I apologize to the readers; things got busy, than existential, than depressing. I'm sitting down and writing this, although I don't have a ton to say, going on the principle of something is better than nothing. So, here goes:
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| The real Sput Sputnik |
The Sex Magicians Chapter Three: Who will guard the guardians? p. 23-33
This chapter's quote-title is famously from Juvenal and received more ubiquity after being the inspiration for Watchmen's title. I personally believe that the title must refer to Tarantella Serpentine's ministrations to the beleagured Dr. Prong that occur in this chapter. Having Tarantella make her debut in the most explicitly pornographic chapter of our slim volume so far is appropriate since the scene that introduces her in Illuminatus! is likewise explicitly pornographic. Her routine with Dr. Prong can be seen as a repurposing of her scene with George Dorn. These scenes seem to be something along the lines of Wilson's ideal of a sexual scenario designed for the purpose of male titillation and pleasure.
Note that Wilson's sex scenes are almost always drawn out in ways that the atmosphere can be heightened before the moment of climax. This is not only decent advice for regular sexual activity, but is one of the most fundamental principles of sex magic. Energized enthusiasm and all that shit. Wilson also seemed to have predicted live sex cams as he often incorporates women masturbating in front of men as a way to increase pleasure, as in this scene, or as a way of torture- as happens to the captive Sigismundo in The Widow's Son.
Other Wilsonian tricks we see in this chapter include his interplay of political beliefs between two characters that he doesn't seem to endorse entirely. The younger, liberal-minded Foxx seems naive and unserious while the more conservative, older Dr. Heyman is a square who banks on the accomplishments of his youth. (Or positioning of his youth since Prong notes he simply worked with Kinsey.) We have bits of self-reference where Wilson denigrates his own plotting and incorporates a quotation from one of his own essays. I had suggested to Rasa that the essay be included in this book, but he probably decided it wasn't relevant enough. It would probably fit better into a collection of essays by Wilson on general culture and entertainment. (Also, if anyone can enlighten me to the meaning of the aufgehoben of the Freudian Id, I'd greatly appreciate it. Everything I found had to do with Hegel, and I find Hegel quite impenetrable.)
I guess this is as good as time as any to review Fernando Poo; I appreciate the fact that information is so much more readily available today, as I imagine many readers probably weren't sure if Fernando Poo existed when the first book came out. Fernando Poo was actually known as Fernando Po for much of its pre-modern and modern history, named after the Portuguese explorer who was the first European to "discover" the island. It is actually only rendered as "Fernando Poo" in Spanish. Fernao do Po named the island Formosa Flora and it has been known as Bioko since 1979.
The Sex Magicians Chapter Four: Why is a duck? p. 34-39
As far as I can tell, the chapter's title is derived from the famous Marx Brothers routine, but that is more properly "Why a duck?" and I can't tell exactly what it would pertain to in this chapter.
However, what I can observe is that in this chapter we have a character that closely resembles one of Wilson's "real life" personas in Josh Dill and we can probably glean some of his actual opinions of working at Playboy as well as his opinion of Hugh Hefner. Just like Sput Sputnik, Wilson has said that Hefner tried, and sometimes succeeded, in being something of a legendary figure in the Playboy offices- however, Sput's ridiculousness might hint at how well Wilson thought that worked for him.
The list of interview subjects shows some of the mercurial contempt that Hefner had a habit of uttering and therefore nixing ideas that Wilson found compelling. Spiro Agnew is too controversial, Ezra Pound uninteresting because he's a poet and of course there are his hilarious invectives against the imagined Attorney General. I have a feeling that the Attorney General in mind while Wilson wrote this scene was Watergate crook John Mitchell, although by the time of publication the AG was the short-tenured Elliot Richardson. Two scenes in this chapter were extraordinarily striking to me when I first read the novel years ago: the hypothetical effects of hashish and a scene that brought tears of laughter to my eyes. I still love the orgasmic repetition of Dr. Spock's name and the punchline that I've made the title of this week's (and last week's, and the one for the week before...) post and think it is one of Wilson's best fictional vignettes.
- A.C.
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Thank you for posting. I wish Playboy had sent Bob Wilson to interview Ezra Pound, though.
ReplyDeleteIn one of the better Universes next door, perhaps.
DeleteSo I guess this Stan Sputnik character really likes to ‘fire his rocket’, amiright? WINK WINK
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVvGKZklugE
Sputnik, by the way, sure sounds like a “damned red commie” (p.23) name to me.
On page 27, Dr. Prong “browsed in his record collection and put “Songs of the Blue Whales” on the stereo.” As we are just this week starting out the Moby Dick reading group over at rawillumination, I find that an amusing synchronicity, especially since two paragraphs down the road, Prong tells himself that “a run of coincidences like these made no sense at all”, and calls Jung “batty”.
Next page sees Raquel Welch actually getting name-dropped, as I was recently suggesting that she might have been the inspiration for Josie Welch.
It is said that Tarantella “really put her heart into her work” (p.29). Indeed I suspect a sex magick allusion here, with the heart meaning Tiphareth. Love is the law, love under willy, anyone?
Next page, she even says “there is no reality but sensation”. Perhaps she is trying to rewire Dr. Prong, hoping that the buddhist-like ontological wisdom will make it through to him, now that his sexually heightened consciousness is more open to suggestions. Brainwashing, pleasantly done.
“Now, the strip.” Tarantella almost appears like a modern incarnation of Ishtar, slowly getting rid of her garments.
I would guess that the only reason “why is a duck” shows up is for the reader to exclaim “what the ring-tailed rambling hell does that mean?” followed by “this is the worst piece of idiocy I’ve ever seen” (p.34). This is, after all, one them “books by bad writers” (p.28).
I feel glad that RAW calls Napoleon a “little Corsican sociopath”, as I tend to get annoyed at people who admire the war-mongering Emperor who took over France and Europe after the Revolution.
Since the following chapter is only two pages long, should we just read two at once again for next week?
By the way, at the end of the Space is the Place book, an anecdote is recounted that resonates with chapter one of The Sex Magicians:
[Arkestra member] “Jacson had studied Zen philosophy before he had met Sun Ra, and he recognized paradoxical communication at work in his teaching. “So like a smart ass, I asked him, ‘Sonny, what’s the sound of one hand clapping?’
‘The breeze, Jacson,’ he answered, ‘the breeze.’”
If you were one of my students, I'd give you an A+ for close reading! You've dug up a handful of gems I missed. I'm particuarly embarassed I missed the Ishtar connection- I felt very awkward during that scene, which took me out of the eroticism. I've never enjoyed strip teases myself, so that's probably why.
DeleteI agree with your assessment of Napoleon. While teaching some Sherlock Holmes stories earlier this year, I had to explain to the kids how the title "The Napoleon of Crime" would have read to the average 19th Century Britisher. While a crude comparison, as most are to that little asshole, I reached enough to say that the name Napoleon would conjure the same repulsion as Hitler or Mao would today.
That's a lovely anecdote about Sun Ra. You've convinced me I need to read up on him and do a deep dive into his Arkestra.
Regarding your comment from the previous chapter, I do have Children of the Stones high on my watchlist, together with The Owl Service. I appreciate the recommendation.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope your back feels better.
From the 2nd sentence of chapter 3 (p. 23): " ... and we give him a gun and a club and a can of MACE, and turn him loose, my God, to 'police' the rest of us. Insanity. Total insanity."
ReplyDeleteMace in all caps for no apparent reason suggests analyzing it qabalistically, to me. We saw back on p. 12 that ACE = Artificial Coital Equipment, in other words, a mechanical phallus. MACE = M (Mem, the Hanged Man) + ACE. In other words, the Hanged Man + an active phallus. This seeming paradoxical image appears a key to sex magick – a balance between active male and beyond male force; "my God" = 43 = "a number of orgasm – especially the male" according to Crowley's List of Primes in 777; 'police' = 203 - look that up in the Sepher Sephiroth and you'll find genital member written in Latin along with other words/ images related to MACE (Hanged Man + phallus) and that could be seen as sex magick instruction, for example: "To lie in wait"
The concept of Hanged Man + phallus relates to Crowley's N.O.X. given in one of his sex magick manuals, The Book of Lies. To oversimplify: N = nun = Death (Tarot); O = Ayin = The Devil (Tarot) = unbalanced male energy; Crowley connects X with Tau or the cross and it may help to know that he calls N.O.X. the night of Pan.
This concept also relates to: KING KONG DIED FOR YOUR SINS
- EZRA POUND message found on the following page. My guess of why the Pound attribution will have to wait until my next chance to comment. I'm still behind with my music work. Also, the 2nd paragraph on p. 24 that starts "How's Three-A ..." has a great deal of Cabala related to the Supernal Triad and I would transpose and analyze the word "Incredible" following the 23 mention a few lines below on p. 24. I'll try to get to those next time, soon.
Spookah, you seem correct with the "really put her heart into her work" analysis.
There seems all kinds of esoteric information in various Marx Brothers films. I've watched some of them dozens of times. I do remember a "why a duck" in one of the routines with Groucho and Chico that played off a sound similarity with "viaduct." Don't remember which film, but pretty sure it wasn't Duck Soup.
The analysis of MACE makes perfect sense- I think we're on the same wave length as far as that particular possible instruction goes. I really need to rememorize the Star Ruby instead of the LBRP- I felt like I thrived when I was more connected to that ritual.
DeleteLooking it up, the routine is from The Cocoanuts- I should rewatch more Marx Brothers films. I've only ever rewatched Duck Shop and Horse Feathers.
The Wikipedia article on "who watches the watchers," "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" says that in its original context, the phrase had a sexual element and referred to the difficulty of trying to preserve sexual fidelity:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F
Interesting comment, Tom Jackson!
ReplyDeleteOf course, Dr. Prong watches women having orgasms, and if we take this voyeur angle, there might be a meta commentary about the horny reader as well. Although I could be reaching too far, since RAW chose the phrasing 'guard' rather than 'watch'.
"There is no reality but sensations" could also allude to the idea that Prong, a brainy type with a strong C3 imprinting, and seemingly steeped in scientific materialism (as per his views on coincidences, for instance) might definitely benefit from getting out of his head and into his body.
Even sexuality, for him, is seen as either a bunch of data to be collected in a professional context, or when it comes to himself, as a way to defuse tension when he cannot focus at work any longer. Not as sensual pleasure for the sake of it (C1/5), and, I suspect, even less as a way to further emotional connections with others (C2). And certainly not as a means to raise consciousness to mystical heights.
Although I can appreciate that he would care enough for the sexual pleasure of Tarantella to try and make her climax (she is after all a sex worker he's paying, not a lover per se), I also see here a missed opportunity. Indeed, Prong uses a vibrator to stimulate her anally, while I would venture that, for all his sense of certainty and stuck-up, prickish attitude, Prong is the one who would benefit from having his very anal defenses penetrated and loosened up.
I see an opening for him to grow as a person (what “batty” Jung would call individuation) through the conduit of sensuality and sex magick. Unfortunately for him, good sex does not appear enough to shock him out of his reality-tunnel, unlike the guerrilla ontology scare tactics of Markoff Chaney, which are already bringing him at the door of Chapel Perilous. This makes perfect sense, since by using semantic disruption, Chaney is getting at him on a C3 level, the only place where Prong is conscious enough to notice anything at all.
Apuleius, the way I see it, one of the most interesting aspect of these reading groups is that we all pick up on different things, and all have to gain from someone else’ perception of the text. We are studying the book rather than merely reading it, and if I was to just go through it on my own, I certainly wouldn’t pay so much attention to details.
Thank you everyone for your astute observations!
(I posted a last comment after this one which seems to have disappeared)
DeleteIt seems to me that what Markoff Chaney is doing to people through prank mail, phone calls, and signs can be seen mirrored in what RAW does to the reader with his zen-like chapters’ headings.
ReplyDeleteAs above, so below. Operation Mindfuck at every level.
Similarly, when I was last week pointing out that Tarantella appears to be using Prong’s sexually heightened state of consciousness for reprogramming him through suggestions, this could apply to the reader as well, at this point hopefully aroused by all the steamy action going on.
This would lend weight to my previous hunch that Chaney’s porn tarot cards might be a clue pointing at the idea of actual occult knowledge hiding (often in plain sight) behind the apparent smut of the book, in fact its transmission being facilitated by the eroticism. Using sex for magickal purposes.
I would even go as far as calling Markoff and his deck isomorphic of the reader holding The Sex Magicians. Besides, RAW loved getting all meta in most of his fiction work.
So we might find it beneficial to put ourselves in perspective upon reading this book, in order to perceive depth and get insights. Sort of like what happens to this 2D circle guy when becoming 3D sphere, in Flatland.
I love the Flatland comparison. The "ancient and occult" wisdom of The Sex Magicians will come much closer to the surface once the Mama Vibe reaches a certain point of expansion and we are introduced to its hunters.
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