NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT

Including Friday’s Feast. Have you had a go yet?

Welcome to my daily Diary post. Have you noticed how quickly the Burma Cyclone disaster has gone from the news? Of course, this was inevitable as soon as the China earthquake struck. But what does this say about the news?
Well, seeing that people are still dying in Burma, and the Junta is still pretty uncooperative, it says that the news isn’t an accurate portrayal of what’s going on. Rather, it’s a ‘snapshot’. But of what?

Of what the news corporations wants us to see.

The sociologist, Baudrillard, noted this in his view that mass media produced what he called ‘infotainment’. News is not a reality, but a form of propaganda.
News corporations, like other companies, need to make money. Hence news today is always geared as much towards entertainment as anything else. And once we begin to see news as entertainment, the news can really be manipulated.

Most news channels are mouthpieces for Big Biz.

So they are unlikely to do anything that would hinder the march of Big Biz. For this reason, celebrity culture becomes part and parcel of the news. This is because celebrities encourage us to spend in order to emulate them.
But there’s much more to this Big Biz propaganda. Alongside the rise of celebrity news has come emotional news. Rarely do we see a tragedy nowadays without a roll call of victims, crying away, baring their soul, and we feel for them every time.

Of course we do, and why shouldn’t we? We ARE human.

But this is not ‘news’. Rather, it is a process whereby our emotions overpower our rationality. You see, the world works through reason, not emotion. For it to be any different would be anarchy.
Emotion is uncontrolled. And in the news placing emotion above reason, the result is the public descend into a kind of emotion-fest, and then, sated, moves on. Hence no tragedy, no annoyance, can any longer produce the rationality in the public to want to do anything about it in the long term.
In essence, by turning the news into a form of emotional entertainment, our thoughts on issues become fleeting, and Big Biz, and the puppet-politicians they’ve put in place, get on with controlling us unimpeded.
Well, that’s enough of a rant for today. After going deep, let’s have some entertainment here, too. Here we go with my this week’s Friday’s Feast.

© Anthony North, May 2008

FRIDAY’S FEAST

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Appetizer: What is the nearest big city to your home?

York. One of the most historic and beautiful cities in the world. Initially called Eboracum by the Romans, Constantine the Great rode from there to save the Roman Empire from collapse.
Guy Fawkes, who plotted to blow up Parliament, came from York, and Britain’s most infamous villain, Dick Turpin, was hanged there. Later, it was to become the centre of the railways revolution.
New York was, of course, named after it.

Soup: On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how well do you keep secrets?

Not telling (I suppose that gives me a 10).

Salad: Describe your hair (color, texture, length).

Light brown. Short. Beginning to thin.

Main Course: What kind of driver are you? Courteous? Aggressive? Slow?

None of the above. I stopped driving in 1984, a couple of years after I came down with chronic fatigue syndrome, as I had a habit of passing out at the wheel. And once gone, I learnt very quickly that I didn’t miss driving.
Okay, I know many need a car due to their job, where they live, etc. But it really isn’t a big deal. Even if people just drove less, think what it would do for the environment. And why do people need SUVs?
They’ll be putting a gun turret on top next.

Dessert: When was the last time you had a really bad week?

The last time I felt self-indulgent.

Okay, that’s it for this week, folks. Have a good weekend. My Diary post will be back Monday. Don’t miss it!

© Anthony North, May 2008

HOW TO FANTASIZE

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YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

HOW TO FANTASIZE

Fantasy is an unusual word. It suggests the fictitious. After all, the most crazy stories are known as fantasy – and I’m not just speaking of ‘swords and sorcery’. Many people seem to live in a fantasy world.
We’re deeply suspicious of them. They are not quite ‘all there’ – or they are habitual liars. Yet all culture is actually geared to fantasy. After all, isn’t art a representation of how an artist’s mind sees something, rather than actual reality itself?

Some would say religions are based on fantasy.

I think this may be true, but this is not a slur on the religionist. Rather, it is honest, accepting that everything in life has a touch of fantasy to it.
The sociologist, Baudrillard, understood this when he devised his concept of ‘infotainment’. Based on modern media, images are so mixed up that we cannot know what is fact and what is fiction.

In one sense, this is the ultimate postmodern nightmare.

But I think ‘reality’ has always been like this. We can understand it through semiotics, or the science of ‘signs’.
A typical sign is a cloud. Depending on its consistency, colour, etc, it convinces us of what the coming weather will be like. In other words, we are convinced of a reality before it actually becomes reality.
Unfortunately, though, signs can lie. Take a can of soup. If hungry, the picture itself can make us salivate. Yet, it could be a lie. It could be a can of worms. The ‘sign’ produced a fantasy so strong that it affected us physiologically as well as psychologically.
Beware of the word, ‘fantasy’. It cons you into thinking it doesn’t apply to you.

© Anthony North, May 2008

TELEPHONE

The telephone rings, it’s always there,
Don’t answer! If you dare;
When just on a desk, or maybe a table,
life wasn’t so bad, ‘cos we were able,
to live a life relatively free,
of constant messages from all to thee;
But come the cell phone, it’s all change,
always with us, as if a chain;
On the train, in the theatre, or even the park,
that damned ring tone, it does hark,
of contact to others all the time,
and if not ours, then other ring tones rhyme,
constantly around us, forever a hell,
giving us no time on which to dwell,
on life without that damned satanic phone,
yet if never a call to us does hone,
we wish someone would ring, ‘cos
we’re all alone

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

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FRIDAY’S FEAST – These are the questions

Appetizer: When someone smiles at you, do you smile back?

Now be careful. This is a dangerous question. There is an automatic suspicion that people who smile at strangers are somehow – well, you know. And even if they’re not, what motive do they have?
Do they want something? What type of smile is it? Have they noticed something about your dress? Have you forgotten to zip up your trousers? Has a bird pooped on your shoulder?
So many possibilities. But yes, usually when someone smiles at me, I smile back. And they wonder, am I all there? Has a bird …

Soup: Describe the flooring in your home. Do you have carpet, hardwood, vinyl, a mix?

Carpets mainly. Which reminds me, we need new. This meme is costing me!

Salad: Write a sentence with only 5 words, but all of the words have to start with the first letter of your first name.

All appliances are always available. (Hey, Zelda, you’ve got no chance!)

Main Course: Do you know anyone whose life has been touched by adoption?

This seems a simple yes/no answer, but it isn’t. If we do know someone, then the answer is yes. But if we don’t, can we answer no? I don’t think we can. And I think this because we cannot be sure.
Maybe we do, but the subject has never come up. Maybe we do, but they don’t know it themselves. Maybe we do, but they hide the fact.
We often adopt an attitude that we know the world, and our friends within it. But a question such as this should make us think. Maybe we should adopt a different attitude to what we think we know, and what we don’t.

Dessert: Name 2 blue things.

Well, I was going to say sea and sky. But they’re not. If we take the sky, it is actually colourless. What we see as ‘blue’ is the effect of light upon the sky. Infact, when you think about it, what is blue?
As a colour it’s no more than a frequency of light. Hence, it doesn’t really exist at all. Infact, many things we attribute blue to are not colours either. Think ‘cold’ or ‘sadness’.
So blue may not be a colour, but an attitude. So can I name two things that are REALLY blue? I can definitely name one.
Movies.

© Anthony North, May 2008

A FANTASTIC DREAM

Dreams are crazy, all full of fantasy,
yet they’re symbols of real life, as you’ll see;
My dream last night was just such a one,
there, in my mind, and as quickly gone;
A plastic bottle from which to drink,
a symbol of mind, full of things to think;
A hockey puck made a quick appearance,
reminders of sport, and my adherence;
wrapped in a dirty handkerchief? This I knew,
recalling that I’d recently had flu;
A crumpled note left me puzzled for a while,
but it was my last poem, not in my style;
The unhinged door was easiest to explain,
’twas my life, all open, ‘cos I’m not vain;
So dreams may be full of much fantasy,
but it’s still related to my life, you see;
A dream can be explained; is not full of malice,
You just fall down the rabbit hole
and meet Alice

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

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TO BE FAITHFUL - Fiction

I never really understood what faithful meant until I wasn’t. All those years of marriage, and never once did I think of being unfaithful. We were as one, and that was that. Until the loneliness crept in – a deep, melancholy loneliness ….
I put up with it for a couple of years, but I suppose the time comes when you can take it no more – when you just need something else in your life.
I met her at one of the functions I have to attend as part of my job. I wouldn’t say I ‘went’ to them, as such. More I just ‘existed’ in them, as if I wasn’t really a part of it, enjoying myself, or anything like that.
Life becomes this way, with such loneliness. But then I saw her, and something just clicked between us, as if it was meant to be.
We dated.

Good grief! We dated. As if I was a teenager!

The meals were enjoyable. And it was inevitable that one thing would lead to another, and eventually I found myself in her home, kissing, making love, discovering a life without loneliness once more.
It was during this first love making that I suddenly looked up to see my wife stood by us.
I jumped, shocked! And as my lover turned to look at her, the full reality of what I’d done struck home.
My wife seemed incensed. It was almost in slow motion as she bent down, her hands encompassing my lover’s neck, and squeezing the life out of her …
I find it hard to recall the event, and even harder to explain it. Indeed, that’s why I’m here, in prison, facing a life sentence for murder.
Well, it was either that or the psychiatric hospital. You see, my wife died two years ago.

© Anthony North, May 2008

TT #10 - HOW TO BE GROSS

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YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my Thursday Thirteen #10. Today I’ve decided to go with the suggested theme of ‘gross’. Now, that’s a word that can have many connotations, so I hope I offer a little fun, and some things to think about.
I think the idea of a theme is a good addition to Thursday Thirteen – not that I’ll always use it. But sometimes it just fires the imagination in the right way. But certainly it works best when it’s just a word, like this week – I mean, gross.

COUNTDOWN

13. Picking your nose, flatulence, scratching bits you shouldn’t be able to reach. There are so many possibilities here. But get the above over with, please, and then concentrate.

12. If you do so, then you are engrossed. This can be a good way to be. This means you are fully occupied, and I’ve been a success as a writer/blogger. So come on, don’t fail me!

11. You can become too engrossed – not here, you understand – and if you do, you become obsessed, and obsessions can take over your life. This is bad. It leads to fanaticism, and in my book, all fanatics are wrong. They take ideas with a touch of commonsense, and make them ridiculous – and often dangerous.
I have a mantra which says: ‘I’m fanatical about moderation.’ Yes, I know, it’s a contradiction, but the subject engrosses me.

10. A Gross is, of course, a dozen dozen. Yet, this is Thursday THIRTEEN, and thirteen is a Baker’s Dozen. This is supposed to come from Medieval English bakers who often gave one extra. Generous people, the English. I’m one. Except Yorkshiremen. They’re said to be stingy. Oh dear! I’m one of those, too.
Better, though, not to have a Baker’s Dozen dozen. That would be a gross gross.

9. Gross can mean overfed. This is often a touchy subject. Yes, I know some people do it for comfort, others because of genetic disposition. But I’m not talking about you. I’ll concentrate on the greedy. And I won’t dwell on it.
But often, being overfed comes from indulgence. To indulge yourself you have to have a certain amount of wealth. This leads to excess in all things, many of them harmful. Have you ever noticed how increased wealth leads to increased masochism? Aren’t we happy with wealth?

8. Gross can mean coarse. This is language or actions that people can find vulgar. This seems to be growing, today. It is particularly prevalent amongst celebrities. Why do they do it?
Well, we live in a media age, where image is all-important. But what happens when ‘image’ becomes a science, and all celebrities jump on the bandwagon? Easy. They make their image more and more extreme – and more and more coarse.
Which tells us what ‘coarse’ is. Attention seeking.

7. Gross can mean indecent. This often has a sexual connotation. And it is increasingly obvious that sex is on the rise today. Sex is everywhere, indecency all around us. Now, I’m not a killjoy. I like sex. But it has a place.
Sex is best behind closed doors. Sexy is clothing and action that ‘suggests’ what’s beneath, letting the imagination reign free. Full frontals take that away, and reduce sex to an animal state. And not only this, it makes it ‘available’ on demand.
Sex has become a commodity. Stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap!

6. Gross is what you have before overheads. This can be a metaphor for ‘you’. You are, as a person, your full self. This is the ‘gross’ of you. But life can be a bitch, and constantly it takes bits away.
What is left is the ‘net’ of you, depleted - a shadow of your former self. Yet maybe we should think of our life’s path as an account in itself. And in doing so, we can maybe work out how to balance the books.
We can do this because life’s experience not only depletes you, but teaches you important lessons about life. Hence, we can learn from these experiences, refreshing the account with growing wisdom, and balancing the books.

5. Gross can mean gross profit. Nothing explains the modern world more than this. Modern super capitalism is all about profit. I’m not anti-capitalist by any means, but remember what I said, above, about obsessions? Well super capitalism is an obsession.
When you have a society run by tycoons who’ve forgotten the importance of ‘service’, and search out profit alone, you end up with a cold, calculating society that simply does not know itself, other than its choice to buy. This is perhaps the most repugnant use of the word ‘gross’ we can have.

4. This post may be getting a bit gross in itself. Yet I’ll leave it up to you to decide what I mean by ‘gross’ here. For the last three in this week’s post I thought I’d be a little different. Throughout my blog you’ll find lots of poetry and flash fiction. So I thought I’d end with a bit of – you’ve guessed it – poetry and flash fiction.

© Anthony North, May 2008

ENGROSSED

What is this beauty I behold?
Within my mind it does enfold,
its grace and elegance for me to see,
as if an answer to a plea;
Such posture, grace, and charm are you,
your peers are so, so very few,
a delight, an absolutely perfect scene,
sometimes I think it even obscene,
as every morning,
in the mirror
I preen

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

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WITNESS TO A GROSS EVENT - Fiction

Oh, how I wish I’d never taken the short cut home that night. If only I’d stayed with the road – not gone down the path in the dark. But wishes are no use after the event.
How do I describe what I saw? How CAN words be enough?
She was dead, that was plain to see. And how she must have suffered, as the monster attacked her, and then did that …
I don’t remember contacting the police, but they eventually arrived to find me almost comatose by the body. Of course, I was no good as a witness – I’d not really seen anything. At least, not then.

Later, it was a different matter.

How do you sleep once you’ve seen images like that? How can you stop the nightmares?
Many a night I woke up in a cold sweat, screaming, reliving how it must have been for her. And even when awake the images would not disappear.
I suppose, eventually, you get used to them, and they become part of you. But it was a changed me, that was for sure; no longer shrouded by innocence, but in a way, gross, as those images were gross.
They say such an experience affects you for life, and I think that is true, slowly turning your mind, your very being, until the night I deviated from the road. Walked down a path. Waited.
I can stop myself.
I CAN!!

© Anthony North, May 2008

TAKE AWAY TAKE OVER

The slugs they came, crawling along,
six foot tall and twenty feet long,
run, run, run, try to escape,
from their manic, gross, gross gape,
chomp, chomp, chomp, they eat all in sight,
giving us all a damned big fright;
This nightmare ain’t so far in the future,
born from us, and our modern culture,
they say you become just what you eat,
and you ate them,
didn’t you?
Your hamburger treat

(c) Anthony North, May 2008

OUTRAGEOUS

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YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

OUTRAGEOUS

When I think back to how it was, I can’t believe it happened to me. There I was, a nobody, living a typical life of a teenager. Eighteen years old, a girlfriend, a job – of sorts – but mainly boredom. And then I auditioned for the TV talent show.
I knew I had a good voice. I’d even been told I had ‘presence’. And well, we know how it went from there.
I won! Millions voted for me, and suddenly I was the star.
Oh man, how life changed. It was incredible. The girls, the adulation, the crowds screaming like that!
It’s hard to explain how it is to BE somebody, to have people know your name, to have people aspire to be like you.

The money poured in, of course.

It was hard work, but I deserved that money. And okay, some people think I became rather outrageous, and I suppose I did – a larger than life character, bedding all those girls, the booze, the drugs, the statements on life, the universe and everything …
Oh, what the hell – I enjoyed it! It was great! I was the luckiest man on Earth!
Yeah, right!
Well, mom, if only I’d been allowed to live as me, rather than that soulless image that was created for me, I wouldn’t be writing this suicide note ….

© Anthony North, April 2008

MONSTROUS

Every time I see him, my heart begins to sink,
he pushes me always, right to the brink;
He’s uglier than a troll, that’s very clear,
a monster through and through, that we all should fear;
It isn’t just the surface that turns people away,
he loves to find the vulnerable, on which to prey;
A bully, a villain, a cad, upon anyone he does deprave,
so now it’s time to act, against this nave;
Enough of this vile person, I feel only dismay,
action must be taken, to win the day;
So that’s why I’ve decided,
to throw the mirror away

(c) Anthony North, April 2008

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OUTRAGEOUSLY SPEAKING

I often hear people say they are quite ‘normal’. And when I do so I think: what an outrageous statement to make. After all, what is normal? Are YOU normal? If you decide yes, what do you base that ‘normality’ on?
When you walk down the street does everyone behave the same as you? When you watch television, do all the people seem to be like you? I doubt it. You see, ‘normal’ is a ridiculous word.
In a way, it is demeaning. It suggests that ‘normality’ is something to be proud of, whereas it is really an attempt to control you – to make you conform, to make you be part of the ‘machine’ of modern life.

In this respect, many people are beginning to BE ‘normal’.

They are giving in to the stereotype. Becoming nothing but cogs in the machine. This is particularly so in my native Britain, a country that used to be proud of its eccentrics.
No more. This false image of normality is taking over, with everyone becoming increasingly grey. Except, of course, for some. Some people, you see, are ridiculously outrageous. But I don’t think this has anything to do with eccentricity.

Rather, to be outrageous today is to grab the media limelight.

It is not an inborn eccentricity, but a PR lifestyle to become an icon. And guess what, if you make it, realize the fame, then you get everyone copying you.
You know what that means, don’t you? Even in being outrageous in the modern world, you create a ‘type’ that becomes ‘normal’ in itself. After all, if a number of people display identical outrageous behaviour, then they end up fairly routine.

© Anthony North, April 2008

DOES THE DEVIL HAVE A HALO?

The history of the paranormal has been plagued with the Devil and his cohorts of Demons. Offering a direct link between phenomena and culture, perhaps we need to understand just what the Devil is.
In one sense, he is the fallen angel, forever causing trouble, and in another he is a Jungian ‘archetype’ – the trickster, forever to be found in various cultural clothes throughout world mythology.

He is also the guy with whom we have a pact.

Sell your soul to the Devil and you get rewards – but don’t worry, it will come at a price, eventually. And in this sense, he is part of our psychology. Our urge to do wrong, knowing it is – well – wrong.
In a variation on the theme, the pact can lead to possession, where the Devil or one of his friends takes you over, and you are either influenced to do bad by this supernatural entity, or blatantly possessed, complete with red eyes and green vomit.

And here, too, we can attach a non-supernatural tag.

We can argue, rather than supernatural possession, the person is taken over by split-off elements of his own mind. But this continual fascination with such demonic influences is rarely discussed.
This is a problem with paranormal research. Researchers and enthusiasts often chastise the scientific community for their intransigence – they’re only interested in ‘how’, not ‘why’ – but this mentality exists in this community as well.

The Devil won’t go away.

And for a supposed supernatural ‘force’ to be continually experienced in the paranormal, it must have a reason for its existence. We can, of course, blame culture for this. After all, it is culture that maintains stories of the Devil. But we can go deeper still.
A peculiarity of our existence is the fact that we advance. This is the process of history itself, forever changing the focus of culture and society. If we didn’t do so, we would not have evolved our society in the way we have.

Why does social evolution occur?

I think the central element of change is that we are never happy with what we’ve got. Rather, any social system has in-built frustrations that give us an urge to change what we’ve got.
The things that make us frustrated are the things we label ‘bad’, or even ‘evil’. They represent existence at its worse. And in seeing such bad things around us, we can learn to act in the opposite, thus being good.

In this sense, we need to see bad around us in order to BE good.

Without this influence, there would be nothing but amorality. And in aiming to be good, we see the light that becomes the advancement of our humanity, our society, and ourselves.
In this sense, we require temptation and adversity. It is, in essence, the ‘fuel’ of our social change and advancement, working on both the individual person and society as a whole.
Thus, the Devil is outed for what he really is. He is the engine of change – an essential element of ourselves. And in this sense, he is also an influence above us – not of the supernatural, but of evolution itself.

© Anthony North, April 2008

Click MYSTERIES (top of site) for the unexplained

MASS CULTURE AND THE PARANORMAL

I’ve often said that the paranormal is usually defined by our cultural expectation. And looking back over the last 200 years or so, we can perhaps see this in action. Mass culture has placed various definitions upon us, especially through literature.
When we think of the archetypal ghost, for instance, this has more to do with Gothic literature than we believe. Prior to its arrival, most ghosts formed part of a morality tale, the encounter being what you can expect if you are not moral.

With the Gothic, the ghost changed.

It appeared as part of a personal transition in the viewer, and, interestingly, became frightening. How much did this reclassification have to do with our increasing belief in the individual?
Such a change also included a new adaptation of the vampire, best described in Dracula. And again, this was very much an individualistic interpretation, emphasizing the ability of man to be a monster.

Predictably, sightings of ghosts and vampires changed in kind.

And as the 19th century became more and more disturbing to live in, eventually leading to the Great War early in the 20th, our popular paranormality reflected this.
We know this because of the arrival of Spiritualism, the ghost changing to the spirit guide, allowing communication between medium and the dead. With so many dying, and an increasing atheism saying there was nothing upon death, this cultural change was inevitable – a cultural expression that there was more, and it was comforting.

From the mid-20th century, research became king.

This allowed the rise of the parapsychologist, moving into the laboratory to understand the paranormal. The result was an outpouring of popular books seeking explanation of the unexplained, and everyone had a telepathic experience to recount.
Alongside this, our interest in space led to the popular UFO, which, I’m convinced, is just another cultural expression of paranormality. A third factor here was the popular spread of New Age ideas, pushing the unexplained to new heights of popularity.

This all happened as the world seemed to become affluent.

People had money to spare, and could indulge their whims. One aspect of this is that the popular research book disappeared from the shelves, relegated to the enthusiast community alone.
I suspect this was for a specific reason. Business had realized the importance of a new wishy-washy spirituality to make people feel better about their excess. The guardian angel was king, always absolving you of responsibility, and in such a cultural climate, the last thing people wanted was explanation.

And so to today.

The popular conception of the paranormal is two-fold. On the one hand, lack of popular research media allowed the sceptic to confirm the paranormal as rubbish; whilst the more spiritual-based mass media see it as a guide to life, the universe and everything – two extreme positions, with nothing popular inbetween.
With signals in the economy that an economic down-turn is on the way, will this affect what we see as the paranormal? Certainly, when we appear affluent and comfortable, there is little desire to question.
But once people’s lives are turned upside down, questions become paramount. And if so, maybe our cultural expectation of the paranormal will also change. If the down-turn comes, I, for one, will be watching our popular culture closely – and seeing what new paranormal experiences are born.
© Anthony North, April 2008

Click MYSTERIES (top of site) for the unexplained

MANIC MONDAY - 1000

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YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

THOUSAND

A thousand, as a number, means nothing at all,
you need more to make it big or small;
Earn a thousand a year and it’s usually low,
yet earn it in a day and people say hello;
Take a thousand breaths and it’s life goes on,
take a thousand for sex, they think you’re having them on;
One thousand years is an eternity,
one thousand seconds is enough for tea;
So the message of this poem, I do say,
is a thousand is nothing to display,
yet should this post gets a thousand hits,
it would be bliss, ‘cos
you’ll have made my day

(c) Anthony North, April 2008

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MILLENARIANISM

The number thousand seems innocuous enough, but it has been at the root of some of the most dangerous influences mankind has suffered. A thousand years is a millennium, a symbolic time span, which developed into the concept of Millenarianism.
Best described by Prof Norman Cohn in his book, The Pursuit of the Millennium, it is the belief that a major transformation of society is about to occur. Movements formed from the belief see the existing society as corrupt.

It will be destroyed by a powerful force.

In this sense, it forms the root of the belief in Apocalypse, or Armageddon. The Book of Revelation itself is the usual blueprint in the west for what such transition will involve.
From early Christianity, to present-day Al Qaeda, the Millenarianist impulse involves violence, ranging from self-destruction, to turning that violence upon others. And it does not just include major movements.

The Millenarianist mentality lies behind many cults.

The Branch Davidians and the horror of Waco is a classic example. Even 19th century Native Americans adapted their religion in the Ghost Dance, and the active belief that their worship would result in the destruction of the white man.
In this sense, we can often see Millenarianism as an act of desperation – a plea for a better world, invoking extreme or supernatural forces because normal means have collapsed. But there are numbers and there are symbols. When they mix, watch out!

© Anthony North, April 2008

HOW TO DO DOCTOR WHO - HERO

As the new series of Doctor Who aired its first episode last night, it might be instructive to look at why it is so successful. And the simple fact is, whether consciously or unconsciously, the writers, including Russell T Davies, have rebirthed one of the earliest known psychic forms.
This all revolves around the character of Doctor Who himself. For instance, several things are peculiar about him. The first is his apparent amorality. Whilst he is always saving the world, his morals seem to be distant in terms of normal relationships.

This is particularly noticeable in his love life.

Or should I say, lack of it. Even when he got ‘close’ to Rose Tyler in a previous series, the only emotion was expressed between parallel universes, where any form of physical contact was impossible.
In this sense, the character is almost a ‘fetish’. And when we combine his amorality and distance with the actual things he does, his entire being fits into a simple storytelling device.

Doctor Who is, quite literally, a god.

Appearing human, but clearly not, he flits in and out of reality, and exists in time and space, armed with ‘magical’ weapons such as his sonic screwdriver, and traveling in his ‘magical’ chariot, or TARDIS.
However, we can even identify him more closely than this. For in myths throughout the ancient world, there is a specific god-character that is at the heart of the supernatural story.

This is the Hero.

From Hercules to Gilgamesh, from Osiris to King Arthur, from Quetzalcoatl to Beowulf, the Hero appears, completes a miraculous task, often involving vanquishing a monster, and saves, or changes, society for the better. The Dalek, it seems, is Grendel in tin foil.
Sometimes the Hero is also the Stranger, and in this form he has multiple adventures, forever remaining aloof from the society itself, thus always being the amoral, fetish-like outsider.

This symbolic form is even in the East.

Hindu Avatars such as Chrishna and Rama share similar characteristics. And this story-form is vital for understanding much of human psychology itself.
Through the work of mythologists such as Joseph Campbell, we know its absolute universality, and with Carl Jung devising his idea of a ‘collective unconscious’ populated by ‘archetypes’, the secret of the form is disclosed.

It is, in effect, a story of human aspiration.

Perhaps, even, the first story, with adaptations even stretching into the spiritual, particularly with the story of Christ, the stranger who came from God, and changed society through his heroic sacrifice.
Indeed, the story is so fundamental to our psyche that when placed in a fictional character-form, it seems to transcend its images or words, and connects deep within the inner mind, thus confirming it popularity.
But more than this, the story is timeless, as the Doctor is himself. And in this sense, it is psychic influence upon culture. And when we think of the heroes and monsters from psychical, Gothic, and other story forms, and the spin-off paranormal experiences that are then witnessed, the connection between culture and experience is confirmed.

© Anthony North, April 2008

TT #5 - HOW TO UNDERSTAND DEATH

READ MY ULTIMATE MAGAZINE POST - Something posted most days - keep visiting!
What’s on today: A post inspired by a Thursday Thirteen prompt … PLUS … Links to my recent posts. After reading main feature, why not come back when it’s quiet? This is a magazine, not just a post.
YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

HOW TO UNDERSTAND DEATH

Now let’s not be morbid. Although this post is about death, I hope it is not depressing. Rather, it is about ideas surrounding death and afterlife, some classed as paranormal, others dealing with scientific understanding.
This is my 5th outing with THursday THirteen, and I’m still enjoying it greatly. The idea of a list allows me to condense a variety of aspects of a subject into a quick, easily accessible form. And I hope it lives long, cheating death.

COUNTDOWN

13. Death is the absence of life. But what, I’d like to know, is life? Indeed, it seems to me many people ARE dead in life.

12. The first known human expression came when Neanderthal Man began burying his dead. Some of his funary arrangements survive. But was this because he mourned, or was glad? Either way, appreciation of death seems to be tied up with our emotions.

11. Death forms the central element of most religions. In the east, death is cyclical, in that we come back as another incarnation. In the west, death is a transition to another, immortal, world. Seems like an ethereal utopia to me.

10. Can we die symbolically? Most mystical traditions are based on death and rebirth. Interestingly, research has been done on deep faints, which show we can experience images of afterlife. This is akin to the near death experience.

9. Shamanic practices in tribal cultures involve fasting, dancing and other devices to bring on a hysterical deep faint, thus visiting the ‘afterlife’. Could this psychological phenomenon be the root of the idea of religion?

8. Pascal used mathematics to persuade us to believe in afterlife and God. It was a simple gamble. If it’s true, then we’re prepared. If it’s not true, then it wouldn’t matter anyway. We’re not there to experience it.

7. People are said to come back from death. One expression is the ghost. Is this true, or can variations on hallucination and hysteria answer this phenomenon? If so, then like afterlife above, our understanding of afterlife is psychology.

6. Mediums are said to communicate with the dead. Interestingly, Spiritualism rose to prominence at times of social upheaval, when a lot of people were dying needlessly. The medium can give personal comfort to the bereaved, and maybe also fulfil a social role.

5. Many try to cheat death. One way is the death defying stunt. You see, approaching death is so life enhancing! Now isn’t that really dumb? Or are we all masochistic by nature?

4. Science tries to cheat death. This is done mainly through medical knowledge. We are constantly pushing back the time of death. Will the time come when we won’t die at all, but have our ‘consciousness’ transferred to a machine? Now wouldn’t that be cheating God!

3. While we wait for this, some people decide to be frozen before death, waiting for the time when their illness can be cured. I hope people are right that there’s no soul. ‘Cos if they’re wrong, then when they’re thawed out, they may prove the zombie exists!

2. Is death the end? Interestingly, science says energy cannot be destroyed, only transformed. Does this mean that death cannot be the end of us? Well, you can guarantee that science will find a way to rubbish the idea, regardless of their ‘proof’.

1. Maybe death is a thing about the individual. Maybe it is pure arrogance to think of extinction of ourselves. Life goes on in the species. Perhaps nature, God, whatever, sees the species as continuance, and the individual a simple blink of an eye in its progression.

(c) Anthony North, April 2008

SOME OF MY RECENT POSTS

The Bounce - A short piece of Sci Fi, plus a poem and ‘what is a parallel universe’?

A Gambler’s Life - The good Prof on gambling, and a poem on Him upstairs

Out Of This Mind - An examination of the UFO and their little pilots.

How To Be Torrid - A passionate post in fiction, poetry and fact.

HOW TO BE TORRID

READ MY ULTIMATE MAGAZINE POST - Something posted most days - keep visiting!
What’s on today: A post inspired by a Writers’ Island prompt. Have you had a go yet? How to be Torrid in fiction, poetry and fact.
YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

THE SEARCHER

It was a long road that seemed to have no end. I’d searched for her for so many years. When I first saw her my thoughts were torrid indeed. She was sensual, she was eroticism personified – she was perfection.
How do you live with such passion within? How does normal life compete with such a vision, with such thoughts?

Of course, I dated other girls.

I even tried to fall in love. But none could come close to the idealized image that was now within me.
I hid the image away. I tried to cast it from my mind, but everywhere I just saw imperfection – imperfection in life, and even in my thoughts. It was as if I only lived half a life, and to deviate from my torrid quest was a sin.
In the end I realized that my only mission in life was to adore her. So once more I displayed the poster and knelt by her image. And at last I understood that true passion was in worship.

© Anthony North, March 2008

I WANT IT

I want it, I need it, I must have it now!
To my desires, I must bow;
to crave, to demand, can seem so horrid,
descending to naught but the torrid;
But times do come when you must give in,
even though it may be a sin;
To have such passion makes my heart ache,
but finally I grasp out
and snatch
that damned cream cake!

(c) Anthony North, March 2008

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PAPPA RAZZI

On getting Torrid through the ages

To be torrid is to be passionate, and the media has provided some perfect examples of what is, and is not, torrid over the years. And of course, it is usually to do with – you’ve guessed it – sex.
Today, sex is everywhere. You can hardly go outside in the west without it being displayed. Sex is easy to get – mainly because, like most things, it is seen as a consumer product. But is this passion? Is it torrid?
People who indulge in casual sex the most see it as nothing special – hardly any passion there. Indeed, language is similar to the raunchy 18th century English novel, such as Fanny Hill. Sex becomes an almost animal act.
Compare this to 19th century literature, where sex is hardly hinted at, and we find the most passionate of characters. Passion, it seems, comes from what takes effort to achieve – and perhaps most importantly, an active mind to imagine.
Passion does not come from what is visible and obtainable, but from what must be disclosed and yearned for.
Now THAT is torrid!

Copyright © Protected, March 2008

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SOME OF MY RECENT POSTS

A Novel Character - How to make a good character in a novel, plus a poem

Happy Meal - A gentle short story and Pappa Razzi on women.