Sunday 27 February 2011

comic con

pretty excited about THIS
amazing line up of comic book artists, should be amazing.

Saturday 26 February 2011

Fury and Tropic of Cancer

Tour continues and I've been reading Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. Famed both for being one of the great literary achievements of the 20th century and for the pornography trial that followed its publication in the US in 1964. I've been really enjoying the baffling mix of philosophical thinking and base sexual themes that run through the book, twisting and flipping from the high to the low with unnerving rapidity. I'd recommend it. Here are some of my favourite quotes so far...


For there is only one great adventure and that is inward toward the self, and for that, time nor space nor even deeds matter.

They were painfully clean. But inwardly they stank. Never once had they opened the door which leads to the soul; never once did they dream of taking a blind leap into the dark.

Also been reading Fury by Salman Rushdie:

This is what we are, what we civilize ourselves to disguise—the terrifying human animal in us, the exalted, transcendent, self-destructive, untrammelled lord of creation. We raise each other to the heights of joy. We tear each other limb from fucking limb.

Thursday 10 February 2011

Definitions and Yeats

I lost my voice on tour so I've been shut up at home doing a lot of reading. Found some interesting words:

ne·pen·thes  n. 1 (also ne·pen·the) POETIC/LITERARY a drug described in Homer's Odyssey as banishing grief or trouble from a person's mind.  any drug or potion bringing welcome forgetfulness. via Latin from Greek 'dispelling pain', from 'not' + penthos 'grief'.

phe·nom·e·nol·o·gy  n. [PHILOSOPHY] the science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being.  an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience.   phe·nom·e·no·log·i·cal adj. phe·nom·e·no·log·i·cal·ly adv. phe·nom·e·nol·o·gist n.

Lo·gos  n. [THEOLOGY] the Word of God, or principle of divine reason and creative order, identified in the Gospel of John with the second person of the Trinity incarnate in Jesus Christ.  (in Jungian psychology) the principle of reason and judgment, associated with the animus. Often contrasted with EROS.  Greek, 'word, reason'.

sub·li·mate  v. 1 [trans.] (esp. in psychoanalytic theory) divert or modify (an instinctual impulse) into a culturally higher or socially more acceptable activity: people who will sublimate sexuality into activities which help to build up and preserve civilization; | he sublimates his hurt and anger into humor. 2 [CHEMISTRY] [intrans.] another term for SUBLIME.  n. [CHEMISTRY] a solid deposit of a substance that has sublimed.  
sub·li·ma·tion n.  late Middle English (in the sense 'raise to a higher status'): from Latin sublimat- 'raised up', from the verb sublimare.

au·tom·a·tism  n. the performance of actions without conscious thought or intention.    [ART] the avoidance of conscious intention in producing works of art, esp. by using mechanical techniques or subconscious associations.  an action performed unconsciously or involuntarily.  mid 19th cent.: from French automatisme, from automate 'automaton', from Greek automatos 'acting of itself' (see AUTOMATON).

o·nei·ric  adj. FORMAL of or relating to dreams or dreaming.  mid 19th cent.: from Greek oneiros 'dream' + -IC. Linked entries: -IC oneiro-  comb. form relating to dreams or dreaming: oneiromancy.  from Greek oneiros 'dream'. o·nei·ro·man·cy  n. the interpretation of dreams in order to foretell the future.

on·to·gen·e·sis  n. [BIOLOGY] the development of an individual organism or anatomical or behavioral feature from the earliest stage to maturity.   on·to·ge·net·ic adj. on·to·ge·net·i·cal·ly adv.  late 19th cent.: from Greek , ont- 'being' + genesis 'birth'.

I think that last one ontogenesis is my favourite. I like that as apposed to phylogenesis which is the study of a group of species or organisms through its evolution, ontogenesis "pertains to the developmental history of an organism within its own lifetime" which makes it feel more intimate. I'm not sure if you could apply it to the study of an individual person's development but with the album being called yolk I feel like its a fitting word to be fixated on for a while. The picture at the bottom of this post is a diagram of human embryogenesis, I might try and draw one for the songs.

Automatism is also interesting because it makes me think of writing techniques like automatic writing, a technique which the poet Yeats famously used. Its the idea of "the performance of actions without conscious thought" which I find interesting. It also ties into the idea of the occult and the writer as a messenger of the spirits/gods which is a whole other fascinating topic. If you're interested in it there's a brief run down of what its about HERE have a look at Kipling's quote especially. I like the idea of a "Daemon" writing The Jungle Book.

Yeats produced a whole volume of work derived from automatic writing which he undertook with the help of his wife. There is a lot of discussion as to what was actually happening in these writing sessions and Yeats himself was always ambiguous when talking about his position on its origin- as Virginia Moore wrote "Invariably students of A Vision ask, Was it really spirit-controlled discourse? Or was it, on Mrs. Yeats’ part, either a garnering of her subconscious, or a telepathic reading of her husband’s mind, neither of which requires extranatural help? Or was it a fabrication on the part of Yeats and/or his wife? or something else?"
Read more HERE