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The Cave of the Condom Stalactites
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Dreams
- Hits: 2675
I'm riding somewhere through South-East Asia in a Tuk-Tuk, speeding through the mountains. We go through villages, then speed up again, circling the mountains - there are many tunnels, or caves, rather, with roads built through them. We're getting smaller as we go, our size reducing, but everything else is getting smaller along with us, so it's hard to notice. Passing through a village we enter another cave, speeding up and driving on the left side, on the ceiling of the right side there hang all these condom stalactites, they look to be used, the driver won't stop to let me take a look, they seem large but that's only because we've been shrinking. It's like some sort of sacred alter hewn into the mountain. I think I remember an explanation from National Geographic for this, the condoms collect water.... Leaving the last of the light behind us we're plunged into complete darkness before rounding a corner, the exit is ahead and light streams through it, there's a motorcycle coming straight at us, it loses control and goes off the edge of a precipice. We pull over to look, the bike and driver are lost somewhere far below, the sunlight doesn't reach into the depths of the cave. It's an abyss. We've seen a lot of accidents on this road, he doesn't want to stop and help, there isn't time, we get back in the tuk-tuk and speed off. I don't know where we're going.
Jan Svankmajer
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 1998
Anything by Czech animator Jan Švankmajer is worth recommending.
Working in a variety of animations techniques, from stop motion to live action, with puppets, claymation, and just about anything else you can imagine in between, his films are grotesque, disturbing and haunting. Punch and Judy, for example, pictured left, go to war over a guineau pig and possibly the most violent scenes of puppet madness ensue. He's been the inspiration behind a lot of other animators as well, including Tim Burton and The Brothers Quay. I've been watching, in rationed installments, several of his short clips, allowing as it were time for them to digest. They settle into the unconcious where their images are added to the stock photography of dreams and nightmares.
A favorite film is his rendition of Faust - Slightly contemporized, but true to the spirit, a live actor Faust finds himself making an unholy bargain with puppet Mephistopholes, surreal plot developments ensue. Recommended further links and viewing as follows:
The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer - a short homage by the Brothers Quay [Online Video via Daily Motion]
Various Shorts and Clips - via You Tube
Most of his films can be rented at Bird Dog Video.
The Up Series
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 2353
"Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man"
So runs the motto of "The Up Series" - a documentary that follows the lives of 14 children at 7 year intervals.
Beginning in Britain in 1964, the films documents the lives and attitudes of the children - a mixed group from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds, at 7, 14, 21, and every 7 years thereafter. It's an ongoing project still in production. In the first film we are introduced to the characters, 3 wealthy boys who claim in turn - "I read the Financial Times" to "I read the Observer and the Financial Times" and so on, a young man from the Yorkshire Dales who resents being asked if he has a girlfriend (and in no uncertain terms tells the interviewer), and 10 others of mixed class and backgrounds. The stage is set. Each of them is observed in their own environment, is interviewed about various things, and the story continues. Especially notable is the change in attitudes not only of the subjects, but of society and the filmmaker.
Very worthwhile. You can rent it at Bird Dog Video.
Cellular Memory
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 2001
An interesting idea is that of Cellular Memory. In essence it postulates that personality, intelligence and memories are not entirely local to the brain. This is not a new theory, but of late there is some anecdotal evidence from transplant patients of memories and personalities that they claim could only have come from the donors.
This is not necessarily as crazy as it might at first seem. In ancient Greece many believed the heart to be the seat of the soul. The brain has only relatively recently been assigned the functions of memory, intelligence and personality. And while there is no doubting that it has an enormous role to play, this does not rule out the possibility that other organs have a role - however small - to play as well.
Studies of planariums (a type of primitive flatworm) have shown that if a group of planariums was taught a behaviour (such as avoiding a light source), then minced up and fed to a group of planariums that hadn't learned the behaviour, the group afterwards demonstrated the same light avoiding behaviours.
Of course, cannibals have known this all along, eating the relevant parts of their victims in the hopes of recieving the appropriate benefit - the heart for courage, brain for intelligence, etc.
No serious emperical studies have been done on this topic so far. But if you're still curious there is some anecdotal evidence that would seem to support at least the thought that perhaps more study is required....
Further reading: Daily Mail & www.scienceray.com
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