In astrology, the negative aspect of the planet Saturn (named after the Roman god of agriculture) is said to be one of destruction, darkness and chaos.
Some of the names of Saturn's numerous moons reflect the dark side of this planet.
Prometheus was discovered in 1980.
This moon is named after the man who stole sacred fire from the gods and gave it to humankind. Zeus punished him by chaining him in Caucasus where an eagle (or vulture) would eat his liver. Each day his liver would be renewed so the punishment continued until the bird was killed.
Pandora was discovered in 1980.
This moon is named after the lady with the box.
In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on Earth sent by Jupiter (Zeus) as a punishment for Prometheus' theft of fire. She brought with her a box which contained illnesses, death and strife. When she opened the box out of curiosity, she unleashed a plague of disasters onto humanity.
Atlas was also discovered in 1980.
This moon is named after the Titan who is forced by Zeus (yes, him again) to bear the sky/heavens on his shoulders after he attempted to storm the heavens.
Janus was discovered in 1966.
Janus is named after the two-faced god of gates and doors (similar to Capricornus) . Janus is also the god of beginnings and endings. In Roman mythology, Janus sheltered Saturn when he was fleeing from Jupiter.
Mimas was discovered in 1789 and is named after one of the Titans. It is also known as Saturn I. Its nickname is "The Death Star" because of its resemblance to the Death Star in Star Wars movies.
Related Posts
Pan in Astrology
Pandora's Box of Tricks
Saturn's Children
The Curse of the Divided Self - Part III
Friday, 29 February 2008
Saturn: Moons and Myths
Thursday, 28 February 2008
Pan in Astrology
The god Pan corresponds to the Planet Saturn and the star sign Capricorn.
Pan is the name of one of the moons of the planet Saturn. It was discovered in 1990 and it is known as a shepherd moon. Pan is the closest moon to Saturn. It is also called Saturn XVIII.
Capricornus (Latin for "horned male goat"), is one of the constellations of the Zodiac. The stars of this constellation can be connected to form an image with the head of a goat and the tail of a fish. It is often called the Sea Goat.
In Greek mythology, Capricornus was viewed as the "Gateway of the gods" and it was believed that human souls passed through Capricornus after death.
On the positive side, like the god Pan, Capricorn represents nature and the abundance of the Earth.
On the shadow side, Capricorn also represents governments, elitist hierarchical structures and excessive control.
The sign Capricorn is ruled by the Planet Saturn viewed by many as a force of destruction and chaos.
Related Posts
The god Pan
Saturn: Moons and Myths
Saturn's Children
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
John Dee and the Angels
In the book, Living with Angels, author Theolyn Cortens says that Christopher Marlowe based his play The Tragical History of Dr Faustus on the misadventures of Dr John Dee, the court astrologer of Elizabeth I.
Like Christopher Marlowe, Dr Dee was also said to be a Government spy. According to this site, John Dee was the original 007 and that was his coded signature for his secret correspondence with the Queen. The double zero ‘00’ stood for two eyes meaning that he was the secret eyes of Elizabeth I with Lucky number 7 guarding the two eyes.
John Dee was a brilliant scholar who was obsessed with the paranormal. He was not clairvoyant but he recruited a medium called Edward Kelley to assist him with his work.
Edward Kelley was able to contact what he referred to as ‘angels’. They communicated with him in an unknown language. Linguistic experts have verified that this language is authentic with its own grammar, number and alphabet system. They believe it was unlikely that Kelley was able to devise this language by himself.
In his lecture on The Origins of Evil, astro-theologian, Michael Tsarion referred to these entities as Macrobes.
In return for giving away alchemical secrets, these entities made many requests. One described as a child spirit (in some accounts referred to as the Archangel Uriel and in other accounts a spirit called Madimi) instructed that Kelley and Dee should share all things - including their wives.
Dee and Kelley complied with the wife-swapping demand “with much anguish”. And things spiralled downhill for Dee from then on.
Like Marlowe’s Faust, Dee paid a heavy price for attempting to use paranormal forces for material gain and ended up dying in poverty and social disgrace.
Related Posts
The Strange Deaths of Christopher Marlowe
The Many Faces of Faust
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
February Overview
As the month draws to a close, I thought I would take another look at what I've covered so far particularly to hunt out any unintentional connections between different blog posts.
Peter Pan, Jackson and the Phantom
The Peter Pan theme connects with the concept of Shadow Selves as discussed in Beauty and the Beast and Golden Shadows as for a time, in the story, Peter Pan is literally separated from his shadow.
Peter Pan also became connected with my Devil theme through the god Pan.
Marilyn Monroe was weirdly compared to the Phantom of the Opera in my last summary. But there is also a bit of a link between the Michael Jackson/Peter Pan topic and the Phantom of the Opera. People compare him to the Phantom quite a lot.
As this blogger writes: "There are legends. There are icons. And then there is Michael Jackson. Mention his name today and you probably think of pop music’s Phantom of the Opera – upturned rodent nose, albino skin, dangling his child from a hotel balcony."
I remember Michael Crawford talking in an interview about how he met Jackson after performing in The Phantom of the Opera. Apparently Jackson was mesmerised by Crawford's performance and kept saying,"Your hands...I loved your hands..." (?!?)
Unintentional Links
Hitchcock has been creeping into my posts a bit too through my brief Psycho-Analysis and my mention of The Birds in the End of the World and Six Degrees of Peter Pan.
Jude Law popped up as a "ghost whisperer" in Haunted Hotels then as a serial killer in The Curse of the Divided Self and then as the victim of a serial killer of sorts in The Curse of the Divided Self - Part II.
As for where the blog is going over the next few weeks, pretty much in the same vein, I think. Plus I feel a bit of an Elizabethan theme coming on...("William Shakespeare didn't exist")
It's probably better if I don't know what's coming.
Saturday, 23 February 2008
The Strange Deaths of Christopher Marlowe
The Elizabethan playwright, Christopher Marlowe, is nowadays more famous for the manner in which he died. But there are a fair few versions of his death.
Version One: He was stabbed to death by a love rival in a drunken fight at a pub.
Version Two: He was stabbed to death by a jealous husband in a street brawl.
Version Three: Christopher Marlowe was gay and his death was the result of a homophobic attack.
Version Four: His death was a punishment for heresy. He was said to have authored documents which denied the divinity of Jesus Christ.
Version Five: An argument over a bill during a game of backgammon at a house in Deptford turned into a fight. Marlowe attacked one of the men who accidentally and mortally stabbed him above the right eye in self-defence. The man was pardoned.
Version Six: Marlowe was a government spy. The three men he’d spent his last day with (supposedly playing backgammon) were also spies. They assassinated him.
Version Seven: He wasn’t murdered at all. His death was faked after which he wrote several plays under the name “William Shakespeare”.
Related Posts
The Many Faces of Faust
John Dee and the Angels
Thursday, 21 February 2008
The Curse of the Divided Self - Part III
male and female he created them.
The removal of one of Adam's ribs could be interpreted as a symbol of the separation of the androgynous human into two genders rather than the Creation of Woman.In Greek mythology, Zeus, the ruler of the gods, created androgynous human beings. Because their masculine and feminine energies were in perfect balance, these humans were powerful and godlike.
When these humans plotted to overthrow the gods in Mount Olympus, Zeus split each being into half - not into two separate beings but two halves (male and female) of the same being.
In their new state, these half-humans lacked the vitality and power of their original whole selves.
So (in mythological terms) the quest for romantic love is really a quest to find the other half of one's self and restore the original harmonious balance of innate energy and power. Hence the "you complete me" nonsense.
Related Posts
Pandora's Box of Tricks
The Curse of the Divided Self - Part I
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Just the Three of Us: Charles, Camilla and Di
A furtive glance at Prince Charles' bizarre triangle of lurve:
The TV movie, Whatever Love Means, implied that it was Camilla (the “crocodile wife” as Mohamed Al Fayed affectionately calls her) who selected Diana as the ideal wife for Prince Charles believing that the young girl would be dutiful, silent and turn a blind eye to their clandestine relationship. (“We’ve got to find you a wife, Charles!”)
It’s also been said that during their marriage, Camilla would give Diana advice about how to handle Prince Charles.
I’ve no idea whether Camilla did choose Diana for Prince Charles in reality or whether this twist was invented solely for dramatic purposes for the film.
But it does give an extra significance to Diana’s famous: “There were three of us in that marriage."
In his equally famous speech at Princess Diana’s funeral, her brother, (the other Charles) said, "It is a point to remember that of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this - a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age."
Here's another irony. In Roman mythology, Camilla, the Virgin Queen of the Volscians in ancient Italy, was a favourite of the Goddess Diana.
The goddess Diana says of Camilla, “There is not a girl in Italy that I love more, and have loved ever since she was a child.” (The Aeneid for Boys and Girls)
During her life, Camilla (the Virgin Warrior, not the “crocodile wife”) rejected the idea of marriage in favour of remaining faithful to the goddess Diana.
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
Diana Inquest: Mohamed Al-Fayed
Yesterday Mohamed Al Fayed accused the "Establishment" of being involved in the alleged murder of Diana, Princess of Wales and its subsequent cover-up.
Al-Fayed's all-inclusive group of conspirators included Prince Philip ("the Nazi"), Prince Charles, Tony Blair, Diana's sister, Diana's brother-in-law, the secret services, the bodyguards, French toxicologists and many more.
He referred to Camilla Parker-Bowles as the "crocodile wife" and the Royals as the Dracula family.
The only person Al-Fayed didn't name in the plot to murder Princess Diana was himself.
He should read The Biggest Secret
In related news, Paul Burrell was apparently caught on camera admitting that he had lied at the Inquest. ("I was very naughty.")
Related Links
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5inGp3donwJrvN5cFo4eRLz69cyrg
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7250241.stm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3390450.ece
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/royals/article813688.ece
The Collective Unconscious
The Jungian analyst, June Singer, wrote:
"The wonder of the collective unconscious is that it is all there, all the legend and the history of the human race, with its unexorcised demons and gentle saints, its mysteries and its wisdom, all with each one of us - a microcosm within the macrocosm. The exploration of this world is more challenging than the exploration of outer space."
Monday, 18 February 2008
Peter Pan of Pop
Since I’ve recently been looking at all things Peter Pan, I thought I’d take a glance at the Peter Pan of Pop. Not Cliff Richard, the other one.
This month, Michael Jackson has celebrated the 25 years since his record-breaking album Thriller was released, by releasing it again.
As his star wanes, Jackson continues to be something of an enigma.
Like his namesake, Michael Llewellyn Davies, Jackson is (was?) extremely creative, something of a poet and had a strong affinity with the character Peter Pan.
Jackson’s mantra in his later interviews had been, “I am Peter Pan.”
His other mantra “I never had a childhood” is somewhat paradoxical. Rather than a boy who wouldn’t grow up, it implies a person that has never been a child in the first place.
We have the photographs and the video footage to prove that Jackson was indeed once a child and wasn’t beamed down onto the Planet Earth as a fully formed adult.
But obviously he is referring to the fact that he spent his formative years working long hours in (some unsuitable) places whilst growing up in the public eye. He may also be alluding to the idea that he never had a childhood because his innocence was tampered with.
Whatever the case may be, Jackson grew up a very long time ago.
Those who know him well have said that in private, he has a deeper more masculine voice. The gentle softly-spoken childlike voice is used when addressing the public, the media, the worshipping fans and their parents.
The Peter Pan persona is like a figurative version of the literal mask he sometimes wears when he is out in public.
Related Posts
The Lost Boys
The god Pan
Six Degrees of Peter Pan
Golden Shadows
Friday, 15 February 2008
The god Pan
Peter Pan is named after the god Pan in Greek mythology.
Pan was the god of desire, magic, creativity, sexuality, pan-ic and nightmares. He was said to haunt caves, mountains and streams and watch over shepherds. He also seduced young men with his pipes (pan-pipes, that is).
Pan’s father was the god Hermes (Thoth) and his mother was a wood nymph.
The word ‘Pan’ means ‘all’ or ‘everything’. He is also believed to be an aspect of the Green Man.
Pan had horns, hairy lower limbs and the feet of a goat.
The images of the god Pan later became the model for visual image for the Christian concept of the devil.
Related Posts
Portraits of the Beast
Pan in Astrology
The Lost Boys
Thursday, 14 February 2008
Don't They Know It's the End of the World
Last night, there was a documentary on TV about a ten day End of the World Bus Tour.
A group of tourists convinced that the End is Nigh embarked on a tour of Israel, got baptised near the River Jordan and - the highlight for many - paid a visit to the Valley of Armageddon.
Based on a very literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation, they are convinced within the next five to ten years, Jesus/God is going to appear in the sky in Israel.
Apparently Man and Satan will rise up against God in a Phillip Pullman-esque fashion and embark in a futile war which God will inevitably win.
Before the apocalpyse takes place, all the good Christians will vanish in the Rapture while the rest of the world is subjected to the wrath of God.
One tourist likened the Rapture to the scene at the end of The Matrix where Neo rises up into the sky. "I could be wrong," he said. "I could be right."
They also had a disturbing attitude towards those they considered to be God's enemies - those they believe want to annihilate Israel.
When they weren't prophesising the End of the World with a disturbing relish, the tourists seemed to be very pleasant, amicable, lucid and of sound mind which makes it even weirder.
The film-maker, David Clews, was a sceptic and told them that their vision of God seemed divisive and egotistical.
"I guess it does seem egotistical," said one lady. "But he's God so I guess he can be."
These End of the World visions remind me a bit of that scene in the film The Birds where the townspeople are all putting forward theories to explain why the birds are attacking them.
Among them there is the scientific sceptic bird expert who doesn't believe that birds would attack anybody despite evidence to the contrary. Then there is the drunk in the corner joyfully declaring that it's the end of the world and quoting Bible passages.
There is also the hysterical mother who blames the blonde stranger who she thinks started it all. ("Where are you from? Who sent you? You're evil!" etc. etc.)
It's not just a portion of Christians that the believe the end of the world is nigh for humanity. Many believe that the forces of Nature will prove to be our undoing. Others believe that the end will be caused by an elite race of aliens/reptiles/secret societies who will enslave and destroy humanity.
Many seem to think we deserve the End either because they believe that we are evil or they think we are too dumb/sheeplike/easily manipulated to see what is really going on.
Although diverse groups of people are interpreting their vision of the End of the World from very different perspectives, they are all basically singing from the same hymn sheet united in a Chorus of Doooooooooommmmm.
Tonight there is a Cutting Edge documentary on Channel 4 called Baby Bible Bashers about pint-sized 8 year old preachers. You couldn't dream it up.
Related Post
Portraits of the Beast
Monday, 11 February 2008
Golden Shadows
Just as we tend to repress the dark side of our nature and project it onto scapegoats, we also tend to repress our divine attributes and project them onto...scapegoats. These are usually the individuals we see swishing down a red carpet in a designer frock or suit.
We call them stars, idols, and goddesses. We call ourselves fans, short for fanatics.
We grant them royal titles such as the King of this and the Queen of that and place them up on a pedestal.
Sometimes they are bemused by it all. Sometimes they believe all the hype.
Although we're much less worshipful than previous generations, we're still somewhat baffled and unforgiving, if they topple off their pedestal and turn out to be only human.
We talk of stars imploding and call them fallen idols or fallen angels. We get to participate and comment on their downfall on interactive forums like a chorus in a Greek tragedy.
If we lose them prematurely, we might forget about them and replace them with a new icon. Or we might bestow them with immortality and elevate or restore them to cult or godlike status. And then the whole cycle begins again.
Related Posts
The Curse of the Divided Self - Part IIMirror Mirror
Sunday, 10 February 2008
The Lost Boys
J. M. Barrie was inspired to create the Peter Pan story after befriending the five children of the Llewellyn Davies family: George, Michael, Jack, Peter and Nicholas.
When their parents died, J.M. Barrie became their guardian.
George died fighting in the First World War in 1915.
Michael, who was said to be Barrie’s favourite, drowned when he was 20 with his friend Rupert Buxton. As Michael could not swim, there was speculation that the two young men had formed a suicide pact.
While researching his family history, Peter, who had become a successful publisher, burnt many documents, including the 2000 letters between Barrie and Michael.
When he was 63, Peter threw himself under a train at Sloane Square station.
J. M. Barrie was reportedly not fond of explanation or analysis. To say he did not want to be written about or analysed, is to put it mildly: “May God blast anyone who writes a biography about me.”
I don't like to end on that note. But I can't think of anything else to write, so I shall.
Related Post
Six Degrees of Peter Pan
The god Pan
Saturday, 9 February 2008
The Multiverse in Comics
The DC Multiverse is a set of fictional parallel universes which allow the DC Comics writers to create alternative histories and stories for their characters without disrupting the flow of the official narrative of these characters.
Alternative stories can also be manipulated into becoming the official historical viewpoint. But that scenario usually happens in real life rather than in comics.
Related Link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse_(DC_Comics)
Friday, 8 February 2008
The Curse of the Divided Self - Part II
An extreme example of the Shadow Self at work is seen in the movie Psycho.
"A Boy's Best Friend is His Mother"
Norman Bates, the ultimate Mummy’s Boy with a severe case of the Oedipals (“A son is a poor substitute for a lo
ver,” says he) refuses to acknowledge his desires. Indeed he can’t even bring himself to say the word ‘bathroom’ despite being a Peeping Tom.On the surface, Norman seems like a nice quiet self-effacing chap. But whenever he experiences even a flicker of forbidden feeling, his Shadow Self, in the form of his mother rears her head in a display of “pathological jealousy”.
When Norman eventually becomes his Shadow Self, he loses his own identity. The psychiatrist in the movie explains, “When the mind houses two personalities, there is always a battle. For Norman, the battle is over.”
The Two Trilbys
The psychiatrist’s explanation of Norman Bates’ two personalities is similar to the scene in the novel Trilby when Gecko explains what happened to Trilby under her shadow Svengali.“There was the Trilby you knew...But all at once—pr-r-r-out! presto!...with one wave of his hand over her—with one look of his eye—with a word—Svengali could turn her into the other Trilby, his Trilby, and make her do whatever he liked...you might have run a red-hot needle into her and she would not have felt it...”
The Demons in the Basement
After the death of his mother, Norman gradually adopts her identity.In the movie, The Talented Mr Ripley, a similar situation occurs when Ripley adopts the identity of the dead object of his desire. The object of his desire is his Golden Shadow, his idea of perfection, the person that he would really like to be.
Tom Ripley is faced with a future of always having to kill the people he loves so that they never get to see the true face behind his mask.
He says, “Don’t you just take the past and lock it in the basement? That’s what I do. You don’t want anyone to see all the demons, how ugly it all is.”
Tom Ripley’s “private trap” (to quote Bates again) is this basement of the past.
Ripley says, “I’m always gonna be stuck in the basement, aren’t I? I always thought it would be better to be a Fake Somebody than a real nobody.”
Related Posts
The Curse of the Divided Self – Part IBeauty and the Beast
Thursday, 7 February 2008
Multiverse
A multiverse is a group of universes, a collection of parallel universes that are interconnected.
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
The Story So Far
I thought I'd take a moment to summarise what I've covered so far in this very young blog.
I've mostly - but not exclusively - been glancing at the portrayal of evil in films, literature, musicals and the theatre. (The Many Faces of Faust and Portraits of the Beast)
I've been exploring how evil is personified and noted that many portrayals of the Devil or figures of evil do not seem to be of the horned goat, pitchfork wielding, fire breathing type.
In fact, the Devil often wears an angelic mask or is portrayed as an ambiguous, seductive, or charming figure. (Portraits of the Beast)
I've also briefly explored how we try to "exorcise" our flaws by projecting them onto external hate figures or scapegoats in The Curse of the Divided Self and Beauty and the Beast.
One underlying motif that has crept into the posts almost unconsciously is the use of mirrors.
I've briefly touched on how mirrors are allegedly used by mind control experts for sinister purposes in order to induce their victims to dissociate so that they can be better programmed to perform sinister misdeeds.
Marilyn Monroe's love of mirrors and how she filled her house with mirrors from ceiling-to-floor (Mirror Mirror) is shared by Erik, the Phantom in the novel The Phantom of the Opera as his torture chamber is also filled with ceiling to floor mirrors.
(There is a belief among some conspiracy theorists that Monroe was the victim of mind control but I don't want to go there - at least not today)
In the Lloyd Webber version, the Phantom also uses the dressing room mirror to connect with Christine and lure her away.
The theme of mind control also connects with Svengali's hypnotic and fatal power over his victim Trilby.
I'll be looking more at Svengali and related topics shortly.
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
The Many Faces of Faust
(Jesus) Mark 8:36
Don’t gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold.
(Bob Marley)
The famous Faust story has had many an incarnation down the centuries. Each variation of the story involves a man who enters into a pact with the devil to get material success, wealth, fame, power etc. in exchange for his soul and becoming the devil's eternal servant once he dies.
The Real Dr Faust
The stories are based on Dr Johannes Faustus, a German alchemist and teacher who lived in the sixteenth century. Dr Faustus was believed to have been a conman, practical joker and a child molester.According to Manly P. Hall, Dr Faustus experimented with conjuring up a number of elemental beings to work as his servant.
One morning he was found stabbed in the back. He is believed to have been killed by one of his own elemental creatures.
Faust in Fiction
One of the first versions of the Faust story is the play by Christopher Marlowe called The Tragical History of Dr Faustus.Unlike succeeding versions of the tale, Marlowe's Faust is ripped apart by demons and dragged off to hell screeching and wailing.
Ironically like the original Dr Faustus, the playwright Christopher Marlowe met his end by being stabbed to death.
The most famous theatrical work on Faust is the play by Goethe which has a more upbeat ending, for, like Mr Punch, Faust eventually triumphs over the devil.
There is also an opera by Gounod called Faust as featured in the novel the Phantom of the Opera.
And there is a second opera composed by Arrigo Borito based on the story called Mefistofele which features in the 2005 film Batman Begins just before Bruce Wayne’s parents are murdered.
Mister Mephistopheles
In the Faust legend, the Devil is called Mephistopheles.This name for the Devil seems to have emerged during the Renaissance Period. In some legends, he is the Devil himself. In other legends, he is one of the Fallen Angels that joined Lucifer in his rebellion against God.
The Faustian pact storyline has continued to be a favourite formula in movies and theatre. Variations of the Faust plot can be found in the musical Damn Yankees and the film The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941).
A remake of The Devil and Daniel Webster – with Ghost Whisperer Jennifer Love Hewitt as the Devil (?!) – was made in 2001. The making of the film seemed to have been dogged by the Devil himself.
Directed by Alec Baldwin, its release was delayed until 2007. The director's name was removed from the directorial credit and the film was recut and renamed Shortcut to Happiness.
To end on a musical note, I don’t have any opera clips but I did find this.
[Cue cheesy musical moment]
Related Posts
The Strange Deaths of Christopher MarlowePortraits of the Beast
The Phantom of the Opera
John Dee and the Angels
Monday, 4 February 2008
Six Degrees of Peter Pan
How is the Phantom of the Opera connected to
George is the father of Sylvia Llewellyn Davies...
How is the Master of Suspense connected to Peter Pan?
Hitchcock directed the movies Rebecca and The Birds.
Both films were based on stories written by Daphne Du Maurier.
Her father, the actor, Gerald Du Maurier played both Captain Hook and Mr Darling in the first theatrical production of Peter Pan in 1904.
Daphne Du Maurier's biography about her father, Gerald Du Maurier was published by her cousin Peter Llewellyn Davies.
Peter Llewellyn Davies was the boy after whom Peter Pan was named.
(who was the brother of Michael and son of Sylvia and grandson of George who created Svengali who inspired Phantom of the Opera and so on and so forth into a neverlanding circle of infinity)
Related Posts
The Lost Boys
The God Pan
The Phantom of the Opera
Winston Churchill Didn't Exist
According to several news articles and Sky News, an alarming number of Brits think that:
- Churchill, Florence Nightingale and Charles Dickens are myths
- Sherlock Holmes was real and really lived in Baker Street
- Mahatma Gandhi, Cleopatra and Richard the Lionheart didn't really exist either
If this trend continues, perhaps in two hundred years time, people will think that:
- Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush were the figments of an author's disturbed imagination
- J.R. Ewing and Harry Potter were historical figures
- Desperate Housewives was a fly-on-the-wall documentary
Related Links
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080204/tuk-brits-think-churchill-didn-t-exist-45dbed5.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/04/nhistory104.xml
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=512087&in_page_id=1770
Sunday, 3 February 2008
The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera, most famous nowadays as an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, is based on the gothic horror novel Fantome de l'Opera by the French author Gaston Leroux. It was first published in the English language by Mills and Boon (?!) in 1911.
It has been an enduring tale which has spawned two musical plays and several movies.
In the Lloyd Webber theatrical version, the Phantom appears to have almost mysterious superhuman magical powers and the mystery of the story is not knowing whether he is real or is a ghost.
In other versions of the tale, the Phantom is less otherworldly. In the novel, he is called Erik. In the 2004 movie, he is presented as a tortured man with a physical deformity.
However in all versions, the Phantom has demonic connotations.
Like most characters which are suggestive of the Devil, the Phantom is an ambiguous figure – seductive, pitiful, scary, repulsive and attractive at the same time.
In the 2004 movie , the Phantom, as a boy, was nicknamed the Devil’s Child. The disfigured child is seen in a flashback in a cage, as one of the attractions in a travelling carnival, who is mocked and mistreated by onlookers until one day he kills a carnival worker in a rage.
He is rescued and grows up in hiding in the Paris Opera House where he is known as the Opera ghost.
Angel or Demon
Under his tutelage, Christine Daae becomes a talented singer. She is almost seduced by her mentor until she sees the face behind the mask.
The Faust Connection
The reference to the opera Faust throughout the novel is another allusion to the Devil for Christine will be asked to pay a heavy price in exchange for her musical gift.In Chapter 7 of the novel, entitled Faust and What Followed, the Phantom issues a series of threats as to what will happen if his protégée does not sing the part of Marguerite in their current production of Faust.
When his demands are not met, Erik causes the the leading lady Carlotta to lose her voice and the chandelier to fall from the ceiling, wounding several audience members and killing one “wretched woman who had come to the opera for the first time in her life”.
Another allusion to the devil, is at the beginning of the Lloyd Webber versions of the story when an auction is being held and the number of the ill-fated chandelier that is being auctioned is Lot 666.
Inside the Torture Chamber
In the novel, the Phantom has a torture chamber which is "a little six-cornered room, the sides of which were covered with mirrors from top to bottom." (Chapter 22)As mentioned in the Mirror Mirror post, mirrors are allegedly used by mind control experts for sinister purposes such as inducing the victim to disassociate from their own identity so that their mind can be programmed to perform various (usually nefarious) deeds.
Origins of the Phantom Story
Some believe that Leroux's story was inspired by George Du Maurier's novel Trilby which features the evil hypnotist Svengali.In Trilby, Svengali transforms a tone-deaf artist's model into a great opera singer who delivers great performances in a [Sarah Brightman-esque] mesmerised trance.
Others believe that Leroux based his story on true events, that the Swedish opera singer Christine Nilsson was the inspiration for the Swedish-born character of Christine Daae and that there really is an Opera Ghost wandering about the Paris Opera House.
Related Posts
Portraits of the BeastBeauty and the Beast
The Many Faces of Faust
Friday, 1 February 2008
The Multiverse View
In this blog, I’m hoping to explore and synthesise ideas, issues and images from mythology, religion, literature, the paranormal, cinema, theatre, science, the media, psychology, the “New Age”, politics, conspiracy theories, philosophy, metaphysics and so on.
I’ll be looking at them in terms of their influence on the human psyche and imagination.
In the ancient cultures (for example, Greek and Chinese), science, mathematics, politics, and philosophy were not explored or developed in isolation but were considered as parts of the same whole with deep interconnections.
I’m aiming to adopt the same all-inclusive approach by looking at a few topics through many diverse lenses and angles.
Disciplines such as theology, astrology, the media, politics, science etc. will be viewed as different pieces of the same jigsaw puzzle.
I probably will have ongoing themes divided into a series of short posts and the occasional longer article.
Perhaps the blog will evolve into something completely different in time but it’s early days yet. I’ll just go with the flow and see what presents itself to me.
The Media and the McCanns
On Wednesday evening, the LSE hosted an event called, The McCanns and the Media which was attended by the McCann family spokesman, Clarence Mitchell.
During the debate, Mr Mitchell criticised the UK media for their "appalling, lazy, sloppy and negative" coverage of the case. (paraphrase)
In the parallel universe that I have been living in, the UK media has mostly been supportive and sympathetic of the parents, particularly in the first few months after the disappearance of their daughter.
The Special Relationship
Before the arguido situation, the UK media had virtually canonised the parents. They were affectionately known as ‘Kate and Gerry’ rather than ‘the Drs McCann’.When the arguido situation occurred, one BBC news reporter took great pains to explain that the arguido status in Portugal was very different from being declared an official suspect in the UK. As far as I can remember, these explanations didn't occur when the first arguido was named.
When lurid negative reports or insensitive bloodthirsty headlines did appear in the UK press, they were often attributed to the Portuguese media under the guise of reporting the "cruel smears" that were being directed at the family abroad.
I did hear one rare voice of dissent from a TV commentator who was bewildered at the idea that three children under five were left alone in an apartment at night. ("If stupidity was a crime, those parents would be doing life!" he ranted). But that was on an American TV show.
On the other hand, in the UK, many TV presenters have come out in sterling support and have openly said that they have often left their very young children unsupervised when on holiday. Everybody does it, they said.
There was also an article where the parents were admired by the author (who had met them prior to events on the same ill-fated holiday) for not being paranoid overprotective parents.
The case had also affected the world of entertainment. Last May, Coronation Street refilmed and cut out their baby abduction storyline so as not to cause offence. EastEnders followed suit and cut short their own baby abduction storyline. The movie Gone Baby Gone was also not released in the UK so as not to cause offence.
Silence the Plebs
On radio phone-in shows, people with critical views about the parents found it difficult to get on air or were cut off by the interviewer.People who expressed any hostile views about the parents were usually accused of being a disgruntled member of the working class, jealous of their professional success (or good looks), or of being sick, sad obsessives congregating on internet forum boards to wallow in "grief porn" or devise conspiracy theories. Sometimes these critics were banned from posting on message boards. One internet sub-forum about the case has recently been closed down.
This journalist who attended the debate at LSE writes here about his view of the behaviour of some of the critics of the McCanns who also attended the event:
“Their unconcealed bile, their lack of compassion for the McCanns, their sanctimonious statements about the supposed parenting inadequacies of the McCanns, do not stem wholly from poor reporting…
“They were the equivalent of those mobs outside courts in murder trials, deaf to facts, cocooned from reality by their own self-righteous demagoguery.”
Children Without a Voice
Apparently 100,000 children in the UK go missing every year."Many of the children who disappear in Britain end up begging, stealing or in prostitution. Although a large number are found quickly or return home by themselves, some never reappear."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2429369.html
"Referring to the media focusing on just a handful of missing children cases, [Ross] Miller said the press tended to report on "stranger abductions".
Many families are also too distressed to talk to the media, which results in television and newspapers not covering the disappearance of their children, he added."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20071223/ai_n21172509
Conversely in this case, there has been a massive PR campaign, TV appeals, the eye logo etc., 'fighting funds', extensive news coverage and endless speculation.
But whether it’s been covered from the 'has there really been an abduction?' angle or the 'dignified-doctors-confronting-every-parent's worst-nightmare' angle, the focus of this news story has never really been about the missing child and her ordeal. It has always been about the parents.
Related Link
The McCann Files
