The Schizo-Stroller

Because of the belief
he was banished
But the belief did not permit an outside
So he became a non-person in a non-place.

They worshipped the all-knowing,
the answer that couldn’t be questioned.
Everything was true
and he was not permitted.

He was to be forever witnessed,
under close minded observation,
by authoritians without authority.
Denied his individual freedom,
Denied his right to be.

Wolf-head Azazel
That Lot that is to be removed.
Homo Sacer.

In the name of the Father,
of she who can neither be blamed
nor named
as she was the Lot for the Lord,
the good sacrifice.
The good daughter,
Eve,
the Martyr.

So Salome Bentham,
daughter of Tantalus,
which film shall
we watch tonight?
Atonement?
Or the Wizard of Oz?

Life is noisy.
It is death that is silent.
When you hear moaning
You are hearing people living.
Silencing them,
Because you have judged them
As not appreciating life,
Is your death sentence.

Although due to your faith
You would willingly bowdlerise
Even the workings of my own mind,
my inner sanctum.
I have to say that despite this,
I find your traditions and tyranny,
Your linguistic censorship,
Quite quaint.
Were you more honest though,
You would accept you’re a-dick
And stop saving yourself through saving me.

Five thousand no man is
an island salad dressing and grilled
velocirapture stake.

Making a meal out
of evangelist accelerationism

…and other more secular spirit
of capitalism elective
affinities. End times, end times, bro.

They usually hunt in packs.

The trouble with the vikings
and Ragnarok
is they didn’t have the protestant ethic
and spirit of capitalism.
With their heroes all dead
there’s no chance of a franchise.
Ride of the Valkyries,
Not exactly Fast and the Furious is it?

I keep thinking about
how the protestants’ ethic
and how they keep giving him moral

arguments.

Given the way signifiers work, to be able say that you read something literally, anything, and then come out with only one interpretation, is an act of stupidity bordering on genius.

I’m a materialist (and I use this term here rather than atheist as there are plenty of dualist atheists), however having read a fair amount of and being aware of our pattern making sensory apparatus and neurological make-up, combined with the work of sociologists such as Durkheim and Levi Strauss on the importance of ritual, myth and imagination in the realm of ideas, I therefore have a healthy respect for imaginative practice as a form of poiesis.

However when struggling with this realm, and trying to understand spiritualistic beliefs as a materialistic representative practice that is a perfectly reasonable navigatory practice especially with regard concrete embodied life stresses and experiences, I sometimes, triggered by what seems to be a reactionary remnant of a religious idealism, hear a voice arguing for me to ‘prove it’, now if something is materialistic it must be provable and part of this is my uncomfortability at not being able to get the work done, knowing it is probably a life time’s work that will never be finished coupled with my difficulties at the current time, however another aspect of this phrase is the paradox of a demand from the ideal realm (as a signified discursive realm at least) that a paradox be solved, the problem is that this paradox is demanded from the metaphysical realm, that in a materialist sense, doesn’t exist so it is like asking me to prove something that itself is unprovable doesn’t exist.

I am well aware that this is in many ways a rehashing of Marx’s overturning of Hegel’s dialectic via Feuerbach. However in the realm of both praxis AND poiesis it seems to be a problem that stubbornly and frustratingly remains in the ideological apparatus and as a form of alienation is directly associated with the experience of psychosis.

I will be talking here January 21st 2015 at Housman’s London.

The ASSOCIATION OF MUSICAL MARXISTS present an evening of free improvised music, and discussion of the left’s relation to the current state of “mental health” service provision, including the work of Psychopolitics author Peter Sedgwick, and critique of the hegemonic neo-liberal “Recovery Model.” Speakers: Robert Dellar (author, Splitting in Two: Mad Pride & Punk Rock Oblivion); Alastair Kemp (editor, Newhaven Journal). Entry: £3 redeemable against purchases of books or t-shirts. People with beards will be refused entry.

Facebook event page

There is a belief in the possibility of hearing the voices of the dead in acoustic media: tape, short-wave radio hiss, vinyl etc. called Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP); and then amongst voice hearers there is the experience of hearing what are called acousmatic voices.
An acousmatic sound is a sound where the original source is not known. Tristam Vivian Adams has written a fair bit about them and their use in film, such as Psycho, at the Vocalities blog (part of the Aural and Visual Cultures Department at Goldsmiths). Voice hearers can hear acousmatic voices either where they are disembodied, or embodied but in something alter such as a car tyre screeching, or a fox squealing, music, or even superimposed over someone else’s speech, almost as if a shadow impression.
Electronic Voice Phenomenon seems similar it is hearing ‘messages’ in different media, often accompanied by the belief that they are messages from the dead. Amongst other things I will be exploring any similarities or correlation between the two on this blog over the next couple of years.