The Bolivian baroque choir took me back to my nigh-mythical
kid-hood in Franco’s Spain. There’s something about Bolivia (Heads of
Cerberus 1) that is quaintly old fashioned, as if they never got past the
50sor 60s. I guess it was founded by a rebel.
The baroque was rediscovered by some old European pastor and
was largely Indian written, taught be the Spanish Mission. The guys performing
it are probably villagers from around the country. Gee, I simply can’t get
enough of those muchachos and senoritas, so here’s a traditional
folksong
This is all inculcated in my mind, strangely enough, with
Kukulkan from X-Men #s 25, 26 (which I read in “Power” reprints).
Anyway, what is it the Bolivians have? Whereas mainstream reality is complex
and weak, Bolivia comes across as simple and strong.
There’s also a connection with Moondog (prev.) who had some
classical training, as well as Red Indian drums and jazz. Canons and rounds
figure in his beats, which are relatively fugue-ish.
Baroque – as I see it – has a sense of stasis, of things
revolving and developing gently and quaintly – tres naturelle. Without stasis
– as previously noted - there can
neither be any change since it’s just a general mash-up (like contemporary pop).
The Bolivians – as I’m tending to say of other poverty-stricken
Latin Americans (not that they’re poor, but rural and jungle-bound rather than
electrically city-bound) – have spontaneous communal expression. I think it’s
easy to detect in the videos.
The strength of commune gives rise to a facile simplicity
that is a joy to see. This old strength – that is also in Moondog, the “hobo of
the streets” – is the human-as-animal that is steadily being killed off by our
Martian masters.
Hyborian Bridge 20 was saying that the ancient
city-state has two sides: the established monuments (order) and the alleys that
wind their ways, markets crowded with hoi-polloi and hawkers (freedom). The two
sided state of affairs is quite easy to detect in Roy Krenkel’s illustrations
for
It is really seen in the flow of line that meanders with a
living vibration. The city is expressing itself in broken line (Bruce Lee, “broken
rhythm”). I happen to have a copy of Metal Hurlant #14; this illo by
Jean-Claude Gal has some resemblance
Again, the broken, pock-marked meandering unevenness has a
living presence. Another example is BWS’s Pah-Dishah from Conan #19
splash
Broken rhythm and broken line are what you could call
romantic decadence; the sense that ordered straightness doesn’t exist. That
things weather, get beaten up, establish a chaotic order that is intoxicating
to Man – see Detroit Drama3 From ruins will come strength (predator-prey
rebirth) and that means leaving things well alone. The very fabric of reality
is cyclical rebirth, and that strength is undone by all the routines of a
competitive order. See Rome Hyborian Bridge 2
Here’s another Krenkel, with a lot of figures
A figure is physique, and so to do with proportion, especially
if semi-naked. In the ancient universe everything is proportionate, one to the
other. Sun to moon, and Earth to stars. This is the naïve, geocentric world
that is strong and simple. If you have as look at Krenkel’s illo, there is some
perspective there but it isn’t laborious. It’s when everything becomes ordered
perspective that we are outside the geocentric model – where everything is
proportionate – and inside the universe of precision.
This is what Vincent’s email was referring to (posted on
swordsofreh.proboards) I think. Where everything is precision, you are outside
the universe of relative proportion – as seen from Earth (geocentric).
This universe is simple and naïve and strong; it can’t be
measured ultra-precisely because then it wouldn’t have the naivety that goes
with strength. Things decay, and that is a source of strength. In the measured
universe there is no decay, and so no revival. It is a death force that
convinces (sun, reflection).
Earth is proportionate (to the cosmos), whereas the relative
universe of light is not. The thing that is missing is the moon; the absence of
light, its lunar reflection and
The absence of light is just the proportionate symmetry of
the universe. Why should that be? Why do we have four limbs? It just is.
To be naïve is not to be precise (robotic). To be precise is
to be trapped in a world that is not proportionate, because of its very convincingness!
It’s better to be naïve, animal-like; you can’t be fooled by the robots or
Martians in our midst.