Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Pyramid Spotting with Stanley K - redux

A few weeks ago I linked to what I thought was an amusing fan review of A Clockwork Orange

I linked to it because a) I'm a big Kubrick fan, and b) I'm also more than a little keen on symbolism hidden amongst us within popular culture.

The insight offered by the review into the possible symbolism of the movie's iconic poster was worth the admission price alone...





A couple days after I linked to the video the author, Rob Ager, pulled it off Youtube


He's just uploaded a revised version in three parts which can be seen here, here and here

Ager has included an interesting explanation for his behaviour at the start of the
first segment

Apparently, he received some shit for being a 'conspiracy theorist'. Not so much from ordinary people but from professional on-line journalists




Consequently, he felt a need to withdraw his original piece and replace it with a slightly updated version

The pussy

The interesting part to me is that even in the original version it was clear that he wasn't advocating any conspiracy theories. All he was doing was suggesting that Kubrick had included some particular imagery and themes in his film




Kubrick himself was definitely into some weird stuff and his last film, Eyes Wide Shut, makes absolutely no sense unless you recognise that Kubrick was referring to a covert ruling elite who are into even weirder stuff

But two minutes spent on Ager's site will make it pretty clear that Ager is simply a movie buff who is exploring the themes and ideas in some of his favourite films

And if a film includes some peculiar symbolism, so be it




And we've come to a state of affairs where even that is reason enough for professional journalists to call him a nutter and describe his work as 'wank' not on its inherent merit but on the basis that they've labeled him a 'conspiracy theorist'

How well those fuckers have been trained

Which, given the film in question, seems more than a little ironic

.

17 comments:

paul said...

There's a lot to be said, good and bad, for kubrick but no one could possibly say that anything appeared in a single frame he released was not there for a reason.

Personally I prefer his films when he's a bit more straightforward with the material.

Clockwork orange is very disciplined in its composition and you can see how the imagery supports the central theme and the world it occurs in.

However eyes wide shut, to me, just gratuitously scatters weird stuff about to no great effect except to appeal to the trainspotter conspiracist.

Wolfie said...

Its quite amazing how we are seeing the steady spread of this "group think" subservience to a derision bordering on fear of interpreting anything in an alternative way.

One wonders what kind of education these "journalists" have had as we were warned of this "future shock" by so many authors and artists over the last 100 years? Or maybe like stock-market bubbles and hideous fashion trends they think its "different this time".

I partly blame the feminisation of society, that "touchy feely" post-Diana effect where its acceptable to blubber in public when some privileged cloths-horse you never knew dies in a car accident. The feminine prerogative is to acquiesce to the values, norms and requirements of the group or society whereas it is the Macho male psych to question, confront and rebel against the constraints of the group.

We're being castrated, chemically and psychologically in order to make us all more feminine and compliant.

Salmon Rushdie is up for a knighthood - a sure sign that our intellectuals have no balls at all.

paul said...

Wolfie,From videodrome:

North America's getting soft, *patron*, and the rest of the world is getting tough. Very, very tough. We're entering savage new times, and we're giong to have to be pure and direct and strong, if we're going to survive them. Now, you and this cesspool you call a television station and your people who wallow around in it, your viewers who watch you do it, they're rotting us away from the inside. We intend to stop that rot.

I disagree with you though, everybody's trying to be a tough guy these days.

Stef said...

@paul

I staggered out of the cinema after watching EWS, traumatised by its sheer apparent awfulness. If anyone killed Kubrick for making it it is just as likely to be a disgruntled fan as the Illuminati

I haven't been able to watch it through since, though I have recently secured a copy with the aim of giving it a second try

And why, given the subject matter and his record for using lesser known 'talent', Kubrick cast Cruise (scientologist) and Kidman (Murdoch family friend) is one of the biggest mysteries of all

Stef said...

@wolfie

as you know, the problem with using terms like feminisation is that they can be construed or presented as being pejorative to half of humanity but I understand where you're coming from

the interesting thing for me is how the Crusaders for Reason in the mainstream media are more than happy to get stuck into 'conspiracy theories' but not so happy to take on, for example, the Find Maddy nonsense that has swept the land - a campaign that has done more to help soften the brains of the masses more than any other conspiracy theory I've ever encountered

paul said...

Kubrick cast Cruise (scientologist) and Kidman (Murdoch family friend) is one of the biggest mysteries of all

Who could believe them as a loving couple?

I think he did it to show he was still stanley big bollocks, only he could keep the world's smallest and biggest star on hold while he tried vainly to make up the story out of that heap of shit

Stef said...

Who could believe them as a loving couple?

well, quite

Wolfie said...

I'm not talking about women, I'm talking about the balance between the feminine and the masculine that both men and women possess. The yin and yang if you like.

So Paul you think that there is too much "trying to be a tough guy these days"?

That's because you misinterpret the imbalance you see. Lets take the recent spate of street murders that have taken place, witnesses have described attackers as "not liking the way that the victim looked at him".

Why would he care what was going through the mind of another man? The Macho doesn't care what others think, for him he is the centre of the universe. This violence is rooted in a vanity.

Stef, the Crusaders for reason fear back-lash from the hysterical mob that would turn on them should they question their reasoning. Why do people cling onto these strange cult-like obsessions with lost children? Again its a form of vanity, they desire to be seen as good people to their peers and in associating themselves with the search they feel that they are compensating for or distracting from their own faults. By questioning their logic you question their morality - you tell them that they are not really good people, worst still you do it before their peers.

Stef said...

I'm not talking about women, I'm talking about the balance between the feminine and the masculine that both men and women possess. The yin and yang if you like.

that is understood but there are those who would attempt to confuse the point you are making by bringing gender into it. I've met some

you could also talk about a left brain/ right brain division between feeling and calculating

where things get confusing is when, as is the case, you get people with access to a mainstream voice telling us which is which

So, for example, hysteria over Global Warming is identified as being rational and scepticism about some of the claims and solutions being promoted in its name as irrational.

Belief in a shadowy international terror crime 'network' called Al Qaeda is rational. Any suspicion that some of the more powerful people in the world may act in concert is 'irrational'

The Maddie thing is interesting because any rational, calculating, macho, left brain person would condemn the campaign for being an overblown waste of time

Yet our supposedly super rational media and institutions have promoted it beyond any sense or probable utility

The get out clause being that, no matter how unlikely, some of this nonsense just might help

Not being a great fan of Darwin and other (what I believe to be) faith based scientific 'explanations' for how the world is, I'd say that this is a nice example of the Law of Large Numbers / Infinite Monkeys thing taken to its logical nonsensical conclusion.

It's also a nice example of how fucking stupid most people have been educated to be when it comes to grappling with subjects such as probability and risk assessment

paul said...

So Paul you think that there is too much "trying to be a tough guy these days"?
I do, I do

That's because you misinterpret the imbalance you see.

Not at all, I'm just drawing a different conclusion

Lets take the recent spate of street murders that have taken place, witnesses have described attackers as "not liking the way that the victim looked at him".

Well, did this happen in all incidents?What about this case or are the girls becoming more masculine, or are we moving to a unisexual norm of behaviour?
Youngsters have always fought as far as I can remember.

Why would he care what was going through the mind of another man?

Status and prestige is an integral component of a social membership.
The Macho doesn't care what others think, for him he is the centre of the universe. This violence is rooted in a vanity.
Bit of a sweeping statement, that

The lament of the lost masculine is a regular feature of the faux controversialist our more right wing press delight in employing.

It's the permissive society gone too far!!

Stef said...

The lament of the lost masculine is a regular feature of the faux controversialist our more right wing press delight in employing.

as is the supposed loss of rationality

of course, the pundits in question are talking about their particular take on what constitutes rationality and masculinity

Melanie Phillips is an interesting case in point. Personally I think she's a very clever woman who can put together very cogent, rational arguments on some issues - she's also out of her tits when discussing others

Stef said...

@paul those happy slappers lived round the corner from me, OK two corners. If I've said it once I've said it twice - Anyone who is tired of living in Lambeth is tired of Life

come to think of it, anyone who isn't tired of living in Lambeth is also tired of Life

paul said...

Or anyone who's tired of living should live in lambeth

Stef said...

That sounds like a winning catchy slogan for the Lambeth Tourist Board to me

if we had one

DE said...

Not sure if this guy is kdding or seriou. But then the stuff about Diageo is interesting, and not casual.

http://postmodern-research.blogspot.com/

Stef said...

LOL

The motherlode!

What a magnificent obsession

Heart-felt thanks for that link. In the last few hours alone a new article on the connections between Family Guy and Freemasonry has appeared

Superb

DE said...

I'm wondering if I have just done the Conspiraloon equivalent of crossing the beams..