Man has gazed
into the flickering flames of the campfire for thousands of years (The
Norse Shaman prev.) The rapid combination of shadow and flame acts on
the visual apparatus of the neural cortex to induce dreamlike states.
The same holds
of the flickering flames of candle-lit medieval halls. Man’s old and fierce
friend fire has fed his dreams as well as his belly since the dawn of
prehistory.
Does that mean
that Man’s dreams came to a stumbling stop with the invention of electric bulbs
in about 1880 by Edison? Certainly after that period dullsville entered Man’s
life in the shape of industrial products – not to mention industrial warfare.
Doug Wildey’s Rio
is set round about that time, when frontier towns were the crucible of in
industrial advances that were fated to tame the West and drive (pun?) the
cowboy off the plains. Just at this time, halls are still lit by flickering
wicks, and seemingly the only electrical appliance is the telegraph.
Wildey’s artwork
is highly atmospheric – somewhat indebted to Caniff – and his linework conveys
the shimmering shadowy disorder of the times
The ruffians of a
border stronghold in riotous mood
The fact that
undulating, shadowy line creates a sense of reality is quite germaine to the
idea that an electrical universe – the one we now inhabit – is a factual
illusion.
As was said back
in HB75
facts or precise data are one side of the universe (like DNA). The other side
is the experience of undulating lines in our bodies, in the landscape. Line and
movement are explored in cartooning; the reality of expression that has a
serpentine, primitive rhythm HB91
Another form of this line is the hazy shadow and flame of a log fire. A
line that is expressive in that sense is not electrical. This argument is
slightly muddied by music, since a musical line of an electric guitar expresses
the movements of the fingers of the person playing it.
A lot of the sounds we hear electrically are non-electronic. Similarly, a
lot of the sights we see are au naturelle. So, what I’m really saying is
electricity is an illusion; the reality is the organic line that has musical
expression.
Electricity can only copy this accurately, but is itself expressionless. This
points to the fact there is no line in an expressionless world of light; this
affects our psyche badly, starting from about 1880 with Edison’s invention of
the electric bulb.
This brings in a very interesting question, since we are told now that
electricity is a “green future” (eg by the small Swede). However,
psychically-speaking, electricity is null and void only able to copy (or
repeat) organic sights and sounds.
If we live in a reality of constant electrical copying, it should be
obvious from that that electromagnetism is not the reality, only what it is
copying (the organic). However, that is not what we are told. We are actually
told that computer algorithms can approach the organic. This is the biggest lie
of all time since that side of reality (the factual) has no expression.
The only thing it can do is copy (repeat). For example, the Japanese
animated face (P96) is an accurate copy of an
organic face. The fact that we see it as expressive is just an illusion; the
face has no soul, it is null and void. You could say, “but the face can express
a story”; right – so the story is real, otherwise it is “the mirror of
nothingness”. Stories are inventions that relate to reality; they can’t be
switched off like a machine (on/off, ones and zeros). That’s all you are
seeing.
a rugged story
An algorithm is a numerical construction, but the numerical and the
sexual become one through physical boredom (see prev.) That is what that face
represents; the prototype of a robot sex-toy. It’s as meaningless as that
because there is no actual physical content in an electronic construction. Our
destiny as humans is physical, which means blood and death and restoration
through decay and rebirth.
This physical reality impinges on the deep psyche of Man in our relation
with the cosmos (P97) Meaning can only come from
physical substance that deeply connects to the psyche, and not from electrical
copies. Repeats that are basically immaterial.
One way to put it is that the electronic universe is essentially anal, or
a mere hole. In Weekend, Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 satire of capital, the
passion for consumer goods is related to the anus, or
The sexual organ that does not recognize gender. (Speaking About Godard, page 87)
The male figures inWeekend, cling to their illusions of
mastery.
Hence, Roland ends up being killed, cooked and
eaten by the hippy cannibals, and his ex, Corrine (HB75) In the film, Roland is the sacrificial male who clings to his
illusions, that the male is dominant in the capitalist world of consumer goods.
That could be the traditional or Freudian view, but Godard subverts it (at one
point “Anal Ysis”) appears on screen, to make the point clear).
The problem with the modern world is that “order
and method” – the masculine virtues – are applied to consumer goods which are essentially
null and void. They have no physical substance and are in fact disposable – as Weekend implies with the famous
traffic jam and abandoned cars
Only physical reality can have psychic meaning
– and, actually, sexual meaning. Physical reality has the serpent’s line of
primitive undulating rhythm. It has the hazy smoke of a log fire, the sparks
igniting and flaring.
Traditional
Swiss chalet
A fire is a good example of physical substance
that is ignited, the flame represents its consumption. We gaze into its depths
in a hazy dreamland, our psyches attracted to the curling tongues of flame and
shadow. These induced dreams are the product of material substance; of wood
that becomes charcoal. An electric-green future (Tales of Faith 2
) does not have that material substance, and we are continually being
told that material substance – the burning of carbon – is not green.
Native American rock art
However, Man has been burning carbon since the
day we came on the scene; it simply enters the carbon-cycle. An “electric-green
future” is outside of all that because it is immaterial. By the same token we,
as humans, lose our souls to the immaterial future of copies that are not real.
Burning wood is the prerogative of living a life comparable to the beasts that scamper
amongst the trees. “They” cannot take that away from us; if these essays have
any revolutionary aspect, that is it.