Of the Horse, We Know Nothing (The Turin Horse)

Commissioned by Patrick DeVita-Dillon

I’ve never read a single thing by Nietzsche. Sure, I’ve read the famous quotes by him. “God is Dead.” “Behold I teach the Superman.” “OH GOD, WHY ARE YOU HURTING THIS MAGESTIC CREATURE???” (It’s the cause of the final quote that The Turin Horse exists. It’s a good movie, perhaps even a great one. It’s stark black and white add to the bleak, hopeless world it’s set in, the framing is what you’d expect from someone with two installations at St. John’s Cathedral: fucking beautiful. And it knows just how long to linger to make the scenes hit just right. But it’s a neorealist film about the misery of poverty, so it’s very hard to write about unless it’s either three sentences long or five hundred pages long.) But reading quotes by a famous author is not the same thing as reading their books.

I’m surprised I never considered writing about the German philosopher for any part of the book One Must Imagine Scott Free Happy (of which this essay was commissioned because of). I think it’s because I ultimately decided to write about the works of EM Cioran instead. That’s what happens when you write a book about Mister Miracle killing himself and you find a book about the benefits of Suicide called The New Gods. (No, I didn’t know about his fascist phase until… 13 days before I wrote this essay [so a good couple of months after I wrote the chapter of One Must Imagine Scott Free Happy that focused on his work]. In my defense, I was so focused on the singular work that I didn’t look into his other texts as deeply. Also, at the time he wrote that work, he apparently moved away from fascism.)

Perhaps the best work the compares to Nietzsche is that of The Princess Bride. Both are things I’m aware existed and have at times crossed paths with. But not until it was past the sell by date did I actively engage with them (though looking back, The Princess Bride was quite delightful). Nietzsche is in many ways the gateway drug of philosophy. His work is quite good, and indeed insightful. But the full effect is lost when you come at him after reading Ligotti or Sandifer or Sugar among all the other authors and creators inspired by him (be it in defense or opposition of). It’s been almost 150 years. All popular authors inevitably get examined, reevaluated, and recontextualized heavily in that time. It’s hard to read them with naked eyes.

Sure, I can respect Nietzsche, for as much as one can respect a major influence on the Nazis (though allegedly an inadvertent one). But I don’t think I’m ever going to have the eureka moment a lot of college freshmen have when reading Beyond Good and Evil or Twilight of the Gods for the first time. There’s an analogy that perhaps best sums up what I mean. (I think I heard it in a podcast, though I forget which one.) A guy who grew up on Spaceballs watches Star Wars for the first time. He doesn’t like the film because “It’s just Spaceballs, but without the jokes.” I feel if I were to approach Nietzsche, it would come across as lacking an essential element that’s key to the parodies and reactions.

Then again, maybe I should read Nietzsche before I run my mouth about him.

If You Want A Proper Article James, Release the Movie on Blu-Ray (The Abyss)

Commissioned By Patrick DeVita-Dillon. By his request, this is the Special Edition.

How does on kiss the ocean without a face?

The Abyss is perhaps the moment in James Cameron’s career where he went from “I think the military is a problematic fav due to its role as a monstrous machine that grinds good people into dust” (notably, much like comics writer Garth Ennis, Cameron views the concept of war as bad, but the soldiers who fight in it as good. This becomes quite problematic considering the long, awful history of soldiers doing awful things to the native populations they invade that Cameron’s filmography has a tendency of ignoring in favor of recontextualizing the Aliens from Alien as being a metaphor for the Viet Cong: inhuman, unfeeling, relentless, and bringer of PTSD to soldiers who were too gung-ho to notice the meatgrinder before them) to “I want to fuck the ocean.” There are certainly works postdating The Abyss where James Cameron tries to make his love of the military work (most notably, the misogynistic right wing spy thriller, True Lies [Note: while James Cameron is very much a leftie, it is nonetheless possible for a director such as him to overlook issues within his text that lean more right wing. There are certainly elements of many a director’s filmography that don’t match up with what they believe]), but those films lack the crackle of his more “I want to fuck the ocean” films, much in the same way the spark between a romantic couple isn’t there once the relationship has gone sour. (As an aside, The Abyss was produced by Gale Anne Hurd and released the same year they divorced. She would be the second of five wives.)

Perhaps the main issue with talking about The Abyss is that it’s a very visual film. As such, writing about the Special Edition means I have to watch the film in the worst possible format: Widescreen shrunk down to fit into a Full Screen format on a Widescreen TV. As such, I can’t properly write about the movie due to its lack of visual clarity, which has always been the best part of James Cameron’s films. Even when the plots boil down to “So I’m really mad about my divorce and I’m taking it out on Jamie Lee Curtis. Also, Crimson Jihad,” they find a way to look wonderful. Sadly, due to the way the DVD release of The Abyss was formatted, I can’t properly write an article on the film until the film is released on Blu-Ray or there is a screening of the Special Edition where the visuals can be seen in their full beauty. Sorry Pat.

Also, fuck you James for using that Nietzsche quote at the beginning. That was lame, thematically irrelevant, and everyone knows it.  

all heaven’s hitting high, time (Naked Lunch)

Commissioned by

Patrick

DeVita

-Dillon

They say the days on Tijuana are largely successfully. Jonathan hadn’t had the cat for all. At 2:15 in the morning, he would awanight and acted as if she was always his. He thing. Sometimes it was something as a feeling dreamed) would leave just the same. Jonathan liked the structure of it. She was his and he was hers. So he grabbed a ke to find some asshole doing some asshole her. clawed her way out of his clutches unsu a gang war. That morning, unfortunately, long. She just showed up at his bar one Jonathan could hear the yelps and howls was sure Hope (whom he named afte as suddenly as she came. But for now, gun and went after the man who stole someone was trying to steal his cat. of the man stealing the cat while Hope

he was a fast bastard. Probably high on Red hen you’re chasing someone who doesn’t as being torn asunder by the cat in his hands. when he was a young lad with dreams of Tijuana were winding and tight. It’s easy childish dreams of someone who didn’t know the to get lost on the asteroid, especially w his place. He thought he was going to be some enough to care. Jonathan had, in fact, lost his way that implies. Martin escaping this hellhole. They were interplanetary gangster with all the young lad. way the world work. Didn’t know beat those childish beliefs out of As for the junkie Jonathan was chasing Eye and too mad to care that his face Not helping matters was that the stree

Worth the risk them, but he gets oody Mary,” said the wke it a double.” Jonathan once you accept. Junkies with product urrence in his line of “And I’ll have a Bl most of the people je junkies. He didn’t trust looked at the towing from Junkies ioman. “In fact, ma more profits when buy business. In fact, be trusted. weren’t a rare occed that junkies aren’t to ought from where

he would Moore was born on Tijuana. Not that be, and a Jonathan on the Earth was to move to the other too fancy, people any desiral than was him started about Neptan with simposely than don’t get On had his bar, El Ray, hiy were just desires. pile on Tiju worlds, the gal business dump, Ma ooked that a bi his extra leg he had ana and s cat, Hopew extra simple ma treated the them to be. and worlds ones with ho matter, for the leune. Jonat more clo he’d want side. On those ofhter ame. Thet another activities would be Tijuanan everyone is

That’s why pop very easily. like he could This one looked But junkies had their uses. isn’t careful in hand. If one machine before Jonathan was setting up the

‘Junkie,’ Jonathan The man in question that the hard way unnaturally fast. side businesses thought to himself. just because he didn’t Though one of his knew, never trust a involved in the sell of the forehead. The junkie as many a drug dealer junkie. Jonathan learned when one of them was a lean man running tried to kill him for not selling him Red Eye have any money. He ‘Always a fucking junkie.’ was lucky in that he only got cut on wasn’t as lucky. drugs, Jonahtan knew,

an asked, not playody Eye?” Jonathan “Is that real Blote yet. “I’m ying his hand quive a demonstraticle proof. Let’s ha gonna need a litted the junkie the on” Jonathan toss elative ease. The Rhe caught with re machine, which into his eyes like ed Eye sprayed iced as the junkie remained stone famace. Jonathan. He focused had his last high didn’t hear the unkie, such that hintely on the jur, their guns men enter the bamping, thein intheir jackboots st clanging about, twas too focused ent malicious. He ke to notic the was about to ma on the money he next door waiting man in the room ased a junkie ad. Jonathan nev to shoot them dee drugs. Junkies where he gets thngs. Had he, he we to ask such thin are to unreliable junkie before ould have shot thkie was aware of Eye. Even the jun he took the Red on before what was going the mob really is paranoia when Jonathan. It’s not out to get you.

being poor despit their hard work. Though he tried to distract himself, Jonathan was the best one of the three. This time, they were playing poker and arguing about One such matter arrived at 10:10 AM. They were three men at the bar already. yearned for something more. couldn’t help but mildly agree with their sentiment. Sure, he knew his place in the world. He didn’t want to leave Tijuana or anything. But there was a part of him who perfectly fine to facilitate their mind numbing conversation about which of them They weren’t businessmen, just customers who needed a place to talk. Jonathan was

he pulled out a in the back room” “I’m sure there’s on can replied the man as thought Jonathan. He this time the junkie sample of Red eye. ‘Least has the product,’ the back room. The simply replied that didn’t say this, but instead he would check man followed close behind.

y preparing cars for Red Eye to the quality tests Jonathan whear the bar. If he hakie then ould have shd, he probably was too buscreech in bt the jun dutifully prng his The man enteame script, Jonat instead, h pitch as all hey would duct, how snrough nathan was fo art of a buyer Jo junkies d the quality going that change same thing es. Bu it all nly thin g to Jonathan: I’m desp

vodka, Still, Jonathan said, “I’ve I’m the juice.” sighed tomato when fresh he afraid got out I’m of but

looking into the sun so far too long. Like having a shine directly into your eyes. Like four hours, though that could have just been Hope. cat maul at your face for at least crumpled on the streets. Just another body for the Nobody minded the junkie home at 7 AM with 15 Woolongs he nicked from pile. Jonathan returned to haim more sleep than the next night, as he always did. the junkie and planed to get

The two who had entered many more. And she had the man was a junkie. The body like a masochistic wasn’t a traditional junkie blood. She was pregnant been unseen on Tijuana deserve a better life than constant need of glasses.

The man knocked on the table. “Give me a beer,”

Eternal Desperation, the belief that A junkie wouldn’t be happy in this world. it doesn’t live flaws in the world. they didn’t get names because they aren’t someone better

an earlier happy that Jonat which would be done in these hours. So it quite well. She might’ve stuPM, but bowl of peanuts or Hope was sleeping on one of the tables wegal matters. mind a desire to have better. Cats have  At 7:45 AM, Jonath open at 8:30 AM. M than understood his arrangement an with a junkie, for example, Jonathan felt it was around for another year or so. rarely feed their pets due to being too matter their circumstances in life. Living of a bar’s set up was lesser life than living with a dealer. Junkies d headed over to El Ray, for an early morning ldn’t come until after 12 were more for extralan smoked a cigarette an busy being high, though Hope wouldn’t c times ost of the customers wo Jonathan’s. When something better came a glass of better to keep it open at person. Though, she hen the two entered the bar. She wasn’t in the people came. Most onsider herself a pet. More of a guest of a natural feeling of being owed better no customers would come along, she’d run off and be with a different beer. But the mornings