indulge me...

The opening of 2001:A Space Odyssey depicts the sun rising above a crescent Earth while the introduction to Richard Strauss' tone-poem, Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra), plays. This music is meant to represent the wise man, Zarathustra, as he descends from a mountain to preach his gospel to the people. Only in this case, it is Stanley Kubrick coming to preach his gospel.

The Nietzschean idea seems to have its origin in Darwin's theory of natural selection. According to Nietzsche, the evolution of man will travel through three stages: primitive man (ape), modern man, and ultimately, superman. Nietzsche's idea is elaborated on in his belief that the spirit of man is born of two gods: Dionysus and Apollo. Dionysus was "the god of wine and revelry, of ascending life, of joy in action, of ecstatic emotion and inspiration, of instinct and adventure and dauntless suffering, the god of song and music and dance and drama." Opposing Dionysus is Apollo, "the god of peace and leisure and repose, of aesthetic emotion and intellectual contemplation, of logical order and philosophic calm, the god of painting and sculpture and epic poetry."

Based on this idea, primitive man is Dionysian in spirit, lead by instinct and living in the moment, but lacking intellectual abilities. Modern man, though, is Apollonian in spirit, peaceful and calm, conquered by democracy, socialism, and religions such as Christianity and Buddhism. All vestiges of instinct in man have been extinguished - leaving man as a pathetic creature, in Nietzsche's eyes. The superman will be a move back toward a Dionysian state. "A return to nature, although it is not really a going back but an ascent - up into the high, free, even terrible nature and naturalness." The superman will regain man's lost instinct.

In the Kubrick films, the idea of primitive man can be found in 2001 and A Clockwork Orange. 2001's depiction of primitive man is in the segment "The Dawn of Man" that opens the film. This segment depicts primitive man gaining the instinct to kill, which is symbolized with the appearance of the monolith. In the novel, 2001, the main ape-man (named Moon-Watcher) after gaining this instinct and killing another ape-man is described as master of the world and thinking "he was not quite sure what to do next. But he would think of something." This is a clear illustration of primitive man as a creature of action and of the moment, a Dionysian spirit.

In a similar statement from the novel A Clockwork Orange, the main character, Alex, says "What's it going to be then, eh?", indicating that he is also a creature of action, a man linked to the primitive man's spirit. As Kubrick says, Alex is "natural man in the state in which he is born, unlimited, unrepressed." Further proof of this is in the film, when Alex says "Thinking was for the gloppy ones. The oomny ones used, like, inspiration..." Inspiration is a Dionysian trait, while contemplative thought is an Apollonian trait. Alex's love of music ("the glorious Ninth of Ludwig Van") is also an example of a Dionysian trait.

The transition from primitive to modern man was a gradual process. 2001 depicts this in a scene showing Moon-Watcher throw a bone into the air. The corresponding chapter to this event, called "The Ascent of Man", describes briefly the evolutionary and intellectual changes in man that lead to his current Apollonian self.

In 2001, modern man is shown to be scientific, intellectual, and reserved in nature. He is a pale and pathetic creature, lacking the vitality of his primitive ancestors. The U.S. President in Dr. Strangelove is also a good depiction of modern man. Intellectual and ineffectual, "a Stevensonian egghead", he is more concerned with protocol than action. This man is not like Moon-Watcher, the master of the world, despite being president of the United States.

The basic conflict between the Dionysian and Apollonian spirit can be seen in A Clockwork Orange, when Alex receives the Ludovico treatment, which is done to lessen his Dionysian spirit and make him more Apollonian. The real effect is he comes down with a death-like sickness whenever his natural Dionysian self comes into play. He is "cured" of this treatment at the end of the film - but he doesn't became superman.

In the journey from primitive man to superman, the monolith on the moon in 2001 marks a major moment. In the scene with the moon monolith, the sun is pictured directly overhead when the monolith emits a loud noise (perhaps to signal the arrival of this moment). This moment is described by Nietzsche as "the noon when man stands the middle of his way between beast and superman...a way to a new morning", the first morning of the superman.

The superman is reached at the end of 2001. In the final scenes, the astronaut, David Bowman, lies on his deathbed. He wills the superman into existence before expiring. " 'I love him who willeth the creation of something beyond himself and then perisheth' said Zarathustra." This idea is also well expressed in another work of Richard Strauss, a tone-poem called Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration). Writing about this work, Strauss said it was "to represent the death of a person who had striven for the highest artistic goals...The fruit of his path through life appears to him, the idea, the Ideal." Remove the word "artistic" and interpret the "person" to be mankind, then this accurately describes the Nietzschean idea, that mankind is striving for an Ideal, called the superman, to be willed into existence by man before he perishes.

In 2001, the superman is shown to be a child (called the Star-Child in the novel). This also comes from Nietzsche, in his metaphors for the three metamorphoses of man's spirit. In the final metamorphosis, when man becomes superman, Nietzsche says the spirit will be like a child, because "the child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning." A child also is of the Dionysian spirit, before society conditions it out of him. In 2001, the Star-Child is also the reborn David Bowman and returns to Earth in the final scene. This episode in Nietzsche's terms is described as "the spirit now wills his own will, and he who had been lost to the world now conquers his own world." David Bowman, lost to the world during his space odyssey, has returned to rule it.

The Nietzschean idea could be summarized as mankind's struggle to reach an Ideal, the perfect being. Although aspects of this idea are in A Clockwork Orange and Dr. Strangelove, it is 2001 that is the most striking example of this philosophy in Kubrick's films.

in rainbows

The struggle between people and corporations will be the defining battle of the 21st century. If the corporations win, liberal democracy will come to an end. The great social democratic institutions which have defended the weak against the strong - equality before the law, representative government, democratic accountability and the sovereignty of parliament - will be toppled. If the corporate attempt on public life is beaten back, then democracy may re-emerge the stronger for its conquest. But this victory cannot be brokered by our representatives. Democracy will survive only if the people in whose name they govern rescue the state from captivity.

Prove we're better than they think, vote radiohead.

iBoy
-x-

did you know that...

...Emperor Constantine I, now in firm command of the entire Roman empire (the first man for a long while to be in that position), is planning another initiative as significant as his adoption of Christianity. Immediately after the defeat of Licinius he sets about rebuilding Byzantium as a Christian capital city - one in which pagan sacrifice, the central rite of imperial Rome until this time, is specifically forbidden.

The city is ready by AD 330 for a ceremony of inauguration. Byzantium acquires two new names - Nova Roma and Constantinople, the city of Constantine. The Roman empire, within eighteen years of Constantine's first victory, has a new religion, a new centre of gravity and a significant change of culture.

in your FACE knowitall American lecture boy! I was right!


iBoy
-x-

rhymenoserous

other rappers dis' me, say my rhymes are sissy
...why, why, why? be more constructive with your feedback - why?

just because I rap about reality, like me and my nanna havin' a cuppa tea?
-THERE AIN'T NO PARTY LIKE MY NANNA'S TEA PARTY-

HEY! HO!


iBoy
-x-

god

And yes, I am he who brought light to the books of millions who had forgotten how to read
With these hands that Create & Destory I will bring Order to the Wilds of Europe
With this body, all that is mine, I will chase Aeneas back to his ships.

These thoughs, which circle the cities like vultures
They are not mine
I do not belong

These thoughs, which circle the minds of men
They are not mine
I do not belong

And I will smash my body against these rocks
Until my bones become dust
And I am carried away by the ocean
Away from where my story began
To Where I Am Free

iBoy
-x-

all that stuff down there.

is all of the the poetry/lyrics/writings that i felt good enough to hang onto.
so read and enjoy. or hate. or feel indifference. or don't read at all.


they're only really there to fuel my raging ego.


iBoy
-x-

kick it to this.

I stand again, in my room
smashing up my record collection
the fragments falling around my feet

pick it up, kick it to this

I'll stitch it back together to find a new sound
to fit the myriad ways in which it changes
and billows around me

pick it up, kick it to this

in the streets, millions gather.
in the streets, millions gather.

pick it up, kick it to this.
pick it up, kick it to this.

unreality.

unreality: a means of escape.
a self-fulfilling prophecy.

the means of my unreality control my existence.
i over anaylse and learn to justify belief.
the systems which control me, trap me.
the safety nets which protect me, enslave me.

the panopticon has been birthed
whether accidental
or feudal

is inconsequential


this reality is painful - the scrutiny unbearable

the cathode narcissus is here to be seen by all
a freak show of addiction - WITHOUT needles

the junkies of this generation are socially accepted

we are addicted to norms

my chains are invisible, but yet, they hold.
my cell is of my own creation.

i choose to live this sheltered life of inconsequence.
i choose to be invisible.

because i am afraid.

i put the gun in your hands.

through the deepest ocean
and weakest skies
i will find you
and i will make you see

when you stare at me
with your cross-hair eyes

there is more to believe
just stick-up, kid
i will find you
and i will make you believe

when you stare at me
with your cross-hair eyes

under the power-lines
find who you are
i will find you
and you will make me bleed

when you stare at me
with your cross-hair eyes

circling reality
believe in me
choose to see
crash into circumstance
to find a destiny
a course of action
to relieve the tension
target ME
strip ME
waste ME
use ME
destroy ME

with your cross-hair eyes

this is NOT a TEST.

Grey-faced, hypodermic people surround me - leeches waiting to suck their life through a tube, intravenously cleansing their mind & body. Walls close in, nearer every heartbeat even holding my breath refuses to stop this rushing paranoia.
Distilling my life to the most singular quantity of supply and demand may seem blasé or careless, but it is pure, wanton lust and desire that has brought me thus far and surely this which will drive me onwards. In deconstructing and simplifying to the point of pure need I have successfully removed all forethought, malice, social context and perfidious nature from my existence. Within the circles I move, there is no such thing as interfacing or original thought.

They surround me, these creatures - slaves to their own weakness or some sense of romanticism.

No such thing as post-modern irony or any pre-conceived facets of modern fashion such as the reverse-mullet. My world does not run on time conceivable to you or even to the junk sick ghosts surrounding me. I am not prey to either dealers or fashionistas. In an age where individuality is a group concept, I am truly free. Free to wallow in the pigsty or roost in the henhouse. Free to sink deep into the mire of my own perversions, or to rise above them. Nothing I do is calculated in terms of how I am received. I can be both truly deceptive but also crushingly honest. I can be whatever I choose whenever I choose to be.

They seem to draw closer by the second. Closer to me I can taste their stench; their unwashed clothes, their unkempt hair. I can see them breathing. I can FEELthem breathing.

I am the most dangerous of human misanthropes; not a drug dealer, or a con man not even a politician. I am the last human predator.

But even so, I am still assured of my own immortality. I will never die. I refuse to accept death as a viable alternative to my existence. I refuse to accept that my continuance is impossible. I will be the first immortal. And you will come to learn this.