Abishai100
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- Sep 22, 2013
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This is a 'pro-modernism parable' involving Shiva (Hindu god of destruction) and Mister Babadook (fictional demonic presence from a horror-film) regarding modernism securities.
Signing off,
====
Lord Shiva was meditating on his mountaintop in India when he had a revelation. Now, Shiva had already achieved much in his life and performed many feats and miracles to magnify and showcase his powers and the majesty of his trident, however, this new revelation regarded the modern phenomenon of pedestrian anarchy and juvenile violence. Shiva believed that graphic images in media and TV glorified violence and turned American youngsters onto crime, making anarchy seem somehow alluring. Shiva wanted to understand the 'face' of this demon.
After much meditating, Shiva reasoned that the 'mind' behind this demonic face was in fact some kind of sentient intelligence. Shiva meditated and started incanting prayers about the sanctity of peace and the need to control violence with authority. Shiva asked the winds what kind of a demon could manifest in a modernizing world only to incite anarchy, and soon enough the demonic-figurehead appeared --- Mister Babadook. Shiva looked him right in the eye and asked him what his intentions were, and the demon explained that he was a messenger of evil.
SHIVA: You appear as a hatted shadowy ghoul, Babadook!
BABADOOK: Call me 'Mr. Babadook.'
SHIVA: Why/how are you a messenger of evil?
BABADOOK: I reveal the pathways to violence...
SHIVA: I am the Lord of Destruction, so we are similar!
BABADOOK: You meditate on control; I brood about anarchy.
SHIVA: Meditation and pensive brooding are both appreciated at Yale University.
BABADOOK: That is smug, but my purpose is 'humble' --- complete mayhem.
SHIVA: Mayhem is simply a 'face' of arson and therefore anarchy.
BABADOOK: My mayhem is specific, Lord Shiva --- I want to create doors of fear.
SHIVA: Doors?
BABADOOK: Yes, doors!
SHIVA: Why doors? Is it because doors symbolize 'passageways'?
BABADOOK: Doors are entrances and therefore represent basic 'change.'
SHIVA: I think you're talking about traversing space or travelling!
BABADOOK: But through doors, not elevators.
Shiva concluded that 'Mr. Babadook' had an eccentric preoccupation with doors and not necessarily other 'items/objects' (such as elevators) that symbolize transit, traversing of space, travel, or thruways. Shiva reasoned that Babadook wanted to create panic and fear about doors in the modern world, since modern American cities were filled with buildings with doors that people opened and closed everyday to work and learn about commerce and politics. Shiva wondered what Babadook would do with his obsession with doors and his interest in creating modernism pedestrian terror.
Sure enough, two years later, Babadook sent Shiva horrific paintings of modern New Yorkers being smashed by doors of buildings in the great city after 9/11. The paintings represented Babadook's interpretation of urbanization claustrophobia and how Americans' sense of modernization security was undermined (in basic ways!) because of anti-commerce and anti-capitalism sentiments seen and heard from other parts of the world (e.g., the Middle East). The paintings of people being decapitated or dismembered or losing their arms, hands, legs, or fingers in slamming doors signified Babadook's hatred of the city.
To counter-point these paintings of urbanization panic, Shiva sent Babadook poems about the beauty and sanctity of civilization legalese, bureaucratic optimism/idealism, and the sanity/symbolism of urban doors and skyscrapers. Babadook really liked Shiva's poems and suggested that he someday descend on Earth and take the form of a professor and teach philosophy at Yale University (the prestigious Ivy League school in Connecticut). Shiva was relieved that Babadook liked his modernism poems and believed that the impish demon would not subside his 'rage' against modernism. Nevertheless, Shiva kept many of his poems (like the one below) as personal 'insurance prayers.'
Modern door-step,
Modern thru-ways,
Modern man,
Modern woman!
A girl walks through a door,
her babysitter behind her.
Will the babysitter make it through?
We wonder about the safety,
the purity of these doors and buildings.
It's about traffic and ants,
doors, and windows,
and more than anything...
...about ruin!
====
Signing off,
====
Lord Shiva was meditating on his mountaintop in India when he had a revelation. Now, Shiva had already achieved much in his life and performed many feats and miracles to magnify and showcase his powers and the majesty of his trident, however, this new revelation regarded the modern phenomenon of pedestrian anarchy and juvenile violence. Shiva believed that graphic images in media and TV glorified violence and turned American youngsters onto crime, making anarchy seem somehow alluring. Shiva wanted to understand the 'face' of this demon.
After much meditating, Shiva reasoned that the 'mind' behind this demonic face was in fact some kind of sentient intelligence. Shiva meditated and started incanting prayers about the sanctity of peace and the need to control violence with authority. Shiva asked the winds what kind of a demon could manifest in a modernizing world only to incite anarchy, and soon enough the demonic-figurehead appeared --- Mister Babadook. Shiva looked him right in the eye and asked him what his intentions were, and the demon explained that he was a messenger of evil.
SHIVA: You appear as a hatted shadowy ghoul, Babadook!
BABADOOK: Call me 'Mr. Babadook.'
SHIVA: Why/how are you a messenger of evil?
BABADOOK: I reveal the pathways to violence...
SHIVA: I am the Lord of Destruction, so we are similar!
BABADOOK: You meditate on control; I brood about anarchy.
SHIVA: Meditation and pensive brooding are both appreciated at Yale University.
BABADOOK: That is smug, but my purpose is 'humble' --- complete mayhem.
SHIVA: Mayhem is simply a 'face' of arson and therefore anarchy.
BABADOOK: My mayhem is specific, Lord Shiva --- I want to create doors of fear.
SHIVA: Doors?
BABADOOK: Yes, doors!
SHIVA: Why doors? Is it because doors symbolize 'passageways'?
BABADOOK: Doors are entrances and therefore represent basic 'change.'
SHIVA: I think you're talking about traversing space or travelling!
BABADOOK: But through doors, not elevators.
Shiva concluded that 'Mr. Babadook' had an eccentric preoccupation with doors and not necessarily other 'items/objects' (such as elevators) that symbolize transit, traversing of space, travel, or thruways. Shiva reasoned that Babadook wanted to create panic and fear about doors in the modern world, since modern American cities were filled with buildings with doors that people opened and closed everyday to work and learn about commerce and politics. Shiva wondered what Babadook would do with his obsession with doors and his interest in creating modernism pedestrian terror.
Sure enough, two years later, Babadook sent Shiva horrific paintings of modern New Yorkers being smashed by doors of buildings in the great city after 9/11. The paintings represented Babadook's interpretation of urbanization claustrophobia and how Americans' sense of modernization security was undermined (in basic ways!) because of anti-commerce and anti-capitalism sentiments seen and heard from other parts of the world (e.g., the Middle East). The paintings of people being decapitated or dismembered or losing their arms, hands, legs, or fingers in slamming doors signified Babadook's hatred of the city.
To counter-point these paintings of urbanization panic, Shiva sent Babadook poems about the beauty and sanctity of civilization legalese, bureaucratic optimism/idealism, and the sanity/symbolism of urban doors and skyscrapers. Babadook really liked Shiva's poems and suggested that he someday descend on Earth and take the form of a professor and teach philosophy at Yale University (the prestigious Ivy League school in Connecticut). Shiva was relieved that Babadook liked his modernism poems and believed that the impish demon would not subside his 'rage' against modernism. Nevertheless, Shiva kept many of his poems (like the one below) as personal 'insurance prayers.'
Modern door-step,
Modern thru-ways,
Modern man,
Modern woman!
A girl walks through a door,
her babysitter behind her.
Will the babysitter make it through?
We wonder about the safety,
the purity of these doors and buildings.
It's about traffic and ants,
doors, and windows,
and more than anything...
...about ruin!
====
