As if the Sea should part 2006-11-26T00:07:03Z User 408 http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v408/ OrgSpace NewsLog Det Perfekte Menneske: Obstruction #3 Human perfection… Human frailty...

























1967: Danish filmmaker Jorgen Leth made a 12-minute short film entitled The Perfect Human (Danish: Det Perfekte Mennesk).








Why does he move like that?

How does he move like that?






Look she is going to lie down.

How will she lie down?
She lies down like that.		Like that.





April 2001:

Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier challenged his old mentor Jorgen Leth to remake the short film, five different times, within the guidelines of increasingly difficult set of constraints: The Five Obstructions (De Fem benspænd)












What is the perfect human thinking?

Is he thinking about happiness? Death? Love?

About what he is going to do tonight?

...

We want to see what he can do and cannot do.

Is he perfect enough?

Or not entirely?

Is he free?








The perfect human

that's just something we say

while hoping he can do what we say he can do.

]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v408/__show_article/_a000408-000085.htm 2006-11-26T00:07:03Z 2006-11-26T04:50:34Z To see the world in a grain of sand...

The uniqueness of the psyche can never enter wholly into reality, it can only be realized approximately, though it still remains the absolute basis of all consciousness. The deeper "layers" of the psyche lose their individual uniqueness as they retreat farther and farther into darkness. "Lower down," that is to say as they approach the autonomous functional systems, they become increasingly collective until they are universalized and extinguished in the body's materiality, i.e., in chemical substances. The body's carbon is simply carbon. Hence "at bottom" the psyche is simply "world."



---C. G. Jung, The Psychology of the Child Archetype



]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v408/__show_article/_a000408-000084.htm 2006-11-14T23:05:17Z 2006-11-14T23:41:24Z Silent Hill In colloquial speech, "limbo *" is any status where a person or project is held up, and nothing can be done until another action happens.
**** Spoiler warning: Some elements of plot and/or ending details follow****



I believe the movie deserves far better reviews than it received. Besides its undeniable qualities---visually, it’s an art director’s dream; the special effects are astounding (they will especially please fans of the video games on which the movie was based)---the story is cleverly written and its chilling conclusion contains a message that is both timeless and very close to the times we live in, perhaps, even, too close to home in view of the wave of religious fanaticism, both at home and abroad, that the world has been experiencing and the rise of far-right groups which characteristically embrace state churches, and harshly retributive justice.



While supposedly the followers of a spiritual movement based on love and compassion ("hate the sin, not the sinner,") Christobella (Alice Krige) and her people manifest nothing of that love or compassion in their behavior.







The true villains of Silent Hill do not wield 20" long swords like the famous triangle-hatcheted masked nemesis/Pyramid Head *;

prayer beads are their weapons. The bible-thumpers believe they thwart heresy by implementing a strict staleness, ergo quickly

pass judgment on newcomers who disrupt their little circle.

----Chris Nelson and Kris Kobayashi-Nelson, Dreamlogic.net







"They thought they knew how to cast out evil,

but you should be careful how you fight evil.

Your weapons can turn back on you."

As it is, Christobella and her cult stand as an ultimate embodiment of delusional fanaticism (there is, at some point in the movie, a fitting allusion to "The Scarlet Letter"), and it is a fitting irony that some of the scriptures displayed in the town of Silent Hill and in the church as a measurement of their judgment, also stand as the curse of Silent Hill, as a judgment rendered upon them.







Now, the dream of this life must end.

And so, too, must the dreamers within it.

For over 30 years, they've lied to their own souls...

But now is the end of days.
I am the reaper."



As the story culminates into a dark tale of retribution (no talk of redemption, here), the ending comes to a chilly and disturbing climax, and with it, also, perhaps a warning…


"Alessa, what have you become?"





That, too, is close to home, close to the self-perpetuating cycles of violence (the visible violence, and the hidden violence) that ravage the planet and the never ending spiraling maelstrom of suffering, fear, anger and retribution that grows in and out of it all.


"When you're hurt and scared for so long,

your fear and pain turn to hate, and the hate

starts to change the world."

]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v408/__show_article/_a000408-000083.htm 2006-11-14T19:22:35Z 2006-11-14T21:05:53Z اْسِ "Almost all the Alternative History computer simulations suggest that the Battle of Tours (AD 732) was one of the crucial disasters of mankind. Had Charles Martel been defeated, Islam might have resolved the internal differences that were tearing it apart and gone on to conquer Europe. Thus cent... The Fountains of Paradise won the 1979 Nebula Award and the 1980 Hugo Award for Best Novel.



Although a Humanistic-Agnostic, Arthur C. Clarke showed some degree of reverence for Islam. The following excerpt is from an interview with Free Inquiry magazine (Volume 19, Number 2):



FI: Do you see any value at all in the various religions?



Clarke: Though I sometimes call myself a crypto-Buddhist, Buddhism is not a religion. Of those around at the moment, Islam is the only one that has any appeal to me. But, of course, Islam has been tainted by other influences. The Muslims are behaving like Christians, I'm afraid.



FI: What appeals to you in Islam?



Clarke: Historically, Islam had a great deal of tolerance for other views and offered the world its priceless wisdom in the form of astronomy and algebra. And, as you know, Islam helped rescue Western civilization from the Dark Ages by preserving classical texts and transmitting them to the West. We, on the other hand, burned the library at Alexandria. If Islam hadn't fallen into internecine warfare and had gone on to conquer the rest of Europe, we'd have avoided a thousand years of Christian barbarism.



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Related Entry:

- Crusades

- 2300AD

]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v408/__show_article/_a000408-000082.htm 2006-09-18T04:30:59Z 2006-09-28T19:05:12Z The Prayer La Prière Paroles : Francis Jammes ("Les Mystères Douloureux") Musique : Georges Brassens Par le petit garçon qui meurt près de sa mère Tandis que des enfants s'amusent au parterre ; Et par l'oiseau blessé qui ne sait pas comment Son aile tout à coup s'ensanglante et descend Par la faim e... Par les gosses battus par l'ivrogne qui rentre,

Par l'âne qui reçoit des coups de pied au ventre

Et par l'humiliation de l'innocent châtié,

Par la vierge vendue qu'on a déshabillée,

Par le fils dont la mère a été insultée :

Je vous salue, Marie.



Par la vieille qui, trébuchant sous trop de poids,

S'écrie : "Mon Dieu !" Par le malheureux dont les bras

Ne purent s'appuyer sur une amour humaine

Comme la Croix du Fils sur Simon de Cyrène ;

Par le cheval tombé sous le chariot qu'il traîne :

Je vous salue, Marie.



Par les quatre horizons qui crucifient le Monde,

Par tous ceux dont la chair se déchire ou succombe,

Par ceux qui sont sans pieds, par ceux qui sont sans mains,

Par le malade que l'on opère et qui geint

Et par le juste mis au rang des assassins :

Je vous salue, Marie.



Par la mère apprenant que son fils est guéri,

Par l'oiseau rappelant l'oiseau tombé du nid,

Par l'herbe qui a soif et recueille l'ondée,

Par le baiser perdu par l'amour redonné,

Et par le mendiant retrouvant sa monnaie :

Je vous salue, Marie.



Par l'âne et par le boeuf, par l'ombre de la paille,

Par la pauvresse à qui l'on dit qu'elle s'en aille,

Par les nativités qui n'auront sur leurs tombes

Que les bouquets de givre aux ailes de colombe,

Par la vertu qui lutte et celle qui succombe :

Je vous salue, Marie







]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v408/__show_article/_a000408-000081.htm 2006-06-12T21:56:30Z 2006-09-28T19:05:25Z Island Far out to Sea Outside of Time Reflecting Moonlight at Dawn Far out to Sea
Outside of Time
Reflecting Moonlight
at Dawn]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v408/__show_article/_a000408-000080.htm 2005-05-21T04:52:05Z 2005-05-21T04:52:05Z The Drunken Boat
]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v408/__show_article/_a000408-000079.htm 2005-05-09T21:18:51Z 2006-12-05T20:06:20Z Through the White Door As you enter, it continues to be there, always opening. *-/. As you enter,
it continues to be there,
always opening.
*-/.]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v408/__show_article/_a000408-000077.htm 2005-05-08T04:44:46Z 2005-05-08T04:44:46Z Dreaming a Bigger Dream We have many names, we speak many languages. We are local, we are global.



We are in all regions of the world, we're everywhere...



---We are the New Civilization





...We are the World Wide Web...












                          

]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v408/__show_article/_a000408-000076.htm 2005-05-05T18:37:38Z 2005-05-11T22:57:01Z - O -
If it were posible to personify the unconscious, we might think of it as a collective human being combining the characteristics of both sexes, transcending youth and age, birth and death, and, from having at its command a human experience of one or two million years, practically immortal. If such a being existed, it would be exalted above all temporal change, the present would mean neither more nor less to it than any year in the hundredth millenium before Christ; it would be a dreamer of age-old dreams and, owing to its immesurable experience, an incomparable prognosticator. It would have lived countless times over again the life of the individual, the family, the tribe, and the nation, and it would possess a living sense of the rhythme of growth, flowering, and decay."



---C. G. Jung: Basic Postulates of Analytical Psychology

(The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, CWJ, VIII, par. 673)





Picture: Shiva Trimurti, Elephanta Island, Mumbai






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Related Entry: The Hunted Sky
]]> http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v408/__show_article/_a000408-000075.htm 2005-05-03T07:55:26Z 2006-09-28T19:06:15Z