Judging by the lack of interest, the accuracy of the last post seems to have been dismissed by most viewers, so it may be worth recapping from an unexpected direction.
If we inhabit a parallel reality in which everything is entirely regular - if, in fact, this is the definition of a parallel reality (see CL Moore ) - then there can be no question of rebellion.
One wonders around more-or-less at a loss and, in fact, the general tone of fantasy-oriented is vis-a-vis dystopias. This can be seen in thee first modern variant in Francis Stevens' The Heads of Cerberus (HB194).
I noticed the recent posts in 'Post Apocalyptic Style' that covered this ground in such titles as X-Men and Avengers. In an old issue of Avengers, the Vision has this to say.
What is it about parallel realities that makes them prone to dystopias? In a branching of straight-lines, any logical trend tends to get enlarged, and this would explain the political content, from The Heads of Cerberus - a fascist future Philadelphia - onwards.
If we inhabit a parallel reality (to be repetitive, as these things are), that will find its expression in pop-culture; in fact, this is the topic of Jean-Luc Godard's ostensible 'homage' to US gangster films, Made In USA (1966).
Full of frayed paintwork from Marseille AKA Atlantic City, the film inhabits a cartoony underworld of bright colours, bright lights and unexpected sounds.
Ostensibly a noirish thriller on Karina's (Paula Nelson) vengeful search for the killer of her estranged rebel boyfriend - with political echoes of the Algerian war - Godard deliberately tries to make it unreal.
As one character says, it is
a Disney film.. with blood.
In fact, it reads something like a French colonial echo of American imperialism! Karina searches for verifiable truths - and finds the illusions of pop-culture (with a cameo by Marianne Faithfull).
But what if pop-culture IS the truth, in the sense that pop-culture is very liable to inhabit parallel realities that branch from the mainstream? Hidden inside these icons of femininity and masculinity of the cinema (and comics, natch) is the old France of Jacques Tati, that one sees in the scenes of frayed posters, cabbage patches and dilapidated garage settings.
Where a parallel reality so often inhabits the soulless machine-verse of political speech - here heard on a reel-to-reel recording of a comrade's call to arms - outside of this is the old-time universe of boiled cabbage (as R Crumb said of Popeye.)
What a parallel reality so often lacks is the very thing that gives food to pop-culture in the first instance, which is the frayed dinginess of soiled tenements.
Hidden inside pop-culture is this need for the experience of frayed settings in downbeat situations where once was Gasoline Alley.
The political and economic are not necessarily straight-line situations in that there is also the ecological situation (see Minnesota Institute of Environment). Because one inhabits a parallel universe of mathematical logic (Relative speed-time, see P198), we end up with a distorted version of reality. In effect, inside a hyper-realist machine-verse - which harbours the profane serpent (of distorted rhythm.)
In the frayed tapestry of Godard's film, as in Tati's Monsieur Hulot, one can see behind this to the dark underworld from where revival springs (Persephone and Pluto.)
Primitive economies harbour beliefs of resurrection - as is true of the Hyborian mates of Ishtar (see Yaple, prev.) The rhythms of revival are essential and, as has been noted previously, invade the trade-routes of Hyborian cultures.
Pack-animals carry pests on their hides, and the goods they transport are associated with a roving ecosystem. The mouldy underworld of fungoid revival is a part of the trade-routes of yore.
There is no such thing as sterile cleanliness in this situation, only balance. Balance between pests and disease and health creates strength and revival. It is this world of the primitive underworld that is outside a parallel universe of straight-lines - or distorted Relativity logic - and that is visible if one looks hard at the pop-cultural shavings that Godard gives us in
The political manifesto read with robotic monotone on reel-to-reel is possibly a reference to the psychotic Alpha60 in futuristic thriller
Why traipse around in some semi-psychotic political zone of parallel-relativity that renders the psyche numb with intolerable sameness? Better to rebel in terms of physical activity, establish a small-holding with a mule somewhat along the lines suggested by Ye West (prev )
The nouveau physicality of surroundings will endow the psyche with a sense of the absolute (see Johnny Cash, prev), the primitive, the eternally juvenile.
