SIN TEXT

“That Brain and Hands no longer understand each other will one day destroy the New Tower of Babel.” ― Thea von Harbou, from her 1925 novel Metropolis on which the 1927 film was… Continue reading →

PERSONA NON GRATA II

“The first 40 years of life give us the text; the next 30 supply the commentary on it.” —Arthur Schopenhauer But about half a century before its decline and fall, we, in the… Continue reading →

ON SEMIOTICS

“I have a disease; I see language” — Roland Barthes With a title like that you’d think a dense, bordering on malicious obscurantist essay will be here. But no, it’s just another unintentionally… Continue reading →

ME-TROPOLIS

“Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless.” ― H.G. Wells, The Time Machine The 1927 silent movie Metropolis is partially the inspiration for this image (again!) It was set… Continue reading →

ARTS AND MINDS

“The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart” — Final intertitle in Metropolis What you see here is a picture of the same guy twice. Fig.1 shows him after… Continue reading →

IMAGINARY PRISONS

“Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money!” —Allen Ginsberg, Howl This post’s illustration idea was manifest (scribbled, but not doodled in my journal) before I remembered the Giovanni… Continue reading →

UT TECHNE PICTURA

You know the story of “Metropolis,” the classic sci-fi flick about a dystopia 100 years in the future? That 1927 movie where saint/agitator Maria enflames the proletariat to revolt against their oligarch oppressors,… Continue reading →

“IT’S [LEGALLY] ALIVE!”

The story here is one of illusion. Life, specifically human life, where there is none. The animation is not what it seems to be. Put that aside for a while, and let’s discuss… Continue reading →

Our kenosis is their prophet.

The rich are different, but they enjoy the morality plays big media presents for the rest of us as much as we do. But the rich like it in a different way, for… Continue reading →

Singularicide

More and more jobs are being done by machines; machines are slowly inching up the food chain. If a dystopian remake of “How to succeed in business…” were cast today J. Pierpont Finch… Continue reading →