Weird Studies

"You don't find reality only in your own backyard, you know," Stanley Kubrick once told an interviewer. "In fact, sometimes that's the last place you'll find it." Oddly, this episode of Weird Studies begins with Phil Ford hatching the idea of putting a replica of the monolith from 2001 in his backyard. As the ensuing discussion suggests, this would amount to putting reality -- or the Real, as we like to call it -- in the place where it may be least apparent. Perhaps that is what Kubrick did when he planted his monolithic film in thousands of movie theatres back in 1968. Moviegoers went in expecting a Kubrickian twist on Buck Rogers; they came out changed by the experience, much like the hominids of great veld in the "Dawn of Man" sequence that opens the film. This is what all great art does, and if you look closely, maybe 2001 can tell you something about how it does it. Because in the end, the film is the monolith, and the monolith is all art. REFERENCES Stanley Kubrick (dir.), 2001: A Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clarke, "The Sentinel" Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey (novel) Clement Greenberg, American art critic Stanley Kubrick (dir.), The Shining Sergei Eisenstein, Film Form: Essays in Film Theory Weird Studies episode 62: It's Like "The Shining," But With Nuns: On "Black Narcissus" Ligeti, Atmosphères Gerard Loughlin, Alien Sex: The Body and Desire in Cinema and Theology Jay Weidner, Kubrick's Odyssey: Secrets Hidden in the Films of Stanley Kubrick Rob Ager's analysis of 2001 (Ager was criticized for not citing Loughlin above) Eric Norton's Playboy interview with Stanley Kubrick J. F. Martel, "The Kubrick Gaze" in Daniel Pinchbeck & Ken Jordan (eds.), Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age J. F. Martel, "The Future is Immanent: Speculations on a Possible World" Henri Bergson, The Two Sources of Morality and Religion Sid Meier's Civilization V Stanley Kubrick (dir.), Dr Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Stanley Kubrick (dir.), A Clockwork Orange Dziga Vertov, Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media Martin Heidegger, "The Question Concerning Technology" Gilbert Ryle, "Improvisation" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this second part of their exploration of C. G. Jung's essay "On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry," JF and Phil try to discern the psychological and metaphysical implications of the great Swiss psychologist's theory of art. For one, this involves discussing what Jung meant by archetypes, and how these relate to the artists who bring them forth in artistic works. This in turn leads to a discussion of the emergent artwork as an "autonomous complex," that is, as a self-moving spirit that requires the artist merely as a conduit for its manifestation in human -- and cosmic -- history. REFERENCES Carl Gustav Jung, "On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry" Arthur Machen, "Hieroglyphics: A Note Upon Ecstasy" Rick Riordan, [Percy Jackson & the Olympians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Jackson%26_the_Olympians)_ series of novels Robert Altman (director), Nashville Homer, The Odyssey Jacques Offenbach, The Tales of Hoffmann E. T. A. Hoffmann, "The Sandman" David Lynch, American filmmaker (the Dionysian!) Stanley Kubrick, American filmmaker (the Apollonian!) Richard Wagner's idea of Gesamtkunstwerk William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance, and JF's analysis thereof Lisa Ruddick, "When Nothing is Cool" Weird Studies episode 5: Reading Lisa Ruddick's "When Nothing is Cool" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the first of two conversations that Phil and JF are devoting to C. G. Jung's seminal essay, "On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry," first delivered in a 1922 lecture. It was in this text that Jung most clearly distilled his thoughts on the power and function of art. In this first part, your hosts focus their energies on Jung's puralistic style, opposing it not just to Freud's monism (which Jung critiques in the paper) but also to the monism of those other two "masters of suspicion," Marx and Nietzsche. For Jung, art is not a branch of psychology, economics, philosophy, or science. It constitutes its own sphere, and non-artists who would investigate the nature of art would do well to respect the line that art has drawn in the sand. Weird Studies listenters will know this line as the boundary between the general and the specific, the common and the singular, the mundane and the mystical... REFERENCES C. G. Jung, "On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry" Joshua Gunn, Modern Occult Rhetoric: Mass Media and the Drama of Secrecy in the Twentieth Century Peter Kingsley, Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychologist Kinka Usher (director), Mystery Men Theodor Adorno, “Bach Defended Against his Devotees” Aleister Crowley, English magician C. G. Jung, The Red Book: Liber Novus Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections C. G. Jung, The Portable Jung Friedrich Nietzsche, "On the Use and Abuse of History for Life" in: Untimely Meditations Weird Studies, episode 49: Nietzsche on History Weird Studies, episode 70: Masks All the Way Down, with James Curcio Christian Kerslake, Deleuze and the Unconscious Joshua Ramey, The Hermetic Deleuze: Philosophy and Spiritual Ordeal Paul Ricoeur, French philosopher Rudolph Steiner, Austrian esotericist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For over two centuries in early modern Italy, boys were selected for their singing talent castrated before the onset of puberty. The goal was to preserve the qualities of their voice even as they grew into manhood. The procedure resulted in other physiological changes which, combined with an unnaturally high voice, made the castrati the most prodigious singers on the continent. As Martha Feldman shows in her book The Castrato, a masterpiece of cultural history, the castrated singer was such a singular figure that he invited comparisons with angels, animals, and kings, attracting adoration and ridicule in equal measures. The castrato was a true liminal being, and as JF and Phil discover in this episode of Weird Studies, an unlikely herald of the present age. REFERENCES Martha Feldman, The Castrato: Reflections on Natures and Kinds Stanley Kubrick, American filmmaker Alessandro Moreschi, the last castrato, singing "Ave Maria" Baruch Spinoza, Ethics X-Men Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" Thomas Ligotti, "Mrs Ligotti's Angel", read by horror writer Jon Padgett Weird Studies, Episode 48: Thomas Ligotti's Angel Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica Genesis P-Orridge, American musician and occultist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join JF and Phil as they discuss the mystical and cosmic implications of McLuhan's oracular vision. They explore the concept of 'the medium is the message' as a teaching tool in the Zen tradition. They delve into McLuhan's laws of media and the impact of mediums on perception and society. They also discuss the poetic potential of the modern world and the suppression of beauty, as well as exploring Marshall McLuhan's view on technologies as extensions of the human nervous system.

James Curcio is an American multidisciplinary artist and nonfiction writer whose works include the novels Join My Cult, The Party at the World's End, and the upcoming Tales from When I Had a Face. Recently, Curcio edited Masks: Bowie and Artists of Artifice, an anthology of essays by various thinkers and artists on the complex interplay of fact and fiction, self and other, in the life of the modern creator of artistic works. David Bowie's career, from the early experimentations to the great working that was his final album Blackstar, provides the book's gravitational field. In his effort to better plumb the mysteries of the aesthetic universe, Curcio penned the anthology's opening essay, "Masks All the Way Down," and it is on that piece that this conversation focuses. Join James, Phil and JF as they discuss the terrifying and liberating idea of an aesthetic cosmos as seen from the vantage point of the artist who learns that with new each work comes a new face, an amalgam of symbols and forces drawn from a depth of surfaces, a paper-thin dream that goes ever so deep... REFERENCES James Curcio (editor), [Masks: Bowie and Artists of Artifice](www.intellectbooks/masks) James Curcio's website: https://www.jamescurcio.com James Curcio's new novel, [Tales from When I Had a Face](www.TalesFromWhenIHadAFace.com) David Bowie, Blackstar Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex Poppy, American singer Anatta, the Buddhist concept of no-self Nagarjuna, Indian philosopher Yukio Mishima, Japanese writer Hunter S. Thompson, American writer Lewis A. Sass, Madness and Modernism: Insanity in the Light of Modern Art, Literature, and Thought Friedrich Nietzsche, "On the Use and Abuse of History for Life" in Untimely Meditations Ornette Coleman, Change of the Century Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu Vladimir Nabokov, Russian novelist Nicholas Roeg (director), The Man Who Fell to Earth Raphael Bob-Waksberg (creator), BoJack Horseman Richard Dyer, Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society Euripides, The BacchaeSpecial Guest: James Curcio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is there to say about the COVID-19 virus that hasn't already been said, over and over again, all around the world, in quaratined houses and on TV and social media and countless Zoom chats ... what can we say that you haven't heard? Well, probably nothing. But we are now at the point where we realize that the real importance of the things we say is not their content, but the mere fact of saying them. As Marshall McLuhan said, the medium is the message, and at a time when we have been driven into separate solitudes, we are discovering that the real meaning of our utterances might be something like "hello, are you there?" and "I am here, talking to you." In that spirit, Phil and JF have a conversation about William James's essay "On Some Mental Effects of the Earthquake," partly to discuss the ways that it's relevant to our present circumstances and the ways it's not, but mostly to make human connections, both with each other and with Weird Studies listeners. As JF says, stay close, but keep your distance. REFERENCES William James, "On Some Mental Effects of the Earthquake" William James, Writings 1902-1910 Noel Black (director), "To See the Invisible Man", 2nd segment of episode 16 of The Twilight Zone (1985-86) Weird Studies no. 29, “On Lovecraft” Weird Studies no. 64, “Dreams and Shadows: On Ursula Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea” Weird Studies no. 67, “Goblins, Goat-Gods and Gates: On Hellier” Martin Heidegger, “‘Only a God Can Save Us’: The Spiegel Interview" Bruno Latour, "An Inquiry Into Modes of Existence: An Anthropology of the Moderns" H.P. Lovecraft, “Nyarlathotep” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The podcast discusses William James' essay on the mental effects of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, highlighting the differences between earthquakes and pandemics. It explores perceptions and interpretations of earthquakes, includes a firsthand account of an earthquake experience, and discusses the resilience and resourcefulness of the affected population.

Exploring the nature of dreams, rejecting traditional interpretations. Dream as a reflection of the pandemic and a deeper archetype. The metaphorical shadow and finding positivity. The significance of dream interpretation and the underworld. Making a soul as a creative act. The relationship between dream self and daylight ego. The connection between drugs and dreams. Surrealism's exploration of the supernatural and occult.

On the night before this episode of Weird Studies was released, a bunch of folks on the Internet performed a collective magickal working. Prompted by the paranormal investigator Greg Newkirk, they watched the final episode of the documentary series Hellier at the same time -- 10:48 PM EST -- in order to see what would happen. Listeners who are familiar with this series, of which Newkirk is both a protagonist and a producer, will recall that the last episode features an elaborate attempt at gate opening involving no less than Pan, the Ancient Greek god of nature. If we weren't so cautious (and humble) in our imaginings, we at Weird Studies might consider the possibility that this episode is a retrocausal effect of that operation. In it, we discuss the show that took the weirdosphere by storm last year, touching on topics such as subterranean humanoids, the existence of "Ascended Masters," Aleister Crowley's secret cipher, the Great God Pan, and the potential dangers of opening gates to other worlds ... or of leaving them closed. REFERENCES Karl Pfeiffer (director), Hellier Philip K. Dick, Valis Weird Studies episode 12 - The Dark Eye: On the Films of Rodney Ascher John Benson Brooks, American musician Phil Ford, Dig: Sound and Music in Hip Culture Thelema Allen H. Greenfield, The Complete Secret Cipher of the Ufonauts Secret cipher online tool Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law Gematria John Keel, The Mothman Prophecies Eric Wargo, Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocausation, and the Unconscious Grant Morrison, The Invisibles Genesis P. Orridge, American artist Alex Reed, Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music Helena Blavatsky, Russian theosophist Annie Besant, British theosophist Peter J. Carroll, British occultist Kenneth Grant, British occultist C. G. Jung, The Red Book Alan Chapman and Duncan Barford, "Chinese Whispers: The Origin of LAM" in The Blood of the Saints Richard Sharpe Shaver, American writer and contactee James Hillman, Pan and the Nightmare Occultist Paul Weston's blog post on Hellier John Keel, The Mothman Prophecies Peter Kingsley, Catafalque Eric Voegeln, The New Science of Politics: An Introduction and Science, Politics, and Gnosticism Auguste Comte, French philosopher Colin Wilson, The Occult: A History Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices