tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.comments2024-03-14T09:06:24.008+00:00torpedo the arkStephen Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02481352671425437468noreply@blogger.comBlogger905125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-91317695846687533512024-03-14T09:06:24.008+00:002024-03-14T09:06:24.008+00:00I don't think my remarks showed any ageism; ju...I don't think my remarks showed any ageism; just offered an observation on the passing of time. <br /><br />As I didn't take the opportunity to speak with Temple afterwards, I can't tell you what he felt about the event (suspect that he no longer really cares about a film made 45 years ago and is prouder of his later work).<br /><br /> <br /><br />Stephen Alexanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02481352671425437468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-6633757689777294212024-03-13T21:10:25.040+00:002024-03-13T21:10:25.040+00:00Apart from the unexamined nod to punk's ageism...Apart from the unexamined nod to punk's ageism in the initial references to bald heads and grey hair, I suppose it could be passingly interesting for those of that era to learn how/why the film was cut on the night, though it's symbolically interesting to note the writer's desire to retrospectively sanitise the bogs of punk now. What would/did Temple have to say about this, I wonder? <br /><br />I suppose, in the end, all cultural forms get 'cleaned up'. Either way, it's not an event I can imagine Lydon, even in his current decayed state, deeming worthy of his attendance. <br />Simon Solomonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05763042435310801885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-12335283957846655402024-02-09T18:44:16.951+00:002024-02-09T18:44:16.951+00:00One can resist/reject others' narratives while...One can resist/reject others' narratives while being true only to one's own continuously changing time trajectory of existence. How? By simultaneously being an observer of others' narratives and protagonist in one's own narrative. The commonplace problem is in not knowing that there is a difference. The bigger problem, however, is the angst/nausee that (at least according to Heidegger and Sartre, among others) accompanies such a realisation. Is this angst/nausee inevitable? Do many people not simply acquire the requisite realisations and get on with their existential trajectories ... while allowing for many and all possibilities, including those that are in the virtual and digital realms? (Sidenote: I prefer a question mark to an ellipsis ... most of the time ...)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-52982863837087300902024-02-08T20:45:51.510+00:002024-02-08T20:45:51.510+00:00Many people of a certain generation may/will have ...Many people of a certain generation may/will have been first introduced to The Sorcerer's Apprentice through hearing the symphonic poem of that name, composed by Paul Dukas, played to them in a music class at school. It was a popular piece, and very much part of the orchestral repertoire.<br />Although regarded by many as a bit of light-hearted fun, there is perhaps a serious message for witches and wizards and us all, about meddling in matters beyond our ken! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-8861958337849946132023-12-27T09:09:00.996+00:002023-12-27T09:09:00.996+00:00All very true, I'm sure, Maria. And Καλά Χριστ...All very true, I'm sure, Maria. And Καλά Χριστούγεννα. I need a favour from you. I'm on 07726 304591 or imagesimon@hotmail.com. Φιλικά, Simon Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-33278205712317608912023-12-27T08:45:47.356+00:002023-12-27T08:45:47.356+00:00I think he has it spot on about blogging ... it re...I think he has it spot on about blogging ... it reminds me of the amateur journalism that H P Lovecraft was heavily involved in during the first third of the last century (as described in S T Joshi's biography of HPL and which you can read about on Wikipedia (via HPL entry). It too was about dedicated 'doing' without thought of remuneration (quite the opposite) and any but reception by like minds with both a tolerance for the learning process and it being a learning process (like political education). It is an activity defiant of 'homo economicus'.Tim Pendrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-79377843841979426482023-12-14T14:20:04.204+00:002023-12-14T14:20:04.204+00:00As a supplement to this beguiling post, readers ma...As a supplement to this beguiling post, readers may also be interested to look into EB's correspondence with her posthumous editor, the evocatively named Mabel Loomis Todd, who sent Dickinson a haunting painting of white ghost flowers that later served as the cover art for a first collection of the latter's poetry (co-edited with Thomas Wentworth Higginson):<br /> https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/roomitem/preferred-flower-of-life/Simon Solomonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05763042435310801885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-66838794217572621772023-12-10T22:36:53.374+00:002023-12-10T22:36:53.374+00:00It's a shame she was smeared. However, those c...It's a shame she was smeared. However, those children should have inherited more than £800. Lynne would surely have done herself some good in sharing a bit. Given that she had three marriages too perhaps she wasn't an amazing partner either.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-88731342538136509032023-11-28T20:50:25.013+00:002023-11-28T20:50:25.013+00:00Indeed. The assimilation of punk was hammered home...Indeed. The assimilation of punk was hammered home to me when I saw city bankers with spiky hair. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-89781029509584894482023-11-19T23:53:33.874+00:002023-11-19T23:53:33.874+00:00(From the OCTOBER 13 Anonymous, NOT the Nov. 9-10 ...(From the OCTOBER 13 Anonymous, NOT the Nov. 9-10 reactionary)<br /><br />Yeah, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Sellers' kids were all doomed to turn out exactly like HIM: selfish, petty, vindictive, perpetually immature, and obliviously incapable of any accountability or self-reflection of their own reprehensible hurtfulness. And even if Frederick HAD "reconsidered" the distribution of wealth and gave in to Sellers' fair-weather friends' bleating of "Oh, won't someone please think of the children?", it still wouldn't have been enough to dissuade their predisposed suspicion and hatred of her versus their reductive hero-worship of a Beloved Comedy Legend.<br /><br />If anything, the sad experience warped Frederick into the paralyzing depression that ended her life all too soon, while Sellers' remaining two kids remain overgrown brats feeling sorry for themselves. And Dr. Strangelove aside, I am so OVER this alleged "genius" of Peter Sellers, who's just not that interesting. In fact, he was just a big meanie. Who never mattered all that much to me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-21577809711693212012023-11-19T19:46:25.667+00:002023-11-19T19:46:25.667+00:00Yes, I continue to find something new to write abo...Yes, I continue to find something new to write about in Lawrence. Many of my papers are in Etudes Lawrenciennes.Marina Ragachewskayahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10355588914187535944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-23815760486817002292023-11-19T17:09:45.826+00:002023-11-19T17:09:45.826+00:00I'm very pleased to hear that. Are you still w...I'm very pleased to hear that. Are you still writing on Lawrence? Look forward to reading any new work ... Kind regards, SAStephen Alexanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02481352671425437468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-28057166457103238942023-11-19T09:53:42.322+00:002023-11-19T09:53:42.322+00:00Thank you, Stephen, for a fascinating summary and ...Thank you, Stephen, for a fascinating summary and comments. It has helped me a lot to shape my own understanding of this most mysterious Lawrence story. Marina Ragachewskayahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10355588914187535944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-72388289774217533572023-11-18T10:07:36.003+00:002023-11-18T10:07:36.003+00:00There are so many levels to those kisses related t...There are so many levels to those kisses related to the cultural messaging of America at the time but everyone declines to refer to one of the most obvious ones ... a commercial entity seeking to increase sales by marketing a scandal. Western culture as it became more consumerist changed a great deal simply because of this motivation - profit-seeking novelty to attract attention, This is perhaps one of the arguments in favour of capitalism as progressive force. However, what happens when you have reached the boundaries of shock or when there is push-back from the progressive culture you have created against attempts to introduce a new level of shock. I suspect we are going through a phase of the latter and we have seen these phases before - the introduction of the Hays Code in cinema pushing back against sexual shock in early cinema and the Comics Code in the 1950s pushing back against horror shock. Then, the profit-seekers start working with authority to stop new entrants into the market who might use their shock tactics. Art is most in a pickle at the moment - it tried everything and then sank into a sort of progressive political soup required to get public, foundation and private funding in order to meet a particular agenda and its shocks are now mere cartoons (e.g. the Banksy influence). Real shock has not gone away but is displaced into the social media which authority is now trying to regulate and censor or is reduced to the jump scare of the conventional horror film. Maybe there are sudden intrusions of genuine shock (Night of the Living Dead, Halloween, Saw) but sexual shock has gone and those moments of genuine shock get tamed and even turned into comedy (Zombieland, Scary Movie with Saw too recent yet to have found that niche) much as Dracula becomes Duckula. Even extremes like cannibalism and serial murder are now turned into docu-dramas that engage sentiment and political correctness (Dahmer on Netflix) rather than shift our mentalities. Perhaps all possible things have been thought, categorised, re-ordered into derivative hybrid forms and the profit-seekers dare cross no further boundaries or find that the public is no longer shocked by an old boundary or the public really has decided that the boundary exists for a purpose and there is no profit to be gained from crossing it. Interestingly, there is one boundary territory being played out before our eyes ... the 'necessity' of war or liberatory violence and this is causing huge (if probably temporary) cultural trauma and division (and confusion). Maybe the next one is the actual rather than theoretical loss of identity into the digital under the sway of artificial intelligence. Another associated one may be the irrelevance of the intellect in the face of AI and the problem of meaning. We can be nostalgic for those kisses because they 'moved us forward' ... and perhaps we are no longer moving forward in ways we believe are under our control. The red neck response was about right - sexual desire was always going to counter tribal loyalty (as it did when barbarian tribes took foreign slaves) and 'progress' seems to have required the show of the beautiful as excuse for change. Aesthetics becomes politics which makes the tawdry nature of contemporary art so tragic.Tim Pendrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-38456194351795126502023-11-13T21:31:08.706+00:002023-11-13T21:31:08.706+00:00Of course, in both these superbly thoughtful and s...Of course, in both these superbly thoughtful and stirring pieces, the unspoken ghosting of Fisher's title/entitlement is that of David Sylvian's Japan, and, more specifically, their superlative 'Ghosts' - 'a man whose face looked like it had been woven by a silkworm and whose sound was so alien and crystalline, so spectrally cool and yet full of longing, it evoked the extra-terrestrial origins of humanity':<br /><br />'Just when I think I'm winning<br />When I've broken every door<br />The ghosts of my life blow wilder than before<br />Just when I thought I could not be stopped<br />When my chance came to be king<br />The ghosts of my life blew wilder than the wind<br /><br />Well I'm feeling nervous<br />Now I find myself alone<br />The simple life's no longer there<br />Once I was so sure<br />Now the doubt inside my mind<br />Comes and goes but leads nowhere . . .'<br /><br />Simon Solomonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05763042435310801885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-53582677828198743602023-11-13T21:17:22.713+00:002023-11-13T21:17:22.713+00:00'Sometimes a disappearance can be more hauntin...'Sometimes a disappearance can be more haunting than an apparition.' Mark FisherSimon Solomonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05763042435310801885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-36521000858348329852023-11-13T20:34:53.614+00:002023-11-13T20:34:53.614+00:00I don't think that the Sex Pistols changed the...I don't think that the Sex Pistols changed the future any more (or less) than Joy Division, but for me the latter indeed captured a spirit (in them and the world both) that became an unsurpassable music - both machinic and fragile; loveless and lovelorn; manic and depressive - to the pathological ontology of Fisher's philosophic muse. As for JS, his evil was only held in place - and indeed effectively championed - by what the Gnostic Baudrillard rightly calls the evil of the world. People are evil, and Savile rejoiced and throve in this. Moreover, the more powerful they are, the more evil they are. And Savile knew this too, of course.Simon Solomonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05763042435310801885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-33015196573598523092023-11-13T20:31:12.041+00:002023-11-13T20:31:12.041+00:00You’re a homo You’re a homo Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-18268537415405538892023-11-10T14:51:54.569+00:002023-11-10T14:51:54.569+00:00If she did, it probably wouldn't have been eno...If she did, it probably wouldn't have been enough. She was damned of she did, damned if she didn't. Also, his kids didn't treat her very well. A sad situation for all of them, but Peter Sellers was the main cause of it.Muirmaidenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07974008758705690487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-12334622506900297892023-11-10T14:38:26.113+00:002023-11-10T14:38:26.113+00:00The decent thing would have been for her to share ...The decent thing would have been for her to share her wealth with them. That could have righted some of the wrongs of their upbringing. Sadly, her daughter is now enjoying the money.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-55153565012740591862023-11-09T16:34:13.318+00:002023-11-09T16:34:13.318+00:00"Hardly anyone of substance" - in terms ..."Hardly anyone of substance" - in terms of what, celebrity? She was still relatively new in the business, and there were people who loved her, such as David Niven, a longtime friend of Sellers who stated that Frederick was a good wife to him. In fact, Frederick took care of Sellers and nursed him during most of his illnesses when they were together, making sure he took his medication, and that he was taking care of himself, and many people, even his children admitted that she took good care of him. If she really wanted his money she could have neglected him or worse to ensure that he would die and she would get his money and estate as soon as possible. They were married just over 3 years, and he pursued her, not the other way around. The first time he proposed to her in 1976, she rejected him. And, she did donate some of the money she inherited from him for heart disease research, as that was an aliment that Sellers struggled with in his adult life and ultimately killed him. She continued to love Sellers until the end of her life, even though he mistreated her (read the autobiography of Britt Ekland to get an idea of how he treated his wives). Frederick did not "deprive" Sellers' children of his money; that was all the doing of Sellers, who only left them a small amount (relatively speaking) each, and made it clear that he didn't want to give them any more. That was the will that was legally binding; the second will which did not go through at the time of his death was not legally binding, and that was no one's fault. At the time of his death he was estranged from his daughters, after he poured a drink on Victoria (who was 14 at the time) and when Sarah tried to defend her sister Sellers sent her a nasty letter telling her that he never wanted to see or speak to his daughters again. Supposedly he and his son Michael were starting to mend their relationship but knowing how Sellers had treated him the past (including beating him at age 6 when he accidentally scratched his father's car) it probably would have been short-lived. It's terrible, but again, it's not the fault of Lynne Frederick. He was a terrible father before she was even in the picture.<br /><br />I've never seen men referred to as gold-diggers, only women, which is misogynistic. <br /><br />Yes Peter Sellers was a celebrity and talented, but he was a bad person. Is celebrity and talent the only thing that makes someone "a person of substance"? If that's the case, that's a very frightening notion about humanity in general. Muirmaidenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07974008758705690487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-12831326313513575472023-11-09T16:12:37.308+00:002023-11-09T16:12:37.308+00:00I don't know why I commented. She was hardly a...I don't know why I commented. She was hardly anyone of substance. Gold digger can apply to men also. Marrying for money is reprehensible, whatever the gender.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-10016716335994705952023-11-09T13:36:15.049+00:002023-11-09T13:36:15.049+00:00She did not have a bad reputation before marrying ...She did not have a bad reputation before marrying Sellers, but he did and he knew what he was doing, he wanted a young woman that he could possess and control (his penchant for marrying women who were significantly younger than him was an established pattern, beginning with his second wife Britt Ekland). Frederick's career was taking off but Sellers demanded that she give it up to tend to him 24/7. He was the evil one, they way he treated people throughout his life is evidence of that, and there's no reason to think that Lynne didn't receive abusive treatment. His will not being changed in time was not her fault, and as I said Sellers was a terrible father anyway. Calling women gold-diggers is pure misogyny. The press basically hounded her until she died which is appalling and disgusting. Muirmaidenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07974008758705690487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-64154088642057976112023-11-09T13:27:48.472+00:002023-11-09T13:27:48.472+00:00Sellers did leave a sum of money to each of his ch...Sellers did leave a sum of money to each of his children, with the provision that they "stand on their own feet". It was Sellers who did that, he was not a good father in the slightest. She was obeying the instructions in his will, she did not "deprive" them of their inheritance" his will wasn't changed in time, therefore the new will was not valid. That's gow it works.Muirmaidenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07974008758705690487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589106524828796322.post-61834604414666789052023-11-09T13:15:16.875+00:002023-11-09T13:15:16.875+00:00PS he may have been older but she was an adult and...PS he may have been older but she was an adult and had free will. She married him for his money and status. She wasn't exactly a great actress. You lot supporting her are in the minority. He was no angel but she knew what she was doing. Hollywood isn't exactly known for it's morals, if they blacklisted her it was because she was a terrible person and not exactly an asset to the industry.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com