Those of you who have been following Veil of Thorns for a while know of our love for the silent classics. We have wanted to do our own score for Metropolis for a long time, but the copyright cartel has pulled the film out of public domain for perpetuety, along with many cultural treasures of the 20th century.
I am impelled to post this after seeing this interview over at the Dangerous Minds blog:
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Director: Fritz Lang
Writers: Thea von Harbou (screenplay), Thea von Harbou (novel)
Stars: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel and Gustav Fröhlich
Woman in the Moon (German Frau im Mond) is a science fiction silent film that premiered October 15, 1929. It is often considered to be one of the first "serious" science fiction films. It was written and directed by Fritz Lang, based on the novel Die Frau im Mond (1928, translated as The Woman to the Moon in 1930) by his then-wife and collaborator Thea von Harbou. It was released in the USA as By Rocket to the Moon and in the UK as Woman in the Moon.
Well, Movie Saturday has become Movie Sunday this week because of a terribly unreliable ISP. Anyway, here's what inspires us this week.
A meditation on future event potentiality can be seen as a quantum state in which all possible actions, outcomes and phenomena existing until attention from the observer solidifies it into a single state. Here are three very different examples of artists who saw things not as others saw them, but the worlds they conceived shape the one we're in in strange ways.
PKD was paranoid and thought he was under surveillance. So did Hemingway, and it was thought until recently that Hemingway's paranoia had no basis in reality, but he had indeed been watched by government agencies. PHilip K Dick raised many questions in his work that we had better find answers to. As irksome as recent years have been, without reflecting on the issues of consciousness, the very real threat of being subject to pre-crime punishment and many other topics he originated that seemed so fantastic at the time.
Philip.K. Dick documentary on BBC's "Arena" originally broadcast on 9th April 1994.
Elvis Costello Interviewee
Philip K. Dick (archive footage)
Thomas M. Disch
Terry Gilliam
Himself - Interviewee
Kim Stanley Robinson
Himself - Interviewee
Consider this - a recluse from Providence writes tales for a tiny fringe publication and ends up influencing writers generations later. Through the continued popularity of his work and spreading influence of those he influenced weave their way throughout culture. Culture shapes thoughts, and thoughts determine actions. I have put forth the idea that all narrative is myth, and that political, commercial, cultural and religious myth is largely what determines what manifests as the world in which we live. The Chthulu mythos is like the mythological equivalent of "art for art's sake". Freeing the imagination from mundane perception is as valuable as conscious memetic engineering. There is real value in not having to justify everything in practical, pragmatic and material terms. Our current political/corporate power structure is Terry Pratchett's Auditors possessing human institutions. we can take comfort in the cold, indifferent universe and rest assured that the Old Ones will awaken and chaos never died...
H.P. Lovecraft was the forefather of modern horror fiction having inspired such writers as Stephen King, Robert Bloch and Neil Gaiman. The influence of his Cthulhu mythos can be seen in film (Re-Animator, Hellboy, and Alien), games (The Call of Cthulhu role playing enterprise), music (Metallica, Iron Maiden) and pop culture in general.
But what led an Old World, xenophobic gentleman to create one of literature's most far-reaching mythologies? What attracts even the minds of the 21st century to these stories of unspeakable abominations and cosmic gods?
LOVECRAFT: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN is a chronicle of the life, work and mind that created these weird tales as told by many of today's luminaries of dark fantasy including John Carpenter, Guillermo Del Toro, Neil Gaiman, Stuart Gordon , Caitlin Kiernan, and Peter Straub.
It's fashionable to hate on Crowley in certain circles these days, but I'm not inclined to take part in that. What are the current tendencies towards social control but an old Aeon struggling to live on while in its death throws?
Aleister Crowley "The Wickedest Man in the World."
Featuring the Voice of Joss Ackland and Music Score by Rick Wakeman.
Pieces that ran on ModernMythology.net are gathered, edited and expanded in this special collection. This endeavour is one of the projects the fund raising campaign helped bring to life, and is just the beginning of what is to be brought to you in the coming year. Some of this will include the music of Veil of Thorns. Here are a couple examples from the book from me, your humble Veil of Thorns overlord:
We cultural types do love to declare death wherever we cast our jaded blood-shot eyes. When our imaginations are exhausted, hard-ons for the latest arising only with greater efforts require new extremes of fetishism. A point comes when completed work crowds out attention. Art, empire, economy, politics look to us to be sated with days and ready to give in to sweet oblivion.
Lady Gaga killed sex, says the once much discussed Camille Paglia, who quotes her subject who declaims “Music is a lie”, “Art is a lie”, “Gaga is a lie”. The death of the novel is an idea so oft repeated that one can envision members of the literary establishment daring each other to intone the phrase three times in front of a mirror in expectation of the candyman to appear. And closer to home for us here, the right honourable psychonaut James L. Kent writing for Acceler8or the new transhumanist vehicle established by R. U. Sirius says we've come to rest after years of the deceler8ing of music as a living mode of expression. Nice opening shot.
And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist.
And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.- (Mark 6:21-29, KJV)
The story of Salome is a familiar one in Western culture, the climax of wich with her lascivious dance and the severed head of John the Baptist has fired the imagination of artists, writers and composers for hundreds of years. Then there's Dracula as an allegory describing Victorian men's fear of female sexuality, Lilith in legend and art... The mythical Salome can be seen as both a product of and a window into the minds of those who told it. Salome was a real historical person, born EV 14, the daughter of Herodias and the stepdaughter of the Emperor Herod Antipas. Though she is unnamed in the New Testament, Salome is named in the writings of the historian Josephus.
This book captures and expands upon the unique commentary and analysis that has helped define the Modern Mythology project in 2011. Through the voices of many contributors, we collectively take a hard look at the blurred lines between narrative and truth, philosophy and literature, personal history and cultural memory. All of this is done with an eye towards the imagined apocalypse that is always just around the corner.
This is the $.99 early edition, meaning that there will be one more editorial pass before the final version which will be released in print. This contains all the final content that the final book has, but will almost certainly have minor typos. If they light your hair on fire, feel free to report them.
Alan Moore is the world's most critically acclaimed author of comic books. In this film, we see a portrait of the artist as contemporary shaman, someone with the power to transform consciousness by means of manipulating language, symbols and images.
I'd be hard pressed to find a better example of an artist who makes conscious use of myth and magick than Alan Moore. We can see all around us how prescient he's been, and through his work the thoughtful reader can read the myths with which we're continually pummelled by big media, politics and religion.
Narrated by Sean Penn and based on the work of media critic and best- selling author Norman Solomon, who traveled with Penn to Baghdad just before the war to call attention to the dangers of a U.S. invasion, WAR MADE EASY reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose 50 years of government spin and media collusion that has dragged our country into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. With remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, the documentary exposes how presidential administrations of both parties have relied on a combination of deception and media complicity to sell one war after another to the American people.
This is one of many examples of how we are manipulated and distracted. I would point to Adam Curtis' brilliant documentary series The Century of the Self for more insight. Now, where it is valuable to shine the light on the unconscious parts of culture and mass consciousness, I would argue that the role of artists and musicians engaged in the purest kind of exploration of art and self is more important. Even more important is how each individual engages with these ideas and most important is that everyone is free in their creativity and shaping of their world, "artist" or not.
Grant Morrison could be one of the most important people you've never heard of, an inventive comic book writer who's practically a god among hardcore fans for spawning titles like Batman RIP, The Invisibles, All Star Superman and The New X-Men.
And to round out this trio of illusion, dissolution and creative collusion, we have more comics, more magick and the kind of psychedelia we try to bring to Veil of Thorns in sound and sight.
Now, the first and third examples represent artists tapping into the mythosphere very effectively and eloquently. We've been playing with the elements of myth and narrative over the last twenty years, but perhaps we need to reveal the pattern. It is my tendency to be opaque and cryptic, but the number of people who have come to me to tell me that they saw the threads of the story Veil of Thorns has been telling reveal where some clarity could make our art stronger. Where this thought is taking us will soon be revealed.
Meanwhile I hope you enjoy this movie Saturday break as much as I enjoyed watching these films and giving some of the thoughts that came to me in the process. My apologies to those of you in countries without access to Hulu. I may do this again and use other sources.
Modern Mythology Are in the Midst of a Year-End Fundraiser
Modern Mythology grew out of Mythos Media, which released the Veil of Thorns - Cognitive Dissonance album back in 2007. Well, the scope of what we do has grown and so has the cost of operating and expanding.
Observant readers may have noticed me mentioning this before. Right now I’m in the process of tweeting every one of the 300+ articles that have run on modernmythology.net in 2011. Think of how much work writing that many articles entails, and then consider that there were three books published already this year, and an anthology on its way. Then there’s the music, the web video series, the podcasts and much more.
Now, put yourselves under the influence of our Mind Kontrol with this video mixtape:
Here is what some of those who have contributed to our fundraiser campaign have said about this project:
“Modern Mythology’s work is way too important to not support. We need this discourse. Rock on guys!”
“You’re doing good work; I’m proud to support that.”
“Myth is something that even our technological, interdependent and global society cannot escape. Myth can illuminate and unveil aspects about ourselves and where we are going, where we have come from. Myth, in short, is self-knowing. As an essential dimension of human experience, it would behoove us to try to contextualize myth—or more appropriately see how myth contextualizes—the modern age.”
“You rock so hard, rocks are jello in your very presence. Neutron stars are tied neck and neck in the races. Your stuph is dense, and heavy. Keep it up. Way up.”
9 days left! We are presently running an ongoing tweet-a-thon under #myth on twitter. Listen in or join the discussion.
Even a donation of $1 gets you a free eBook and helps to keep us going.
[Check out some of the books, albums, and soon movies produced by Mythos Media and our various media partners.]
