“I didn’t find that format really worked for me and I am
going to have to learn how I can flourish in a strange format of alternative
reality.. I thought maybe if I took my tie off we could get back to a bit of
reality. I was beginning to feel on those strange BBC bar stools that we were
moving off into an alternate reality.”
Poor old Stew
even had to yank off his tie so, even had he become prime minister, he would
still have found the alternate reality uncomfortable. Why? Because the head is
forever asked to solve the problems of the world and there’s one it can’t
solve.
That the body is
a material reality, not a statement of fact (script), a shape with savage
grace, the warrior aspect of the statesman, blood, strength, honour,
desirability. The political alternate reality cannot conceive of a world where
the physical has meaning (physique) and power (ontology) in the world.
going going
gone
In this sequence
from the last debate, Stew is obviously itching to dance with savage grace but,
instead, is being forced to speak. The act of speaking immaterially (“script”)
enters an alternate reality that is not physical. Like Katie Bouman’s black
hole (Hyborian Bridge 56) the head is trapped by its own physique.
The itch to dance is a way out of this trap since dancing is a creative
act of bodily meaning and power. Because the physicality of the body cannot be
denied, the modernday politician’s alternate reality is one of physical
boredom.
The
introspective adventurer will always find this situation uncomfortable. The
fact is that career politicians worldwide are essentially on the same
ideological alternate reality – numerical/monetary/compulsive. All three,
totalling global boredom. I know we’re supposed to think that the free-market
is not an ideology but, if it is a product of a parallel world of “script”,
that is not the case. Script is immaterial (head) not physical (body). You have
to support Hong Kong in the face of Chinese aggression, but I’d support Bruce
Lee more! A new boxer rebellion is called for. Words, speeches are no longer
enough.
If you look back
at Tales of Faith 2 the steaming physicality of the scenes is something
else. Shanghai and Hong Kong evolved from 19th century free trading
ports and the freedoms were very real, anarchic even, sordid, surreal. The
early Bruce Lee films hark back to that era and are very appealing (nostalgic).
China may be the
big villain, but now so is the “script” that runs capital enclaves. Don’t get
me wrong; I hate China and love Hong Kong, but it’s no longer as simple as good
vs evil. If the Hong Kongers get physical I’ll support them; if not China only
has to wait to extinguish them forever.
However, there
is no longer “freedom” of the market when it has this order that is essentially
a script. I guess you could say the best thing is to deal with the China threat
first, and I get that. So, kill off the China threat then deal with the global
order that kills freedom.
If you look back
to Hyborian Bridge 62/2 there still seems to be an intermediate way
between left and right which is what I tended to term the spontaneity of
impoverished Latin American communes (Mexican favelas). I can’t pretend to know
what’s going on in Latin America, except that the trek in search of the dollar
is no solution.
The dollar now
represents order, numerical, monetary and compulsive, of an immaterial script
(head). The parallel reality that we inhabit. The more persistent is this order
(script) the more immaterial is the mind all the more trapped by its own
physique.
I guess you can
see where this is heading, so what I plan to do is to return to the physical
world of material reality. In Britain that used to be represented by country
estates comprising vast ranges of farmland, woodland, lakeland, vast piles of
stone and wood and chimneys, birdland, grassland.
In America, I
guess it’s represented by a mixture of ranchland and the old Indian territories
made into National Parks – Combination of the Two (7) - the old theme of
decay and rebirth is ever present, dirt and cleanliness that is strong and
pure. Wealth is Dionysian (revival and revelry). Modern wealth is Apollonian
illusion.
Actually, it’s
worth going back to the material wealth that predates both these, the medieval
castle; As noted previouslyAlternates 8 a castle was filthy and
cleanliness was a moral duty. Rushes were spread on the floor of the great hall
where the stench of various fluids (animal, Man, vegetable) were disguised by
fragrant herbs. Like fulling (Hyborian Bridge 60) two strong things
counteract eachother.
Such a setting
is something like a ranch that spreads hay or straw over dirt or wet ground;
these are continual signs of decay and continual signs of cleanliness. Both are
strong and have meaning and power.
All these
aspects are to do with physical activities of the body, man or animal. Where I
live there has been invoked a fine on spitting; this goes to show that the
concept of cleanliness is no longer there since to have cleanliness there must
be dirt.
The old theme of
decay and rebirth is a physical reality of material wealth represented by all
of the above. The predator-prey cycle that is the bedrock of strength in
action. It’s born of animal behaviour, of our animal aspect (Dionysus). There
is decadent meaning and savage aspect that are all too typical of a scene from
Hyboria!
Destiny is not
born of boredom, it is born of perfection, which is born of decay and rebirth,
the primitive, archaic power of Earth twirling amongst the cosmos. The dance is
a strong, physical act of meaning.
Typical
Hyborian scene from Red Sonja #7