I’m happy to note the bumper Halloween issue of the ever-pleasing Rending The Veil is up. As well as a repost of the last Guttershaman piece, I’ve got a book review in there – a rather scathing one.

Enjoy…

“The majority is always sane.” - Larry Niven, Ringworld

“Happy Halloween, ladies… Nuns – no sense of humour.” – The Kurgan, in Highlander

——————————————————————

All my life, the stories that have spoken to me have invariable been from what are usually considered the ‘lesser’ kinds of storytelling – science fiction, comics, B-movies, horror, fantasy.

Why?

Mostly because I can more readily identify with the characters. The mainstream and ‘literary’ works I’ve read are about people who are utterly unlike me and those I know and care about. Their concerns (blood relations, conventional seductions, party politics, capitalist greed – in other words, the consensus reality called ‘normality’) are not my concerns. The people who are my heroes and inspiration in fiction are ‘larger than life’ – because my life, though not on the same scale as such figures, is still far closer to those ‘unreal’ tales than to the ‘real life’ ones. Being a magician in a world which mostly doesn’t believe in magic will do that, I guess.

I also think that genres which allow room to step outside contemporary society and look at it from an angle have far more to offer than those which reside utterly within it – it’s something at which SF and horror, at their best, excel. And that reading SF and other fantastical genres specifically stretches your brain in beneficial ways that mainstream works simply cannot do (one benefit seems to be a kind of memetic inoculation against Future Shock – once you’re used to considering complex multiple universes and ideas in your reading matter, rapid change of information and wider ranges of ideas in the physical world become so much easier to assimilate).

It’s not easy being at such a remove from consensus reality. Even ignoring the scorn (and occasional bullying) it can attract, just finding people you can talk to who Get It, who share some of your perspective and have read those same weird writers, seen the same odd films, was an uphill struggle. It’s easier now of course – the internet has made fandom much more accessible than back in the day when the only way to contact other fans was through mimeographed zines and occasional conventions. And though those folk are not always people I can get along with, I still feel a stronger affinity for them than those who stick to the mainstream of thought and art.

(It’s worth noting that there’s a huge overlap between fandom groups and other Outsiders – roleplay gamers, sexual and gender explorers… and, of course, magicians.)

Sometimes, I think of it as being a member of the Tribe of the Strange. Those (to adapt a quote from SF writer Bruce Sterling) “whose desires do not accord with the status quo.” And though inhabitants of that tribe do indeed work, love, make families and strive for some kind of everyday stability on which to base their existence, their idea of what that entails – and the values they espouse – are often qualitatively different from those of the mainstream.

It’s not simply a matter of the knee-jerk opposition to/rejection of the mainstream (though there’s always an element of that going on, I suspect). It’s more that there’s a greater breadth of possibility outside it. And it’s certainly not saying that those who live within the mainstream are inferior or wrong – just that other possibilities exist and can be just as valid (or more so to those who the mainstream consider outsiders). And some of us prefer to live in that tribe far more than any of the ones offered by the Normal world.

Interestingly, ever since the outpouring of the counterculture in the 1960s if not before, those stories and underground ideas have become more and more part of the mainstream. We’re now at a point where the most popular books ever written are fantasies about magicians and vampires, the best-selling movies are about robots, superheroes, spaceships and aliens. Yet somehow there’s still that disdain for the ‘Fantastika‘, both from ordinary people (who find it ‘weird’) and the academic intelligentsia (who find it ‘common’).

Co-opting of the counterculture is something that’s gone on for a long time, but the pace of it has increased rapidly as the mainstream has begun to run out of ideas. But what gets pulled into contemporary mainstream culture is of necessity diluted and superficial. And lacking in imagination – the fuel that drives both genre writing and magic… and which seems to be peculiarly limited in mainstream and literary writing. (After all, how much imagination does it really take for a middle-aged college professor to write a novel about the sexual desires of a middle-aged college professor?)

While out for a walk during the writing of this, I overheard a conversation which ties into this nicely.

A young-ish upper-middle-class couple, chatting after visiting a friend, who they were talking about:

“He’s just so… so unconventional“, they said. “I sometimes wonder if he’s got a screw loose.”

Unconventional equals insane? For a lot of folk, that’s about right. Showing even a tiny deviation from the Normal is an invitation to scorn, rejection – even violence.

But what the hell is ‘normal’, anyway?

To anyone who’s paid attention to history (and is not part of a religious or political tribe which rejects examining the past through any filter but their own) the definition of normality is a mercurial thing – changing constantly, no more solid and immutable than fashion. But all those definitions of normal have to be about stability, conservative (small ”c’) attitudes, preservation of the status quo – and I do see the necessity of that. But at the same time, there needs to be room for outliers from that majority view, or the culture/tribe/country stagnates. There’s even indications that the lack of innovation caused by the rejection of the un-normal can destroy civilisations.

Perhaps this is why so many societies have times where the rules of the normal are temporarily suspended, where the usually despised and shunned aspects – sexual expression, weirdness, dressing strangely – are allowed to roam the streets. Carnival. Mardi Gras.

Halloween.

That lovely time of the year, when dressing like a monster (and increasingly, a sexy monster) in public is acceptable. When for a short while, Goths, gender queers and other outsiders can blend in, won’t be ostracised. When the rules of Normal don’t quite apply. Where the superheroes and wizards and beasts are, briefly, as welcome as anyone else.

And of course a time when the normal folk get to be tourists in the Tribe of the Strange… only to wake up the next day (possibly with hangovers and/or sugar crashes) and go back to the ‘real’ world where dressing up like David bloody Beckham is the only acceptable form of cosplay – and the demons and witches get put back in the box marked ‘unreal’.

I love Halloween. I love that everyone gets to join in. I don’t think the Tribe of the Strange needs a solid border between it and the ‘mundanes’ – but I know the difference between being a tourist and being a citizen, that me and mine can’t really do the same. That dressing up as a magician one night a year, and being one all the time, are quite different things. Part of me wishes my tribe and theirs could get along better… but that the distance and difference between us might actually be the whole point.

Another part of me looks at all this and sees something that looks a whole lot like cultural theft.

Think about it – the majority culture cherry-picks what it finds attractive from an existing tribal tradition, shows little or no respect to that tribe, commodifies what it’s nicked and still insists it’s somehow superior to the tribe that’s been pillaged… (Much like those ‘literary’ writers who co-opt SF and horror tropes without having actually read enough of the genre to avoid the worst clichés, then loudly claim what they have ‘created’ isn’t that horrible sci-fi but somehow better… the Plastic Shamen of the Fantastic.)

I don’t actually take that idea seriously. If anything, I see that the weird is actually colonising the mundane in many ways. As our world grows more complex (both technologically and in terms of how many competing ideas surround us), ordinary life more and more resembles the science fiction of only a few years back. Those discrete fandoms that used to be obscure are becoming more acceptable and fannish conceits (from the value of behind-the-scenes documentaries to slash fiction) are becoming part of the general culture.

But no matter how much is absorbed into the common culture, there will always be those ideas and people who are too weird, won’t fit, stay beyond the pale – no matter how much money and publicity gets thrown at Harry Potter and Edward Cullen (and as the latter so perfectly shows, even those parts of the weird which do creep into the mainstream are softened, bowdlerised, rendered safe). And as mainstream culture shifts from permissive to restrictive and back again, this will oscillate. Or the weird will simply, once again, fall out of fashion. For a while.

And outside the normal world, the Tribe of the Strange will persist. We don’t shift with the tides of fashion. We’re not tourists in the weird parts of life – we live here.

We’re not as scary or inhospitable as the mundane world thinks. We don’t want to take them over or make them go away – we just hope to find a place where we can all talk, hang out, celebrate life in all its oddity and loveliness. Maybe we’ll find that Temporary Autonomous Zone, where the fantastic and the ordinary are all one tribe.

On Halloween, perhaps?

——————————————————————

Buffy: “You’re missing the whole point of Halloween.”
Willow: “Free candy?!”

From Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

]]> http://catvincent.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/guttershaman-halloween-special-the-gutter-press-and-the-tribe-of-the-strange/feed/ 2 catvincent http://catvincent.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/resumed/ http://catvincent.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/resumed/#comments Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:24:24 +0000 catvincent http://catvincent.wordpress.com/?p=513 ]]>

After that lengthy bout of Pig Lung, I’m back to writing stuff that’s longer then 140 characters. Feels good.

A few things to catch up on…

One of my perennial points of incomprehension is why people with ‘deeply-held’ religious beliefs find it so very difficult to step away from them, to consider that other possibilities are worth considering. A recent study may explain this – evidence is appearing that the brain processes fact and belief in the same place. Of course there are other studies which seems to show the complete opposite…

Perhaps the most fun I had while in downtime (that didn’t involve watching all of Lost – which I thoroughly enjoyed) was Twittering my little heart out on the inaugural International Blasphemy Day. Those who’ve been reading me for a while know that I consider taking the piss out of belief not only to be funny but also a necessary tool, even a human right. I think I managed to take the piss out of every major creed and belief system in there at one point or another… my favourite post being:

My god fucked your god. Your god loved it, the little slut.

Amusingly, the only direct responses I got complaining about my doubting their deeply-held beliefs came from atheists…

Also, downtime allowed me to get to grips with what was perhaps an inevitable tech upgrade… an iPhone. This solved 99% of my portable comms needs for the foreseeable future – excellent Twitter and RSS apps especially. Now if they’d come up with GPG encryption for mail, I’d be sorted.

Next up – a Guttershaman piece for the Halloween season, various rants and raves…  and maybe, just maybe, a little fun.

Two brief points:

There won’t be much new coming up here until I have recovered from an inconvenient bout of Swine Flu.

But, as I continue to Twitter feverishly, it is good timing that the News Felch aggregation of my daily Twitter output has been restored. See link on sidebar for this.

Catch you on the flipside.

“Saying there’s no soul because the brain has consciousness structures is like saying there’s no light because a lightbulb has filaments.” - John Shirley

A thought which needs further development…

It’s a common statement by modern scientists – especially the strain of no-ghost-in-the-machine rationalism espoused by the likes of Pinker and Blackmore – that there’s a part of the brain which acts as though it has some contact with a higher consciousness or God. Of course in their minds this part is either some kind of bizarre evolutionary holdover like the appendix or else just a glitch in the way we think. It can’t be actually be sensing anything, because what it reports doesn’t fit their model of the universe.

It occurs to me that the same thread of scientific enquiry has found many interesting flaws and glitches in our senses – in fact many optical, sonic and other sensory illusions are often offered as a kind of explanation for why people see or report non-ordinary phenomena. Yet, knowing this, those scientists do not automatically dismiss all sensory data.

Why is it so hard to consider the possibility that the ‘god-sensing’ part of our minds is at least as valid a sense organ as the others?

Prone to confusion and mistake, sure. Full of holes and possible to trick, certainly. But since that’s exactly what all our other senses are like, why dismiss it completely?

Two interesting posts on the relationship between movies and religion recently leads me to remind folks of the splendid character Mason Lang in The Invisibles. This quasi-Bruce-Wayne figure, partly as a result of an early experience with non-ordinary reality (which he perceived originally as a classic alien abduction scenario) grew up a little… odd. Lang, a rich benefactor of the Invisibles combat-magic cells, has a theory…that some movies contain hidden subtexts designed for the invisibles and allied occultists and mystics to receive.

And, to benefit those who might not have met the thoughts of Mr. Lang, here’s some quotes. (All words by the Magus Grant Morrison.)

“Speed is about human evolution, right? It’s so obvious. The bus represents the world. Watch it again – they’ve got every nationality on there. Not only that, but it’s being driven to disaster by this guy who’s either made up to look Cro-Magnon or chosen becasue he looks that way. He’s our brutal evolutionary heritage, driving the world to armageddon while everybody argues. The whole thing’s symbolic… Just look at the amount of times you see the number 23. it’s in scene after scene. That’s not coincidence. The whole things a coded message.

…and finally , after the whole tantric love trip on the subway train at the end, they burst out into the street in front of a cinema showing 2001-A Space Odyssey…”

“I see this weird stuff every time I watch a movie. Think about Pulp Fiction – he glowing thing in the 666 suitcase is Marcellus Wallace’s soul, right? The band aid on his neck in the bar scene with Bruce Willis is where the soul was extracted. I mean I could go on all day. Check out Speed next time you watch it, just keep in mind that the bus is the World and that big gap in the highway construction is the Apocalypse.

…it means… I don’t know. It means, basically, that some movies are clearly being made by Invisibles and they contain messages for other Invisibles. Invisibles talking to each other in ther own secret language… the movies are signals, they let us know that others are out there…”

And this one goes a little deeper behind the curtain…

“I remember looking at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia when I was a little kid. That’s what I love about illusions; they’re right up there in front of you but somehow you don’t see them… until suddenly you do… and I saw that I lived in a world where the symbol was more important than the reality. Where the menu was supposed to taste better than the meal.

They’re bombing planet Hollywood… those terrorists know exactly where the power lies. None of it’s real.

Kennedy was a good man. Nixon was a bad man. Is that true or is that just what we’ve been told is true?

Half of the stars in Hollywood are gay pretending to be straight… Walt Disney was a shit.

The moon landings happened in a studio.

The America I thought I lived in was a trick; I’d only ever really seen it on TV, in comic books and movies… especially movies. The Rosicrucians who built this country wouldn’t know where they were if you brought them here, would they? Not until you showed them Independence Day.

That night when I pissed down over Manhattan, I saw time. I saw time itself… America has been in a declared state of national emergency since March 9th, 1933, giving the president powers to suspend freedom of speech and take control away from all communications media at any time.

Who cares? Bruce Willis is here to save us all.

The more I looked, the less real America became. And the less real it became, the stronger it got. Planet Hollywood.”

As someone who’s had a fair share of emotional experiences watching movies – which I would not hesitate to call mystical – I kind of identify with Mason. (Maybe my old idea of reviewing movies in the style of Mason Lang should be revived? Hmm…)

Been a while since I actually posted anything original or updated on what I’m up to. Life getting in the way of blogging…

The latest Guttershaman has – finally! – reached the ’sit down and write me’ stage, after much research. (Writing about the mysteries of the occult – pretty much second nature to me. Writing about money… now that’s weird!) So that’s next.

Geek news: after some fiddling (and deciding that a decent Evernote client was non-negotiable) I installed Mac OS X onto my Dell netbook – a process that, despite much fiddling and swearing, was ultimately successful and very satisfying. Seriously considering a iPhone.

Looks like the Loudtweet system has died, sadly… so News Felch is suspended for now. Twittering still occurs.

Right – Pink Floyd cued up, mug of Lapsang Souchon on the brew… time to get on with Guttershamaning.

When I was a boy, I read an awful lot of shite books about Fortean matters.

I ploughed through Erich von Daniken, dodgy tomes about the Bermuda Triangle and witchcraft and Earth mysteries. Like Stephen King described the process of reading/watching bad horror stories, I was prospecting through mud, seeking those few glimmers of gold.

Every now and then, I found something truly good, which asked hard questions and offered theories without falling into the trap of declaring their point of view as pure Truth. One of these was UFOs – Operation Trojan Horse, by John Alva Keel. It made a difference in how I looked at the world. Like Robert Anton Wilson (who I read about the same time), Keel showed me that ‘maybe’ was not a bad perspective to take – and that orthodoxy can so easily trap a mind.  In other works, such as Our Haunted Planet and especially in The Mothman Prophecies, his perspective and unapologetically personal approach were a breath of fresh air in the stale pulpiness of so much Fortean writing.

And now he’s gone. I’m startled at how sad this makes me – but perhaps I shouldn’t be. After all, we should mourn our ancestors when they pass, even (especially) when they aren’t blood kin.

Sometimes, especially at fuck-o’clock in the morning, I can be a little… evil.

My-beloved-the artist forwarded me a link that she’d acquired from the Ravelry forum (which, despite being a site about knitting, has a little of everything). It’s a single webpage which basically consists of an extended lonely-hearts/Craigslist contact-style ad.

The title is:

Finding My Goddess

Smart, Sexy, Spiritual Goddess Desired for Awesome Relationship with Extraordinary Man.

One Gentleman’s Quest to Find His Goddess.

Are YOU a Woman Who Has Most of the Extensive Goddess-Qualifications?

Finding My GoddessSmart, Sexy, Spiritual Goddess Desired for Awesome Relationship with Extraordinary Man.

One Gentleman’s Quest to Find His Goddess.

Are YOU a Woman Who Has Most of the Extensive Goddess-Qualifications?

…and goes rapidly downhill from there:

Some of the material in my message is controversial. I do not wish to offend anyone, but I do need to say certain things so that an interested lady knows what she’s getting into. I think that’s reasonable and fair.

I’m a deeply spiritual man. As I explain in detail below, my guidance comes directly from God (or, as my Buddhist friends would say, from my Buddha Nature). I am well aware that you might think otherwise. As you read my message, you might conclude that I have an over-inflated ego and that, rather than following “divine guidance,” I should instead work on “getting over myself”—and, indeed, given the expansiveness of my message, that would be a very “normal” reaction for you to have.

The Goddess I seek sees far beyond the “normal” level of thinking. She follows the guidance she receives from God (even when people might think she’s crazy), and she believes that others (including me) should do the same. Her life is dedicated to making this world a better place, and she realizes that the “normal” way of thinking is precisely what has gotten this world into so much trouble! My message EXCITES her. She believes what I’m saying is coming from God. She believes what I’m saying is not only possible but doable. She passionately desires to be directly and intimately involved.

One more excerpt, so you know what kind of guy we’re dealing with here:

I am on the brink of a large-scale financial success that many people believe will escalate me, over the next decade, from member of the middle class—to billionaire. I am the inventor and developer of, and control the majority interest in, a patented new technology that numerous well-credentialed experts agree can, quite literally, re-define the entire computer industry. We need about one more year to complete implementation of our first product release (hopefully in early 2010), and then the computing paradigm will begin to shift…. people will start thinking about information and utilizing computers in a whole new way that greatly EMPOWERS them. This will shake the foundation of a nearly trillion-dollar industry (computer hardware, software and information technologies, including the Internet).

However, I am much more than a computer scientist. I am a Global Visionary, and my desire and intention is to utilize my anticipated computer fortune to create fundamental changes in the systems, institutions and traditions on this planet: from darkness to LIGHT. In contrast with my computer technology which is likely to succeed (at least to some significant degree), my broad global vision is a gigantic LONG SHOT. With God (and if my karma proves good enough), I will find some degree success with my huge vision. If not, I will at least have enjoyed the adventure of daring to go for it.

Why am I sharing this Global Vision with you? Because it tells you a whole lot about who I am. I am a man who DARES to dream the impossible dream, and who DARES to devote his life to realizing it. I am seeking a woman who LOVES my vision and WANTS to be my intimate partner in the adventure of going for it, whether we succeed or fail.

(That amazing computer breakthrough is described by himself here. Basically, a new OS made for Newage angel-heads who have a pastels fetish. World-shaking, no. Terrifying, yes.)

I couldn’t just let that lie, could I? So I did a little translation of his cri de coeur:

Hi. I’m a failing computer geek with delusions of being The Next Steve Jobs. I also think God likes me more than anyone else – except possibly You, the only True Consort of such a swell, spiritual and almost-nearly-any-time-soon financially wealthy man.

Oh yeah – I have such a weird face because I was hit on the head by a large Newage Tantra manual at an impressionable age.

(See angel picture from cover of book which hit me hardest and warped my ideas of sex and god forever.)

The Goddess I seek must be smart (but not quite as smart as me), trusting (by which I mean “gullible enough to believe the ‘100% control’ over an undisclosed portion of my imaginary fortune will amount to bupkiss”) hate all concepts of ‘authority’ (except of course the ones where I tell her what to do) and she’s sexy, sexy, sexy!

And of course she must pray and meditate in a style of my choosing, ‘cos she’s just a girl.

Due to her (approved) spiritual praxes, she will have many superpowers, most importantly;

-She never ever gets grumpy – especially around *that* time of the month,

-She never feels greed – especially over my increasingly blue-sky wealth.

-She unconditionally loves a large number of people – who are all cute girls with bisexual leanings. No Fags!

-She has the quality of childlike innocence – or can at least fake it when she puts on the frilly dress and calls me Daddy.

No fatties, dykey haircuts or commoners need apply.

More about me. Me, me, meeee.

I’m really clever and smart, and clever. My balls don’t work, but I disguise that by claiming I’m a Tantra Master who withholds his Precious Bodily Fluids deliberately (& hiding my viagra stash).

I am a Chivalrous Man – meaning I do the opening-doors-paying-restaurants thing, while you do the supplicant-muse-and-fucktoy thing, with occasional witty banter about how high-minded we of the Light are for not liking that new-fangled rock music and television the kids like so much.

Did I mention I’m really, really Funny? Really I am. Funny. Really funny!

Surrender versus control… If you surrender, I won’t have to control you now, will I?

Yours in desperate lonely wanking hope,

The geeky Newager with strange creepy eyes.

I do hope he finds the woman he deserves… who would be an awful long way from the one he demands.

(PS – for more of this kind of gratuitous and malicious attacking of the desires of poor little internet-trolling men, check out the blogs Why Women Hate Men and Will Not Get You Laid.)

via Bruce Sterling, who so often gets the good stuff, this splendid piece of street theatre/music.

A segment from the amazing street performance “Glissendo” at a French art festival: “Lightning” by Philip Glass. Concept and technical design by Ulik (the mechanical clown).

Unicycles, or Segways (or Daleks) under the robes? Doesn’t matter. This made me chortle like a happy baby.