Nietzsche vs. Plato - Writing from the archives

These are a couple old papers I wrote in 2015 for my undergrad class on Pre-Socratic and Greek philosophy. My professor often brought Nietzsche readings into the class to serve as a counterpoint to Plato and Socrates which worked out wonderfully for me because I was in my own process of trying to 'lose Nietzsche' and deprogramming myself of the Nietzschean Trojan horse mind virus. My views have likely changed on some things since writing these and the essay prompts we were given restricted the discussion to more elementary aspects of Nietzsche and Plato but it was a fun exercise in stretching it and I am hoping that by sharing these I can inspire myself to write some more. 

The 'Batman Effect', or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dark Night of the Soul

It is a rather dark time. The hits--as physically felt punches to the gut of morale--just keep on coming. California is on fire and my hometown is on the brink of possibly burning down with family and friends all either potential--or already--victims of massive loss. 

I've been reluctant to try and articulate this vague idea I've been sensing for fear of wrongfully projecting my own personal issues onto the world, however, it continues to impress itself upon me from outside. 

As a broke artist, I'm always fascinated by how the 'art world' functions in relation to wealth criminals and power. While looking into the Maxwell's extended family, in an attempt to make a connection between the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology in New Mexico and the Maxwell clan--which I've since discovered is likely a non-starter (shucks!)--I came upon some articles about the Djerassi's. 

(https://nationalfile.com/ghislaine-maxwells-nephew-son-of-blasphemous-artist-worked-for-hillarys-state-department/)

As the article explains, Ghislaine's sister, Isabel Maxwell, married Dale Djerassi in 84'. Dale is the son of Carl Djerassi--'the father of the pill'--and while Isabel and Dale later divorced, they had a son the year of their marriage who they named Alexander. 

(https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1088)

Alexander Djerassi, the article notes, was a 'high-ranking official' in the Hillary Clinton State Department. And it turns out that Alexander's dad, Dale, donated $8,200 to Hillary Clinton's "New York Senate 2000" committee back in June of 2000. This donation was condemned by the Catholic League president, William Donohue, because in 1994 Dale had taken part in a bizarre and blasphemous mock crucifixion of 'St. Batman'. 

St. Batman is the brain child of Valentin Popov, a Ukrainian artist who had a residency at the Djerassi Foundation beginning in 1990. The performance serves as just one of many pieces that fall under a theme that Popov seems to return to and has dubbed 'Ironic Icons'. Popov--whose surname perks the ears--has a typical, 'Eastern European in America' backstory for this artistic focus of his: 

"Arriving in this country as a young artist, I was struck by the constant verbal references to Christianity by ministers, politicians, and commentators, just like there is today, but a near complete absence of visual imagery in the daily life of average Americans. What also struck me here, however, was the predominance and popularity of superheroes through movies, television, books, and comics. Visually stunning with colorful capes and masks, some endowed with super powers, others with exotic and ingenious weapons, devices, and vehicles, these heroes lived not just in the imagination of young people but occupied a prominent position in the consciousness of adults. As Andy Warhol had transformed and elevated images of Marilyn, Liz, Jackie, and Elvis into substitutes for Jesus and Mary in high art, comic book superheroes functioned in a similar fashion in broad popular culture. Like the teachings of Christianity, the actions of these fictitious superheroes emphasized selflessness and coming to the aid of the oppressed, endangered, and downtrodden." - Popov

You can explore Popov's website and make your own judgments regarding the work. I'm not interested in approaching this as an art critic. It's basically the same shit you'd expect--"What provocative juxtapositions of high and low, oh my!"

The reason I bring it up, however, is because I am becoming increasingly convinced we are undergoing a kind of collective initiation process--initiated by whom and into what exactly I don't know--and that this process is something like what has been called "The Dark Night of the Soul". I first heard the phrase when I was sampling a Caroline Myss cassette in jest about 6 years ago, as I was interested in sonically collaging New Age/self-help/positive-thinking bullshit with Christian Evangelical rants. While I had always approached those topics with surgical gloves and an ironic distance, the phrase--and even Myss' explanation of it--soon took on a kind of meaning for me. To be fair, a couple of the Evangelicals got to me too, e.g., "God is not your little sugar daddy in the sky!" (I love me some southern-accented vitriol.)

The phrase Dark Night of the Soul comes from the title to a poem by the 16th-century Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross, and is understood to illustrate the process of purification the soul undergoes in its union with God, shedding the passions of the body, moving in the night "without a light to guide, except the heart that lit me from inside". 

I'll be the first to admit that I'm embarrassingly ignorant to the full scope of the poem's import, symbolism and meaning--honestly haven't even read the whole thing still--however, the idea and phrase keep coming back to me like an ear-worm or hook from a song that I can't shake, whether it be in the form of finding parallels in other initiatory processes and cultural symbolism or in the synchronous homophonic wordplay of Hollywood--i.e., Nolan's 'Batman Trilogy'. As an aside, one can't help but think of how The Joker is a timely expression of the primeval trolling trickster god, as well. 

So, amidst these swirling vagaries some other things flew in recently, like yesterday and today. 

Yesterday, I'm listening to the recent interview with Christopher Knowles on Higherside Chats, Greg Carlwood notes how Knowles' 2007 book, "Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes" presaged the subsequent Hollywood obsession with super hero movies and screenplays derived from comic books. Knowles doesn't claim to have the power of prophecy but points out that when you pay attention to the subtle symbolism of spectacular ritual in media you can get an idea of what might be coming down the pike. 

I think it is fairly clear that these new 'heroes' come to function as secular-religious idols, representatives of a new paganistic pantheon . This is obvious in the case of the child. The child, enveloped in myth, hasn't yet differentiated the actor from the character they play and so they develop a spontaneous form of hero-worship, based on the exceptional qualities of the character, and imitate accordingly. For instance, from the ages of about 4-6 I would only wear my Batman shirt. Same thing later with Ninja Turtles. For adults, this mythologizing can be less obvious, but as Walter Benjamin points out, as the sublime aura of the actor-for-screen is alienated and drained, it is subsequently compensated for in the form of celebrity worship that adults develop for their favorite idol/actors as they are 'off-screen'. In reality, all our interactions with these people are mediated by a screen--a mask--but I digress... 

It was later that day that I looked into the Djerassi connection and discovered Popov and his Ironic Icons series. This Warhol mix of 'high and low' imagery is our visual culture and discourse at this point, entirely saturating everything (think those 'life imitates art' memes). But perhaps--this is how I remember it at least--back in the early 90's such an artistic gesture was a novel and provocative move, given that such iconography was still relegated to 'low', basement-dweller status. Popov is clearly a very financially successful artist with many friends in high places and it makes me wonder what kind of influence Popov's 're-imagineering' (this shit's all Disney now, right?) of Eastern Orthodox iconography with American super heroes had on his collectors, specifically this specter of a crucifixion, a 'dark k/night'--and of course we all know the bat has had a big year already, what with being the alleged cause of COVID for a minute, getting its own year in Estonia--not to mention it's the year of another bat-like rodent of the ground variety. 

Popov on why he focused specifically on Batman: 

I can take all of this as whimsy but then weird shit like this happens... a few hours ago, Knowles posts this: 

In reference to this article: 

(https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200817-the-batman-effect-how-having-an-alter-ego-empowers-you?ocid=twwl)

I wrote this before even reading it because I think I have a good sense of what it's going to say--I was just reading about the Temple of Set's notion of Xeper not more than three hours ago after all. 

It reminded me of this as well: 

(https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/6g-samsung-digital-twins-holograms-a9620071.html)

Samsung's white paper on 6G: https://cdn.codeground.org/nsr/downloads/researchareas/6G%20Vision.pdf

This notion of a digital twin--some hellish holographic doppelganger--reminded me of another sample from 6 years ago: "to make yourself a mind controlled slave ... make them feel like there's someone who they are twins with, doing missions with..."

If you'd like to listen to the track/samples mentioned, the album is here: 

(the Caroline Myss sample at length, heard for the first time in this improvised tape collage):

(Longer EP with a barrage of samples):

I'll leave it on a quote I found of Nietzsche's this evening after finding out that within the Temple of Set, there is an 'Order of Nietzsche'--you can imagine my horror and amazement considering I made a noise EP many years ago called N-is-my-KA. In the write-up about the Nietzschean Order, Aquino (I believe he's the author) quotes from Nietzsche's posthumous 'black diamond' notebook, "Mit dem Fürsten der Unterwelt selber habe ich Würfel gespielt." ("With the Prince of Darkness I have gambled at dice." or "I played dice with the Prince of the Underworld himself.")

Wanting to track down this 'black diamond' notebook quote I went to good ol' nietzschesource.org and in my perusing found this other resonate entry:  

"Die Nachtthiere werden erst beim Eintreten der Dunkelheit munter. Sie haben so gut entwickelte Augen wie die Tagthiere. Warum fliegen sie nur in der Nacht herum? Die Thiere hängen vom Lichte ab durch Vermittlung der Augen." - http://www.nietzschesource.org/#eKGWB/NF-1880,6[426]

Rough translation: "The nocturnal animals only become lively at the entrance of the darkness. They have eyes as well developed as day-animals. Why do they only fly around at night? The animals depend on light through the mediation of the eyes."

POSTSCRIPT:  

And in the luck of night
In secret places where no other spied
I went without my sight
Without a light to guide
Except the heart that lit me from inside.

- St. John of the Cross