A weak continuum that supports schizophrenic delusions of grandeur (from HB177) could be an apt description of "BEM", from the first issue of Love and Rockets back in 1982.
In this sequence, quasi-scientific expert Paolo P Piñata is so enamored of the monster that the two become one!
This theme goes through the story elwhich reads at times like a 70s issue of X-Men, and at times like magic realism - one of Gilbert's main influences.
It is still a riot to read, with phrases like " valid intrepidness" leaping off the page.
A weak continuum produces the need for bestial strength, the monster which detective Radium is forever chasing (BEM has in fact fooled him.by hiding within his own body!)
But, what is s weak continuum? I would assume it to be a logical order (light or technique) that assumes things have to be tidy to advance onto tomorrow.
This is really the monetary system, possibly alluded to by references to "land developers" (real estate, natch.) However, ecologically-speaking this is delusory.
If you think of an untidy garden, it could either be left by laziness or deliberately wilded so as to allow bugs and predators to revivify it (see Monty Don, prev.)
Prince Charles at Highgrove took this action by letting borders to crops on the farm grow wild (prev.) The difference between "wild" and "natural order" is zero in that where pests are allowed in is strength and fertility.
Where monstrous situations tend to flourish is actually in ordered settings of mono-agriculture where there are sewage-disposal problems. In England, sewage-treatment plants along the banks of rivers regularly release untreated waste, resulting in algal blooms that kill fish and aquatic insects.
The ego is attracted to "tidy" solutions that are essentially weak and prone to failure. "The land of logic" that is even more pernicious in the city.
As was noted in Alternates5 (rehsongcycle.com suspended till next week), the "land of logic" has a tendency to nonsense, whereas ramshackle neighborhoods have "the logic of desire". There is an internal logic associated to disorder (Corneille, prev.)
One only has to go back to the 70s to see how much more equable were city neighbourhoods which were to a large degree self-governing.
It's a type of low-level feuding in disordered situations previously alluded to (W11 and Rab Nesbit). The drama of the situation resolves the conflict; drama is required for resolution. This necessitates a rough attitude as opposed to the robotic management of modernity.
Take the 1970 Blaxploitation film " Cotton Comes to Harlem" ( by black director Ossie Davis). Two black officers aggressively restore order to the streets of Harlem almost in the face of white chiefs.
The white chief is inclined to credit the tall tales of community favorite Reverend O'Malley, while the two black officers have their ear to the nitty-gritty street. It's sexy and violent and neon-lit, with a dingy shabbiness that is fairly alluring.
Back in the 70s, the cultural and political milieu of neighborhoods was more right-on black and far less federally-managed. The allurement is cultural - with pockets of Swahili - and has the intoxication of desire - as opposed to rational order.
Neighborhoods which are rough are like wilded gardens where insects lay eggs and get eaten by predators. One can't have a healthy neighborhood without some risks, be they enticement or physical violence.
Societies manage the risks with law-enforcement, but the idea that society has to be managed is a deadly delusion of the ego. There is instead a desire for law-enforcement, a rough hand tempered by restraint, by the fact the officers are part of the communal.pattern.
And the right-on patter. "That's police brutality", asserts the Rev when Digger knocks aside his cig. "No, brother, that's cancer prevention."
Disordered societies have an internal logic of desire; pure order only produces weakness and delusion. The choice for the future is stark. Between belief in a monetary order of "facts" and gadgets for weaklings; or ease-of-access to places of power that soothe the psyche.
Instead of dismal, authoritarian sameness, differences can get on in similar situations (see Black Mama, White Mama, prev.). The situation is cosmically the same for everyone. The cosmos is rough and textured, a frayed tapestry and not a literal reflection.
The Hudson Bay forms a backdrop to the film, a moodiness that frames neon-candles that glimmer in the starlight.
On a side-note, the turmoil in South Africa speaks of the deactivated vitality of the suburbs under the authorities of the city. Activating the agrarian is something that could expand white-owned farm-holdings by uptraining suburban blacks into agrarian pursuits of economic worth. The Chinese psycho-blasters are waiting in the wings to complete the monetary stranglehold.
