undead theoretic mind fuck made less disastrous when evened out by the “shape-land.” Only elliptical narratives within a box of dogmatic “isms” square frame can salvage a perfect memory— III-“What if in the future every movie played on a loop on its own channel?” Every constant must stand alone—every substance must travel—Formulaic delusions pass through an eye of a needle by remaining humble, lowering egotism and dissolving class built hierarchies of linguistic burgoise heresies. Then again, isn’t honesty humility? IV Designs are linguistically annihilated when war tine defies sentiment and shreds through a history like a bat out of hell—language is like a rotating looking glass that repositions itself in one room in order to see and reflect another mirror image so we can all speak to each other in a collective phase. (A Time for Peace) V “James Joyce, the only writer with balls to show up to his own funeral and eat himself while in living form—see also Finnegan’s Wake.” Only a chain kept tight will stabilize an effect of darkness, but there is always room for shadowy knowledge…looming together words that create a coloration to a background of lit up resources. VI-“When textual pressure releases outsiderness is achieved, but don’t forget to return into the language cavernous canon to remember the words”—Plato’s Cave Mythos (cont) --literature—structure --vignettes—multi-layered design --epiphanies—comprehension VII—In programmable luscious origins of evolution’s progress and anti-progress dark critiques resonate with dilemmas to be solved through detection. Subliminally speaking generative codification restores through word discovery—dead language resurrects honesty of a comfort-zone and that alone LII. JAMES PHELAN --Narrative as Rhetoric— Magic Gird pt.: Interiors---logic----Probe Exteriors---logics---Guides Power---formula---Time Essences----formulas----Moneys End---equation---Division Begins---equations----skeptics ii.heterodiegesis—(multi-narrative inclusion) (within the text of presented happenings without effects) HEBRAIC SIX POINTED STAR—Star of David Lantern---Golden Light T=taleph Confusion Clarity is not equal to |||||||| LIFE Death (positive words) (negative words) Edwin Porter’s GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1909) “There is no excuse to hate on any film before or after this one… Theft-----dance hall------lost woods Protagonists stimulations-------dance halls-----train gun battle DECONSRUCTION Impose Random Structure Meaningless For Life PRAGMATISM iii. static---prism---light colors===----darks same-----spectrum----difficult differences---spectrums----easiest work-------money----servitude labors-----moneys-----manuals iv. Institutional Magic --Politics of Interpretation After Poststructuralism Words and thoughts generate conceptual reality---positive words increase life-spans, like the phrase ‘happy to be here’ or as a way to change a system antifoundationtionalist Or ‘rhetorical interpretation’ In other words the more you read a document the less it seems to change—but only a modern/postmodern text changes while you read it to meld to your conscious, particularly when read in sequence. - Rhetoric— Knowledge---respect for authority Feelings---equal treatment. Values---discipline Beliefs---(all beliefs are free to have but not all are free to share.) Author, text and audience Interaction---value in media to charge as populous change…exchange---monetary for consumer product… UNIT TWO (POST-FORMALISM) LIII. (zenophilia—a love for cultures and differences, without necessarily changing) –A.S. Ferdinand de Saussure Pictures and words form mind imprints of concepts— Sound-images-‘phonemes’—sounds and syllable (if a word starts with a letter that you hear starts with a letter on a page then the concept is combined.) Sign concept sound-image ---- ------- -------- Word signified signifier 2.I---arbitrary sign 1.Nothing always means what it means in linguistics 2.Words mean different things in different languages (especially similar languages---see also---false cognate) Symbol---particular characteristic of rudimentary bonds between signifier and sign. Arbitrary---no significant connection. 2. Linear Nature of the signifier/signifiers are strings of thoughts, ideas, theories and actions that come across either positive or negative (rigidity leads you to think in only one mode.) LIV. Claude Levi-Strauss Levi-Strauss’ structural study of Myth Essay response: Not everything can be explained in words or perception actionless thoughts and intentions have no consequences. Computer programming begins when number strings are organized in patterns and then set to a graphic chart Like a grading scale where an “A” is from 100-92, a B is a 91 to an 83, a C is 82 to a 79, a D is a 78 to a 75 and an “F” is everything below…this gradient for Master’s studies follows this formula A=(0,0) (-2,-2) (-4,-4) B=(-8,-8) C=(-32) D=(-35) and F=(-50) to set a certain curve gradient in order for the class to follow along… Oedipal and post-Oedipal studies lead me to believe that men are sexually attracted to their mother’s due to memories at childbirth but puberty makes this urge go away. Also, male children develop hatred toward men that seem to threaten their mother—this goes on forever. Centrifuge (sic) exists in mythos (all art forms have myths as well as all religions---today myths are endlessly mixed, matched and changed anyway we want them to be and we get away with it. AS long as the ethics are preferably “humbling” (or any other ethical facet.) LV. GERARD GENETTE FRONTIERS OF NARRATIVE “Words mix like chemicals---some are conducive to structure (left-wing) and some have a standard (right-wing) in the middle ground is pure abstraction…”A.S. In the crossfire of linguistic interchangeability only a suspension of theoretical discourse creates an irritant that either makes or breaks you. In a way only film stock of a reel of pieced together frames can create a loss of politics and religion. Only cinema has the power to stop pointless war, religious heresies that make no sense to anyone except those at the top of the totem pole, and by the way, a true cineaste gives up everything for cinema---most artists take this route to improve work on their projects without attracting a wave of muck-raking—although there is always room for fictitious fan cults—a D.W. Griffith-esque fancult—in his bios he lied about everything to cut off outside propaganda at the quick—The reason BIRTH OF A NATION is racist is because of suffrages of people that care only about film and do not care what message they send. Incidentally, the more power, time and money you submit to a singular idea alone, focus often occurs. Artists that have very little capital make decent art as do artists with a lot—it is an important hidden alliance. Then again, old methodologies produce more alliances with old methodologies generating ideas that are out of date. The day for racial oppression is over—although sometimes it takes the world’s most ‘racist’ film to commemorate the end of racism. Anyway, Gennette links intrusion with narrative contrary to “laws” of taste”—what you cannot love you fear (filials vs. phobias.) Then again, doesn’t problematic authorship end the idea that all art is collective and created only by ideas and words plucked out of a collective mass of universal texts? I believe that even these ideas are similar in that they are both overused. (structure or standard.) LVI. JONATHAN CULLER—LITERARY COMPETENCE Only use words you are willing to defend with ideas that work out in formulaic abstraction—if a word does not suit you or will defame you, it might be a bad idea to use it. “metaphorical operators are semantic transformers” Poetry—“harmonious totalities, autonomous natural organisms.” Wisdom and knowledge are only a variable way of looking at factual truth. Prototype is a selection of plausible mode of representation, particularly related to performance, character and persona. When qualified by a stratum (an ideal choice of selecting words in a pool of collective theories, knowledge, thoughts, coincidences and things heard and unheard.) A picture of an object produces an effect of objectification when the viewer’s interior baggage is nullified. Subjective values, however, rely on an attachment to exterior resources (materials—materials as in this case of writing, the object is to read an article in a book and writing about it with pen and paper.) Thus , materials access the goal of inferential thoughts through a trial—in this case the goal is criticism—thus, if this message is never taught then the whole point goes to waste (even this is not a problem in a ‘trial and error’ substratum or post-contextuality’) LVII—TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) UMBERTO ECO MYTH OF SUPERMAN By way of examining comics and other arts—Eco lays off the heavy pop cultural, low-brow cult and focuses only on the value of interwoven stories, which create reliable fantasy. Superman’s love life completely redeems him for Romantic females, while his good versus evil approach will always work for everyone. In his article, Eco promotes the FANTOMAS saga as a vehicle for detective work in an overwhelmingly evil realm, amongst and wicked people that appear in many forms and disguises. What would happen if the ‘caped crusader’ fought the villains that ‘Juve’ fights in Fantomas? It is an impossible combination because Superman exists in aesthetic metaphysical dreamland and Fantomas, while a touch of the occult spices up the viewing experience, it is still bound by laws of physics. Are not comics only physically amicable in package (materials), while metaphysical imagination empowers them through conduits of interlocution? Whereas, film as a Bazinian camp would have it is an imprint of what is seen by the camera (albeit objects are manipulated in formal camps, as well as realist), thus films are quite respectively, physically and mentally bound, at least until they become a bit more interactive—between collective minds and imagery. (misc. regeneration) Variable dispensation (simile) Random condensation (metaphor) LVIII-JACQUES DERRIDA Structure, sign and play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences “No doubt that by….organizing the coherence of the system, the freeplay of its elements inside the total form.” Eidos—essence—form Constitution of structure Process of signification Arche—esxistence---origin Totality of an era—(play, interpretation and sign—or self-proximity, onto-theology and paradox.) Telos-substance—purpose Formal schema, cultural anthropology (dislocating to metaphysics_ Energeia—substance—energy Element of discourse Measured by critical rigor Problems: economy and strategy Ousia—being Thread between nature and culture Physics and names…physics and technique Nature vs. culture nature vs. art Aletheia-truth Ibis—the center of attention (in a for the moment atmosphere) Variable universal norms— No longer tolerates nature/culture opposition Factum—a viable theory until refutation and repudiations dissipate caustic or 'inethical' domains. Ontology—reintegrate culture into nature/reintegrate life into physiochemical conditions (see also Levi-Strauss’ Savage Mind) Freeplay-a field of infinite substitutions in the closure of a finite ensemble. Ethical wisdom—unwavering test of endurance (hold on for dear life) Conception---without deception Formation—formula creation Gestation—nourishment of words Labor—necessary pain (inertia, impetus, initiative LIX. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) A LIST OF SOREN KIERKEGAARDS’ (pseudonyms) Victor Eremita (victory for my auntie…loosely translated) Climacus (climax character) Anticlimacus (against the climax character) Frater Taciturnus (Father Cumbersome…loosely translated) Constatine Constantius (secret sustained) MICHEL FOUCAULT ‘What is an Author?” Essay Response: As a result of practical nominative sooth-sayers of postmodern discourse, Foucault chooses polysemical modes to repetitiously untangle anti-hegemony to devaluate an inner struggle over posited exteriors---However, authorship is a function practiced well when rigid guidelines are publicly treated (only in a realm of literacy does the malfunction create a lightened up mode of anti-bigotry. Foucault accepts author’s but admits that tributary streams lead to a holistic generation of random nominals to verify variables in a social norm. In other words, if a singular piece of fatalistic canon brings about logicians that only require one mode of thought-processes, then reciprocity commingles with workable institutions of modular reenactment, historicizing philosophical values that work together to mitigate postulates whether they classify origins of meaning or preferably fade into non-existence. LX. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) Roland Barthes—From Work to Text a. Method—the Text is experienced only in an activity of production—(modes and phenomes to epistemologize and or to process thoughts) are won by gifted practitioners. In short everything improves over time. b. Genres—Behind the opines of paradoxical ‘doxa’ (opinion) a reductive collapse of hierarchical strands reiterates the core value in a continuum of collective artists and critics that value them c. Signs—a work conceived, perceived and received in its integrally symbolic nature is a given textual ‘unit’—(deactivated hostility toward misunderstood levels of reading recreates a simplistic approach to integration. d. Plurality—a variety of substances and perspectives: for examples—lights, colours, vegetation, heat, air, slender explosions of noises, bird-calls, children’s voices, passage, gestures and clothes of people (all is incidental) e. Filiation—a determinism to reenlist support from previously denigrated adroit readership, limited only by the physical presence of words on paper—in tangible sense. f. Reading—a continuing body of growing theories, groundworks, precedence and obsolescence to reiterate preparations to gainful employment. g. Pleasure—to judge a text, to master philosophy, to analyze inherent value-codes, to confessor over arbitration and decoder to repracitcalize informalities all for writing practitioners. XLI. PAUL DE MAN—SEMIOLOGY AND RHETORIC Essay response: In light of an effortless act of charitable contribution, after reading DeMan there are several courses of action that have been debunked and deproblematized through endless analytic/ideological treatments, belying the quest of critical grandeur is through treatments of superior practices of dezoning invaluable words, which will not bring an end to traditional practices, it will only stabilize friction created by political speculators, money driven experts, and over self righteous religious nuts that thwart artistic practitioner’s from their “far beyond driven” evaluative textual references found through-out a mess of deliberate anti-structuralism blazing through the minds of the past to unlock secrets of the future, in event reinvent time and space for a comfortable position in the present. DeMan’s position is clear that context is the value of allowing every art maintaining a self-reflexive enhancement with its own critical approach towards itself to blend into fashion, through and type of spectatorship or readership imaginable. Therefore, no single canon is big enough to hold down the definitive canon, which is without hierarchy (or ordered by individual spectators that rise to the challenge.) NEW UNIT (3)—READER RESPONSE XLII. Textual Strategies (sample) Han’s Robert Jauss Literary History as a Challenge to Literary Theory “isotopy—transposed into an immanent syntagmatic horizon of expectations…in the expansion of a semiotic system (that….[develops] and the correction of a system.” In the arena of emptiness and with the deluge of resources equipped, the dogmatic approach to the arts is rectified by qualifying internal reprobation—to instill a lesson plan (for the last man or woman on Earth) of non-hierarchical disposition, for which critics are eternally irreproachable due to their own personal cache of uses and misuse of empirical evidence (s). In accordance with “played-out” facsimiles and tired out mind games a, new theory will catch the “acts” in order to eliminate strands of meta-nomers (numbered words) to alleviate psychological pressures and unfounded disturbances (there is a time and place for everything.) In turn, classes will experience an eclipse of social-references as a lack of total impulsive eschatology. In defense of the receding markets, which float off into their own encumbering and bearable illusory qualities without returning to abnormality through a careful alliance of multiple texts. XLIII. Textual Strategies (sample) WOLFGANG ISER THE READING PROCESS: A Phenomenological Approach I-As soon as delusions of grandeur are concertable to potential fulfillment they must be cut off to disable to the battleground of the will. (As in, a member of a family members death, see also ‘sentence-thought’.) II-Anticipation and Retrospection— Be a quick thinker and thoughts will display themselves in a viewpoint of over-hysteria, which in retrospect over-inflates the will and leads to irresolvable hybrids. III--Expectations revealed in sight a. Telescopes help us see the origin of life b. Microscopes help us see the origin of life c. Cameras take in all the data for later display IV—Thought Fulfillment --adroit—dynamism of operation --affirming—illusion-building --art-the meaning of it all. V—Cessation of self-alienation Poulet, “is dependent on two conditions: 1. The life-story of the author 2. Individual status of the reader XIV—Textual Strategies (sample) Norman N. Holland The question: Who reads what how? Essay response: There are several out-moded and out-phased approaches to the theoretical framework of obsolescence, which reiterate functionability in a world obsessed with madness. First, does it work to read a text by way of taking on its problems onto oneself in order to psychoanalyze away its ethical dilemmas? Or are there institutions to trust with your life once a rigorous thematic metaphor is altered into life’s conscious slip-stream of totalistic values. If a counter-hegemonic text can balance the teeter-totter of political hokum, ethical nonsense and founded fears of death, would it be worth the risk? What is the point among readership at which, a narrator breaks down, as well as the reader, to the point that no one is allowed to follow along except some monstrosity of elitist, aristocratic dung-heap ‘hung-deep’ or a half-cracked insult artist having trouble keeping up with a workload? To bring about lack of compromise, there is only one way out—don’t take too much on, unless you can handle it. Whereas, the task seems simple, distractions, illusions, hypnosis and other mind games are all ways to derail you to the point of deadly interactions with indistinguishable textual literacy. Subjective readership in this balancing act across a tight-rope is preferable. LXV. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) Stanley Fish Interpreting the VARIORUM I and II—the sonnet Meter-rhythm pattern Tone-pitch and cue Rhyme—(sonnet mold) To follow a sonnet pattern, The closer you stick to a formula, the better the sonnet RANDOM SONNET (workshop) SYLLABLES COUNTED and COMPARATIVE RHYMING (S) (x to y) Lines (in roman numerals) i. Or my shamefulness will use up a place S1 2 3 1 1 1 1 1(x) S=10 x=place ii. Sins cut like Earth, out of S1 1 1 1 1 1(x) S=6 x=zero (no rhyme) iii. Tyre’s ache and quake S1 1 1 1 (y) S=4 y=quake iv. With my ledge invert music to bake S1 1 1 2 2 1 1(y + y2=quake---perfect rhyme with bake) v. Hidden values or pointless’ will not anul S2 2 1 2 1 1 1 x=zero (no rhyme) Man’s race 1 1(x+x2=place---perfect rhyme with race) (THE SONNET MUST BE 14 LINES AS TO ADHERE TO TRADITION) In other words Sonnets follow patterns Patterns are reductive Simplicity receives complexity Problem—If a sonnet is only mode will not poetry become a singular method and become all too homogenized? (TO BE CONTINUED) (After documenting an event, disconnect and recharge the battery pack for starters) THE MAN WHO READ TOO MUCH (Rules) 1-Loyalty and fidelity to the text 2-Dig Deeper 3-Take a breather 4-Link all personalized webpages 5-Practice ‘Platonic’ Math BOOK X (end-game) If you died and could come back as just one animal, what would it be? Example answer: A panther Movie business quotidian: If the profit margin is roughly $1,269,000 (i.e.) Then the royalty percentage (per screening on an international level) should be a cut check for $4800 for each above the line Player. With a NET LESS ZERO LXVI.—Textual Strategies Judith Fetterley (sample) INTRO to The Resisting Reader Essay response: Passive resistance is a cure for all, because in silent solitude egoism drops to all time low—in an act of tyrannical humility—forever submit your powers to those who have already achieved and answers to life hardest questions will/won’t come to you. Like in a remedial BAR exam; What is Justice Simple answer: A balancing of scales… The heresy in over-masculinization is because of a supreme natural order that will be detected and dissolved into egalitarianistic practices, which may pave the way for new nature’s to take over, freedom from “hegemony” will relieve tension from over-empowering anti-feminist cultures, unless they exist in nature’s way. LXVII.—TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) PETER RABINOWITZ “In Hillel we find an erasure of war through defeated memories…to forgive and forget is unconditional, however there are some things that are forgiven in order to improve society, just don’t forget they happened.” --Aaron Sheley “If the aristocracy wins it all, everybody loses—“--J.S. Who Is Reading? Literacy when handled carefully comes to everyone, however, if mental masturbation persists readers wind up in No Man’s Land—make a game out of it and a moment of ‘clarity’ will stabilize the equation for everlasting value. -- The Value of Authorial Reading While it is not polite to read with authorship—a mindful reading will build walls in every direction (metaphorical walls) always with the ability to break them down. In an extreme liberal stance this could mean that some words were never meant to be acquired. -- Difficulties of Authorial Reading However, nothing intentionalizes stimulus better than inertia (metaphor—an oyster creating a pearl) (metaphor—an oyster creating a pearl) (metaphor—an oyster creating a pearl) (metaphor-compressed coal creates diamonds.) What happens when these secrets fall into the wrong hands—in a humanist perspective there are no wrong hands (except stolen ideals) -- Rules of Reading 1. Persistence of Intertextuality 2. Division of Intertextuality 3. Displacement of Valuelessness 4. Returning favors to the authorial inventor by pressing upon the fact that there are more intelligent inventors, who are far more creative in the first place. (GO ON TO NEXT PAGE) NEW UNIT (FOUR) PSYCHOANAYLSIS TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) (AUTHOR’S NOTE: A few months ago, I threw the perfect ‘rock’ concert at THE MESA LAKES LODGE, headlining DAVID LUFF and JOSH B. featuring SHOTGUN HODOWN, and opening with Folk Singers Kat Hunter and friends…the perfect eclectic audience (from those invited to those that accidentally showed up) and even the FBI showed up to ‘bounce’ the ultimate Grand Junction venue…Believe me I’m a still a slight bit ‘hung-over’ but the only cure for this is more ‘hang-overs.’ XLVIII. Harold Bloom— A Meditation upon Priority Essay response: 1.Clinamen—pro-climax without defeatism or fatalism 2. Tessera-Go as far into the text as you want as long as you are helping your brothers and sisters 3. kenosis—Energetic stylings 4. Daemonization—Over-generalization to the point of honesty. 5. Ashesis—True admonition, security and stability with honors. 6. Apophrades—Effective practical responses to a theoretical mind-game. XLIX. PETER BROOKS (sample) Levi-Strauss— ‘atemporal matrix structure’ Question: What is psychogenesis? Answer: Cathartic healing power combined with an overload of metonymic (or demetered practicalities) which, transfuse into a latent dispensation of interesting expectations.) The ethical point of solution is where willful physics and playful metaphysics vanish—for a time.) However, not all elements were born to mix unless authoritative masculinity devalues its pressure-cooker of highly analyzed monstrosities of indeterminable lore and empirical datum remains rigid for work process only— Continuums rise and fall in this world and getting used it makes all the difference—when good and evil return to living unified fruits of pure labor—wisdom and age approach us all. TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) LXX. Jacques Lacan— The Agency in the Unconscious or Reason since Freud I. The meaning of the Letter ideogram VOT TOC- (Greek letters for) ‘is like and as nostalgia’ Deus ex machine—is like and as Wandering healing meets roving disillusionment Apparatus and ethics Invalid—to use or not to use— II. Letter in the Unconscious PERIPHRASIS--|DELIVERED FIGURES| (side-view) \___catechresis (dissipation) Hyperbaton—litotes (kinetics) (words in quotes-litany) Ellipsis—telescopic vision for example Suspension—disbelief to create belief Negation—intentionally over or undervalued. III. The Letter, Being and The Other LETTER-Space between art and science (nature’s (growing Truth) knowledge) BEING—formative reproduction of reality (unrealistic ideal) Other-nonsense to bring about sensory perceptions i.e. “I really want to get Dr. Obama re-elected, but how to create another landslide victory?” I shall not want / nonsense Sacrificial—Survival What we | for existence Are willing To give up TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (sample) LXXI. JANE GALLOP From Reading Lacan Essay response (duly noted): Metonymy Functionable (symbols and signs) Multiplied by more plural signs congruent Example: Because Adam and Eve ate rotten fruit, they were removed from Paradise. (maybe they were eating from a bad root.) Metaphor Functionable (Signs divided by existential Signifier) (congruent to) (Signs and signifiers) LXXII. Bollywood is the Garden of Eden of current cinema. Julia Kristeva— Exegetin auton—to interpret—God/man—one evolves away from the other— New Commandment if ideals merged: Thou shalt not die. Humanist—Don’t put yourself in harm’s way. Purity comes to those who are quickest to be sorry and quickest to forgive. “infransyntical—theme, rhetoric and subject-addressee” Nothing changes once read and watched enough. Until it is meant to—total singularity exists in the artistic artifact of the ages. NEW UNTITLED UNIT FIVE Kristeva continued… Preface Marx critique’s capital transformation of the superstructure manifests in conditions of production. I-reproducible by print lithography is essential for distinguishment II-reproduction of work—traced outline of an original III-changes in the medium Are the aura! Sphere is noticeable In variable realms (example TV deserves to have different genre-channels for all different genres) IV—basis in ritual recognizability. (Walter Benjamin was Here.) V-received and valued on different planes—photography and the film are the most serviceable exemplifications of this new function. VI-What is the ‘cult’ value of the picture 1. Inner historical occurrences 2. Fused with an outer viewer. VII—incomparability in means of expression (although I must admit it is a “slow-ride” of about four hours plus…) Ex. Abel Gance’s LA ROUE—an epic tale of a train engineer’s slow-ride through a hard won work ethic, which leaves technological advancement in its wake and discovers the inherent values in defending a family. VIII- acting exists in a public sphere to be in constant pattern of textual tests. IX—film theory “Did sound film change the motion picture industry?” Yes because everything had to be re-wired. But no, because it is all part of a Bazinian “Myth of Total Cinema” Arnheim argues that silent film is unbeatable and will make a major comeback in film clubs—a proven fact. X---Are commodities fake? No, because they constitute a fair market Yes, because they tend to salve meta-ethical problems without transgressing the press to set it free—in fact film works out over issues so people don’t have to; illusion – promoting spectacles create realistic speculations. XI---Cameramen are like painters—Mechanical equipment must be set free from convention to become like a “Vertov”-ian MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA Kino Eye effect (which sees all, example GOOGLE EARTH) (a flawless Soviet anti-propaganda film, which intensifies the use of camera and montage, revealing the merge of acting and machine—in fact, it goes down in history as the world’s greatest experimental film—or at least among the greats…a good warmup film to watch before shooting an ‘indy’ of your own.) XV—Spectacles require no concentration and presupposes no intelligence. From skillful monastic Buddha statues, paintings and artifacts when even in a Modern aged medium of silence and craft nothing deserves to be decimated that is part of this non-decayable art. Epilogue—never seek to express while preserving property—although a little politics in art go a long way. LXXIV. Textual Strategies (sample) Theodor W. Adorno ‘Because books are weighted the words have already been written and read…’ From Minima Moralio Bequest-atrophy-the reward is an absence of rewards. It is absurd to make an ego out of an author, except to deflect other people’s insults at them. Static—reflecting a belief in characters and events. -- Late Extra— Industry—a design of infrastructure that develops commerce and recreation SEXUALITY—a healthy attitude to have in life—to be suppressed only into politeness Illusion—a much needed collision course with other peoples sins against each other, to relieve our own. LXXV. Textual Strategies (sample) Georg Luckacs Essay response: In a schooling competition of driven hunger for an end to social pollutants and mish-mashes of common decency the quickest way our is non-conformity. In fact, theoreticians are waiting for the day when other critics unravel mysteries of lives through a growing body of energetic responses, that will instigate a leveler in part to unredeemed the redeemable. Mixing and matching patterns and waves of amusement does not impact society negatively (and even if it does, the careless ones will be left picking up the pieces of harmful mental characteristics even if thoughts are not monitored by a new brand of oppressive “psychotherapy.” What then is the solution—laughter, fun and a quicksand of mild-mannered thoughts impair our vision for a longer ride through the land of critic-mania. Then again, he who shoulders the burden for the entire gangs misery, depression and manias finish first (however, declining a treasure trove of awards will only heighten the awareness of accolades.) LXVI. Textual Strategies (sample) General Mode of Production (Terry Eagleton) Historical and economical For instance-one-liner “Do as I say, not as I do,” –a Drew Casper-“ism” (a catch for all) A four-liner “steer your ships to the Strait of Gibraltar Unless your Name Happens to be Walter.” (Aaron Sheley) I’ll do you one better (for a piece of rare crystalline found in the Seattle hills and mailed to Herb Farmer without human error involved…for example.) If it is diluted And culturally polluted Send us your artworks And will return in ‘yardworks.’ (all of the above are over-generalizations) ii. Literary Mode of Production Unity of certain forces And social formation Is there a metaphysical Approach to this eternal statement “I think therefore I kill?” Confessions to High School, Undergraduate Schools and Graduate Schools are piling in all around us—to PHS, USC and CIA respectively… Independence Believability jouissance (French for joy and spirit) Intelligence Sameness MATH TIME with number crunching economic paper slips Take an average salary of $1,269,000 a year in a bank account of choice (preferably American) with $4800 tax deductable acts of weekend charities (weddings or funerals, for instances)… With an annual profit net worth gain of 7% annual increasing interest compounded to the nearest faction 3.5/50 is equal to 1,269,000 divided by .07 percent, which totals out to be $88,830 (like the amount of damage I’ve done to vehicles over the years) but saved by insurance, this is taxed out to a 2/3 payback the next year (an equal amount of $6,215 which when subtracted by the 88,830 taxable limit, $82,615 appears, or when deducted from the original $1,2690,000 is a sum of all total parts, a remaining income of aprox. $287,555. (Done) The scarab beetle what rode my bus-about made us pause for the cause of the Oz. Movie Review by Aaron S. (First Review ever published in his career, in The Desert Rose: An Oasis Clubhouse Newsletter in August 2006 dedicated to JOJI, a keeper of knowledge.) “PAGE Four) -- THE WIZARD OF OZ Of all the greatest fantasy films none rival the great musical Oz. Victor Fleming is on the helm and Judy Garland in the lead. The film is satirical toward political and philosophical viewpoints. On a whim, colors explode vibrantly onto the screen when Dorothy’s house magic carpet rides on a tornado toward Oz landing on a witch and setting off a chain reaction of all things including a witch and a wizard needed to get Dorothy back to Kansas. The three characters she picks up dance along to their edge and this reviewer sees the scarecrow as religion in need of mind, the tin man as technology in need of emotion and the lion as politics in need of backbone. The characters dance and frolic to music that also works if a viewer were to play Pink Floyd’s DARK SIDE OF THE MOON simultaneously with Oz’s imagery to keep the rumor of their matching beats going strong. Oz develops a wicked witch plot in Act II that gives her a full slew of opportunities to gale about, shrieking with laughter until the water element flattens her. Now Dorothy has killed two witches, one for each ruby slipper. It isn’t any wonder Salman Roditre *sic (supposed to be ‘Rushdie.’) wrote the BFI classic book about Oz. The film is Frank Baum inspired, charged by silent short fantasies like the pre-sound era silent “Oz-Worlds.” Believe in the wonder and get lost in the fantasy of the rainbow.” --For Rushdie (and him alone)…(for telluride 2001 film fest) (TO BE CONTINUED) TEXTUAL STRATEGIES (resumed) iii.) (Eagleton) LXXXVI— (76)-Relations between literary and General The Literary refines functions in reproduction and expansion to find a way into mad-generalizations. Or is there a non-hostile approach to “subordination” or submitting to the powers that be—yet many of the Marxists are only out to make a quick buck these days. iv. General Ideology vs. Aesthetic Ideology— Question: What is the purpose of analysis without an idealist type of generalized hypothetical ideology? v. General Ideology meets Literature—How can mix these elements that don’t always mix—by tying the unmixable up into cues, tests and equilibriums that stabilize economic art no matter what its principles established vi. Authorial Ideology general productions of expressions of ideology (characteristics and modes) vii. Aesthetic Ideology— “levels” of “ideological culture”…In most societies right-wingers promote victimizing hegemony and left-wingers promote counter-hegemony. Marx exists to level the playing field. viii.—Further relations— With product placement, different visualizations of undervalued products and practitioners of the art ix. histories of ideologies smooth things over to level up and be part of the next generators of words and craftsmanship. x. literary texts are overdetermined, however, there are tributary streams that lead to mind expansion (LSD or DMT acids to fly high with, for example…warning: do not try this at home) and if only we disengage from materialism will the word games begin—however, is there even a place for socialism in communism? Cinema Bible: GENESIS and EXODUS BIRTH AT THE GATES Analytics in Media Exposed (From Birth of a Nation to Within Our Gates: AMERICAN FILM FROM 1915 to 1919) (For Dr. Polan and Mary Anne Doane---Required Reading for the Todd Boydian Camp of Politics w/Drew Casperian reservations) While there are advantages to a code of ethics, such codes are becoming meaningless. However, there remains question as to whether censorship exists in any form when creative machinations come to play. Stories abound in cinema primarily of initiative responses of creative differences involving lucrative bankers. In a way Christianity (or its modern incarnations) split upon decisions that controlled the early days of film. Consider that BIRTH OF A NATION created contemporary censorship and marketing strategies simultaneously in every sense, True, there are countless masterpieces early silent era (roughly 1895-1915) or pre-BIRTH understandings of filmmaking. Yet, D.W. Griffith came into the scene after the Lumiere’s released the world’s first movies, albeit short-films. Thus film had been around for exactly twenty years when BIRTH OF A NATION reared its ugly head. Thus the act of censorship cannot repress the view that when maximization of creative freedom is extolled, the artistry itself becomes freedom. So, how does BIRTH fit into the scheme of censorship? Considering its popular response, there are thoughts of its extreme example of racism merely reflecting the attitudes and beliefs at the hour. Still, post-BIRTH censorship became hellishly nightmarish until the mid to late 1960’s. This time reversed by banks and churches evolve to evolving pop culture. In unique ways, Hollywood production, has found ways to counteract censorship by waving money around to pay off their detractors. In a roundabout logic, this means detractors have risen in certain underground cases, where they posit themselves as censors—for the same reason “real” censors—for the same reason “real” censors are motivated—to work with whomever has the most money. With the case of Griffith, there is no doubt that several times in his career, he was wealthy beyond all other media giants. However, as is well known with Griffith no two stories—like his films—are alike. His penchant for fictionalizing his accounts of his life-story is quite ridiculous. For example, Griffith espoused his egalitarian views all around the conceptions of racially charged works. While there is confirmation that his father was a legendary soldier in how well Griffith knew his father was a legendary soldier in the actual Civil War—fighting for the South—how well Griffith knew his father’s story is sketchy to say the least. The point is, Griffith denied on several occasions that he was racist—while by today’s standards he defines the word. At least, for the most part anyway, because when the facts all add up, no one can judge whether the man was intentionally racist or accidentally calamitous concerning culture. The facts will all to play, but for now note only that there is a large amount of discrepancy in the matters of BIRTH OF A NATION being pro or anti-racist, though it no doubt leans to the former, while not completely embracing a totalitarian stance. Yet, there is more danger in an outright boycott of a piece of racist history than the dangers of the existence of such forms of media. So often history has a way of being forgotten because of censorship. If the ardent attackers of BIRTH OF A NATION have their way to ban the film for its ideological content there is a chance that the lesson of racism exuded by the film would be so far out of memory that the whole event reoccurs with devastating consequences. Admittedly, there are numbers of strange stories surrounding the audience reception, which were caustic in and of themselves. As the ‘Klansmen’ were portrayed as saviors of the South, actual Klansmen in reality had a renaissance of lynching sprees. Not to downplay the severity of these atrocities, the argument against copycat crimes having derived causality from a film, is that, behaviors in films catch on in reality. So, too, does reality influence film, a delicate symbiosis. Another important detail about BIRTH OF A NATION, to shift the focus from its innate controversy, is that the film many contemporary audiences, as per say, the spectatorial challenge of the sound/color 1939 film THE WIZARD of OZ is—despite its decreasing popularity—quite frankly, the world’s greatest film of all time. Of course, that opinion is more subjective than objective. Still consider that Griffith’s films are all typically masterpieces—JUDITH OF BETHULIA is the longest existing first masterpiece of Griffith that is not necessarily a short film and THE STRUGGLE is his final full length masterpiece…a sound film, no less) his greatest achievement BIRTH OF A NATION, is not the first feature film by any means. Scores of silent feature masterpieces existed and still do (check out the recent silent film craze going down on YOUTUBE, for example.) And the short films were just as good as any others anyway. (Jean Douchet writes of Griffith in his FRENCH NEW WAVE book, “He had a stupefying ability to create a canvas out of everything he filmed…to make the frame dynamically responsible for all the movements in the film (in particular, human emotions) to cut up spatial unity through editing into multiple fragments and then reunite them again (Douchet, pg. 58.) Thus it stands to reason that BIRTH’s attributes of being some kind of first feature the world has ever seen is provably inaccurate. A nomenclature adjustment is necessitated. Birth, is an invention of a film style that is still used. Interestingly, that exists now in cinema comes from BIRTH OF A NATION. Tracking shots, close-ups, cross-cutting, detailed mise-en-scene and other modes of representation can already be found in scores of other, earlier shorts and features. However, if an agreement is possible on the inexact science of what film first used style as technique as well as, a definitive guide to actual film language than a few would argue that Griffith’s BIRTH is a the model example… In any event the theoretical form inhabited in the original genesis of stylistic modes of representation is all from the breakthrough film by Griffith. In other words he detested all bounds of his contemporaries (which are now way in the past) by advancing the medium. However, there are consequences to the decision to advance style while discovering a wholly problematic paradigm. Once the facts are in, there is no question that BIRTH is of intent out to offend. Or is it? The question remains due to Griffith’s lack of admission to racism, his ultimate viewpoint on the earlier and later films that outright squelched all notions of racism that something is underneath the motives of Birth that were impure to audiences of 1915 despite their objections. At any rate, the central discussion put to task leads to separation of advanced film language and the intensification of a well known taboo in ideology. As mentioned, several arguments pile up that the film was only reflective of the popular voice, yet there are exactly so many voices, it is hard to take care of all agendas at once. And there is also a chance that the film exacerbated a number of indescribable acts—which results in a confusion when approaching the film as a whole. Set aside for a moment the uproar at the very mention of an older movie with such power. In actuality, the film itself contains an intertitle which warns that nothing is representative of a current race. How in actuality does the intertitle which warns that nothing is representative of a current race. How in actuality does the intertitle even come about when all throughout the film racism is obtrusive? Once again, sees ideology infringe on the value of a film. In effect, there are audiences that seek out ‘shock’ and ‘exploitation.’ Thus, BIRTH is easily recontextualized as a frightful nightmare to relive an experience to be never duplicated elsewhere. For the sake of shock value, in a modern context, none rival Griffith’s intense foray of an almost unconstrained madness. Again, what if the morose reality of an uninhibited ruling class dominated all other classes in discussion? Governing bodies of interest have no business at censorship levels, necessarily. But how far can the artist push the boundaries of a medium before he is blacklisted forever. However, among his final works, he was still apologizing for his earlier mistakes. A limited few with properties of hindsight and control over an image will be in a state of disavowal or in detachment involving oppositional readings. In comparison critics and audiences alike remain harsh toward problematic ideology. However, THE BIRTH OF A NATION has many more layers of meaning than any other film in existence. This explains the laudatory and also angry voices at a film that almost promotes fascism—albeit as a last resort against chaos. Perhaps that clause is too tidy for a film that while maintaining all sorts of stereotypes also presents a liberating view toward the very film it either intentionally or unintentionally oppresses. It is not accidental that a singular race of Africans… webmaster@mentalhealthamerica.net. …no longer need to focus only on race unless it bothers them in an unsettling way. Then again, there are virtually two halves to the film, as already in constructed here; the first half illustrates the pre-civil war and the war itself, and the second half is the real racist but about an African takeover of the South and then their extinguishment by the Klan. The two-halves not only fit together symbiotically but if the first parts display a day of racism—the second part is nothing but. Interestingly, in a recent montage on Turner Classic Movies of the Greatest American Films as they proceed through history BIRTH OF A NATION is among the first to be honored. And the scene on display is of a scene on display is of a civil war battle by which the protagonist crosses enemy lines and shoves a confederate flag into the cannon. Scenes of the like reveal the David Bordwell point of view on Birth because the film exploited the new medium’s unique resources.” (Bordwell, A HISTORY OF FILM STYLE) Perhaps there is an amount of truth in the film concerning how the Southern ideals and forces were suppressed by the Northern. What truth remains, in spite of the point of view on BIRTH the film, the whole thing claims no parallels they “like” other masterworks triumphed because…to any culture, while with a double-standard as there are constant “facsimile as supposed. In fact, biographer Richard Schickel explains in D.W. GRIFFITH: AN AMERICAN LIFE that concerning the aftermath of the Civil War “Griffith should have known better.” The basis of the ‘ecstasy induced chemical romance’ of these early book pages Griffith’s racial issues is so convolutes that it is hard to sort out. For example, he claimed not to be a racist, which could be a racist lie—however, when one lie is involved several others could follow suit. However, perhaps this is just a hypothetical trail of logic intentionally shocking for the sake of controversy. Of course, the controversy goes on. (When rape and pillaging of culture is allowed, then the people of a nation turn on each other and point the blaming fingers on everyone but themselves, or the exact source of year’s worth of trouble.) The plot of the film, like the narrative is serpentine, labyrinth and cyclical. Present is a ‘requiem’ for a lost remnant of culture, CAMELOT—esque in romanticism, full of an illusory dream transcends an illusory dream transcends reality by pushing the envelope in style and content. Without a doubt, its problems are almost superseded by the experimentation. In fact, all films post-BIRTH have a style, to avoid generality, that is similar to the signs and signifiers, (for instance in Haxan terminology, even the Baal’s blood of a Molochian Asura would not allow me to harm any witches---it is a Seattle thing,) have a style, to avoid generality, that is similar to the signs and signifiers and mise-en-scene/montage aesthetics of BIRTH. To marvel at the dark circus of technical achievement alone is to appreciate the broad canvas and narrow strokes of an artist’s paintbrush, which encapsulates a character study and a philosophy of war. On a side note, if BIRTH was an isolated circumnavigation of racial phenoms, then it would be particularly, difficult to understand how such a film presents dreadful racism. Yet, of all the films surviving in the silent film canon, (restored and yet to be restored films being all that counted as evidence, for the most part) as evidence, for the most part) rarely appear as equality amongst races. Oscar Micheaux films have survived and his works such as WITHIN OUR GATES and BODY AND SOUL... ..Clearly emphasize thematic that exonerate African-Americans as humanistic, equal to other races and deriving to be set free from oppression and victimization. Yet this, is a marginal voice (albeit, currently building momentum in film history) even if other lost silent films are racially charged for better or for worse. Ultimately, the sound era even to present times is littered with overbearing racism—often hidden as a joke or an accepted stereotype in the guise of an archetype. From GONE WITH THE WIND to the GODFATHER racism loosely defeats its uglier form, over the obvious racial hatred of BIRTH OF A NATION, which is to say that now in film, racism exists and no one ever admits it is racism due to the catch for a “political correct” argument that parades hate as an act of freedom. While disconnecting from a fear if collectivism, the individual is still responsible ethically for inflicting harm from one person to another, in humanistic terms. BIRTH is a horrific analogy of harm inflicted, but as written here, the film embodies a last ditch effort to defend an utopia of Southern ideals militantly influencing violence as both an evil destruction of the South, then evolving the same violence into the last ditch effort of protection discussed earlier. However, it is purely on the anti-censorship that the film deserves a place in history, because any form of censorship no matter how small, leads directly to other forms of censorship. In fact, when groups like the NAACP promoted a ban on BIRTH (justifiably so), the situation marked a turning point in film censorship where no longer could a race be depicted as evil based on race alone, which interestingly lead to hidden racism—while also taking on a double-standard by, for instance, the board of pearly Hollywood film censors boycotting films—even in the script phase---that portrayed the uprising, Nazi party as evil. Ironic considering that Nazis promote racism, yet it was hypocritically justified to allow them to, based on BIRTH’s repugnant images of racial hand-me-down codes. Yet the essential difference is that the Germans should never be lumped into an ‘all in it in together’ of the same category, it is hardly profiling to depict a Nazi (which is a political party, not a race) as anti-Semitic. Wither the whole plot to keep Nazi evil out of films did come from BIRTH, or there may have been a financial excuse to remain true to white people, as the rule obviously never applied to African-Americans, yet. This implies that it now does. Of course, the impetus for film appreciation rests on the shoulders of aesthetic considerations long before the politics of ideology enter the picture. Is it a crime to celebrate a film like BIRTH OF A NATION? Why must a spectator feel guilty for their choice of what they consider to be a well made movie? On top of the pressure to do away with Griffith and his oeuvre (although hardly any of his other films have racist problems—as hinted at, the others are quite progressive, some apologetical, some with a brilliant prescience due to his out of control nature the world’s most heinous hate crime—there is also the problem with silent films losing more and more popularity in the age of digital reproduction (save for the safety of Internet Archives, and digital shopping, which makes acquisitions of silent features a simple transaction.) Consider the lost films of Griffith alone that have disintegrated into a vinegary powder of production stills and notes that can be accessed only by the most ardent research to piece together the trail of the world’s most important artifacts—would otherwise---if still extant—illuminate film history. Many have stated how much further advancements could have been had the ancient Library of Alexandria never burned. Yet, as there, were business considerations impeding the crucial time of necessitation of restoration of early film there were very few (supposedly) that understood the importance of sustaining the early silent films at all. And is this loss as great (if not greater) as (or than) the loss of an ancient library? In conjunction with an interest in preserving history what if, for instance, all of the films we cherish and respect in contemporary films being from the last ten years started disappearing. The medium has changed to a durable form but independent films could be completely forgotten; by the sheer fact that film’s have no audience. Connected to this line of reasoning is Griffith’s independently thinking mind (while collaborating with hundreds of people in his process) is prevalent in his move to form the studio United Artists with Chaplin, Fairbanks and Pickford. The under-researched “gospel” so to speak, of Young Griffith’s life from a farmhound to a stage actor and then, a career in film that was full of new ideas for modern technique. There are agreeing reports that document Griffith’s experimental experience as a stage actor is what enlivened his idea to get into film. Just by repeatedly using his stock company of film actors in his films—particularly Lillian Gish—he also managed to shape everything acting-wise in the entire following cinema. Thus, Griffith is not only the best director but also the most important developer of film grammar. If he knew BIRTH was racist, he may have made it anyway to prove he could do anything he wanted. His attitude to do exactly what was in his artistic mind without compromises is what supposedly burned his name into the “blacklist,” in his later career. As the general education of teachers that use films in lectures, there should be a consensus on the old wide-spread fact that D.W. Griffith conquered the film medium beyond the level of any other artist. Typically, almost all schools of have abandoned Griffith temporarily—because as found on the flipside of political correctness—there are very few that believe artistic merit can also carry with it malicious intent of racism. Whatever arguments pile up against Griffith, the only way into his cinema secrets is to deconstruct him entirely—a structuralist/post-structuralist agenda, to say the least. To take apart the “assassination of Lincoln” sequence alone delves into a shot by shot analysis, which is of extreme value. At some point, an entire shot by shot guide to BIRTH should be considered as an exercise not to be avoided. The entire Soviet Montage formalist camp of the 1920’s spent quite a bit of time reediting prints of BIRTH and INTOLERANCE when there was no money to do anything else. The first title card seen in BIRTH explains that Griffith is producer of the film—the second tithe virtually establishes the letters “D.G.” as an explicit trademark to remind the audience that Griffith is in control. The strange opening titles begin to denote that there is a program that goes along with the film and then story written by Griffith and Frank E. Woods appears above the “photography” credit which goes to the equally accountable G.W. Bitzer (a Griffith favorite)— The film immediately confronts the issue of censorship that concludes (still in the midst of the opening intertitles) “—the same liberty that is conceded to the art of the written word—it is given to artists of any medium. Interestingly, the art of the motion picture is akin to another art form—in this akin to another art form—in this case literature (ironic as the play the movie is based on “The Clansman” is reported to be a medium-well written play) is used to justify the nearly twenty year old medium of film. Anyway, after the anti-censorship message is literally the first time that the film’s title is unveiled—THE BIRTH OF A NATION, which is titled in a shapely font and underlined, baring little resemblance in title to “The Clansman” but the book is credited as well on the title page. Once the titles continue with yet another disclaimer which illustrates that another disclaimer which illustrates that the film put an end to war, already the over-ambitious Griffith is revealed... The final opening title card claims disunion in America (as strange as this may seem for an opening line) was when Africans were brought into the country. Finally, the first images or the actual footage display the pathways of Slavery of the African, ambiguity enters the film almost as soon as the film begins, in depiction of the Northern states corruption as in control of the evil side of slavery. Although the next couple of shots are of the “abolitionists” arguing to free the slaves—it is quite possibly due to the slave liberation that they tend to seize control of the states—a message conveyed all throughout the film in subtext. Although, in a roundabout way, toward the film’s ending, the North and South unite due to the KKK, a nasty thought in today’s progressive views. After a few more shots of a court appeal for black people’s freedom, one of the many protagonists of the film, Austin Stoneman is introduced along with daughter Elsie (Lillian Gish in the greatest of the all time ‘true’ screen performances.) They are upper class Northern aristocrats’ upper echelons of political power and are responsible later for the entire downfall of the South by promoting the freeing of the slaves. They learn the error of their ways as crazy as that sounds. Elsie wipes the sweat from her father’s head, and the whole scene is quite bourgeoisie. As the film has a tendency to do, it cuts in closer to a medium close-up (already used in a previous shot to highlight a young and innocent slave) establishing the precious relationship that becomes a catalyst to the film. The Northern life pre-war is an utopian ideal. Two Elsie’s brothers hang out leisurely reading in the foreground right of the frame, which the estate they live at is to the left in an angle not commonly used in film to establish magnificence, although the angle definitively gets the point across. Cutaway to the letter; the brother’s read to explain an upcoming visit with Southern friends (later revealed as the Cameron’s—who are in many ways modeled after the characters in Griffith’s ancestry.) In a slight pan to the right, to simply reveal the large hedge that frames the familial brothers, a moment of interesting Griffithian power is at hand. Someone is behind a blanket that drapes over the outside door to the porch; only if it is not certain, yet, that a female is veiled in the gap underneath the blanket. The Cameron brothers continue to gaze at a letter. And under the blanket are the lady’s occupied, oddly shifting to different spots under the curtain—after the brother notices her, he calls out and cut to her opening the curtain. It is a nice looking Gish who emerges, holding the cat. Supposedly, the entire script existed in Griffith’s mind. This scene directly gives evidence to that and after a few more cuts, of Gish viewed from different angles, she approaches in the character of Elsie conversing with her brothers. Something occurs (most likely the understanding of the future visitors that propels all three on-screen characters into the background and back into the house. The title announces next, “In the Southland.” This statement is revealing Piedmont (or will be revealing) (the city mentioned in the letter the brother’s read) as the locale—The Cameron's homestead is also, in the Introduction shot, a bourgeoisie setting. However, it has more of a rural touch, whereas the Stoneman family were like urban—these stereotypes are often linked to big budget features that often feature pre-war North and South, which in a way subconsciously takes account that there were already divisions between the two—At any rate men and women are boarding and unloading a horse pulled buggy and there is much to be examined when it comes to the sheer number of horses in the film, particularly during the final Klan ride (later discussed), which propagandizes the number of actual men from the South that became Klansmen (post-civil war). There is a legend floating around that John Ford was shrouded in Klan gear for that shot in particular. Next in order of this exposition sequence, is shot from behind a fence, spliced with the carriage taking off from behind, a shot that will be remodeled much later in the film. A slave spanks his boy, which in a strategic way humanizes the Africans of the Southern hierarchy although were slaves. In the film, there are several instances in which the slaves that are devoted to their masters play a crucial role in the lives of white people they serve. In a way, this brings the issue of racism to a stand-off between what Spike Lee and Malcolm X have espoused to be the difference between ‘house slaves’ and rebellious ‘field slaves’ who wreaks havoc in the white people upon their emancipation (in the film, anyway.) More than once are the Africans of the South, shown to be the good side of the blacks. Whether or not any non-racist ideas can be derived from the fair treatment of Southern African-American is still up for grabs. From the front of the wagon a slave drives a coach and another is parked coach is coach and another parked coach is moved in on closely in a cut and the intertitle reveals the name of the other female protagonist—Margaret Cameron (Griffith’s titles describe her as from “the old school,”) She is inside a large parlor room in which the interior shot of the studio set is a mise-en-scene that creates an illusion of off-screen space. The shot itself in the interior of the Cameron’s house is used often enough throughout Whereas I have not done enough research on the original music score of Birth, the David Shephard restored image Entertainment paper-back cover DVD is the preferable version, at least within this reader’s context, and the music fits it loosely…as though amidst a near orchestral score. Whatever orchestral score was actually used for the opening night of the film, the Cameron’s stairwell main foyer or entrance hall most likely had its own leit-motif, s the characters shared them as well. In an outside scene at the Cameron’s in an outside scene at the Cameron’s the mother of the family and her young daughter sits across from the father of the family and as matched on action from a previous shot, the man of the family enters, kisses his mother on the cheek (as his little sister runs around reacting to Cameron’s father is moved in on as he speaks to his son. So far in the case of the Northern and Southern families introduced they are quite functional domestication among families. Everything happens logically. The camera tracks down to the eldest Cameron’s feet to see puppies playing together. Next the young girl hugs her older brother as the house slave watches from behind. The puppies are seen again in close-up, quickly intercut is the inner sanctum, which draws attention at most times to the stairwell. Almost as though she can sense it, the older daughter of the Cameron’s reacts to thin air, a trait common among Griffith actors that are, as always, fraught with emotion. From off-screen the eldest Cameron’s hand enters frame and places a kitten onto the puppies—and during this crosscut action a title simply reads: Hostilities. Meanwhile, the cat claws at t the puppies. There is no giant leap in logic to arrive at the conclusion that this is a heavy gesture to allude to the necessary segregation of black and white in Griffith’s view. In the next shot all of the children of the Cameron’s gather at the doorway around a letter, which also turns out to read earlier concerning the visitation of Northern and Southern friends—separated by a small space of geography. And so the Stoneman brother arrive to visit the Cameron’s as it turns out they stated and Ben Cameron in their letter—They arrive, in fact, in a horse drawn carriage riding to mid-ground outside the walkway and gate to the Cameron plantation. The Cameron’s wait patiently on their porch, and the Stoneman brothers approach the family hands outreaching to shake The Northerners are introduced to the southerners as friends, all behaving jovially in each other’s presence. The friends and family enter the estate passing behind the large white palatial columns on the porch back in the main interior—tinted with just the right color to illustrate the lighting. Take note that color tinting throughout is, in fact, all motivated by what would be thought as the color most picked up by natural light—all to instigate a totality of realism. Still outside are Cameron’s older daughter and the Stoneman’s older son, taking interest in each other as friends. In the same shot, the lady’s brother emerges from the background to interrupt the appearance of affection between the couple. They all turn and head inside, smoothly matched on action in the next shot of the interior main area of the Cameron’s house, which from here on will be referred to as a ‘Stairwell Room.’ As the Cameron parents smile and greet those that enter the room, outside, the two youngest brothers of each family are shown as the intertitle reads, as “Chums.” They exchange in a friendly game that leads to a mock chase. Crosscut this with the Stairwell Room with the various people in different planes of the background. And then back to the youngest brothers playfully dodging each other’s chase, eventually getting chastised for their mock battling. Several cuts go by in the next thirty seconds (a little over ten minutes into the film) that establish the inside of the Southern estate as a peaceful, happy existence in a veritable calm before the storm. As the introduction fuses into further plot development—an intertitle sets up the dynamic group of protagonists in factually designed scenarios, uncanny in resemblance to civil war folk-lore. The young Cameron’s sojourn through the cotton fields for a moment—then a line of sight match pictures a love interest (completely in beginning stages, but with assured follow through, developing between the oldest Cameron girl and oldest Stoneman boy. Fade in on another picturesque locale, the seaside, of ellipsis, here Griffith dispatches the use of ellipsis or ‘folded edges’ to make a frame within a frame. The use of ellipsis is so common with Griffith and interestingly hardly ever used anymore—though it would be a clever device even now. Silent imagery, quite often in a painterly fashion, which is why they are so stylish and advanced. Again, there is a debate about a primitive mode of representation (Noel Burch’s PMR), and while Giusseppe de Liguero’s L’INFERNO, in 1911, a full length feature recently rediscovered, premastered and re-released on digital video appears immaculate in aesthetics—yet a true example of primitivism—Griffith’s BIRTH merges the modern and classical styles; which turns the whole film into a textbook of film form, an institutional mode of representation— Also, the actual distinction between silent and sound film is the absence of audible dialog in a silent feature and the absence of intertitles in a sound film—naturally. However, telling a story in pure visuals purifies the media to an enhanced image. This is to say that at the point of the first seaside shot in BIRTH the ellipsis frame features the shot with a faded circle around the edges. A few seconds later two female slaves and pick cotton in a large surreal cotton field. Among the oddest of the problems with Birth is that hardly any African-Americans were used in the actual shoot—or at, at least, the story goes that many of the actors were white people in black-face playing the role of African people. The sheer images of the scene, in which the cotton is picked, reflects back to the ironic coldness, in which the heightened reality of slavery is glamorized to the point of redundancy. The falsities of this “true” story (later in way claiming to be truth) abound, although the fermentation of “poetic truth” in an Aristotelian sense is beginning to take hold. The Cameron’s enter the frame—right after a shot of a close-up of a slave’s hand picking cotton—a shot to rival all others—in front of the slaves, taking advantage of their privileged space in the field—an establishmentarianistic capitalistic leisurely class emerges. Inserts in the “cotton field” sequence culminate to the insert (a rather Feuillade-esque device) of a picture Elsie Stoneman Griffith intercuts Gish’s character in photo freeze frames the action at once and all together. The Cameron boy keeps the picture of Elsie for himself and all the white people exit the frame, repositioning the slaves in another pleasing shot. G.W. Bitzer must have taken approach, because the shot is in the slave quarters of the plantation and slaves couldn’t be happier at this stage. Notice that the Cameron boy shakes hands with an African slave, whereas later he refuses to shake hands with a mulatto with political status. The mystery behind the sinister Northern plot will be revealed as a matter based in simple economic dominance of the United States. For now, the slaves are shown to be enjoying white masters. In a longer take, the slaves dance to entertain themselves and others. Emerging is a pattern of shots that mimic each other--an establishing shot, which eventually includes characters, an intercut, which highlights characters and then back to the establishing shot. Alfred Hitchcock used this technique as well, objective in establishment and subjective in a close-up point of view shot. In other words, the index of reference to a shot within a shot is completely ascertained by Griffith. Another fact that resonates strongly with Griffith is how huge of an inspiration his films were on other filmmakers, from Charlie Chaplin and Erich von Stroheim to Robert Bresson and Robert Altman--undoubtedly an aesthetic all its own, rife with a personal touch. Yet, BIRTH is atypically recognized, as here as Griffith's most important work. Because BROKEN BLOSSOMS, INTOLERANCE and WAY DOWN EAST are all almost equally as good and as are in constant flux of critical reorganization by critics. To name the key works thus far restored, look no further than JUDITH OF BETHULIA, HEARTS OF THE WORLD, SALLY OF THE SAWDUST and TRUE HEART SUSIE. To round off the top ten AVENGING CONSCIENCE and AMERICA are the two most unforgettable that always need inclusion. As for the short films, well, he never made a bad short--the earliest short is THE ADVENTURES OF DOLLIE an animal movie, picturing a dog. Again, JUSDITH OF BETHULIA (based on an apocryphal text of Biblical lore) marks the turning point from short too long. Even the two part ENOCH ARDEN does not stretch as long, but endures, like most of his shorts, as masterpieces. BIRTH shows a clash of racism in the early days of a forming civil war, all coming to a close with the end of the frontier in 1895, transfiguring itself onto cinema--BIRTH is not too far from similar parameters. As the slaves dance, the white folk enjoy the company of their slaves for a short while. Soon after, it is noteworthy to bring up the new headline Griffith plays on, "If the North carries the election, the south will secede the Cameron senior points out the article, which is as controversial as anything now as when the film was released, back unto the 1865 scenario, when the war was on a somewhat decrescendo of technique. Remember the film delves far into the aftermath of the war. Next, Father Austin Stoneman is viewed in his 'secret' library. The library shot is rarely examined, but it is worth note that again, the composition is a major breakthrough in the structure of time and apace---Rich Northern men discuss rich northern theories, which then cuts to one of the most interesting scenes of the film entire. Lydia Brown is a housekeeper (and later hinted at as a lover) of Austin Stoneman. All entirely in silent film fashion, she gives a Brecthian pantomime, in a long take she is intercut with Austin in the library. Actually, by the time the film cuts back to her--the second time--she tries to a make a move on a politician---who condescends to her. She then acts out even more pantomime to illustrate her disgust of white people. As she practically goes into convulsions--tearing her clothes and falling to the ground in agony. Switch back to the library--Austin gathers material--rapid cross cut to the housekeeper making motions in dementedly lurid ways. One of the most unconvincing title cards of the movie appears soon after, reading, "The great leader's weakness that is to blight a nation." Here Griffith takes the moral high-ground of right and left wingers alike, that pointed out the out-of-date memories of the evils of miscegenation is somehow still evil. Austin walks in on his maid and as she cries to him, he consoles her. In the next scene--the two brothers, identified as chums, agree to meet each other again, which will, as seen, be entirely different circumstances then what they would expect. The oldest Stoneman vows to stay true to the older Cameron girl forever. Then, they all part ways and go back about business, which relates to the later film by Renoir (GRAND ILLUSION,) in its distinct intentional contradictions. A horse buggy takes the Stonemans home and among the last to leave the reverse Point of View shot the Cameron Lady, transfixed on her lover to be--foreshadowing to the maximum. (Note by Joel Newton: Abraham Lincoln is ready to sign a proclamation, and Lincoln's gesture is true to form, known to act like this throughout history. As the politicians leave the room, Abe Lincoln reflects on the actions he has just taken.) The scene with Lincoln calling for troops or volunteers is another "facsimile" with cited source on the intertitle. (Griffith cites Nicolay and Hay in "Lincoln a History," as Lincoln's actions come to fruition.) And so, the Stoneman brothers are off to fight the war for the North. Gish's Elsie pretends to be excited and hopeful for her brothers. She looks at them dressed in their uniforms and sends them out with affection and physical touch--In the well structured scene, the older brother leaves the frame to appear in the next cut, (match on movement) and he bounds over a hedge and then looks back and in the next cut his POV reveals Elsie and her younger brother. Then the cuts gently transition between Elsie and her younger brother. Then the cuts gently transition between Elsie and her departing brothers by way of more POVs and matching on action. Gish's Elsie continues to play along with her brother, pretending to be proud of his war efforts. But a moment after her brothers leave, the reality sinks in and she panics and bursts into tears, falling down in fear. As the fade out eclipses the scene, classical Hollywood editing is from this point on, completely established. The film, so far, is linear, seamless montage, lavish mise-en-scene and experimental style that lays the ground rules for the cinema entire. In effect, another debate the film brings up is whether the content is separate from the form. Are the style and from independent of content? The answer is, yes, in some cases, no in others. The overwhelming camera angles during the KKK ride at the end, propagandize the Klan as an important entity--valorizing content, informed by the style and form, or technique. However, in certain scenes, as the departing of the brothers illustrates, the classical form erases its own creation to draw attention to characters and plot. So the form actually does involve the content, yet it makes itself invisible to boost the content as priority. The next sequence is out of control, the first instance of war spectacle, at the same time improving on Edwin Porter's discovery of the 'crosscut.' Note that all the linguistic syntagms existed in a primitive form. His revolution, as every auteur since the Lumiere's is improving what already exists. The reason so much technique is attributed to D.W. Griffith, is because, like Orson Welles after him, he perfected the craft. Bazin writes of Griffith, montage is "derived initially...from the masterpieces of Griffith..." The intertitle displays the fact that Piedmont is holding a dance after the battle of bull run and the dancing is, of course, elegantly choreographed. Red color tinting (in the crosscut scenes of night time celebrations in the street,) denote bonfires that place the visuals in a thesis (dance hall), antithesis (street bonfire) dialectic--and although both shots spliced together are, in fact, celebratory--here are the roots of "intellectual" or "collision montage." And, as written, Eisenstein practiced his early editing skills by recutting BIRTH and INTOLERANCE, and in fact, in the case of INTOLERANCE, the Soviets had no other footage to cut, so they ordered the film in its chronological order and the like. BIRTH is attributable to the beginnings of Soviet Montage, as well as, German Expressionism, let alone the Hollywood Industry. In their profound books of film theory, Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen praise Griffith for creating, "the most systematic meaning and the most effective rhythmic pattern," through editing. The montage, as it is during the bonfire and dance, is so peculiar, because the film cuts from a different angle of the fire to a shot inside the house. Needless to say, the precedent for the cleverly divine GONE WITH THE WIND was laid upon the groundwork in BIRTH. Two Camerons--the old wise sage and the little girl sleep--and the Cameron's son covers his sister in a confederate flag as a blanket, an icon that is given considerable metaphor for the 'Children of the South.' In a way, Griffith speaks to audiences of 1915 by placing the flag as a symbol of freedom. In a strange way, Griffith himself was seceding from the very way motion pictures were made and then his style became mainstream, ironically. Much affection is spread between the Cameron family--Then, the film shows the dance hall erupting in joy upon the news that the confederacy took the lead at the wars first battle, Bull Run. The red tinted bonfire goes into the night--And at "daybreak" the troops must go into battle, which is illustrated by the Piedmont plantations swarmed by the people and soon after, a bugler in an establishing shot--then medium close-up plays a tune that is, no doubt, the music that calls men to arms. A brilliant intercut of the dance hall displays the dancers reaction to the bugler--so far, the preparations for battle hardly that the world was at war around the time of the film's release and brink of battle, goes to show that pro-war propaganda can be found in the anti-war details. However, as is later viewed, if one stance negates the other, then the negation over rules, for the most part. Anyway, the Cameron's prepare for battle, as well--spending family time together in the final hours before the war. As the Cameron, read a flag saying, "Conquer we must/For our Cause is just," on a circle and the middle of the circle reads, "Victory or Death." There is a bit of contradiction to these historical words. To "Conquer" does not mean to kill, yet the people will die for the cause. Loaded statements appear elsewhere in the film, particularly in the intertitles. As the Cameron's pay their last farewell to send their two children off to war. Fanfare continues in a regiment march down the street, as the South readies for war. And, in terms of the allegory present concerning war in the world, the implications wrought in the metaphor of the civil war of Americans, must have been a socio-political choice. Griffith's colonial impetus thematically centralizes world crisis around a familiar American war, which serves to bolster the appeal of the U.S.--as nostalgic as Griffith is, his longings for an older world exacerbate his use of all American iconography. In the 'Southern Departure' scene in the movie, pride is a factor that overcomes the men headed for war. The oldest Cameron son, gets on a horse and joins, in a match on action, the army parade. The crowd waves handkerchiefs in the air in perfect continuity. And, of course, the intellectual montage that is displayed of troops marching off to meet the other troops, must be seen to be ascertained because the footage is so realistic, the black and white when the shot of the Cameron's at home watching the soldiers, it is hard not to feel a sense of emotion due to three Aristotelian traits: mimesis, kinesis and catharsis. Finally, the Camerons, in a touch of poetic brilliance, return to their daily business, all in different depths of field--the little girl takes another look at the flag, while father smokes and converses etc. The use of an ordinary moment amidst the psychological tension, relieves the audience and provokes them to identification with the humanism. A moment later, past the 30 minute mark of the movie, the Northern character of Elsie Stoneman visits her father and relates to him of her brothers leaving for war. All the opening details of story and characters are in place, when the entire film, by the words, "Two and a half years later," transitions to Ben Cameron reading a letter from home. (Notice the constant use in the intertitles of the paragraph symbol at the beginning of every thought, denoting grammar.) Ben reads a sentimental letter shown in an insert, written by his sister--connecting the war front with home and advancing the plot of the film. Immediately, in Piedmont at the Camerons, a response shot of Ben's younger sister, framed by the doorway reading Ben's letter, is not shown in insert, like her letter was earlier. After cutting back and forth from the doorway and 'Stairwell Room' Griffith arrives at a point of nostalgia, showing the Cameron Sisters looking elegant and leaving their house. The action picks up, as the ladies are startled by people running scared through the streets, to avoid the onslaught of oncoming militia raiders. Old man Cameron grabs his pistol and the two girls rush back into the house, telling their father about the oncoming militia that bum rushes the town. All this while gun battles erupt in the street outside the plantations. The Cameron family retreats into a side room, as mayhem ensues right outside their house. The theme of a retreat into a room to temporarily escape disaster is a theme Griffith used quite a bit in many of his films. Gish's character in BROKEN BLOSSOMS, to name a famous example, retreats to avoid being beaten up. (Later, her father nearly mercifully kills her in retreat to avoid any further molestation., in BIRTH...) Here, as per usual, technique creates suspense in the action, intensifying the atmospheric anxiety. It is relevant to note that mainly black people attack Piedmont, ravaging the town organized by a 'white captain' and soon they enter the Cameron's uninvited. As they ransack the place, the Camerons (except the old father, who is knocked down in the 'Stairwell Room,') retreat further back into the house, which is cut together by match on action--room to room to escape the invaders. Yet again, a complete penchant for grandiose spectacle is authorized by Griffith's command. The flaw of this otherwise perfect movie, is evidenced in the fact that most of the Africans are like savage automatons, capable of many potentially deadly acts, even when subjugated to brawling, as in a strange scene later involving an all out brawl between races. Thus, the scene of the ransacking of Piedmont at this juncture, like so many other scenes, sets a precedent for how race should be handled in film--that is, incorrectly. The strengths of the film is alongside its weakness because the fear of the hiding Cameron family elicits an empathetic response. Down into the cellar goes the women of the Cameron family. The youngest sister and older sister respectively, are lit by the key light in a medium close-up, two shot with no back or background lighting to create the illusion of being consumed by the darkness of the cellar. At the same time the youngest sister is practically giddy either from fear or adrenaline or both. The older sister appears in this ghostly shot, in the cellar, as wild eyed as well. The shootings continue on the street, the lootings continue in the 'Stairwell Room.' Anarchy abounds and the singularly lit sisters pray for resolution to the deadly situation. They know that their hopes and dreams are diminishing, that at any minute now they could be physically injured by the rioting militia. Like most of Griffith's 'retreat' shots, the antagonist (or antagonists,) break into the first room the family hid, immediately the enemy head toward the next room of hiding in the series of rooms. Griffith splices in the 'last-minute rescue' he is well known for, cross-cutting a Southern soldier discovering the news of the plantation under siege. As the valuables of the Cameron house are plundered and destroyed, the women wait underground, still reacting in their own cold way to the pandemonium. Crosscut rescue suspense make erupts as the Confederate troops their way to the Cameron household and others' houses that have been set ablaze. The 'white' captain takes note of the gunfire in the street, places the order to burn the house down and the montage continues between interior and exterior shots of warfare in the streets. The Cameron family are freed to return from hiding and they re-enter the blazing, red color tinted (for the fire effect), 'Stairwell Room.' In what seems like a jump cut, without a transition excepting an intertitle, the aftermath of the last minute rescue is played out like the denouement of a short film of Griffith's earlier film days. The relief of being saved by the Confederates leads to thanks to the soldiers and more familial bonding. In the midst of war, Ben Cameron finds Elsie's picture that he has apparently kept since the cotton field scene. He delicately opens the picture and her graceful glory is Close-Up in insert, still frozen in time. Seated in his tent, Ben Cameron has never been as happy, viewing a picture of a girl he has never met. The next shot and scene (thirty-nine minutes into the film) are the first of the battle-field where Cameron meets Stoneman, fighting for opposite sides of the war and slaying each other. They are the pair seen earlier referred to by an intertitle as chums that get along with each other in the introduction at Piedmont. At any rate, the young men that were friends, kill each other. The transitioning from style and genre to a war film is smooth from an historical domestic melodrama and the up close and personal battlefield illustrates in detail the friends from earlier, running head-long into unwanted destruction. The friends are gunned down, one intentionally, one accidentally (due to checking out his dying friend that he takes notice of.) The first death is accidental as well, to be honest, because the young men were merely fighting their personal battles upon being responsible for the others death. In fact, in a moment of eloquence the young men see each other eye to eye and stop fighting--only for death to follow. The scene concludes with the two young opposing soldiers dying on the ground somewhat close to each other and slowly they die in dignity, as though they were brothers--friends to the end-- The past is confirmed to father Cameron at his house, reading the bad news of a death in the family--in sweeping emotions, each Cameron in a different way mourns the loss of a loved one. The Stonemans in the North discover they have lost a family member as well, and begin mourning for him. To donate to the cause, at an unspecified later time in the episodical, elliptical narrative and plot, the Camerons are at their plantation, donating all of their nicest clothes to the war effort. It is difficult to imagine whether D.W. Griffith intended any of his film to be pro-war or pro-racism, for that matter. If the scenario was a different war--as he captured many recreated wars on film--then the patriotism could be mistaken as pro-war sentiment. In BIRTH, war is disastrous in its effect, but in the depiction of the characters, they are genuinely loaded with preserving emotion. Speaking of perseverance, Elsie Stoneman donates her time, as a nurse for wounded soldiers. Yet, even though the intertitle gives away her intent, all that is seen in the shot is father and daughter Stoneman leaving their living chambers. The next shot is such a total 'doozy' that an entire book could be written about the one shot and nothing else. Long story short, collision montage occurs within the frame--as the camera pans right, it dramatically captures a horde of armies riding off to battle. The shots are broken up into the mother and children and the armies marching. Overall, the effect of powerlessness versus powerful force becomes an open dichotomy of discussion, to say the very least. The imagery of the helpless woman on the hillside stands to reveal through metaphor, the unseen vulnerability of the Southern force--which works well in the film to set up the burning of Atlanta--GONE WITH THE WIND later capitalized on this idea, and it is not a coincidence that the scene in WIND is now far more recognized. In BIRTH the scene is granted far more poetry in the visuals--red color tinting to denote fire and flames--and the chaotic madness in the INFERNO of Atlanta becomes so hard to make out that a visual reference Northern Warfare in the film delves into the secrets of Griffith's artistry. And to drive home the metaphor, the hillside shot from before is crosscut with the downfall of Atlanta, which proceeds with an interesting special effect of fire, somehow projected in the background and hordes of people running away--from the blaze. The full fledged Atlanta sequence is in appearance, surreal and dream-like utilizing formal structure to aestheticize destruction of a city. For lack of a better phrase--the whole scene is a beautiful apocalypse, sublime in its spectacle. The madness of a fire in the streets (replete with irony or, as critics have termed ironia, a reflection of ironic paranoia,) of Atlanta is meticulously detailed and impressionistic--veiled by clouds of smoke. Most of these "night" shots were a trick of silhouetted subject matter. The scene (intentionally, looking like the Fiery Gates to Hell) is mainly of silhouettes of escaping people--some of them on horseback. The realism that continues, even upon special effect/sound stage usage, throughout the 'Atlanta Fire' is plausible despite the experimental nature of the montage, which shifts point of views and features many victims fleeing to survive. While all are in confusion, the fire becomes all the more raging. Seen from the exit of the city, the whole place is up in flames, and Griffith mobilizes crowds at a time in the scenes that are of Biblical proportions. In another cut-in, smoke all but consumes the action. Ultimately, the burning of Atlanta widens the palate in terms of style (pacing, framing etc.) and in the content creating a scenario during the war, in which, the central protagonists are not in the dynamic scene at all. Thus, the story progresses, based on an important historical calamity, without any key players present. Of course, this example is not the first time there are no main characters--it is probably one of the most expensive scenes that they are absent from. All through the film is the central idea of a crowd becoming a character of its own. Often the crowds here are involved in melodramatic spectacle-- a throwback to 'actualities,' and/or theater of attractions. The docudramatic feel of the film accentuates and hyper-intensification of the war's attractions. In a sense, there lies an early Hollywood realist/formalist dichotomy taking root in BIRTH, as the dualism is played out during the destruction of Atlanta-- Without question, the special effect of double exposure is brought out often to delineate the loss of a city and with all the chaos and all the madness of an act of extreme vandalism, the effects shine through--integrated into the mainframe of filmed creativity. Up to this point in the film, the action was rarely at such a hyperkinetic frenzy as the fire. Shifting gears, the intertitle announces (46 minutes into the movie) that the Confederacy is headed for doom and to illustrate this, the harsh reality of food rations diminished to parched corn--even at the "battle lines," is the next frame of reference that draws upon the Southern woes, as their army approaches defeat, which really is not foreshadowed by the written letters of distanced communication, placed strategically throughout. Soldiers in a trench, await rations--hands in close-up urge for more corn and the soldiers deal with the hardships of poverty stricken troops. The representation of the Southern troops is now disenchanting--demystifying the nostalgia established prior, as the battle has clearly taken a toll physically and economically. Struggles intensify when a "food train" headed for the Southern troops is hijacked by the Union. This detail is actually shown in pictures, a tangent that evidently interested Griffith enough to film. As the wagon train of food is stopped by horsemen, the food itself is illustrated in abstract, close-up cut-ins-- In the next intertitle, General Lee is mentioned, which brings up an interest in the historic mixture of fact and fiction. More and more examples of a sophisticated narrative fall into place, as the film progresses. Earlier in the movie, during the letter reading scenes, the 'sense of' mentioned 'distanced communication' is interpreted by the viewer, in contrast, with the intimacy that Griffith has with his massive cast of extras that portray history. While quite a bit of screen time is devoted to other facets of war history (again, as the United States was in a formed contemporary war-zone in 1915.) So, General Lee orders a backlash against the stolen food train and Southern and Northern troops, soon after, hit the battle-field against each other, in the first of a series of war scenes. Tinted red and in the darkened frame, explosions and gun-fire explode all over the screen, but the mise-en-scene is placed far enough away to complete a sense of realism of warfare in the 1800's. The war scene leads up to Ben Cameron, now known as, "the little Colonel," explained in the text of intertitle--organizing with Confederate soldiers to make plans to attack, while explosions and smoke denote the chaos of battle. The warfare becomes a subjective experience for the audience-- creating a sense that the footage is cathartic upon screening and war-time is depicted as a destroyer of common ethics. Ben, in full on uniform, orders his troops, to ready for the attack, authoritatively waves his saber in the air and charges forth--all for the effect of heroics, independent of 'a priori' knowledge of the lost cause of the South. Among the most impressive shots of the entire film are during the same battle, when the camera is stationed at an extreme wide-shot, taking in a line of effectively placed troops, all but engulfed in smoke from gun-fire (coming from, both sides of the screen.) The Northern front line is also in a trench, barricaded and lined with bayonet rifles that fire and reload like clockwork. The battle scene is a strategic production of massive extras, in staged warfare with rampant gunfire and shrouded in the chaos of the explosive field of the conflict. Backdrop--massive warfare in the distance, for a duration shown in totality--a well-edited spectacle for all times of the battalion structure--organized Northern troops firing from the right frame to the left, and a decimated Southern troop disorganized, while centralized in the frame-- Griffith focuses in on closer to the Southern Garrison, waving the flag at the Confederates--firing at the North--(note: from right frame, firing to the left)--calculating a rhythmized, heavily patterned flow of shots that symbolize a gun battle across a battlefield--troops on either side of the warfare firing at the other. As the battle rages on-- a feeling of anti-war, pro-war dialectics enter into the picture. Due to the nature of cinematic frenzies of war--the repercussions all but equal the heroism--which portrays both a negative connotation of the murderous sacrifice of war and positive, which simply boasts the very greatest side of humanity--to stand up as a military man, dying for a cause--strange in and of itself, considering America did not have a common enemy in the Civil War, rather, had an enemy among its own people. Surely, BIRTH privileges the South as the hero--however, there are as well, protagonists on the Northern side--perhaps when "the chums" killed each other, the tides turned for the film in entirety--illustrating a veritable volume on the rights and wrongs of war-- whether or not derivations of which side holds a moral compass is read plainly or not--war exists here as nowhere else, equally justified on both sides. Of course, the South is given weighty precedence (as it will later in GONE WITH THE WIND) in terms of the more heroic--an idea that will gain retread throughout. The battle is as well choreographed as the dancing--music and violence combinations that Stanley Kubrick and Sam Peckinpah have deliberately used ideas from to drive home a detachment in aestheticized violence--a beautiful apocalypse that recurs as a cathartic, kinetic and mimetic reply from art to society. In other words--the reflection of violence turned into art maintains hereditary values for two reasons, violence in war is realistic--the world will go to war again--repeatedly into oblivion--Peckinpah dealt with Vietnam as a realist in THE WILD BUNCH, while Kubrick's cold war to Vietnam series (including DR. STRANGELOVE, BARRY LYNDON and FULL METAL JACKET) all incorporate Griffith's use of war as a grand spectacle-- A circulating documentary on BIRTH exists--created by David Shephard--which, actually reveals old Civil War films, circulating around the time of BIRTH. Not only were most of them short films (not by any means devaluing the film) but as grandiose as all the spectacles were, none can outgun THE BIRTH OF A NATION. Compare INTOLERANCE to BIRTH, because to be honest, in terms of film spectacle, Griffith himself composed his own competition--the only true way to challenge technique is by out-doing technique on your authorship terms. In fact, BIRTH and INTOLERANCE travel together in many respects, because INTOLERANCE is the continuation of the theme, done without the racism--clearly INTOLERANCE illustrates by converting stereotypes to archetypes (case in point--the Babylonians in the Babylon sequence)--which JUDITH OF BETHULIA did for the Israelites years earlier, which really goes to show that D.W. Griffith's downfall of befriending Germans around the time of the Nazis rise to power as less anti-Semitic than other reports have proclamated--Yet, his racism seems to have gone in waves--not necessarily by the way his overall world-view dictated-- Let us wax analytical--why would a man go through various phases of differences as to how race, class and gender is depicted on film in a polysemical way to verify its multiple point of view?--Later, in film history various critics have hailed Jen-Luc Godard for his variety of changing Ideology-- If evolution were not random, it would be the perfect 'term' for Griffith's changes and corrections. Anyway, Griffith's INTOLERANCE is yet another towering manifesto to the ideals that combat hatred of all forms and if it is an answer to BIRTH in terms of beliefs, then even the racism in BIRTH is somehow kept in check--in a Homeric ILIAD to ODYSSEY connection. So, some 50 minutes into the movie and the civil war is already going strong, flamed into a tracking shot that from far away looks well staged, full of horses and riders, travelling to aid the troops that are almost from a bird's-eye view--a strategy found in videogames upon their sacred advent--show the war from a distance and control the whole battle--in the same respect, Griffith is a dictator of images, never allowing his team of Joseph Henabery, James Smith, Rose Smith and Raoul Walsh to interrupt his own schemata of editing prowess--legend has it that he cut the whole film in his head long before he shot it--manipulating all to his whim. To say the least--his war footage has to be seen to be believed because all the arrangements of cutting include war footage so chaotic and almost surreal, surpassing the likes of even SAVING PRIVATE RYAN in how immersed the battlefield is in a meticulously constructed monstrosity of confusion (although--the soldiers never mistake their enemy.) On the Northern lines, in the mid to foreground, stand fortified behind a gate, dodging the oncoming rush of explosions cast upon their refuge. Their guns, cannons and turrets are all displayed like in a picture that is in a civil war museum--much like all of this footage of war. Many times, in the film, the frame is entirely obscured, here again by smoke, billowing from incessant gun-fire and the like, which devours the picture until literally only a shred of battleground is all that is viewable. At this stage, in the next few cuts, the battlefield itself becomes encapsulated by full on explosions, blasting the smoke screen into a match on action structuring metaphor of 'fire' enveloping the scenario--only this time, the smoke is in neutral mode--denoting violence inflicted by two just factions. The military men of the NORTH clamber to illustrate a defeat of the South troops--and several moving shots evidence the clearance of a much larger field of battle over that, which Griffith reveals earlier in the fight. The large battles are clearly an influence that came from the Italian "sword and sandal: epics, particularly CABIRIA (a continuation of Italy's legacy of features dating back to their first--also an epic--L'INFERNO directed by Giusseppe de Liguero and others to show Dante's vision in an extremely primitive mode of representation in an unforgettable masterpiece of symbolic constructions,) Italy, all but mastered the early feature, although in the uncertainty of which country boasts the world's first feature--Australia's STORY OF THE KELLY GANG, a film that may no longer exist--but Wikipedia (as of June 2009) states its claim--accurate or not. As for surviving features, who but the archivists really know? The first three American features that coexist as the first are MANGER TO THE CROSS, (a Christ Passion Play), OLIVER TWIST (Dickens) and another period Shakespeare piece, but even MANGER TO THE CROSS in all of its influence over early Griffith features, taking control in INTOLERANCE particularly, according to Griffith CABIRIA was a greater influence. The really crazy part is, no matter how many films influenced BIRTH there are thousands more influenced by BIRTH. Early origins depicting Griffith as a theatrical savant, acting while dreaming of Edison--only to actually break off from Edison's label and form a label all his own. By 1919, Griffith together with his underlings Charlie Chaplin (debuting in a feature in 1914, TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE), Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks who were all lucrative in feature film markets in film's like GOLD RUSH, SPARROWS, MARK OF ZORRO and THIEF OF BAGHDAD. which were all in direct and indirect ways Griffithian to the core--The four of them got together and worked out UNITED ARTISTS, an entity that like Griffith rose and fell and rose again throughout rose and fell and rose again throughout its many years as a studio, yielding films that are modeled after the years of film evolution and progress. UA is a logo that did come back with a vengeance, marking the high point in the commodity cultures of the 1980's and 1990's. The war blazes from left to right, right to left, cutting, which instigates an entire affront to Hollywood editing, while creating the language of a war. Consider the beast of film as it is, as a symbol of things to come. If 1939's masterwork by Jean Renoir RULES OF THE GAME was as much about cinema's origins, which creates a dead on accuracy. In terms of existence, in every other war besides the civil war--America was not fighting America--but someone other--from another country, usually from another race. Take the Iraq war today under leadership that has led us into it in America. It is 2009 and people die every day in Iraq--yet the war in our own country, is all cultural battles, like what came from the birth of post-modernity in France. Today, a cultural battle would go so far, as to eliminate even in BIRTH OF A NATION from the socio-intellectual culture of film's frames of remembered canonical works. However, very many people have actually praised the work long after its thematics dated into the real controversy that exists now, which is almost all more relevant to the second half, which in terms of deconstruction is nearer, but to interpret the actual war footage is to behold either a dream or a nightmare of what it is like to fight a war upon which there is not a side to partake of. Now at last as fifty three minutes elapsed and what will be described here as Ben Cameron's final bum rush comes alive in the medium, as an instance of Griffith that will forever live on throughout the history of film as THE moment he will always be most remembered for--the last Southern stand against Northern troops watches closely, as the South led by Ben Cameron, charges to the Northern lines, far less in numbers than them--an event not unlike a reenactment of what happened at the Alamo--a sacrificial idol everyone can appreciate. Ben Cameron, front and center, huge in a theater, lunges forward with his Southern troops in a shot--followed by the North, blasting them down--Another shot of the guns dropping, firing etc. The battlefield is aglow in the next cut with mayhem and the Southern troops continue to charge in the midst of it all from different angles. The battleground is still alight with smoke everywhere. Smoke enters everywhere--And as surreal as the film becomes--even with smoke in the air--the avant-garde movement of the French 20's yielded a number of cinematic movements that were entirely reactionary to the Griffith mode of thought. Or so it seems, because if Orson Welles and Sergei Eisenstein unleashed early short films--then maybe the world's greatest shorts like MUSKETEERS OF PIG ALLEY or CORNER IN WHEAT measure up as greater than even today's greatest masterpieces like TITANIC, or perhaps shoe short films have paved the ground for lengthier films that do concertingly exist. But with as much regards to how BIRTH is a direct descendant if Hollywood film, up to and until GODFATHER, which is a style all its own and complete unto creation of a New Standard of cinematic undertaking that models itself on the predilection of Coppola--which is, all incorporative of stylistics post-D.W. Griffith, but at least until Alfred Hitchcock presented his highly experimental PSYCHO to the world and New American Cinema was hatched then and only then was the style of BIRTH taken out of absolute control. To be honest, if a contemporary film like COLD MOUNTAIN were taken into play, there is very little difference from the first half of BIRTH, which again, like the later Kubrick, plays all but differently from the second half--encompassing a spectrum all different from one part to the next. The point that must evidently be constructed as a point of departure from the totalistic totality of what is considered purity of image--the silent avant garde 1920's in France summed up the inevitable decay of future images and posed that their unsociable wagers purified the very notions of art's drive for singularity. Pure cinema exists in BIRTH as clearly as purer forms, but to take socio-political iconography--alas the Southern troops charging forward at the Northern victors--who have all but claimed victory--deceive the entire audience into editing history. And in a transitional memory that defeats the purpose along the line from silent to sound film.--the image reaches the level of purity in spite of its content due to the nature of its silence. While BIRTH in 1915 release was accompanied by an orchestra it still served to accomplish the purpose of serving the screen it issued to in terms of production. As a denominator, take the 20's avant-garde as the only anomaly that does not exist directly--while still due in part to Griffith fever--spreading from shots like the one ordained--Ben Cameron charging at the assortment of troops. And all shown in various multiplicities of shots. Introducing popular footage as such on display--is a disparate match as well of popular criticism--which as always mentions Griffith from text to text altering context only by switching from imagery to sacred imagery, he settles the score as to follow a bum rush with the rush of war the war itself, which continues to blossom with effectiveness each turn of the editorial card--belonging in point of argument--almost entirely to the whims of Griffith. Take apart any editor--or even Raoul Walsh--for the most part and a cross section of the Griffithian idyllic exist for a time--soaking up the cause and effect rhythmic flow that makes everything flow within a particular realm of the cosmos and tears everything else apart from deeply within and disgraces a generation from their false agendas seeking out what is not there beyond. If there were a battle among the greatest of films BIRTH would win even among PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC and JEANNE DIELMAN... and the like, belonging to a non-existent class of silent film to the unit of film where the bigger is the better--to copy that which is at stake--a gigantic intermix in international sensationalism that would grow to beyond a monolithic control to a major sensation of killer philosophical incantations that can beseech a thousand viewers at once to control them beyond spectacle. Griffith shares with everyone else because he supposedly has the means to which at any right is the way to Griffith's ultimate message of BIRTH, which is to take place at a time when cinema needed a kick start or a final form of art that considers film among the immaculate arts, the forms of consciousness that motivate the Soul or the likes thereof, which hereticize the very nature of God's appearances, which as of now belongs to BIRTH OF A NATION in the needs of spectacular choreography. Ben Cameron runs forward to either victory or defeat, whichever seems real--Griffith defeats image makers around the world at the early day of 1915 rifting consciousness for eternity. As for the encompassing methodology of BIRTH, it is no question that the war sequence plays all encompassing catharsis. But to maintain the whole epicurean awareness of the shot, the shot itself is to be examined in a wholly original stance nightmarishly proper--even so the Cameron family prey upon their Bible--to the tune of every kind of twisted plot there exists in the film--a prayer of survival for their son, which proves true but only in a few unexpected frames of footage. When in the cahiers du cinema notable frames of found art is proselytized and pontificated upon, let it be known that here lies the watershed upon that which filmed art is founded around, the centralized objective of film is the essence of time and space hybridized for unity in conjunction with reality and metaphor drawn upon heavily--here for the smoky, decimated battlefield and a closer-up look juxtapositioned with a family full of prayers seeking the Lord to intervene on the plains of the war, as if he would not otherwise. Avant Garde films that came in the next decade were full of ideas that BIRTH had only up until recently gained access to, which lead again, to the purity of imagery--an effect the battle scenes of BIRTH have on the viewer--almost as though no other war imagery is manifest earlier or later than BIRTH, which posits itself as a manufacturer of all film in dealership with war propaganda mode- a sense yearned for only in ages far earlier than BIRTH. So in CABIRIA, a totality of imagery placement is sufficient unto the calibration that a more recent epic--THE BIRTH OF A NATION finally imparts upon itself the ultimate scrutiny--deconstruction, a failure of a term to plainly meet the film in scrutiny--but when war is a constructed object of fear, desire and an age old heart of subjection to violent despair, war is only as modern as represented. Film itself contains the modernity required in philosophical construction; Age old commodifiers only please that aforementioned, hereditary response. When a troop runs through the front lines of their enemy, as Southern does to Northern here and nothing else subliminal besides south centricity, is subject to manufacturization of imagery, let alone sound-- In fact, so many different sounds have accompanied BIRTH from orchestra to organ that there need be an extensive deal more of research on how sound exploded across BIRTH's solemn screen. The soundtrack given to the film is in need of fine tuning, gesturing FLIGHT OF THE VALKYRIES to the final ride of the KKK as some kind of peaceful tome to beget endless stories--here there are endless Civil War spin-offs that endure GONE WITH THE WIND at the early stage, COLD MOUNTAIN and others since--an amalgam of Civil War fame and striking chords in the distant countries like the Soviet Union, which consequently faced disaster by not applying to an older philosophy and thus ending in disenfranchisement as warned later would happen (or 'is happening') in 'agit-prop-train' films. In an unusual way, the rushing forth of the Southern lines in The Civil War issues no less a confinement to a safer series of monetary recompense--a way to safeguard the flow of economical recourse proving in 1915 to be a boon of financial highlights, marking a watershed in finance history, to date. How did Griffith know siding with the South would be so lucrative? Ultimately, the editing in BIRTH uses an interesting intellectualism found later in the Soviet Montage school-particularly here in the civil war battle-- a scene of the Cameron's still praying that their son won't die, or the like, and meanwhile the following cut is the Northern battle and troops from the South meet their doom at the Northern front line during a bum rush. In fact, the documentary effect of the battle makes for a Bazinian sense of preserved history--as text or image provides. Hard as it is to piece together the 1915 American President Woodrow Wilson's actual stance on the film's historicity, it is not too surprising that the movie is not only a historical landmark about history--it is clear history is carefully constructed--at least during the battle, which displays unparalleled action, so jam packed, with extras playing soldiers that Griffith must have literally commanded quite the regiment--a task not easily reproduced but always attempted on film ever since. Of course, as impressive as the scale of the work remains, the orchestration of the events is equally fantastic. The final stand of the South depicted here is cinematic nomenclature precisely due to its understanding of shot placement and troop organization. In the former sense, the battle is coherently drawn out for the spectator, which feeds into the latter sentiment of well-placed troops in the shot--Of course, in the narrative, the Southern apocalypse is at hand and they truly do not go down without a fight; Bayonets clash, soldiers are gunned down and troops are depleted to the point, according to the intertitle that only a 'remnant of the regiment remains to continue the advance.' The intertitles are a constant reminder of Griffith's lucid, loaded, literacy. However, battle scenes are produced in cinema, Griffith's civil war is indeed not a clear cut, easily solvable structure, nor is it a political move. In fact, there exist an intensity of violence and confusion throughout in a cinematic project that began with the short film, A GIRL AND HER TRUST (a slavery film, in which a loyal slave rescues his white counterpart in order to cast sympathy upon the African-American effort)--ranging to the fall of Babylon in INTOLERANCE. Perhaps, the way that Griffith's confusion of battle lines (though the South in BIRTH is, at this point still in flux and the determinism that rules this episode presents a Southern defeat and an explicated victory)--is Griffith's goal of eliminating future civil war with film, and whether he botched it (not realizing the scariest axiom that life often imitates art, even when art is meant to imitate life.) At any rate, the rapid intercuts of midshots of battle lines, focuses back and forth on soldier's keeling over in Close-Up. As the excitement of this entertainment builds, the intensity of the battleground is harsh as hell, therefore producing the intentional double-standard that Griffith is so fond of. The point of interest comes when Southerner Cameron provides a drink of water from a canteen, although the soldier is near death. Emblematic of the structural metaphor of water as a lost provision, is something that will save the Cameron from dying later, in the movie (several times, including a time that is not far off from the 55 minute mark is the Cameron boy's first saving grace. The Northern lines, ruled by the Stoneman's son, cheer on the good deed of the Southerner, who is Ben Cameron and as he dodges a bullet, he smiles while recoiling. Meanwhile, as film archivist David Shephard explains in essential documentary that Griffith literally used the same battle lines for the North and the South, only rearranged them to face one direction or another. Another trick used here is an early silent film trick of exploding smoke from the rifle blasts that engulf the battlefield in smoke nonetheless. Southern soldiers are gunned down by the Northern lines as the final approach becomes completely doomed. Ben continues to survive the attack and travels with a battered Confederate flag. As much gunfire obscures the lines (remember both sides are just and flawed.) Now through few cuts we have what several critics agree to be the ultimate point of expertise in this important piece of film history. Ben Cameron, amidst the random chaos, takes his flag and shoves it into a cannon in Close Up. However, while this may be the moment of "Zen" (a phrase coined by talk show host Jon Stewart on the Daily Show on Comedy Central) there isn't really much to the post-structural approach other than the pure icons of a flag being shoved into a cannon. If Sigmund Freud himself read into the message of the scene, there would be still, in this author's opinion, no actual meaning behind the perfect shot. Even so, there are many ways to read the emblematic shot, however, many of them lead to dead ends, which is theoretically Griffith's intentions. The series of shots that follow are replete with emotion, considering, that the Cameron's and Stoneman's are once again, face to face, only unlike the chums that meet their doom, the elder brother of the Stoneman family bounds out of his protective Northern line to rescue the Cameron's eldest. Although, uncertainty of his old friends identity makes sense because of the Cameron's eldest growing a moustache. The Northerner risks life and limb to save the Southerner from death. Next, a jump cut offers a red tinted vision of nightfall with multiple explosives erupting all around. The oxymoron display of a title card, which reads "War's peace," still framed by the ominous name of Griffith on both sides of the title card (at the top of the frame) and his first and last initials centered at the bottom. Also the paragraph symbol is still usually in display on the cards. For those looking for a single phrase to guard in their hearts, the shortest title card ("War's peace,") is the definitive clue to deciphering Griffith's double standard of pro-war/anti-war dialectics. Following the intertitle is a shot that could very well be a painting, framed on both sides by parallel black lines and a dark arch elliptically creating a door that reveals corpses strewn about--corpses of soldiers that have found peace in death, though the title card prior to the shot reveals the flaw of war, that death in the battle (stark as it may seem) is the only freedom that the soldiers are able to achieve. (The shot seems to be of dead Northerners, as the battle is on the left of the frame and a cannon points left. It is not accidental that left wing politics were typically, a Northern fight to free the slaves and this makes it all the more trippy that the North is on the right, facing left. Geography in this movie, begins to reveal the confusion of civil warfare architecture in general.) Admittedly, the corpse closest to the foreground does look slightly happy. Griffith fades out and reiterates that the battle continues to engulf the imaginary field in spite of the fallen soldiers. The pyrotechnical explosions are here integrated into a context that is at once sensational and also chaotic. The whole scene is like a fireworks display. And then Griffith fades back into an even closer look at the fatal damages of annihilation of human life, again hearkening back to the previous intertitle of "war's peace," although the revelation of the erupting battlefield remains in mind and creates an objective distance to critique the war through a discomforting thought that war itself is a fucking disaster no matter how it is seen. G.W. Bitzer's camera work is revolutionary in every sense of the word. Bitzer must have tapped into Griffith's mind. A clever approach taken to connect cinematographer with director, requires a mind, body, soul connection where for a moment the actors are obeying every whim of the director's enlightenment. The surrender at nightfall is the final short sequence that delineates the drawn out battle footage, discussed here in length. Returning to daylight through a yellow-hued tint under an arch framed by either a lens filter, or a film stock alteration. The Northern troops are seen from afar, and in the next cut, the army men run toward on the background, which, in this film looks like a street paved with Gold. Is this sentiment of a victorious North antiwar? That is like asking, does Griffith expose the Klan in order to have them brought out into tired discussion? The next intertitle reveals that the news of the deceased and near deceased travels. The youngest Cameron girl reads to her family the news of the departed, and the family have a strange look of happy denial that the whole thing happened. After a few moments the youngest Cameron girl is seen to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The Cameron sisters embrace each other in delirium and outrage over the loss of familial structure, which began as an act of wholeness that war decimated. Cut back to the hospital in the North, where the Cameron soldier lies on his near death bed and none other than Lillian Gish, in Stoneman character approaches coincidentally and she is playing a banjo, moving toward the foreground, where she has a seat next to the shell shocked war veteran nick-named "The little Colonel" and she appears not to recognize the fallen soldier as she strums out a few notes on her instrument. In an elliptically framed close-up, Gish's character appears happy, looking out of the corner of her eye at the Southerner, while signing something that only a sound film could pick up. And although Alice Guy had already invented sound for the French Studios, Griffith's approach to music was all orchestral (although, operas and musicals are an extension of the orchestral and, in fact, there are post-cinematic --or audience fancult representatives--that could put sound to silent images--but hardcore silent buffs, particularly those in Rudolf Arnheim's camp, prefer when image alone is purified, practically to the point that even the score disappears.) The next immediate Close-Up is of Colonel Cameron feeling the soothing presence of the love of the unknown banjo music. The close-up shifts over to Ms. Stoneman who is now facing the Colonel. And in this odd shot-reverse-shot, which does not follow the rule established in classicism, in which the 180 degree line is never crossed (here it is not crossed either) but later the Classicists in American Cinema would angle the camera within a 70 degree half-radius in order to improve upon the relaxation of the gaze. Yet, Griffith makes no mistake in a full frontal isolation of the characters in Close-up, as it is his way of attracting the very characters in Close-Up in this series of moving photos is of the colonel recognizing his surroundings (in spite of his physical misery that leaves him in a near coma.) So in a medium close-up Gish's character (Elsie Stoneman) reads a letter (less grim than the letter received by the Cameron's but still part of the letter chain that Griffith is so fond of--using actual hand-written documents that confirm that every ability that is within the noble characters reverts to the nostalgic standard that creates an ethos of friendship. In connection with the materialism of a hand-written diegetic note in place of an intertitle, is a technique that is useful for modern filmmakers in order to recenter the script into a tight space, revealing that the characters can communicate and in the midst of war, it is surprising how cordially the notes appear to fill the gap of confusion that a nobleman creates with charity--before war became an act of annihilation-- Eye contact between the actors increases awareness that in the 10's, human relationships were not built on sexuality, although sex appeal was important, the men and women were not as objectified as the ballooning film market has commoditized sexuality. Ben Cameron looks at the photograph of his would-be future girlfriend, that he toted with him through thick and thin. Although Ben appears to be in a haze, due to a wrapped head wound, but Gish sees her own picture (revealed in a cutaway.) The event confuses and bewilders her and she wonders how the total stranger, although remains a look of premonition, as though there is a way to admonish a respective educated guess as to who the man might be, though clearly she cannot tell. As the Mother of the Cameron family busts in to find her wounded kin, she alerts attention to the guards, who have not the same groundwork of a war system today, as the rules had not been laid down by the Geneva convention or had there been a total world war nor had the League of Nations or the United Nations stepped into the picture. The mother is determined to get past the guard, so much so that she puts her life on the line, claiming from the intertitle induced screenplay/script, "I am going into that room to my boy. You may shoot if you want to." The guard appears to respect this behavior, as other guards in the background don't even notice what is going on, engaged at a table meeting that appears also to be a bureaucratic registry for censure purpose, all that is known, the meeting is post-militaristic decision making. At any rate, Elsie Stoneman leans over her patient, drawn to him with a reserved but passionate tonality. As she is charmed by the wounded soldier, the mother that exited stage right in the previous linked shot matches on action and direction, as the Mother slowly enters the next shot walking from left to right along the wall, facial expressions relaying shock and bewilderment, as she slowly feels drawn to her son by an unseen force of her own intuition. In awe and displacement, the Mother of Ben Cameron lights up in a good way to receive her son with open arms, this relationship dawns on Elsie, as also a good thing. It is interesting, also to note that Ben Cameron is in hysteria, not due to the women’s reactions, but due to his war wounds, creating onscreen chemistry that Griffith must have clearly smiled upon. However close Griffith was to his family of stock actors, it is clear that he was always out to reinforce French Liberal archetypes by elevating the death of the chums, for example, as a reservation against pitiable war-time struggle. However, the dynamic evidenced in this later scene a complex picture of war, yet, the unreasonable body count creates a miracle of wonders in Ben Cameron’s heroic survival. As the two women, watch Ben, quickly learn to recognize what is going on, their glances fade into happiness rectifying the entire purpose of the shot, which is recognition of a legendary moment in time, both painful and precious. An intertitle explains that conspiratorial means of putting Colonel Cameron to death are at play. The army Surgeon that relates the news is unaffected to the situation, preparing for no pleas or bribes. As the mother cries helplessly on her bed-ridden son, Elsie is surprisingly happy, informing Ben’s mother of an option to seek out President Abraham Lincoln, or, as she terms, “The Great Heart,” the women leave to seek their appeal to this higher power. Before delving into the Lincoln sequence following, clearly his a fissure or breaking point of the cosmos of Griffith. The 1920’s ultimately proves to have far more abundant and greater titles than any other decade in film history. From Griffith’s own WAY DOWN EAST until Vertov’s MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA, the titles in between that are lesser known—ARSENAL by Dovshenko and FACES OF CHILDREN by Feyder—cult status films like Kinugasa’s PAGE OF MADNESS and the Great Canonical Masterworks. Like THE GOLD RUSH by Chaplin, and Ozu’s I WAS BORN BUT…, BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN, METROPOLIS, GREED and PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC, do not all necessarily mimic Griffithian codes, but rather span from the idea, that director as auteur reaches a high point in critical desire—explicating and extrapolating first American flawless Master Griffith, truly enslaving only himself and in regards to film history is quite frankly more important than any other event in artistic historical, teleologically driven evolution. If Griffith must be credited for another landmark in creation, then it is his evolution of depth of field, which is never rivaled again. Think of watching the film on a small television and the various planes of horizontal axis is adjusted by Griffith and Bitzer’s camera angles, which shoot almost dead on straight, while only a screening creates through, a mysterious force, best described as a persistence of visual depth. In actuality it is a lighting technique, that dissolves the mystification of depthful wizardry. Like a historical “chamber of wonders” (an invention not so unlike a modern diorama. In Griffith’s portrayals of Abraham Lincoln, his later films catered to the left wing revisionary hopefulness that was up to date research that the man’s complexifities, all but offered deliverance of African Americans. Here around an hour and five minutes in, Lincoln appears fearless, unfettered and is the abstraction of hero worship, despite the fact that Northerners (and perhaps even a Southern turncoat—remember left and right wing politics factored in the North and South, less than the Southern philosophy of state sovereignty and the Northern accumulation of federal support,) all but surround their leader watching a leader, as though in a king’s court visiting with a long line of visitors, cordially approaching a human likeness of Lincoln. Keen on historical reenactment episodes, strengthening the humanistic presence of Lincoln in assurable gait. In a separate shot, Elsie Stoneman and the Cameron Mother stand apprehensive yet happily peaceful. Iris masking opens to the next shot (Iris circled around Lincoln), Finally, in a match on action of Elsie moving from right to left (facing the president on the left.) She extends her hand and shakes his politely as he is still seated. The meeting is casual. The mother shakes her president’s hand, as well. Gish is seen close-up a bit off to the side. As the appeal goes into effect it is not hard to imagine how pardoning soldiers could have played a role in his later assassination. Although, admittance exists that Griffith purely told stories like it happened historically, or at least, in his world view, melded with centricist politics, compatible philosophy, and cinematic enthusiasm, which redundantly took first gun in his repertoire, as he was in on the Muybridgian dawn of Still Photographs that charted the way in a Hegelian fashion of a ghost or spirit reviving the hurt of America. In other words, Lincoln stands and