Pictorial 76

I had a look at linefacedscrivener’s video on South Texas oil men, which was the world that Howard wasn’t necessarily that keen on. Oil feeds the habits of an industrial civilization lit-up by neon signs and running on superhighways.

The one thing oil wells aren’t is hygienic, which places them at the very onset of the modern era. I mean, the rough-and-ready aspect of it might not have been that unappealing to Howard. Still, at the end of the road is the modern city-based Man of neon.

The Man of neon has been, in the 21^st century, basically a head that is attached to a hygiene-machine of some type. An electronic device, something that is encased in plastic or metal so that the inner works are free of air, water (as in a sterile lab, an infertile environment).

That seems to imply that, in order to thrive in the modern scene, reality is essentially hygienic, or else the semi-conductors wouldn’t be as infallible as they are.

“A vagrant charge,” said Gutierrez, “A speck of dust, a relay too worn to function right, and how could you ever know?”
“Julio,” said Erdmann. “You know better. If the slightest thing goes wrong with her she stops automatically and asks for attention.” (The Long Tomorrow, page 188)

This is the “electric-green future”, symbolised by new towns like Babcock Ranch (Tales of Faith 2). What “they” call green is merely the loss of the elegant simplicity of the irregular lines of variety found on an archaic map.

Pictorial 65

An electrical future has no theme save that of straight lines, so cannot have variety. All it has is infallibility. In order to be infallible in the electronic-sphere – one needs hygiene-machines, then that reality is a hygiene reality. But –Hyborian Bridge 86- a hygiene reality tends to be mathematically observed, and is therefore not "real".

The very fact of hygiene discounts the physical reality that is bound to cycles of lifedeath, regeneration. The mathematical detail obtained is therefore a hygienic fantasy – very convincing but false.

To obtain truthful data one would have to rejoin seasonal cycles of nature. The evergreen of Gilgamesh that is frightening to the ego; the ego of acolytes of the electric arc. It’s frightening also because of its pungency. The 19^th century Shanghai of pig farmers (Tales of Faith 2) is a far cry from the Shanghai of

 

But the old Shanghai had a decadent character, a grandeur that feeds the psyche of inhabitants great and small, of wayfarers.

Al Coutelis

Without the physical decadence that defines place (on Earth, not Mars) the sense of moral existence fades to nothing, and all one can do is shop (electronically).

The underlying reason seems to be that electronics is a copy (reflection) and not a physical reality. The physical reality is Earth, and the theme is Earth’s. The theme that emanates a psyche, powerful, subtle and cosmic.

Al Coutelis’s La Dame de Singapour

is musical, kinetic – and therefore emtional, a variation on an earthly theme of flesh, bone, stars, seas. That is romance; the geographical and oceanic reality of place on Earth. 

 

INVISIBLE EMPIRE

A copy or a reflection only looks realistic; there is no room for the expression of human psyche as a concomitant of the cosmos. Where there is variety and the strength of psychic existence, opne sees a sublime economy of line in the signal cultural artefacts.

This is where Weird Tales – and the covers of Margaret Brundage – takes its place amongst the singular and archaic psychic emanations of history.

It could be from Knossos (Wild Horses); 19^th century Japanese prints; Isis and Osiris (Hyborian Bridge 48)..the strength of economy emanates from a place on the map of Earth, floating through the cosmos of forgotten idols. The theme that is eternal and is invisible to an electronic empire.

Granada peasant tiles (family heirloom)

Anything that is a copy (reflection) is both realistic and false! This is the confusion running round the modern globe. I did mention Hong Kong: the protests appear to be active, but there is no real rebellion, which means taking over the reins of power (bloodlessly) and pledging to uphold Basic Law.

A rebellion has consequences, or it is nothing. There’s no point bandying words (or electronic images). A rebellion is a physical act that has emotional, psychic consequences – or it is nothing , pictures on a screen.

The pictures we see from history, the covers of Weird Tales, have this physical and psychic aura that tells us they are real. They exist in the cosmos, they are not copies, they are eternal.