Transformers
Jun. 8th, 2008 03:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
porphyryNo one undertands why I hate the Transformers so much. If I explain its becuase the story is intellectually and spiritually debased Gnostic myth, I am met with blank stares. Even Andrew likes them, as he likes any giant fighting robots, unaware of the attack agianst counter-tradition.
Someone bought him a Transformer stroybook. Its text is purely Manichaean, with the Transformers emerging from light and the Decepticons their fallen counter-parts from the darkness locked in eternal struggle throughout the universe. No slavation is at stake, jsut lots of pyrotechnichs.
Today he received a transformer Jigsaw puzzle. As I assembled it with him I saw that it showed an army of giant robot scorpions attacking St. Catherine's Monastary on Mt. Sinai. What could this be except a parody of Revelation 9:
[1] And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
[2] And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
[3] And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
[4] And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
[5] And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
[6] And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
[7] And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
[8] And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
[9] And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
[10] And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
[11] And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
The artist was even imaginative enough to apply the passage to a Gnostic setting. Gnostics would consider conventional Christians as unholy, so of course, it is the Orthodox monks there, not truly sealed with the seal of God, who are attacked.
So may choose to beleive I have gone mad rather than accept my interpretation of the image, but see for yourself:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-2007-TRANSFORMERS-70-Pc-PUZZLE-with-STICKERS-3_W0QQitemZ290150138063QQihZ019QQcategoryZ146071QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262
Someone bought him a Transformer stroybook. Its text is purely Manichaean, with the Transformers emerging from light and the Decepticons their fallen counter-parts from the darkness locked in eternal struggle throughout the universe. No slavation is at stake, jsut lots of pyrotechnichs.
Today he received a transformer Jigsaw puzzle. As I assembled it with him I saw that it showed an army of giant robot scorpions attacking St. Catherine's Monastary on Mt. Sinai. What could this be except a parody of Revelation 9:
[1] And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
[2] And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
[3] And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
[4] And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
[5] And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
[6] And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
[7] And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
[8] And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
[9] And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
[10] And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
[11] And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
The artist was even imaginative enough to apply the passage to a Gnostic setting. Gnostics would consider conventional Christians as unholy, so of course, it is the Orthodox monks there, not truly sealed with the seal of God, who are attacked.
So may choose to beleive I have gone mad rather than accept my interpretation of the image, but see for yourself:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-2007-TRANSFORMERS-70-Pc-PUZZLE-with-STICKERS-3_W0QQitemZ290150138063QQihZ019QQcategoryZ146071QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-08 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-08 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 01:30 am (UTC)http://www.katapi.org.uk/Art/StCathSINAI.html
How else can one interpret it?
no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 01:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-08 10:07 pm (UTC)I don't think that the artist was aware of what he was implicitely saying with his jigsaw-puzzle and I'm not sure whether or not it makes any difference, just as long as the discussion doesn't take a Jungian turn. But aren't all fairy tales and most boys' stories based on the formula "good fighting evil" and therefore (in a way) Manichaean?
By the way, I'm still interested in what your Tissot painting is about. Can you tell us who the persons are supposed to be?
no subject
Date: 2008-06-08 11:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 08:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 02:09 am (UTC)As to the Tissot:
This is from an unfinished series titled Triumph of the Will and is called The Challenge. What Tissot meant by it I have idea, and a breif look at Google didn't turn up much except offers to buy prints of it.
However, here is what I make of it:
20 years again there existed a utopian state modeled on Plato’s Republic. There happens to born into the peasant class a woman of exceptional ability. The educational system takes notice of her and she is rapidly advanced until her talents merit her admission into the ranks of the philosopher kings. However, this is a disaster, since she has kept alive in her heart burning class-resentment. By a combination of seduction and her mastery of the black-arts she stages a coup-d’état. Her peasant rabble is able to defeat the guardians because she arms them with something hitherto unknown in the world: gun-powder weapons. The entire class of Philosopher kings is wiped out except for one philosopher-queen who manages to escape. She is pregnant. She and a few followers escape to a cabin in the mountains. She she determines to keep her new-born son ignorant of his heritage, the very existence of the woman who ahs become the evil witch-queen of the remnants of the republic (who of course killed his father), and everything else of that kind, lest when he becomes a man he try to take revenge and get himself killed too. When he is 14 or so a terrible plague sweeps through the world and kills a third of mankind. Reaching even the remote cabin, it kills the philosopher queen and her followers, except for the son who is immune. Left alone, not knowing even that there are other people in the world, he starts to wander. He soon finds himself in a land of barbarians and becomes captain of a war-band. That is him in the red; the tiger-skin is the trophy of an exploit from this period wherein he killed the creature; he wears the skin as Roman signifers wore wolf-skins. He meets one of the few other surviving philosopher kings (well, they were almost all wiped out) who has also been hiding out in the barbarian kingdom, trying, without much success, to organize some kind of military force to attack and supplant the witch-queen. He also becomes the chronicler of all these events. That is him in the rear right. Eventually the young philosopher-king, marries the barbarian queen (that’s her in the middle) and is able to mobilize an adequate military force (trained with the help of a few refugee Guardians). They are able to reconquer the republic because the witch-queen has done away with all fire-arms out of fear of assassination. That is her there sprawled on the ground, turned into a half-human, half leopard monster by her horrible alchemy, hunted down after the defeat of her peasant army. You may think she has just been killed in combat with the barbarian queen, but she has only been grievously wounded. She still has the strength left to pull out a small pistol and kill the Barbarian queen. Artemis wraps up the novel by coming and taking the barbarian queen (her devotee in life) up to heaven.
No need to tell me how hackneyed this all is—I do not intend it as art, but to sell on the mass paperback fantasy novel market.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 02:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-10 02:26 am (UTC)By the way, have you seen the Indian Epic?
no subject
Date: 2008-06-09 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-10 02:28 am (UTC)How jouyous it is to have readers that know who Bradamante is!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-10 02:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-10 12:13 pm (UTC)