Is it possible
that the immateriality of our rulers (numerical/monetary/compulsive) is an
inevitable consequence of a tendency towards a parallel world of script (head).
Britain has a leadership race on, and the contrast between the pitiful posing
academic windbag Boris Johnson and the introspective warrior-statesman Rory
Stewart tells its own story.
The head that is
convinced by mainstream reality – the usual politician – is not living in the
same world as the warrior-statesman and Homeric traveller. For Stewart, who met
his American wife at the Turquoise Mountain - which he established at the
request of the Afghan president –roved in Iran and smoked hashish in Bedouin tents,
is a physical vagabond living in an immaterial world. Good luck to him!
I’m not saying
he has just stepped out of the pages of fantasy; he is old Patrician Imperial
Scots and just as establishment as Boris. No, but his roving foot gives him a
sense of destiny, connects him to the savage grace of Homeric sunrise and
moonfall over desert vastness. It is not the political world of information,
and so his scope is as sure-footed as the goat.
Meaning
(physique) and power (ontology) in the cosmos have perfection. For any animal
to live and breathe and move it must be a perfect form, comprised of limbs,
feathers and so on. Not only nature but Man produces perfect form in gothic
churches, spired mosques and so on.
Alhambra arch
courtyard fountain, Granada
You can say
birds have mechanical means of flight and so on but, even so, in order to be
perfect they must also have primeval rhythm. The rhythms that are found in the
Alhambra are primeval and perfect.
Often artists
who have a knack for the ancient and archaic are the ones able to illustrate
Howard very tellingly: Tim Conrad’s Almuric and Worms of the Earth, Roy Krenkel,
Frank Frazetta, BWS (and his related prints, natch). I’d include Frank Thorne
as I personally think with the Noto fairy tale influence it fits a Weird
Tales ethos nicely!
Wizards of the Black Sun
Staying with
Frank, the interwoven fronds, birds and flowery doo-dahs have a frieze-like
tapestry effect that could either be art deco or Middle Ages. The archaic
effect of natural form is striking, as it is in gothic churches.
If you look back
to the Michaelina Wautier (C14) the inclusion of the donkey and goat has
the same effect. They are ancient forms of perfection, from pointy ears to
sure-footed cloven hooves.
This type of
physical perfection represents the physical universe of meaning (physique) and
power (ontology) in the cosmos, and so that might be why it has an archaic
feel. There was Laurens Van der Post’s quote, that There was no magic in that sound, no gaiety. It was just full of everlasting nostalgia for that other half of ourselves from which we are all separated, of the nostalgia which the moon on the eve of her own rounded fulfilment provokes in all living matter, not excluding the most dimly-lit animal heart. (Hyborian Bridge 62/1)
If we live in an
archaic universe, if we are “five billion year carbon”, that universe has no verifiable
proof, it is strong, bloody, desirable. All these aspects are quite ancient;
our relation to the cosmos through the rotation of Earth (ontology). The ancient
physical universe of plants and animals, stars and streams.
Cimmeria
I had a listen
to Nicole Emmalhainz on “rhetorical situation” (Howard Days), the fact that
Howard had conversations with his compatriots and was not this clichéd solitary
genius at a typewriter. Apart from that, he must have had a conversation with
the savage grace of nature, the sense of kindred with the wild physical space
of Texas.
Here there comes
a relation to Rory Stewart, because this gives them a wide idea of the reality
of the cosmos. It is not verifiable proofs which apply to an immaterial
universe, the one which the vast majority of politicians cohabit (with
eachother!)
In order to get
a sense of reality, meaning – the use of physique – and ontology – the physical
power of the cosmos (Earth’s spin) are needed. In olden days, there would be
market fairs of crafts and savage dancing, all sorts of fabrics, and the youth
getting psyched into ancient ways
North Yorkshire County Show
When a kid I
lived in Franco’s Spain, and the gaiety of the material world of old
established pottery ware, bullfighting districts, the disorganized street-life
sounds and leather and steel all together is to me material reality (similar to
Latin America). The world we are living in now is an immaterial illusion
dedicated to the dollar.
What is
primitive and unprogressive is Dionysian reality. Apollo is the modern
illusion. I remember the senoritas, the savage grace of flamenco dancing, those
billowing dresses and castanets (ole!) Nostalgic, wretched and gay. Now Spain is just one other Eurozone
(for $)
What is it that
has been lost? The strong, the bloody, the desirable. Meaning through physique
in dancing; physical perfection of the real world of material goods – fabrics,
pottery, bulls, leather, steel, sounds, stenches. Read Papa Hemingway.
It’s not a
right-wing world so much as a physical reality of light, air, smell, earth,
birds, fountains, courtyards all together. The modern world is information
(numerical and monetary); the old world is not, it’s physical presence of the
material world of color, texture, shape, dance (ole!)
The old world is
primitive because the cosmos has archaic power. The primitive side of things
(Dionysian) has been lost to progression; but actually this type of progress is
immaterial, it has no power, it’s in the head.
Conan #6, the material world