11/27/2011

The walls


(to kvetchers everywhere)



Finally the walls are up.


Safety restored,


build with the shortcomings


of others.


Bad world, bad world, bad world.




The structure is needed


to keep wrong doers away


and her soul within.


For the soul to remain soul.


For her to be her.


Otherwise


she would leak out,


the little of her there is.




Bad world, bad world, bad world.


Her hurt is the weapon,


the mason and the surgeon.


Her indignation the corset


and the crutch.


Bad world, bad world, bad world.




No explanation needed.


No reasoning sought.


No empathy given.


The walls safely around.


Condemning the others.


Boosting the self.




Bad world, bad world, bad world.


Irony attacks, no way to know


who speaks from the heart,


who lies.


No way to know


what is this guy’s real game.


No way to know


what that gal truly wants.


No way to know


why they cheat and lie.


All of them.




Bad world, bad world, bad world.


And when the flash


“could she be also among them?”


flies through her mind,


it is forgotten promptly.


And when the thought


“perhaps I'm wrong”


knocks to her mind,


it is denied entry.


Bad world, bad world, bad world.




When will finally people


be open and honest and nice!


Bad world, bad world, bad world.


Bad world, bad world, bad world.


Bad world, bad world, bad world.


When will finally people


be open and honest and nice!



11/25/2011

Dear Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Peli: can we make scary scarier?

“Paranormal activity”, written/directed by Oren Peli

In case you have not yet seen the superb original “Paranormal activity” - be warned, I will discuss its ending.

I’d like to pose a question to those who did watched it and hypothetically even to those who were behind making it. The press materials say that the movie version ending was suggested by the Maestro Spielberg himself, hence the title of this post.

The body flying toward the camera is strong, shocking and fabulous. Yet it felt disappointingly fast as a conclusion of a very suspenseful scene and the film itself.

I wonder what would happen if an additional beat was introduced: mainly after the victim leaves the room and before the throw of the body toward the camera the victim escapes the horror of the hallway into the room, collapses onto the floor and lies there scared out of his mind.

Then the noise on the hallway intensifies and the body of the victim is whooshed back into the darkness of the hallway. Several seconds of horrifying cries follow and only then the body flies toward the lenses. Would it not milk the scare longer without taking away the final shock?

11/03/2011

Genius as a thief - part four (of four)


Finally, “Light Denied” assumes that we, meaning non-genial humans, can benefit from the presence of geniuses among us not only by consuming their culturally or scientifically “packaged” findings. In certain instances we can also in a safe manner participate in their dangerous, “promethean”, thievery escapades.


The safety is guaranteed only when journeys are done through fictitious characters, when enveloped in skins of screen, stage or page characters we experience catharsis and insights of the quests for truth. It is als close to the real deal as we can get without paying the ultimate price with our sanity or life. That’s is supposed to be the case of “Light Denied” where prof. Feliks Lewinski by gradually entering the Abyss reaches the Truth and as a result looses his mind. Watching Lewinski allows the narrator to diffuse the danger of Mystery and to internalize its wisdom. At the end he concludes:


“I was no longer fearing Nietzsche. I finally understood, that despite dangers, the Dionysian light must be embraces. Because it's the source of life and as such cannot be denied.”


This dramatic device aims to complete the subplot assuming that the viewers with similar sensitivities accept the screen ritual and experience integration with the Mystery. Despite, or because of it, that the integration is a third hand - a genial exploration of Nietzsche is lived through a fictitious character who is watched by the narrator - the viewer can safely participate in a journey. If that’s indeed the case then for some can apply a comment from Dan Pal from WDCB Public Radio (Illinois):


“This film will leave you contemplating its message for days afterward."


“Light Denied”

written/directed by Paweł Kuczyński

www.directing.com/light


11/02/2011

Genius as a thief - part three


Alicja Dabrowska and Krzysztof Janczar

in "Light Denied"


When a human mind attempts to penetrate the unreachable/forbidden regions of Knowledge it risks mortal dangers. Faith, theological axioms and religious rituals serve as effective intermediaries between the Unknown and human mind. A naked not covered by a religious insulator mind is helpless facing the forces and dimensions exceeding its grasp. That’s why plugging an unguarded mind into Mystery usually (always?) fries it.


This dangerous possibility is addressed twice in dialogue in the fictitious part of the film. During an encounter with a young librarian who, in his mind morphs into Mathilde Trampedach one of the women Nietzsche helplessly yearned for, prof. Lewinsky dreamingly addresses her:


“Mathilde? Mathilde, don't you think that each of us being together with the other will be better of, will be more free than if we existed separately? In order to withstand that terrifying Whirl, that overwhelming Abyss a human being has to be close to another one. Mathilda, one cannot always listen to music - it would lead straight to madness.”


In another scene prof. Lewinsky tries to pass the knowledge to the President of his university:


Krzysztof Janczar and Stanislaw Zaluski


Felix:

As the head of our institution, you should be the first to know it.


President:

Indeed?


Felix:

But not here. Please, Mr. President.


President:

Mr. Felix!


Felix:

We won't be disturbed here.


President:

Professor, this is highly inappropriate.


Felix:

Who cares. Mr. President, this is about fundamental matters. I finally got it.


President:

Yes?


Felix:

I have understood that...

(he whispers into the President’s ear)


President:

What do you mean by that?

(Felix whispers again)


President:

Professor, you must be joking. Don't forget that I deal with science, too. Please don't forget that we both carry watches. So time exists. At least for you and me.


Felix:

You understood nothing.


Prof. Hope Fitz comments:


“Probably at the of his life Nietzsche lost his mind. It seems to me there is not clear border between a creative mind and madness. Research confirms it. 80% of US writes had mental problems. I am not surprised by that. Imagine, they are on the edge far away from mass opinions in their thinking. They constantly test the borders.”


11/01/2011

Genius as a thief - part two


Light Denied” was born out of three assumptions: the first states that a genius is a go-between our yearnings, phobias and awes and their answers given in coherent, articulated ways. A genius is a person who shortens the distance between our unattainable ontological “wants” and that which is at our disposal to make sense of the reality within and without. In order for the distance to be lessened, a genius has to apply his/her particular technology so that the people he communicates with can find themselves in the place where, due to their own limitations, they would not get by themselves. A genius brings them that which is forbidden. A genius knows or at least senses what others need before they do. Or he is driven by his inner hunger for insight.


Genius is a bit like a thief, like Prometheus, who in order to posses something that somebody else might want needs to get it first. First, using all his might, he needs to travel to the source of insight. Once at the destination a genius needs not only to spot and recognize “the goods” but also to find a proper form to translate them back to his tribe. For that he uses among others Images, sounds, words, abstract thinking and mathematic formulas.


A second assumption of “Light Denied” deals with danger. The film is not concerned with theories that Nietzsche’s madness was caused by syphilis or was genetic (his father died of brain softening). Instead the narrative states that Nietzsche went crazy because he crossed into a forbidden zone of knowledge.


There exist regions of exploration which are closed to human mind. Mind although being able to formulate abstract hypothesis, such as mathematic formulas can’t envision the border of the universe or the state of the universe before its beginning or radical micro or macro divisions of time and space. Actually, categories of time and space are the chains put over our imagination to prevent us from accessing Knowledge.