Grok and Roll
July 28-August 5, 2011
Klaus
I like this student/Master relationship. 2001 must be recognized as a psychedelic/new age Bible of sorts, a rock solid statement of gnosis that transcends all borderlines of definition. It simply
IS. For a lowly acid rock band musician to even suggest that he was capable of a dialogue between equals, or even a creative partnership, WOULD seem silly.
The placement of the Pink Floyd album in Clockwork Orange would be a clear indication of Kubrick's view on where Floyd belonged.
But the pink stewardess sitting next to Floyd in 2001 is just such a boggling coincidence.
Best to focus on this down the road. I have done one spin of Dark Shining, and enjoyed it. I'll have to do a repeat.
Again, to repeat, this method of sound/vision invades my dreams. I am aware of a split where I am interpreting my dreams as they happen in the moment, as opposed to reflecting upon them after I awake. Powerful stuff.
LeClair
I agree that Kubrick is the Master. There are, I suspect, few that reach this kind of pure insight with their sanity intact. Nevertheless, I don't discount the genius of Waters and Gilmour. There is an intuition that is very beautiful. I would add my suspicion that Kubrick found Floyd worthwhile.
I would like to ask you an indulgence. I have a method of looking at this material that you may disagree with. I want you to try it for just one section of EWS. I certainly agree that watching these matches with the movie sound muted is an essential experience, but I think that there is something special about achieving a desirable sound mix. The effects produced are often startling. A personal favorite is the moment that Danny utters the term "Tony" to Halloran during the "Meddle" mash. Creepy and dramatic.
My method is quite simple. I keep both music and film as loud as can be allowed without a really depraved effect to the Floyd aesthetic . Mainly, I just turn down the movie volume whenever any movie music interferes with the Floyd. Ideally, you can catch much if not all dialog and sound fx this way, while you enjoy the full effect of the music and lyrics.
The section I would like you to look at requires no tinkering. Set the movie volume at 100% and the Floyd to about 65-80%. I suspect there may be some differences between the media players in use. Simply adjust the movie volume to achieve the desired level, which will allow most dialog and lyrics to be heard fairly clearly.
To match with the first track of DSOTM (Speak to Me/Breath): start EWS at just a split second after 2:09:02. You'll have to wait for it, but you'll know you've got it right when "Time" bells chime just as Ziegler says "...you wouldn't sleep so well...". You can watch through to the end of the film or stop when Bill finds the mask on the pillow. This is the timing achieved by a proper full synch of EWS/DSOTM starting at 00:17. I would recommend the entire Dark Eyes Wide Shut, of course. It may seem to much to believe but it is extraordinary. I hope to prove it as I discuss the complete tensor, but for now, simply enjoy this amazing little snippet of theater. As a p.s., I add that I have always found this scene with Ziegler and Bill boring. Not so much anymore. "Thrilling" is now the appropriate label.
Also, because of the vast amount of info in the DSOTM part of the tensor, I have decided to break it down into sections as we were doing with The Shining. A conversational discussion is likely to turn up many gems I have not sussed out. I will send you my first observations sometime today.
Peace
Klaus
I'm gonna have to give it the full viewing. I'll admit to being somewhat distracted by movie and album volume, but I do appreciate the effect of the 2001 end as well as the EWS scene you highlighted.
Some quick notes:
The Director of Wizard of Oz is named Victor Fleming. Victor Z is a yellow brick road layer
In the toy store you can see many Oz/Shining related objects:
-bubbles: the vehicle of Glenda the good witch
-stuffed lion, stuffed tiger, stuffed bear. Oh my
-giant Teddy bear, ala Danny's room
-red elevators
-Barbie in Glenda's white winged outfit
-hot air balloon
Wow, when the cash register in Money hits as Kidman flashes the diamond wedding ring....beautiful.
Honestly, "I don't keep track of the time"?
SO much going on here. Harford arrives under the rainbow exactly at the same time in DSOTM as Dorothy.
The "cha-ching" exactly as Milich says "okay". Obviously, the theme of Money.
It's a masterpiece, from start to finish. Everytime I think i've seen it all....
LeClair
Hells yeah...
Pay close attention to that cash register as you continue. It introduces Millich twice, and the last time through, he actually cha-chings the cash-register. It looks like it will take me longer than I thought to organize my notes. I am at it full bore.
Oh, I am so glad you are picking up the subtlety of this particular mash. I had worried a little about making my case, but you are tuned in, all right.
I while back, when I was working on my "Hyper Cube" stuff, I got banned from a forum for my politely expressed ideas on Kubrick. The guy who ran the forum has made another in a series of films wherein he looks at Kubrick. In this 20 min. film, he looks at the layout of the Overlook. Two parts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sUIxXCCFWw&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfJ8rK7eJeQ&feature=related
Old Nemesis
July 29-31, 2011
LeClair
I am interested in an anomaly. The scene of Danny playing with his toys in the Hexagon Hallway. To my eye, the tennis ball that rolls toward Danny is decidedly "pink" in hue. The color closely matches with that of two pink dinky-cars among Danny's toys. This differs from the standard "limey yellow" of the tennis ball bounced by Jack in the earlier scene. Before sending this mail, I looked at the two tennis balls again to confirm my suspicion. The first is yellow, the second pink.
Here is the thing. The guy who made this Kubrick analysis film is from the UK. In his video he uses clips from his own media. The same scene is clipped in his film, near the very end of pt. 2, of Danny playing with his toys in the Hex Hall. I'll be damned if it isn't yellow! Would you be willing to look at this for me, and see what you come up with on your media. The difference between the ball Jack bounces, Danny's rolled ball, and the rolled ball in the analysis should be striking.
It is interesting that the Orb Glinda arrives and departs to oscillates between "limey yellow" and "pink".
Klaus
Therein lies my confusion...the tennis ball has always appeared yellow to my eyes. I could not remember a pink tennis ball. I'll give it another look for finality's sake. I'm at a golf outing, won't be home for awhile.
The tennis ball is yellow on my tv.
This scene is jammed full of goodies.
In the Bible, the sun and moon are created on a Wednesday. The sun (tennis ball) rolls in, man recognizes their place in the solar system, moves beyond terrestrial technology, and takes flight on Apollo 11 into the unknown space of room 237.
Ager does some good work, I certainly read a bunch of his Kubrick analysis, but, like the two videos, he seems to get stuck on seemingly standard stuff. Personal bias.
LeClair
Thank you for looking into this. This color disparity is a real mystery on my end. The ball and Danny's toys are pink. The scene seems slightly different than the yellow ball scene in Ager's video. I don't know what to make of it.
Klaus
Can you send a picture?
LeClair
I tried a video capture, but the file was too big. Here are two screen shots. The first shows the pink ball and toys. The second shows Jack's yellow ball in the Colorado Rm. (in his hands).
Here is a shot from Ager's video, to show that this is not a color anomaly created somehow by my monitor. What the futz is going on, Bill?
Klaus
That's a pink tennis ball. The pink cars as well as the pink splashes of color on Dannys sweater are yellow in my screen. Odd, very.
Pink and Gold are My Favorite Colors
July 31-August 4, 2011
LeClair
I first noticed this anomaly while watching on my TV set via my DVD player. I thought it might be a badly tuned set. I have now tested this DVD on multiple devices. The result is the same.
To my eye, the starry splotches on Danny's sweater are more of a "deep gold color" in the pink ball scene, not pink. The same splotches are clearly "yellow" in Ager's video, and your DVD, as you report.
My inner spook tells my that this is connected to "The Gold Room".
Klaus
http://forums.highdefdigest.com/hd-dvd-software-general-discussion/22429-shining-high-def-digest-review-2.html
As far as a simple explanation, this at least proves that it's on other discs. But the stranger implications are fascinating.
LeClair
Jesus, man, your search techniques are the bizz-bomb! Thank you for helping me solve a bit of the mystery. I must say that I do not believe that Kubrick would have allowed a mistake like this if he were alive. I will puzzle over this for some time, methinks.
Klaus
What a great little freaky thing. I agree, Stan would not have allowed it.
With all of our speculation, I think we both agree that the film 2001 was the most important film/media event for an entire generation. This album cover was apparently Pete Townshend's idea. Shot in 1971, only three years after 2001 was released, it's a statement of pure rock n roll, but in light of Townshend's failed attempt at the Lifehouse project, I wonder how deep the meaning of this is.
LeClair
I am glad you brought this up. I have alot I want to say, and here is a good opportunity outline some thoughts.
The key is Clarke's "Childhood's End". Townsend is into Ascension of Consciousness and Planetary Oneness. This idea seems nice and fuzzy, but conceals a potentially Saturnine function, namely, the use of human life force as the "food of God". God = Saturn. Saturn who ate and raped his children. "Childhood's End" documents this same event, as a double-plus-good inevitability. This twin theme of Rape and Cannibalism is also outlined in my stuff on "The Shining".
For me, the sequence becomes clear when one integrates the data that both Clarke and Townsend have a documented connection to pedophilia. In "Childhood's End" the children become sexually mature, which allows the rapid development of human consciousness and oneness. The resulting human structure is the ultimate device for the "removal" of human life-force into the domain of the Overlords.
For now, we are interested in the connection to "media". It seems that practically everyone who achieves great success in the politico-media can be connected without much difficulty to these images of Saturn. The trouble is that they effectively convey a double-positive value to the influence of Saturn. This is the opposite of the standard Gnostic view that Saturn is a demented demiurge and master of the BIP.
The influence of Kubrick looms underneath all of this like an eternally active engine of chaos. There can be no doubt--between the likes of you and me--that he exposes the critical symbols of Gnosis. I suspect that he is involved in the Saturnine process. I wonder, and without feeling the least bit silly, that he is the avatar of Saturn, and the designer of the dungeon. There are many clues of his own deliberation that support this notion.
However, to all of this I add a feeling informed by McLuhan, that we are not talking about events that are happening, or that will happen, but that have already happened. "The flames are all long gone but the pain lingers on". Rear-view-mirror.
In spite of the horror of all this, there is also beauty. I don't know how to make sense of it, I struggle with it every day and quite frankly, it twists the living shit out of me. And yet for some reason, I love it too.
Here are a few trivial details. The term "Hu" is the source for Townsend's band name. It is a noise made by Sufi's as they achieve ecstasy. Todd Field made "Little Children" (must see). The movie "Fail Safe" documents an event from "Childhood's End", which connects Kubrick to Clarke by way of "Dr. Strangelove". Kubrick met with Clarke repeatedly during the production of "Strangelove".
Klaus
I am not as well read on these themes. I'll comment as to my less informed opinions:
Saturn: I do notice that middle class parents derive an extreme amount of positive energy from the joy of children, be it sheer cuteness, reflection upon lost childhood, future economic gains. The child's existence is a bounty of controlled ecstacy in some manner. This love is devoured and photographed and held onto very tightly.
Clarke: I was a big fan of Clarke as a child. He had a show on public television that delved into aliens, bigfoot, etc. He also had books that mirrored the tv show. His involvement in pedophilia is certainly odd, but more odd is its seeming world wide acceptance.
I haven't read Childhoods End, but the plot outline on wikipedia is certainly interesting. There is no discussion of the sexual angle, but the Houses of the Holy album cover connection is certainly powerful.
Kubricks role as avatar, or architect, is difficult for me to understand. I do not dismiss your views, although I am coming to them with a major knowledge deficit. I am interested in these concepts, but I need some more specific direction on further research.
Todd Field's films are top notch, I was blown away by both Little Children and In The Bedroom. The pedophile theme in Little Children is there, but I don't know how to make a connection.
The Hu, Hu Wa is very interesting. Townshend certainly has the Sufi leanings, but is it possible this name was coincidental at first? Or is it documented as designed?
Roger Ebert just posted an article about McLuhan, discussing the rear view mirror. I kinda like Ebert, but not this article. He begins by saying much of what McLuhan wrote was nonsense, but according to Ebert, the stuff he personally understands is brilliant. What a dumb thing to write.
I'm beginning to grasp something lately: with how cheap and available all of the creative output of the 20th century is, and how much more people are consuming it, that as people live longer, eventually they must confront this mystery that seems to lie in the center of our conversation. It's unavoidable. Just what is it that we are approaching? Is there a dead end or a gate?
I need to dig deeper here, continue to point in the right directions....
Sooo....if I needed to catch up and reeducate myself, there really was only one source.
"Now, with the window at the position of 'north' we can trace thelightning path by spelling out the acronym EWS. North, as the first media, is the empty window/mind and is paired with the topmost house of the tree of life. What resides herein is permanently ineffable and entirely pure. Imagination. Next, at the East, is the second media, which is produced, like video-tape, by the application of magnetic feedback. In the third media, at the Western gate, are the CDs: binary language as the first manifestation of the Logos. At South is Alice's vulva, which as media, acts as the extreme barrier between the material and spiritual realm." (
Emperor's New Clothes)
Cha-ching.
My god man, I know I have read your work twice/three tines through, but retracing this opus, it's ALL there. I mean, I don't know if anyone has truly captured the Horror as well as you have, but, with wit, humor, detail, and balls. This work is the proud child of Joyce/Freud/Jung, a maniacal little pissed off guy. I am left speechless, completely grateful, and ready to start again.
Bravo Mark LeClair.
LeClair
Thank you, Bill, I am touched. I consider the reward for my efforts that I have been able to connect with one or two people like yourself--which is noticeably more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack among haystacks in a hayfield. There are deeper mysteries still to be plumbed, and I hope you and I can discover some of them together.
Klaus
I find amazement in how much I thought I understood/recognized in a lot of your essays, but in a third/fourth reading, completely new and detailed layers reveal themselves, exactly in the manner of all of my favorite writers, as well as the subject matter you cover. I also shudder in recognition of the impossibility of the inability to share a lot of the content with just about anyone. As clear and lucid as a book like Cosmic Trigger reads to me, I know it is a niche type of tome that just isn't made for a wide audience. I just like to give praise where praise is due.
Dunce Cap
August 4-5, 2011
Klaus
I've been having extremely vivid, healing type dreams lately. I almost sense there arrival late in the day, which helps me to abstain from a casual drink, or any urge to smoke.
During the night I traveled to my old bedroom, from around the time I graduated high school. Much like in Serious Man, where Larry's chalkboard expands to gigantic heights in dream, my collective output of writing, sketches, as well as library of books, records/CD's, was discovered to be greatly expanded in size, encompassing all thoughts from birth to whatever the present moment was/is. It was a divine gift to have found this missing place, a discovery along the lines of Raiders if the Lost Ark.
To get back to the focus: I have been suspecting that this project, specifically the method of image/sound seperation, and reintegration, has been having a profound effect on the structure of my conscious as well as unconscious mind ( not to mention non-local perception ).
It is a healing laser--the laser of VALIS that heals Horselover Fat, the method that is blatantly suggested in Clockwork Orange, who's participant is literally forced to participate with Eyes Wide Open. How completely obvious!!! Kubrick just gives us the keys to the castle!
I've gotta know your thoughts on either: a)your surprise that I hadn't already made this connection, b)your surprise that I hadn't made this connection til now, c)your belief that there is no connection.
It's the old Crowley line, about how every discovery in life should be made with it's own personal ecstatic discovery, it's own personal aha, that knocks the dunce cap off, and frees you from the corner.
LeClair
Many challenging ideas here. I'm not sure where to start.
First, let me comment on the "Dunce Cap" simile. I literally just had, in the last day or so, a talk with my mom about the symbolism of the dunce cap. I am fascinated that you also trend into this particular theme.
Regarding the nature of the direct Kubrick/VALIS connections, I guess I am a little surprised that you only just twigged to it. Given the general excellence of your observations, I thought you would pick up on the Zebra in "2001" and Domino's coat in "EWS" and tie these into PKD's Ubik (described as black and white striped patterns of light). However, because of the diluvian amount of data in Kubrick, it is hardly shocking that you missed it, just as I missed the conflation of a VALIS download with Alex's general experience by way of Ludovico (excellent call, btw).
The differences in our perception defines quite nicely the dual perceptions of Gnosis. For the moment, you seem to be taking the best of the phenomena. Your attitude and the value of your interpretations are admirably positive. As for me, I remain ambivalent. I am a man who has very much got what he asked for, namely, to be immersed in mystery--and what a mystery it is! But at the same time, I feel impotent and frightened by the magnitude and subtlety of its design. The pressure to evolve is to great for me to bear, I fear.
Now ironically, I am an optimist underneath it all. I have a happy temper and maintain hope. But I still feel more in a dungeon than I do a castle. And I feel pushed in to it, like a kid who can't swim into the swimming hole, by the hand of a father-figure of questionable values.
Klaus
1. I'm a little confused as to the reference to Ubik. I've read it twice, most recently six months ago. I do not associate Zebra or a B/W light to Ubik, these are more manifestations or calling cards of VALIS themed constructs. Ubik, in the understanding of my reading, would be a ubiquitous source of info/life source that breaks through into the dimension of the dead--through advertisements, trash, anomalous bits of info, sent from beyond by a seemingly friendly ally. Essentially in plain sight, but hidden to the unobservant (or the unchosen?) This connects with Kubrick as just such an ally, who provides a link to the beyond, a link that offers salvific possibilities. These links are established by careful meditation upon his films. One such meditation is using an alchemical solvent to dissolve away distractive feedback, thus allowing the pure nutritive info to be absorbed/noticed/ and catalyse the comprehension of the viewer. This particular method is perfectly demonstrated in Clockwork Orange: chemicals, film image divorced from original and intended soundtrack, new music source (the solvent), and eyes wide open, perceiving every detail. This method involves resetting the proper sense ratios of McLuhan, and breaks the magic spell. Proof of this would be it's effect in the content and quality of my dream state.
2. VALIS constructs (Zebra, Pink Laser) might be the instrument of awakening, the Eye Opener, the psychic alarm clock that evolutionizes not just the third eye, but all three eyes in unison, thus coordinating the person to the surroundings, and specifically, tuning the person into the Ubik (or Kubrick) that is littered about, elements that now suddenly sparkle and demand attention.
Thus the Monilith would be VALIS, and Hal would be Ubik?
Hmmm....this is all just formulating into clearer thought as I write.
LeClair
Hey Bill,
There is alot of complexity here. I love your Kubrick/Ubik mix-up. I want to add that I sincerely doubt to possess anything close to balance of senses. My life is hopelessly out-of-whack. Trouble is, I kinda like it that way. You have been warned.
Re: Ubik. This is a mistake on my part. A bit of confusion. I had remembered the Zebra connection to Ubik but not VALIS. VALIS makes more sense. VALIS is HAL and the Monolith. Here is some data from Kubrick and co. along with some non-local pun-ishment, to support this idea.
Have you read Clarke's novelization of "2001"? In it, at the dawn of man, the Monolith flashes a Zebra pattern to the monkey tribe. The final sequence of the novel takes place upon Hephastus, a moon of Saturn. Hephastus is a refinery, and therefore by metaphor recalls the digestive system. This is important because Saturn is the demiurge of Gnosis, who is described in Gnostic text as not only a cannibal but also a coprophage. The implication is of the Oroborous Ring--a cyclical, serpentine system which self devours its self and its ignominy, but also, through the magick of sex, fucks itself in the ass.
The "anal" part of the equation is observable on many levels. On "Dark Eyes of the Moon", the "thunderclap" transition in "On the Run" (second play) happens as Bill meets Domino, in her Zebra gear. A "domino" is a Monolith. Furthermore, as I point out in "The Emp's New Clothes", because of Domino's price of $150, there is an implication that she offers anal sex as at least an option. This is foreshadowed moments earlier by Bill's confrontation with the Yalie gay-bashers.
Next in line is "Little Children". In the very first scene, one of the three women who gossip in the park remarks on the enormous size of her babies "diaper load". We are then introduced to "The Prom King" (Patrick Watson), who we learn is having trouble "passing the bar". "Little Children" also openly alludes to an act of anal sex between the protagonists, but for now, hold the "legal" meaning of "passing the bar".
Consider the scene from Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", which parodies the dawn of man Monolith as a "chocolate bar". The term "Chocolate Factory" is a pun upon the digestive system--the "bar" is the product thereof.
In "Dark Odyssey", the "thunderclap" from "On the Run" (first play) coincides with the first appearance of the Zebra. By the connections thus far we can identify this "clap" as the release of the bowels of Saturn and we know just what the hero of "On the Run" is on the run to do.
The final connection is that of the "dunce cap". There is a certain measure of paper called "foolscap" that is a longer measure than standard note paper. This is the very size of paper that naturally curls into a dunce cap. It is also the paper used for "legal briefs". To add insult to injury, this type of paper is very close in proportion to the flat front of the Monolith. It is the connection to legal standard that makes it all so clear.
In the dawn of man, it is the Monolith that brings not only the first murder but consequently the first law. Law which we are instructed gives rise to civilization and tech. Law is meaningless without the threat of death to back it up and the most profound law of physics is Gravity which, in name, conceals the home of death, the Grave. Moonwatcher delivers this Law, as instructed by the Monolith.
It is Saturn that is Law Bringer. Saturn, who is also called Jehovah, in his guise as bio-geneticist. The Law is his "work-product" and it is pretty shitty. The Monolith, which Kubrick reveals to posses the aspect of a pyramid, is a solid pile of shit. And thus the law makes dunces of us all--shitheads every one.
I was listening to Wiedner the other day and he talked about the Monolith as "...super dense material..." through which we must "...pass..." in order to be reborn. It seems, by the light of these glaring metaphors, that "the way out" is through the ass of God. And where are you likely "come out"? Why Uranus, of course. Uranus, conveniently "discovered" by a guy named Herschel. Uranus... the old Herschel Highway.
Back in the day, I was ultimately banned from Ager's forum because I conflated Halloran with Chef from South Park. I may have also mentioned Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo. For Ager, this branch of theory is simply too taboo and/or irreverent. I find it cosmically funny. It reminds me of the old joke about the guy who goes to Hell and is given three rooms to choose from to spend his eternity. In the first, men and women stand on their heads on a floor covered with broken glass. In the next, the occupants stand on their heads on hot coals. From the third comes an unholy stench. In this room, folks are on their feet, standing knee deep in shit. They are sipping tea and listening to classical music. Given the suffering he witnesses in the first two rooms, the guy decides this shitty tea room will be best of bad choices. As he enters, the music stops and a voice says, "Coffee break is over. Back to standing on your heads".
What else is there to do but laugh?
I goofed on the name of the moon of Saturn, which is correctly Iapetus, not Hephastus. Interestingly enough, Iapetus means "the piercer".
Klaus
The Zebra pattern on the Monolith in Clarke's novel is a revelation, a tidbit that most certainly didn't escape Phil Dick. It reminds me of McKenna's description of an Amazonian UFO that took the visual appearance of something familiar from his past.
I really think this dialogue is on the verge of a viconian thunderclap of it's own. I need to sleep on these thoughts tonight.
Just as I am about to send this, the local news flashes a story line: SALTWATER FLOWS ON MARS. Ho hum.
LeClair
The audible, piercing signal of the Monolith is directed toward Iapetus (Clarke's novel).
Heywood Floyd is the avatar of Saturn, although, like HAL, he may not be functionally aware of the complete program. When HAL stops talking, Floyd jumps in without a hitch. One voice, on digi-tape.
In "Dark Odyssey", Floyd's telephone call is paired with "Money". In this aspect Floyd is Saturn as Father Time, and he is talking to his Daughter, who is Isis. By way of seven wavelengths, colors, tones, veils, etc., Isis is the basis of the Matrix--the 4d reality. This illusion is constructed, according to Gnosis, by Saturn, using his shit as raw material. Looking down on his daughter (a daughter who by no means coincidentally needs to use the bathroom), Floyd is the exoteric symbol of the eye on the pyramid, as seen on the US One Dollar Bill, looking down upon the Matrix of his creation. "Isis" is given as a pun both as "International Space Station" and as Money. ISIS = $$.
The esoteric symbol of the Saturnine Floyd is as the reborn child. This is pictured when Floyd visits the Zero Gravity Toilet on his Moon Jump. This scene is a deliberate inversion of the earlier telephone booth scene. Floyd is on the opposite side of the image, in a private booth. The music of "Dark Odyssey" plays--at this point--from "Us and Them". The exact lyric is "...down and out, it can't be helped if there's alot of it about...". This sentence describes the passage of feces out of the body and the inevitable mess that must be addressed. Here, confused by his toilet, as the chaotic child Saturn, Floyd is the image of the esoteric eye on the pyramid, which is reversed (see image). And so we are given "order out of chaos" or for the simple man, reality out of shit.
Thus, the signal to Iapetus, which pairs to the "On the Run" thunderclap, is the signal that the "new shit" is coming down the pike. Saturn has grown old and wishes to be reborn. He is a very willful boy--and turns it all upside down. This is what is meant in the famous deleted finale to "The Shining", when Ullman meets Danny in hospital and gives him the tennis ball. Jack, who is Saturn, has successfully "consumed" Danny, and is reborn inside him. The bourbon that Jack downs is "Jack Daniels". Jack-Danny-Yells. "I'm coming Danny, I'm right behind you".
We are talking about Iapetus, so the idea of "piercing" must be addressed. Because we are down the rabbit hole, I infer a reversed meaning here. Something is piercing its way out-- and that something is the so called Christmas Poo, and it is a bloody mess. Saturn must always recreate himself from his ignominious defeat, his fallen self, so to speak. This is the birth of the Starchild (on Iapetus in the novel) and isn't he a cute little shit. Just don't piss him off.
During "The Shining Meddle", the rm. 237 bathroom scene matches with the lyric (from "Echoes") "...no one flies around the Sun...". The mirror is the important clue. It is where Jack sees the true image of Isis. There is a movie called "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun", which chronicles the discovery of a planet exactly opposite the Earth's orbit. When human explorers strike out, they find that this planet is a mirror reality of life on Earth. They learn that two "other" astronauts. our heroes' twins, have just left the double of Earth to reach the "real" Earth. The themes and release of the movie are easily paired with "2001". The final image of the film shows and old man in a wheel chair, sitting in front of a large broken mirror. Talk about obvious.
Thus we can conflate the "rabbit hole" (oral-anus, alpha-omega) with the looking glass Monolith, which reflects itself into a pointless illusion of cyclical regression. This becomes, in the magnetosphere, the VALIS feedback loop, which in fact does not reflect a true "circle" or loop, but a "quarter circle", re-applied at right angles, endlessly in the illusion of Time. The planet Uranus, just like Saturn, is surrounded by Rings. The Rings of Uranus orbit at a 90 degree angle to the Rings of Saturn. 90 degrees is one-quarter of a circle. If you read your PKD exegesis, you may come across a reference to the "...Jewish Alchemists..." who maintain the BIP. What I suggest here is that when Jews pray at the Western Wall, facing Eastward, they are literally "beating back" the natural progression of Time into a repetition of one quarter of itself, perpetuated into marvelous quadratic fractals, like a hall of colored mirrors. As the priests of Saturn (YHWH), these dudes hold together the false image of linear Time. I would add to this that Kubrick's impossibly expert use of Scotch Light Front Projection is a pun on the 90 degree difference between the respective rings of the two planets. Scotch Light projects the false image at 90 degrees. Kubrick's imagery, especially in "2001" is literally a pun on a pun on a pun--into a false representation of infinity.
My present interp is that as the Serpent Ring, Saturn, and thus the Monolith, is a sort of false gate. You can not escape because you are in a series of tubes that represent the physiology of the Serpent That Digests Itself. These tubes are cued by Kubrick's rectilinear photography, which produces the feeling of being in a maze with a ceiling. As beautiful as these images may be, they reveal the cannibalistic and eternally self-digestive process of the Shit-Serpent God called Saturn. The serpent, who says "don't tread on me", rests in a coil that is remarkably similar to another more common and smelly coil that no one wants to step in.
Uranus is the legitimate gate, and it is falsely named "Uranus" according to a Saturnine pun, to mislead those who seek the legitimate entrance by conflating it with the crudest of exits. Saturn is naturally baroque, dark minded, and ashamed of his processes--but he is wicked smart. Using the language he created, Saturn names it own shame (the anus) after the dimensional reality it wishes to murder ad infinitum, ad nausem. Uranus's proper name is "The Sky".
Klaus
Joyce was charged with obscenity because he chose to incorporate the basest of human functions. This has always been absurd to me, but upon further analysis (there's that four letter word again) I understand the worries of those who would cry obscene.
Incorporating a rational comprehension and apprehension of all biological processes are a requirement of complete gnosis, salvation.
Saturn is a demiurge trapped in time, correct? To pass the time, it rapes and consumes the shit of the little children it creates, as well as forcing its children to do the same. The most popular forms of this are pornography and alcohol I would assume. Pornography being a rape of someone's true will, and alcohol is fermentation/excretion/shit.
Isis, the female, is both prisoner of the Matrix AND the Matrix itself?
I admit to despising South Park, and most of what Stone and Parker create. I just cannot bring myself to watch, but maybe because they choose to swim in the shit, revel in the shit. Laugh at the shit.
Could 2001 have had the same story arc for Kubrick as Crowley and The Book of the Law? That Kubrick did not make complete sense of it till years later?
Just watched Weidner's film Kubrick's Odyssey on YouTube. He does good work, and paints a good hypothesis.
I always return to Joyce when confronted with apparent answers that point in one direction. Weidner might preach the Apollo 11 angle, and Ager might reject elements of your discourse, but no one individual in this dialogue owns the Truth. Recap: The symbol Joyce used for HCE (four "E" shapes, left right up and down) are all equal perspectives of what is happening in Finnegans Wake. One for conscious, one for subconscious, one for collective unconscious, and one for non-local conscious. It's the sum total of these four that inform reality in FW.
This four fold symbol is the only construct that keeps my sanity in check. It allows room for truths that don't make me reach for something sharp.
So, not only does Kubrick reveal personal involvement in top secret government operations, secret society shenanigans, he also reveals his evolving understanding of his reality in terms of psychology, art, mathematics, science, as well as a completely up to date review of spiritual/religious human experience. His life's work shouldn't be confined to just one area, and his genius is not confined to one area. His genius is in his ability to weave it all together.
EVERYTHING should be taken as a whole (there's that four letter word again), meaning completely and totally digested. This comprehension should prepare the contemporary human soul much like the Tibetan Book of the Dead was designed to prepare the human soul for a Matrix that extends into and through our death. I truly feel that his body of work is a resurrected body of work.
Joyce remains a Spaghetti Monster, the swirling chaos out of which the shining lights of the 20th century evolved. It's a cosmos for sure.
I sometimes get a bit nervous, due to the depth of our conversation, that our allied front can sometimes be derailed, and misinterpreted as something other. I feel we are both on the same page, but also involved in highly personal and individual quests. I urge you to voice any doubts or concerns regarding angles upon which we disagree, or which I might inadvertantly offend. It's all grist for a mill, however fucked up that mill might be.
LeClair
Yeah, I hear you. I am nervous too. I literally shake with anticipation when I come to check my email. This is some of the toughest material out there. Almost nobody is willing to even consider it, and will discard it at first blush. The fact that we discuss it at all is a victory of sorts.
In your last mail you mentioned the idea of "truth". I want to say that I disagree that no one person can possess all of the truth. I would admit that no one person can express the truth entire, but the very principle of Gnosis is to "really know" the awful truth. Having said that, I try mightily to include detailed factual reference to everything that I interpret. By "facts" I mean anything that is available to the eye and ear or by easy research. The resulting interpretation is meant to express the "truth" as closely as I can manage without distortion. My ego, and the exuberance of discovery may get in the way sometimes, but I am willing to put my assertions on the line.
Regarding the nature of our relationship, it is very rewarding for me. Before starting our conversation, for many months I felt little or no urge to write or research. Since that time, I have made several of the most profound discoveries of my lifetime. It is my earnest hope that you feel the same energy, because there is a whole lot more in store.
