MonthMarch 2007

David Lynch’s dark arts laid bare

david lynch photo

Film director David Lynch has appeared in Paris to launch the first major exhibition of his paintings and photographs.

Full Story: BBC.

(thanks Dad!)

On Grant Morrison and his religious devotion to “the system”

These comments from the Grant Morrison in Arthur Magazine thread but I thought it would be worth highlighting them on the front page.

The first comment comes from Trevor Blake:

Role models for Aryan supermen, cartoon ethics, trusting in Bush / Blair /Nixon, negating the drive toward individuality, the holocaust was perfectly valid… y’all remember this next time you hear someone say ‘I don’t like [x], he’s a fascist.’

Morrison found flaws in his previous sense of what the purpose of his life and life in general was. He ditched the flawed understanding. Excellent.

He replaced it with a bigger ‘purpose’ in which everyone is as groovy as everyone else. Bunk.

Here’s the scoop: he, me, everyone, and everything has no ‘purpose.’ Some humans can give themselves a purpose that is satisfying. That’s about it.

In response, I cited another choice Morrison quote:

‘Asked about the current state of the world, particularly the war in Iraq, Mr. Morrison offered, ?perhaps it’s just an essential part of the system, as horrible as that may seem.’ He wasn’t particularly interested in being part of any active anti-war movement, and noted that in his previous experience, a number of those people only seemed to be ?interested in meeting up with the police.”

Then I went on:

I’d like to think that it goes with out saying that I don’t endorse Morrison’s philosophy on this, but since people very frequently confuse my opinions with the opinions of people I quote here, I figure I’ll set the record straight: I think Morrison’s whole ‘it’s all part of the system’s plan’ philosophy is a bunch of crap. I’m also not fond of his ‘individuality is an illusion’ stuff.

I don’t disagree with what I’ve read about Manuel DeLanda’s position on individuals and societies, but I haven’t read his new book yet. Shaviro’s review is here. He seems to reach a logical conclusion distinct from the over-romanticizing of of the individual and the problematic concepts of new age collectivism.

I look forward to reading Bloom’s Lucifer Principle as well.

‘Here’s the scoop: he, me, everyone, and everything has no ‘purpose.’ Some humans can give themselves a purpose that is satisfying. That’s about it.’

Agreed, more or less. Nothing has any meaning save for what we impose on it. This is not bad/depressing, but liberating.

Bush and his cronies did not have to invade Iraq to fulfill some systemic destiny. They made a choice. We have a choice as well – accept the decisions made by the control machines, or struggle to change things.

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The Management

We were always at war with Persia

Does anyone else find the timing of the release of 300, a movie portraying Persians as inhuman monsters, ironic?

I can’t seem to find any stills of the Persians in the movie look like, but in the trailer I saw they looked like black, deformed beasts (sort of like the Orcs from the first LOTR movie).

A few words from 300 writer Frank Miller about Bush and the War:

“I think that the president has done a very, very bad job of explaining things, but the more I research it, the more I think the war with Iraq makes sense – which I didn’t at first think. I see this Bush as a guy who thinks like a street fighter. He’s going into a very bad neighborhood and taking out the biggest bully in order to make the rest of them back off. That’s how I see the psychology. I feel that we’re all in WWIII and it’s an existential war just like WWII was, and it’s one that has to be won. I think how to get there is a totally debatable topic, but I don’t think we can exactly say that if we stop being so mean, Osama bin Laden will like us. The guy’s a psychopath! [S]o I guess I define my position as being a liberal hawk.”

– The Comics Journal Library, Volume Two: Frank Miller.

An Early Environmentalist, Embracing New Heresies?

Stewart Brand has become a heretic to environmentalism, a movement he helped found, but he doesn’t plan to be isolated for long. He expects that environmentalists will soon share his affection for nuclear power. They’ll lose their fear of population growth and start appreciating sprawling megacities. They’ll stop worrying about ‘frankenfoods’ and embrace genetic engineering.

He predicts that all this will happen in the next decade, which sounds rather improbable – or at least it would if anyone else had made the prediction. But when it comes to anticipating the zeitgeist, never underestimate Stewart Brand.

Full Story: New York Times.

Magick on the Edge available

magick on the edge

Magick on the Edge, an anthology of experimental magick edited by Taylor Ellwood, is available now. It includes excellent essays by former Technoccult guest editors Nick Pell and Michael Szul as well as contributions by several Technoccult pals like Taylor Ellwood, Lupa, and Angelina Fabbro.

Order it from Immanion Press or Amazon.

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