"A fellow with hate is better help in danger than the most trustworthy friend" (Roxanne book 2, Letendre, Loisel)
HB198 notes towards the end Michelle Roquebrune's favourite draftsman was Dürer, and the role of draftsmanship in storytelling us also very obvious, as here with the flowing grace of Loisel's line depicting the tree-death of a lost land.
Superb draftsmanship often has a ramshackle quality that can hint at sordid debauchery (Egon Schiele, HB198). The body and natural form echo one another in gnarled and twisted shapes; the fertility of shapes that match and fit one another.
While no one is saying Dürer is as debauched as Picasso or Schiele, linework so ramshackle is like the portrayal of fertility in nature. One sees in Dürer both the idealism of the Renaissance and the Gothic underworld of the medieval.
The power of nature comes from feuding, and this liveliness affects the psyche. Since the Renaissance, the scientific order has overwhelmingly crushed what was inspirational to the old-time artists.
This dichotomy of nature is the land of death and revival (see above picture). Without a type of debauched fertility, there can be no revival, only a sterile and lacklustre place fit for zombies (see also Noto's 'Red Lace'.)
The most clear idea of what I mean came this week with the news that Modi had finally caved-in to the demands of small-farmers, and repealed the 'free-market legislation for selling agricultural produce (see prev.)
"I apologize to India and with a true and pure heart we were not able to convince farmers"
Fair dos to him, albeit that several hundred died of the prolonged standoff and harsh ground conditions. The farmers stand for a system that is not just economic, but is strongly ecological as well as supplying economy to the farmholders.
They is to say (as previously expressed), the system is inefficient and there is wastage en route to markets. Waste rots and becomes an ecological product. Modern capitalism is based on sterile monoculture which is efficient but loses fertility of the soil and creates toxic waste-products that cannot be recycled (see Iowa pig farms; sewage runoff in English rivers prev.)
Ecology is a type of economic inefficiency, and this is what the small Indian farmer stands for. As the Minnesota Institute of Environment has said (prev), when ramshackle ecosystems are destabilised by development, pests and viruses are also disturbed from their hosts.
A stable ecosystem is able to harbour pests that do not become toxic generally. India, compared to China, has vastly more of this stability and, of course, the toxic plague we currently endure cane from the latter.
Stability is ramshackle and has a type of debauched quality of raw fertility (see pulp examples in HB194); this is inimical to the standards of hygiene and efficiency that both East and West now espouse. Modi has come to know wisdom that the like of Belsonaro might eventually follow.
This language of debauchery may jar the ears of some, but it is said with a 'pure heart' to quote the Indian premier. There is no escaping it, and those who attempt it are merely prolonging the agony of a diseases planet.
I recently revisited the 70s TV series Survivors (poss prev), and in the episode'Law and Order' they have a house-party in which Greg and Jen discuss fertility cults.
They say something like blood fertilizes in rituals when satyrs roamed in ancient days, and blood of virgins rained (they were in their cups). Of course, this was to counterpoint the bloody end of Wendy, an English rose who is molested following the party.
Being 70s TV nothing is spelt out, but the hint of debauchery is plainly there. The reason it's there is because these post-apocalyptic survivors are living off the land and relying on the fertility of the land, its animals and plants. In a fertile situation there will be rites of fertility, dancing round maypoles, young kids and sexual symbolism.
Modern societies treat this as taboo while having a dark net. These things can't be hidden because they're out there in nature. It's the Cider With Rosie syndrome, where sheep-shagging and incest aren't unheard of.
A sterile order (of economic efficiency) corrupts these natural rhythms (the profane serpent); it's impossible to deny what is there in the natural order. You only have to look at the linework of Dürer or Egon Schiele (or Loisel.)
This active world of lively linework harbours the expressive psyche they is frequently diminished by modern establishments. I picked-on Survivors because it's a deliberately primitive setting that clearly harks back to ancient traditions and the archaic satyrs of wood and myth.
Where situations are deliberately simplified, the filming is much more fantasy-oriented, even if not to the extent of having zombies (which was what Is McCulloch went on to do in Italian cinema!)
The same I would say is true of Jean-Luc Godard's films (prev): they are simplified and cut to the bone to spell out his personal vision (Carpenter's budget horror too). This parallels Michelle Roquebrune, who said she "draws inside her head."
Perhaps the French are better at this but, in any event, the starkness of primitive fantasy is a counter to the complexity and obfuscation of modernity. I personally don't watch TV, but obviously know of series such as The Wire and so forth. These highly realistic 'procedural' shows can only obfuscate further what is a procedural reality (of talk as opposed to action, or vision.)
What I'm really getting at is one can only rebel in primitive circumstances. The 60s hippies were rebels and were known for debauchery and psychedelia. If they'd also been farmers perhaps history might have been different.
Incidentally, the Survivors party dancing scene is worth commenting on as the casual expression mitigates against routine, whereas dance-shows are now all routine! The point is, only an experienced pro can express a routine because they are so familiar. It's the Bruce Lee syndrome that a learnt routine is not expression in-the-moment.
It seems like a small point, but it points to the diminished psyche; Survivors is a somewhat courtly variant of barn-dance coupling, expressionist and low-key.
