CATEGORY: BOOKS
We begin this post by reviewing the dispute between Mormons and conventional scientists, regarding the ancestry of Native Americans (i.e., American Indians). The making public of this dispute, along with general societal breakdown, are designed to help certain high-ranking Mormons, along with other conspiratorial parties, in establishing their Zion, i.e., their 'paradise'.
The Book of Mormon is one of the four books of scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was first published by Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1830 in Palmyra, New York.
Beginning with the title page of the online Book of Mormon that appears on the LDS dot org website:[a]
The Book of Mormon
An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi
Wherefore, it is an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites — Written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel; ...
...
Picking up again at the introduction,[b]
Introduction
The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains the fulness of the everlasting gospel.
The book was written by many ancient prophets by the spirit of prophecy and revelation. Their words, written on gold plates, were quoted and abridged by a prophet-historian named Mormon. The record gives an account of two great civilizations. One came from Jerusalem in 600 B.C. and afterward separated into two nations, known as the Nephites and the Lamanites. The other came much earlier when the Lord confounded the tongues at the Tower of Babel. This group is known as the Jaredites. After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians. ...
...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Book of Mormon (in the portions quoted above) states that the Lamanites "are a remnant of the house of Israel", and that "they are among the ancestors of the American Indians." These statements, taken together, serve as a basis for the modern-day belief of some Mormons, that the American Indians are descended from Israelites. What we need to do is to see if any scientific evidence exists, that either supports or refutes the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon, regarding its claim for the American Indians' Israelite ancestry.
Some researchers, such as anthropologist Thomas W. Murphy, argue against the claim of Israelite ancestry of the American Indians. In the abstract for one of his journal articles, Murphy states, "The Book of Mormon claims that the principal ancestors of the American Indians came from the ancient Middle East, an historical assertion now repudiated by [mitochondrial DNA] evidence."[c]
Some of the arguments based on DNA research were disputed by David G. Stewart, in a 2006 edition of FARMS Review :
"In recent years, some critics have alleged that research demonstrating considerable homology between modern Native American, Mongolian, and southern Siberian DNA, as well as a seeming lack of homology between modern Jewish and Native American DNA, provides conclusive proof that the traditional Latter-day Saint view of Native American origins is false. Some Latter-day Saint defenders have attempted to explain the data by invoking limited geography theories proposing that Nephite and Lamanite activity was restricted to a small area in Central America and that any trace of "Israelite" DNA was lost by intermixing with larger indigenous groups. A closer examination demonstrates that modern DNA evidence does not discredit traditional Latter-day Saint beliefs and that the views of critics are based on nonfactual assumptions and unsupportable misinterpretations of genetic data."[d]
Followup of genetic claims in the media
A 2006 article written by William Lobdell and published in the Los Angeles Times, stated, "For Mormons, the lack of discernible Hebrew blood in Native Americans is no minor collision between faith and science. It burrows into the historical foundations of the Book of Mormon, a 175-year-old transcription that the church regards as literal and without error."[e]
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Since some Mormons believe in the American Indians' Israelite ancestry, and since some of these Mormons are currently (i.e., in recent times) arguing in favor of this theory (as indicated by the ongoing dispute over the issue),[f] then it stands to reason that some Mormons (e.g., at least some of the very high-ranking members of the Mormon Church), are still pursuing the agenda laid out in the Articles of Faith, insofar as they are still hoping to establish a new Zion (that is, some sort of 'utopia'), composed, in part, of the members of certain American Indian tribes (as already mentioned, these Mormons are now working alongside other evil parties, to establish the new Zion). Part of these Mormons' reason for arguing the American Indian ancestry issue scientifically (and publicly, to at least some degree), is to help convince the Indians themselves that they are in fact descended from Israelites, and thus to make them willing participants in the plan to establish 'paradise'. Arguing in favor of the Israelite ancestry within the context of debates with conventional scientists, would do more to convince the Indians of the theory's veracity, than if the Mormon scientists only tried to persuade these Indians directly. Of course, it would also lessen the likelihood of the Indians getting suspicious about the motives of the Mormons involved. Involving scientists in the debate, combined with coverage of the debate in various mainstream media sources, makes things appear to the general public as if the issue is of mainly academic interest. However, certain Mormons are hoping that there will come a point in time, when a sufficient number of Indians have accepted these Mormons' ideas regarding the Indians' Israelite ancestry as true, so that the Indians will more willingly participate in the establishment of 'utopia'.
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Certain evil conspiratorial parties (evil hermaphroditic Jews, certain high-ranking Freemasons and Mormons, and other parties), have been working to cause general societal breakdown, such as by dismantling the basic family unit, and by creating a general state of chaos, so that the remainder of the populace, i.e., all those not destined to inhabit the new Zion, will lack any sort of unifying principle or strength of character, and thus be easier to 'herd', maintain surveillance over, and control, placing them in a state of subjection. One very effective way to contribute to societal breakdown is to remove the father from the family unit, both literally (via processes such as no-fault divorce), and effectively, by taking away fathers' authority and status (for example, via denigration of them in the popular media). (According to the National Center for Fathering, "[C]hildren from fatherless homes are more likely to be poor, become involved in drug and alcohol abuse, drop out of school, and suffer from health and emotional problems. Boys are more likely to become involved in crime, and girls are more likely to become pregnant as teens."[g])
One way in which the status of fathers can be weakened, is by undermining men in general, for example, by framing men's tendency to be self-sufficient as if it is problematic (i.e., "He doesn't know when to ask for help."). This is not to say that no one ever needs help, but generally speaking, a society composed primarily of non-self-reliant individuals is going to be less able than a fit society, to resist those bent on destroying it.
The popular and news media, being largely controlled by the evil parties, not only help keep the public addicted to change, resulting in discord among successive generations, but they also cover news and other issues in a polar, 'oppositional' manner: Black versus white, men versus women, etc. The purpose of this is to sow discord, i.e., to divide up society into opposing factions, so as to take away our ability to recognize, and fight against, that which Kubrick and Michener believed to be the real threat, that is, the planned establishment of Zion/New Jerusalem and the subjection of the general populace. The basic idea is to weaken our ability to fight back as a unified force, by getting all of us at each others' throats. "United we stand, divided we fall."
The planned establishment of Zion/New Jerusalem will be further discussed, later in this analysis.
a. The Book of Mormon, An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi. Title Page. Website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Web. URL = https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/bofm-title?lang=eng.
b. Ibid., Introduction. URL = https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/introduction?lang=eng.
c. Murphy, Thomas W. "Genetic Research a 'Galileo Event' for Mormons." Abstract. Anthropology News 44.2 (2003): 20. Web. URL = http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2203607.
Murphy's article was was published several years before the wording in the Book of Mormon introduction was changed, from "principal ancestors" to "among the ancestors"; the latter phrasing in what is used in the current LDS dot org online version of the book, that was quoted above.
d. Stewart, David G., Jr. "DNA and the Book of Mormon." FARMS Review 18.1 (2006): 109–138. Web. URL = http://publications.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1446&index=7.
e. Lobdell, William. "Bedrock of a Faith Is Jolted." Los Angeles Times. 16 February 2006. Web. URL = http://articles.latimes.com/2006/feb/16/local/me-mormon16.
f. There is a page on the LDS dot org website called 'Book of Mormon and DNA Studies' here. The posting on this page lists footnotes citing items dated as recently as the year 2013. The fact that this page exists is itself evidence, that the dispute over the issue of the (supposed) Israelite ancestry of American Indians, is currently ongoing.
g. National Center for Fathering, "The Consequences of Fatherlessness". pp. 1, 2. Web, n.d. URL = http://www.fathers.com/statistics-and-research/the-consequences-of-fatherlessness/.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
James Michener analysis - part 2: The Articles of Faith
CATEGORY: BOOKS
Above left: James E. Talmage (1862-1933). [Image from the Wikipedia 'James E. Talmage' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.] Above right: Joseph Smith (1805-1844). [Image from the Wikipedia 'Joseph Smith' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
The Articles of Faith: A Series of Lectures on the Principal Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an 1899 book by James E. Talmage about doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The name of the book is taken from the LDS Church's "Articles of Faith", an 1842 creed written by Joseph Smith.
Smith's "Articles of Faith" became part of the LDS Church's scriptural canon in 1880 as part of the Pearl of Great Price. In 1891, when the First Presidency of the LDS Church asked Talmage to produce a work of theology that could be used in church schools, Talmage decided to use Smith's Articles of Faith as an outline of his work. He first delivered the material that he would organize into a book, in a series of lectures in 1893 at Latter-day Saints' University in Salt Lake City, Utah, which Talmage was the president of at the time.
First published in 1899, Talmage's work is composed of 24 chapters. The first edition was published by the LDS Church, and has gone through over 50 English-language editions. It has also been translated and published in 13 other languages. The book continues to be published today by Deseret Book, a publishing company owned by the church.
Like Talmage's later work Jesus the Christ, Articles of Faith is today regarded as a Mormon classic. For many years, Articles of Faith and Jesus the Christ were among the few non-scriptural works that full-time LDS Church missionaries were asked to study. However, Articles of Faith is no longer part of the approved missionary library.[a]
In the below are quoted certain parts of the Articles of Faith that show the LDS Church's thinking behind their former plan, to get the Lost Tribes of Israel together, by assembling certain North American Indian tribes all in one place, as part of the goal of establishing Zion. (As we will see later in this analysis, the current plan, established by certain high-ranking Mormons working with other parties, is to build Zion at a different location than that indicated in the Articles).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE ARTICLES OF FAITH
A SERIES OF LECTURES ON THE PRINCIPAL DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
BY DR. JAMES E. TALMAGE; WRITTEN BY APPOINTMENT; AND PUBLISHED BY THE CHURCH.
The Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1899.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
143495
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
1900.
Entered According to Act of Congress,
in the Year 1899,
By James E. Talmage,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
...
LECTURES ON THE ARTICLES OF FAITH OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.
LECTURE 1. INTRODUCTORY.
...
LECTURE V. FAITH AND REPENTANCE.
Article 4.—We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are (1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) Repentance; * * *
...
15. Faith Essential to Salvation.— Inasmuch as salvation is attainable only through the mediation and atonement of Christ, and since this is made applicable to individual sin only in the cases of those who obey the laws of righteousness, faith in Jesus Christ is indispensable to salvation. But no one can believe in Jesus Christ, and at the same time doubt the existence and authority of either the Father or the Holy Ghost; therefore faith in the entire Godhead is essential to salvation...
...
LECTURE XV. THE BOOK OF MORMON.-(Continued.)
Article 8.— * * * We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
...
V. CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE FURNISHED BY MODERN DISCOVERIES.
...
30. III. Concerning the Advent of at least One Division of the Ancient Americans from the East, probably from Asia; and their Israelitish Origin.— Confirmatory evidence of the belief that the aboriginal Americans sprang from the peoples of the eastern hemisphere is found in the similarity of record and tradition on the two continents, regarding the creation, the deluge, and other great events of history...
...
39. IV. Concerning the Common Origin of the Native Races on this Continent.— That the many tribes and nations among the Indians and other "native races" of America are of common parentage is very generally admitted; the conclusion is based on the evident close relationship in their languages, traditions, and customs. "Mr. Lewis H. Morgan finds evidence that the American aborigines had a common origin in what he calls 'their system of consanguinity and affinity.' He says, 'The Indian nations from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Arctic sea to the Gulf of Mexico, with the exception of the Esquimaux, have the same system. It is elaborate and complicated in its general form and details; and, while deviations from uniformity occur in the systems of different stocks, the radical features are in the main constant. This identity in the essential characteristics of a system so remarkable tends to show that it must have been transmitted with the blood to each stock from a common original source. It affords the strongest evidence yet obtained of unity in origin of the Indian nations within the regions defined.'" [Here a footnote is added:] (Baldwin's "Ancient America," p. 56; see citations of conclusions regarding the characteristics of aboriginal Americans by Bradford, in the same work.)
...
NOTES.
...
7. Survival of the Hebrew Language among American Tribes.—"It is claimed that such survivals are numerous in the religious songs and ceremonies of many of the tribes. A number of writers who visited or resided among the tribes of the northern continent, assert that the words Yehovah, Yah, Ale, and Hallelujah, could be distinctly heard in these exercises. Laet and Escarbotus assure us that they often heard the South American Indians repeat the sacred word Hallelujah."— Elder George Reynolds, The Language of the Book of Mormon.
...
LECTURE XVII. THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL.
Article 10.— We believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes, etc.
...
20. The Lost Tribes.— As already stated, in the division of the Israelites after the death of Solomon, ten tribes established themselves as an independent kingdom. This, the kingdom of Israel, was terminated, as far as history is concerned, by the Assyrian captivity, 721 B. C. The people were led into Assyria; and later disappeared so completely that they have been called the Lost Tribes. They seem to have departed from Assyria, and while we lack definite information as to their final destination and present location, there is abundant evidence that their journey was toward the north. The Lord's Word through Jeremiah promises that the people shall be brought back "from the land of the north," and a similar declaration has been made through Divine revelation during the present dispensation.
...
LECTURE XVIII. THE GATHERING OF ISRAEL.
Article 10.— We believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes, etc.
1. The Gathering Predicted.— Terrible as was the chastisement decreed on Israel for their waywardness and sin, amounting, as it did, to their dissolution as a nation, and to a virtual expulsion from the sight of the Lord's favor; fearful as has been their denunciation by Him who delighted to call them His people; through all their sufferings and deprivations, while wandering as outcasts among alien nations who have never ceased to treat them with contumely and insult, when their very name has been made a hiss and a byword in the earth;— they have ever been sustained by the sure word of Divine promise, that a day of glorious deliverance and blessed restoration awaits them.
...
NOTES. 1. Gathering Now in Progress.— The Latter-day Saints "are building up stakes of Zion in the Rocky Mountain valleys, and in this way are fulfilling predictions of the ancient prophets. Isaiah hath it written, 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem' (Isaiah ii, 2-3). It is remarkable how minutely the Latter-day Saints are fulfilling the terms of this prophecy: 1. They are building the temples of God in the tops of the mountains, so that the house of the Lord is truly where Isaiah saw it would be. 2. The Saints engaged in this work are people gathered from nearly all the nations under heaven, so that all nations are flowing unto the house of the Lord in the top of the mountains. 3. The people who receive the gospel in foreign lands joyfully say to their relatives and friends: Come ye, and let us go up to the house of the Lord, and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths."— Roberts' Outlines of Ecclesiastical History, p. 409.
...
LECTURE XIX. ZION.
Article 10.— We believe * * * That Zion will be built upon this [the American] continent, etc. (material inside square brackets in original).
...
15. The Book of Mormon is explicit in foretelling the establishment of Zion on the western continent; but the precise location was not revealed until after the restoration of the priesthood in the present dispensation. In 1831, the Lord commanded the elders of His Church in this wise:—" Go ye forth into the western countries, call upon the inhabitants to repent, and inasmuch as they do repent, build up churches unto me; and with one heart and with one mind, gather up your riches that ye may purchase an inheritance which shall hereafter be appointed unto you; and it shall be called the New Jerusalem, a land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of safety for the saints of the Most High God; and the glory of the Lord shall be there, and the terror of the Lord shall also be there, insomuch that the wicked will not come unto it, and it shall be called Zion."[Here a footnote is added:] (Doc. and Cov. xlv, 64-67; read further, verses 68-71.)
16. Later revelations called the elders of the Church to assemble in western Missouri, and designated that place as the land appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the Saints. "Wherefore this is the land of promise, and the place for the city of Zion." The town of Independence was named as "the center place," and the site for the temple was designated, the Saints being counseled to purchase land there, "that they may obtain it for an everlasting inheritance." On August 3rd, 1831, the temple site thus named was solemnly dedicated by the prophet, Joseph Smith, and his associates in the priesthood. The region round about was also dedicated, that it might be a gathering place for the people of God.
17. Such, then, is the belief of the Latter-day Saints; such are the teachings of the Church. But the plan of building up Zion has not yet been consummated. The Saints were not permitted to enter into immediate possession of the land, which was promised them as an everlasting inheritance. Even as years elapsed between the time of the Lord's promise to Israel of old that Canaan should be their inheritance, and the time of their entering into possession thereof,— years devoted to the people's toilsome and sorrowful preparation for the fulfillment,— so in these latter-days, the Divine purpose is held in abeyance, while the people are being sanctified for the great gift, and for the greater responsibilities associated with it. In the meantime, the honest in heart are gathering to the valleys of the Rocky Mountains; and here, in the tops of the mountains, exalted above the hills, temples have been erected, and all nations are flowing unto this region. But Zion shall yet be established on the chosen site; she "shall not be moved out of her place," and the pure in heart shall surely return, "with songs of everlasting joy to build up the waste places of Zion."
18. But gathered Israel cannot be confined to the "center place," nor to the region immediately adjacent; other places have been and will be appointed, and these are called Stakes of Zion. Many stakes have been established in the regions inhabited by the Latter-day Saints, and these are to be permanent possessions; and thence will go those who are appointed from among the worthy to receive possession of their inheritances. Zion is to be chastened, but only for a little season, then will come the time of her redemption.
19. That time will be appointed of God, yet it is to be determined according to the faithfulness of the people....
...[b]
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As stated in part 1 of this analysis, the action in part of Michener's Centennial is a partial 'microcosm' for what he believed the Mormons are currently doing, in order to establish Zion. This will be discussed as the analysis proceeds.
a. Wikipedia, 'Articles of Faith (Talmage)'. Web, n.d. URL = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Faith_(Talmage).
b. James E. Talmage. The Articles of Faith, first edition (1899). Google archived public domain book. pp. 2, 98, 110, 281, 291, 296, 300, 304, 307, 326, 338, 341, 355, 356, 363-365. URL = https://archive.org/stream/articlesfaithas00talmgoog#page/n0/mode/2up.
Above left: James E. Talmage (1862-1933). [Image from the Wikipedia 'James E. Talmage' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.] Above right: Joseph Smith (1805-1844). [Image from the Wikipedia 'Joseph Smith' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
The Articles of Faith: A Series of Lectures on the Principal Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an 1899 book by James E. Talmage about doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The name of the book is taken from the LDS Church's "Articles of Faith", an 1842 creed written by Joseph Smith.
Smith's "Articles of Faith" became part of the LDS Church's scriptural canon in 1880 as part of the Pearl of Great Price. In 1891, when the First Presidency of the LDS Church asked Talmage to produce a work of theology that could be used in church schools, Talmage decided to use Smith's Articles of Faith as an outline of his work. He first delivered the material that he would organize into a book, in a series of lectures in 1893 at Latter-day Saints' University in Salt Lake City, Utah, which Talmage was the president of at the time.
First published in 1899, Talmage's work is composed of 24 chapters. The first edition was published by the LDS Church, and has gone through over 50 English-language editions. It has also been translated and published in 13 other languages. The book continues to be published today by Deseret Book, a publishing company owned by the church.
Like Talmage's later work Jesus the Christ, Articles of Faith is today regarded as a Mormon classic. For many years, Articles of Faith and Jesus the Christ were among the few non-scriptural works that full-time LDS Church missionaries were asked to study. However, Articles of Faith is no longer part of the approved missionary library.[a]
In the below are quoted certain parts of the Articles of Faith that show the LDS Church's thinking behind their former plan, to get the Lost Tribes of Israel together, by assembling certain North American Indian tribes all in one place, as part of the goal of establishing Zion. (As we will see later in this analysis, the current plan, established by certain high-ranking Mormons working with other parties, is to build Zion at a different location than that indicated in the Articles).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE ARTICLES OF FAITH
A SERIES OF LECTURES ON THE PRINCIPAL DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
BY DR. JAMES E. TALMAGE; WRITTEN BY APPOINTMENT; AND PUBLISHED BY THE CHURCH.
The Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1899.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
143495
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
1900.
Entered According to Act of Congress,
in the Year 1899,
By James E. Talmage,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
...
LECTURES ON THE ARTICLES OF FAITH OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.
LECTURE 1. INTRODUCTORY.
...
LECTURE V. FAITH AND REPENTANCE.
Article 4.—We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are (1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) Repentance; * * *
...
15. Faith Essential to Salvation.— Inasmuch as salvation is attainable only through the mediation and atonement of Christ, and since this is made applicable to individual sin only in the cases of those who obey the laws of righteousness, faith in Jesus Christ is indispensable to salvation. But no one can believe in Jesus Christ, and at the same time doubt the existence and authority of either the Father or the Holy Ghost; therefore faith in the entire Godhead is essential to salvation...
...
LECTURE XV. THE BOOK OF MORMON.-(Continued.)
Article 8.— * * * We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
...
V. CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE FURNISHED BY MODERN DISCOVERIES.
...
30. III. Concerning the Advent of at least One Division of the Ancient Americans from the East, probably from Asia; and their Israelitish Origin.— Confirmatory evidence of the belief that the aboriginal Americans sprang from the peoples of the eastern hemisphere is found in the similarity of record and tradition on the two continents, regarding the creation, the deluge, and other great events of history...
...
39. IV. Concerning the Common Origin of the Native Races on this Continent.— That the many tribes and nations among the Indians and other "native races" of America are of common parentage is very generally admitted; the conclusion is based on the evident close relationship in their languages, traditions, and customs. "Mr. Lewis H. Morgan finds evidence that the American aborigines had a common origin in what he calls 'their system of consanguinity and affinity.' He says, 'The Indian nations from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Arctic sea to the Gulf of Mexico, with the exception of the Esquimaux, have the same system. It is elaborate and complicated in its general form and details; and, while deviations from uniformity occur in the systems of different stocks, the radical features are in the main constant. This identity in the essential characteristics of a system so remarkable tends to show that it must have been transmitted with the blood to each stock from a common original source. It affords the strongest evidence yet obtained of unity in origin of the Indian nations within the regions defined.'" [Here a footnote is added:] (Baldwin's "Ancient America," p. 56; see citations of conclusions regarding the characteristics of aboriginal Americans by Bradford, in the same work.)
...
NOTES.
...
7. Survival of the Hebrew Language among American Tribes.—"It is claimed that such survivals are numerous in the religious songs and ceremonies of many of the tribes. A number of writers who visited or resided among the tribes of the northern continent, assert that the words Yehovah, Yah, Ale, and Hallelujah, could be distinctly heard in these exercises. Laet and Escarbotus assure us that they often heard the South American Indians repeat the sacred word Hallelujah."— Elder George Reynolds, The Language of the Book of Mormon.
...
LECTURE XVII. THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL.
Article 10.— We believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes, etc.
...
20. The Lost Tribes.— As already stated, in the division of the Israelites after the death of Solomon, ten tribes established themselves as an independent kingdom. This, the kingdom of Israel, was terminated, as far as history is concerned, by the Assyrian captivity, 721 B. C. The people were led into Assyria; and later disappeared so completely that they have been called the Lost Tribes. They seem to have departed from Assyria, and while we lack definite information as to their final destination and present location, there is abundant evidence that their journey was toward the north. The Lord's Word through Jeremiah promises that the people shall be brought back "from the land of the north," and a similar declaration has been made through Divine revelation during the present dispensation.
...
LECTURE XVIII. THE GATHERING OF ISRAEL.
Article 10.— We believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes, etc.
1. The Gathering Predicted.— Terrible as was the chastisement decreed on Israel for their waywardness and sin, amounting, as it did, to their dissolution as a nation, and to a virtual expulsion from the sight of the Lord's favor; fearful as has been their denunciation by Him who delighted to call them His people; through all their sufferings and deprivations, while wandering as outcasts among alien nations who have never ceased to treat them with contumely and insult, when their very name has been made a hiss and a byword in the earth;— they have ever been sustained by the sure word of Divine promise, that a day of glorious deliverance and blessed restoration awaits them.
...
NOTES. 1. Gathering Now in Progress.— The Latter-day Saints "are building up stakes of Zion in the Rocky Mountain valleys, and in this way are fulfilling predictions of the ancient prophets. Isaiah hath it written, 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem' (Isaiah ii, 2-3). It is remarkable how minutely the Latter-day Saints are fulfilling the terms of this prophecy: 1. They are building the temples of God in the tops of the mountains, so that the house of the Lord is truly where Isaiah saw it would be. 2. The Saints engaged in this work are people gathered from nearly all the nations under heaven, so that all nations are flowing unto the house of the Lord in the top of the mountains. 3. The people who receive the gospel in foreign lands joyfully say to their relatives and friends: Come ye, and let us go up to the house of the Lord, and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths."— Roberts' Outlines of Ecclesiastical History, p. 409.
...
LECTURE XIX. ZION.
Article 10.— We believe * * * That Zion will be built upon this [the American] continent, etc. (material inside square brackets in original).
...
15. The Book of Mormon is explicit in foretelling the establishment of Zion on the western continent; but the precise location was not revealed until after the restoration of the priesthood in the present dispensation. In 1831, the Lord commanded the elders of His Church in this wise:—" Go ye forth into the western countries, call upon the inhabitants to repent, and inasmuch as they do repent, build up churches unto me; and with one heart and with one mind, gather up your riches that ye may purchase an inheritance which shall hereafter be appointed unto you; and it shall be called the New Jerusalem, a land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of safety for the saints of the Most High God; and the glory of the Lord shall be there, and the terror of the Lord shall also be there, insomuch that the wicked will not come unto it, and it shall be called Zion."[Here a footnote is added:] (Doc. and Cov. xlv, 64-67; read further, verses 68-71.)
16. Later revelations called the elders of the Church to assemble in western Missouri, and designated that place as the land appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the Saints. "Wherefore this is the land of promise, and the place for the city of Zion." The town of Independence was named as "the center place," and the site for the temple was designated, the Saints being counseled to purchase land there, "that they may obtain it for an everlasting inheritance." On August 3rd, 1831, the temple site thus named was solemnly dedicated by the prophet, Joseph Smith, and his associates in the priesthood. The region round about was also dedicated, that it might be a gathering place for the people of God.
17. Such, then, is the belief of the Latter-day Saints; such are the teachings of the Church. But the plan of building up Zion has not yet been consummated. The Saints were not permitted to enter into immediate possession of the land, which was promised them as an everlasting inheritance. Even as years elapsed between the time of the Lord's promise to Israel of old that Canaan should be their inheritance, and the time of their entering into possession thereof,— years devoted to the people's toilsome and sorrowful preparation for the fulfillment,— so in these latter-days, the Divine purpose is held in abeyance, while the people are being sanctified for the great gift, and for the greater responsibilities associated with it. In the meantime, the honest in heart are gathering to the valleys of the Rocky Mountains; and here, in the tops of the mountains, exalted above the hills, temples have been erected, and all nations are flowing unto this region. But Zion shall yet be established on the chosen site; she "shall not be moved out of her place," and the pure in heart shall surely return, "with songs of everlasting joy to build up the waste places of Zion."
18. But gathered Israel cannot be confined to the "center place," nor to the region immediately adjacent; other places have been and will be appointed, and these are called Stakes of Zion. Many stakes have been established in the regions inhabited by the Latter-day Saints, and these are to be permanent possessions; and thence will go those who are appointed from among the worthy to receive possession of their inheritances. Zion is to be chastened, but only for a little season, then will come the time of her redemption.
19. That time will be appointed of God, yet it is to be determined according to the faithfulness of the people....
...[b]
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As stated in part 1 of this analysis, the action in part of Michener's Centennial is a partial 'microcosm' for what he believed the Mormons are currently doing, in order to establish Zion. This will be discussed as the analysis proceeds.
a. Wikipedia, 'Articles of Faith (Talmage)'. Web, n.d. URL = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Faith_(Talmage).
b. James E. Talmage. The Articles of Faith, first edition (1899). Google archived public domain book. pp. 2, 98, 110, 281, 291, 296, 300, 304, 307, 326, 338, 341, 355, 356, 363-365. URL = https://archive.org/stream/articlesfaithas00talmgoog#page/n0/mode/2up.
Monday, July 8, 2013
The Steely Dan Lexicon - part 1: Analysis of 'Only A Fool Would Say That'
CATEGORY: MUSIC
[Image at left from the Wikipedia 'Can't Buy A Thrill' page; "Cant buy a tcant buy a thrill" [sic][a], licensed under fair use via Wikipedia.]
Welcome to the Steely Dan Lexicon. Buttons at the bottom of each post enable navigation through the parts of the analysis.
Any fan of Steely Dan, a successful jazz/rock band who released their first album, Can't Buy A Thrill, in 1972, can verify that there is hardly a single song written by band members Donald Fagen (vocalist and keyboardist) and Walter Becker (guitar), which doesn't leave the listener baffled as to its full meaning. The song Only A Fool Would Say That, appears on the album Can't Buy A Thrill. In the first three parts of the Steely Dan Lexicon, we will be analyzing the lyrics of this song.[b]
Only A Fool Would Say That (henceforth: Only A Fool) has the appearance of being an 'answer song' to John Lennon's hit song Imagine (released in 1971), with references to Lennon, and the band which he was formerly a member of, the Beatles,[c] placed throughout (links to the lyrics of Only A Fool and Imagine are provided at the bottom of each post in this analysis). In Lennon's song, the narrator calls himself "a dreamer", and speaks of a (supposedly) idyllic world in which there are no wars, and no separate countries or religions. Only A Fool starts out on a dismal note - "A world become one / Of salads and sun / Only a fool would say that." The "world become one" is a reference to Imagine's narrator's 'utopia' ("And the world will be as one"), and "salads" is a reference to Lennon's own vegetarianism. "Fool" here is a reference to the Beatles' hit song The Fool On The Hill (1967), with Imagine's narrator being the fool for proposing an ideal world.
Only A Fool continues, "A boy with a plan / A natural man / Wearing a white Stetson hat." "Natural" refers to John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, appearing nude on the cover of their Two Virgins album (1968); and, it is also a reference to the concept of a natural man who lives a virtuous, uncomplicated existence - this fitting with Imagine's notion of an ideal world.
Only A Fool Would Say That
Listen on YouTube
Lyrics (scroll about half way down in the separate window that opens)
Imagine
Listen on YouTube
Lyrics
a. Cover for the album Can't Buy A Thrill by the artist Steely Dan: The cover art copyright is believed to belong to the label, ABC, or the artist(s) who produced the recording or created the cover artwork.
b. Steely Dan consisted of other members, in addition to Fagen and Becker, at the time that Can't Buy A Thrill was recorded, but these two men have been the only steady members, from the time the band was founded up through current day. In essence, these two are the band.
c. The Beatles no longer existed at the time Lennon recorded Imagine.
All song lyrics in this post are believed to be used in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Fair Use Act (Title 17 U.S. Code).
Welcome to the Steely Dan Lexicon. Buttons at the bottom of each post enable navigation through the parts of the analysis.
Any fan of Steely Dan, a successful jazz/rock band who released their first album, Can't Buy A Thrill, in 1972, can verify that there is hardly a single song written by band members Donald Fagen (vocalist and keyboardist) and Walter Becker (guitar), which doesn't leave the listener baffled as to its full meaning. The song Only A Fool Would Say That, appears on the album Can't Buy A Thrill. In the first three parts of the Steely Dan Lexicon, we will be analyzing the lyrics of this song.[b]
Only A Fool Would Say That (henceforth: Only A Fool) has the appearance of being an 'answer song' to John Lennon's hit song Imagine (released in 1971), with references to Lennon, and the band which he was formerly a member of, the Beatles,[c] placed throughout (links to the lyrics of Only A Fool and Imagine are provided at the bottom of each post in this analysis). In Lennon's song, the narrator calls himself "a dreamer", and speaks of a (supposedly) idyllic world in which there are no wars, and no separate countries or religions. Only A Fool starts out on a dismal note - "A world become one / Of salads and sun / Only a fool would say that." The "world become one" is a reference to Imagine's narrator's 'utopia' ("And the world will be as one"), and "salads" is a reference to Lennon's own vegetarianism. "Fool" here is a reference to the Beatles' hit song The Fool On The Hill (1967), with Imagine's narrator being the fool for proposing an ideal world.
Only A Fool continues, "A boy with a plan / A natural man / Wearing a white Stetson hat." "Natural" refers to John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, appearing nude on the cover of their Two Virgins album (1968); and, it is also a reference to the concept of a natural man who lives a virtuous, uncomplicated existence - this fitting with Imagine's notion of an ideal world.
Only A Fool Would Say That
Listen on YouTube
Lyrics (scroll about half way down in the separate window that opens)
Imagine
Listen on YouTube
Lyrics
a. Cover for the album Can't Buy A Thrill by the artist Steely Dan: The cover art copyright is believed to belong to the label, ABC, or the artist(s) who produced the recording or created the cover artwork.
b. Steely Dan consisted of other members, in addition to Fagen and Becker, at the time that Can't Buy A Thrill was recorded, but these two men have been the only steady members, from the time the band was founded up through current day. In essence, these two are the band.
c. The Beatles no longer existed at the time Lennon recorded Imagine.
All song lyrics in this post are believed to be used in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Fair Use Act (Title 17 U.S. Code).
Sunday, July 7, 2013
The Steely Dan Lexicon - part 4: Donald Fagen's 'The Nightfly' album - rel. to '2001'
CATEGORY: MUSIC, MOVIES; CONTAINS SPOILERS!!
This post consists of a list of observations on the meanings of the lyrics to some of the songs on Donald Fagen's 1982 album, The Nightfly, and how they relate to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Certain items in this post will be best understood by those who have read the analysis of 2001 on this blog.
.jpg)
Above left: The cover of Donald Fagen's 1982 album, The Nightfly.[a] Above center: Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni.[Image from the Wikipedia 'Giovanni Battista Belzoni' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.] Above right: The camera 'eye' of A Space Odyssey's HAL computer.
The Nightfly album lyrics here
Songs on The Nightfly album
1. I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World) (listen on YouTube): According to the NASA IGY page, it was from the IGY (International Geophysical Year) rocket and satellite research that the US developed its space program. Therefore, it is not completely surprising that the lyrics in this song have to do with 2001: A Space Odyssey's (fictional) voyage in space.
I.G.Y. begins with the lyrics, "Standing tough under stars and stripes / We can tell / This dream's in sight." The way that Fagen, the song's vocalist, says, "We can tell", sounds similar to the words 'we count down'; this, taken together with "stars and stripes", is a reference to Discovery One, the spaceship in A Space Odyssey, and to the fact that it is a United States spaceship. It is aboard Discovery One that the two main characters in Kubrick's film, astronauts David Bowman and Frank Poole, are voyaging toward Jupiter. "This dream's in sight" is a reference to how a portion of Kubrick's movie depicts a dream David Bowman experiences, and to how the movie is dominated by visuals ("sight"), with relatively little dialogue. In the verse of I.G.Y. that reads, "Under sea by rail", "Under sea" refers to the fact that part of Bowman's journey on Discovery One, is symbolic of the three days that the biblical prophet Jonah spent in the belly of a whale.
Top left: A Space Odyssey's Discovery One spaceship, viewed from the rear. Top right: Frank Poole (left) and David Bowman, aboard Discovery One. Above left: By the point in A Space Odyssey pictured here, Bowman is the only living man left aboard Discovery One. Bowman is here about to leave Discovery One in an EVA pod, symbolically depicting the biblical Jonah (represented by Bowman) being vomited out from the whale's belly, the whale here being represented by Discovery One itself. Above right: This room appointed in Louis XVI-style is part of a dream Bowman experiences, late in A Space Odyssey.
The I.G.Y. lyrics that say, "Get your ticket to that wheel in space / While there's time", are to be interpreted as follows: The "wheel in space" is a reference to the round, rotating space station from A Space Odyssey, and the "ticket" being referred to is a movie ticket - to A Space Odyssey. The lyrics that read, "The fix is in / You'll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky", refer to how the odds are stacked against Bowman and Poole, who have been set up to fail in their mission to Jupiter, by mission control on Earth and by HAL, the Discovery One on-board computer. These lyrics are also a reference to the billiard ball 'metaphor' in A Space Odyssey ("game of chance"): Frank Poole, wearing a yellow spacesuit, is hit by the white EVA Pod, which looks like a billiards cue ball, and which is here under the control of HAL. This attack sends Poole drifting off into space. In the British-style version of billiards known as blackball, the object balls (the balls to be pocketed) are solid red and solid yellow.
Above left: The round, rotating space station from Kubrick's film, orbiting Earth. Above right: Frank Poole and his EVA Pod go careening off into space, after Poole has been struck by the pod (which is here under HAL's control). Note that Poole is wearing a yellow spacesuit.
Above left: In accordance with the above-mentioned billiard ball metaphor in A Space Odyssey, David Bowman wears a red spacesuit. Here, he is getting ready to perform a repair on Discovery One's communications satellite antenna. Above right: The rack set-up for the billiards game known as blackball.[Image from the Wikipedia 'Blackball (pool)' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
The lyrics, "A just machine to make big decisions / Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision", are a reference to the computer ("machine") HAL, who has control over almost all aspects of Discovery One's operations. HAL is intelligent enough to make decisions. However, he has been intentionally wrongly programmed for the mission by scientists on Earth, who have evil intent, so "just" and "compassion" in the I.G.Y. lyrics are being used sarcastically.
"We'll be eternally free yes and eternally young" is a reference to the end of A Space Odyssey, when the 'starchild' (the fetus inside an orb of light, shown at left) is born (thus "young") - with "eternally free" being spoken sarcastically, since the reality is that in A Space Odyssey, one thing being symbolized is Kubrick's prediction that we'll eventually be controlled by certain evil parties (elite elite hermaphroditic Jews, certain evil high-ranking Mormons and Freemasons, and certain other groups, as detailed in the Space Odyssey analysis).
2. The Nightfly (title song) (listen on YouTube): The lyrics at the very beginning of the song, "I'm Lester the Nightfly / Hello Baton Rouge", indicate that the D.J., Lester, is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but he (voiced by Fagen) later says, "With jazz and conversation / From the foot of Mt. Belzoni ", and Mount Belzoni isn't in Louisiana, it's in Mississippi. The fact that Lester is 'fooling' us about his geographical location, is a reference to how the Space Odyssey Jupiter mission, which is being broadcast to audiences on Earth, is designed to fool these audiences, in the sense that not all of the mission is actually being broadcast from Discovery One - some of it is being televised from the above-mentioned space station. Also, the way Fagen says, "foot of Mt. Belzoni", makes it sound like 'foot-in-mouth Belzoni'; Giovanni Battista Belzoni (shown in the center screencap at the top of this post) was famously clumsy. "So you say there's a race / Of men in the trees": The second verse here can also be heard as, 'Of men in latrines', which is a reference to Heywood Floyd preparing to use the zero-gravity toilet in A Space Odyssey (by reading its instructions).
Heywood Floyd reads the instructions for the zero gravity toilet in A Space Odyssey.
3. Ruby Baby (Fagen's cover of the song originally performed by The Drifters) (listen on YouTube): The use of the word "Baby" in the song's title, and the use of it in the lyrics as well, are references to Kubrick's 'some women are childlike' theme in A Space Odyssey. The verse, "I'm gonna steal you away from all those guys", is a reference to Kubrick's 'women is space as prostitutes' theme in the same film. Note that The Drifters originally released Ruby Baby in 1956, before Kubrick's movie was released; but nevertheless, Fagen included the song on his album and intends for the lyrics, as he sings them, to be the references to Kubrick's film as described.
The fact that this stewardess takes small 'baby-steps' as she walks around the circular passageway in the lunar lander spacecraft in A Space Odyssey, is meant by Kubrick to be a metaphor for the idea, that certain women are childlike. (see YouTube video here).
a. Image from the Wikipedia 'The Nightfly' page; "Donald Fagen - The Nightfly", licensed under fair use via Wikipedia. The cover art copyright is believed to belong to the label, Warner Bros., or the artist(s) who produced the recording or created the cover artwork.
All song lyrics in this post are believed to be used in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Fair Use Act (Title 17 U.S. Code).
This post consists of a list of observations on the meanings of the lyrics to some of the songs on Donald Fagen's 1982 album, The Nightfly, and how they relate to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Certain items in this post will be best understood by those who have read the analysis of 2001 on this blog.
.jpg)
Above left: The cover of Donald Fagen's 1982 album, The Nightfly.[a] Above center: Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni.[Image from the Wikipedia 'Giovanni Battista Belzoni' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.] Above right: The camera 'eye' of A Space Odyssey's HAL computer.
The Nightfly album lyrics here
Songs on The Nightfly album
1. I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World) (listen on YouTube): According to the NASA IGY page, it was from the IGY (International Geophysical Year) rocket and satellite research that the US developed its space program. Therefore, it is not completely surprising that the lyrics in this song have to do with 2001: A Space Odyssey's (fictional) voyage in space.
I.G.Y. begins with the lyrics, "Standing tough under stars and stripes / We can tell / This dream's in sight." The way that Fagen, the song's vocalist, says, "We can tell", sounds similar to the words 'we count down'; this, taken together with "stars and stripes", is a reference to Discovery One, the spaceship in A Space Odyssey, and to the fact that it is a United States spaceship. It is aboard Discovery One that the two main characters in Kubrick's film, astronauts David Bowman and Frank Poole, are voyaging toward Jupiter. "This dream's in sight" is a reference to how a portion of Kubrick's movie depicts a dream David Bowman experiences, and to how the movie is dominated by visuals ("sight"), with relatively little dialogue. In the verse of I.G.Y. that reads, "Under sea by rail", "Under sea" refers to the fact that part of Bowman's journey on Discovery One, is symbolic of the three days that the biblical prophet Jonah spent in the belly of a whale.
Top left: A Space Odyssey's Discovery One spaceship, viewed from the rear. Top right: Frank Poole (left) and David Bowman, aboard Discovery One. Above left: By the point in A Space Odyssey pictured here, Bowman is the only living man left aboard Discovery One. Bowman is here about to leave Discovery One in an EVA pod, symbolically depicting the biblical Jonah (represented by Bowman) being vomited out from the whale's belly, the whale here being represented by Discovery One itself. Above right: This room appointed in Louis XVI-style is part of a dream Bowman experiences, late in A Space Odyssey.
The I.G.Y. lyrics that say, "Get your ticket to that wheel in space / While there's time", are to be interpreted as follows: The "wheel in space" is a reference to the round, rotating space station from A Space Odyssey, and the "ticket" being referred to is a movie ticket - to A Space Odyssey. The lyrics that read, "The fix is in / You'll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky", refer to how the odds are stacked against Bowman and Poole, who have been set up to fail in their mission to Jupiter, by mission control on Earth and by HAL, the Discovery One on-board computer. These lyrics are also a reference to the billiard ball 'metaphor' in A Space Odyssey ("game of chance"): Frank Poole, wearing a yellow spacesuit, is hit by the white EVA Pod, which looks like a billiards cue ball, and which is here under the control of HAL. This attack sends Poole drifting off into space. In the British-style version of billiards known as blackball, the object balls (the balls to be pocketed) are solid red and solid yellow.
Above left: The round, rotating space station from Kubrick's film, orbiting Earth. Above right: Frank Poole and his EVA Pod go careening off into space, after Poole has been struck by the pod (which is here under HAL's control). Note that Poole is wearing a yellow spacesuit.
Above left: In accordance with the above-mentioned billiard ball metaphor in A Space Odyssey, David Bowman wears a red spacesuit. Here, he is getting ready to perform a repair on Discovery One's communications satellite antenna. Above right: The rack set-up for the billiards game known as blackball.[Image from the Wikipedia 'Blackball (pool)' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
The lyrics, "A just machine to make big decisions / Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision", are a reference to the computer ("machine") HAL, who has control over almost all aspects of Discovery One's operations. HAL is intelligent enough to make decisions. However, he has been intentionally wrongly programmed for the mission by scientists on Earth, who have evil intent, so "just" and "compassion" in the I.G.Y. lyrics are being used sarcastically.
2. The Nightfly (title song) (listen on YouTube): The lyrics at the very beginning of the song, "I'm Lester the Nightfly / Hello Baton Rouge", indicate that the D.J., Lester, is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but he (voiced by Fagen) later says, "With jazz and conversation / From the foot of Mt. Belzoni ", and Mount Belzoni isn't in Louisiana, it's in Mississippi. The fact that Lester is 'fooling' us about his geographical location, is a reference to how the Space Odyssey Jupiter mission, which is being broadcast to audiences on Earth, is designed to fool these audiences, in the sense that not all of the mission is actually being broadcast from Discovery One - some of it is being televised from the above-mentioned space station. Also, the way Fagen says, "foot of Mt. Belzoni", makes it sound like 'foot-in-mouth Belzoni'; Giovanni Battista Belzoni (shown in the center screencap at the top of this post) was famously clumsy. "So you say there's a race / Of men in the trees": The second verse here can also be heard as, 'Of men in latrines', which is a reference to Heywood Floyd preparing to use the zero-gravity toilet in A Space Odyssey (by reading its instructions).
Heywood Floyd reads the instructions for the zero gravity toilet in A Space Odyssey.
3. Ruby Baby (Fagen's cover of the song originally performed by The Drifters) (listen on YouTube): The use of the word "Baby" in the song's title, and the use of it in the lyrics as well, are references to Kubrick's 'some women are childlike' theme in A Space Odyssey. The verse, "I'm gonna steal you away from all those guys", is a reference to Kubrick's 'women is space as prostitutes' theme in the same film. Note that The Drifters originally released Ruby Baby in 1956, before Kubrick's movie was released; but nevertheless, Fagen included the song on his album and intends for the lyrics, as he sings them, to be the references to Kubrick's film as described.
The fact that this stewardess takes small 'baby-steps' as she walks around the circular passageway in the lunar lander spacecraft in A Space Odyssey, is meant by Kubrick to be a metaphor for the idea, that certain women are childlike. (see YouTube video here).
a. Image from the Wikipedia 'The Nightfly' page; "Donald Fagen - The Nightfly", licensed under fair use via Wikipedia. The cover art copyright is believed to belong to the label, Warner Bros., or the artist(s) who produced the recording or created the cover artwork.
All song lyrics in this post are believed to be used in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Fair Use Act (Title 17 U.S. Code).
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Inception - Analysis of the Movie - part 1: Introduction and plot synopsis
CATEGORY: MOVIES; WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!!
[Image at left from the Wikipedia 'Inception' page; "Inception (2010) theatrical poster",[a] licensed under fair use via Wikipedia.]
Welcome to the analysis of Inception. Buttons at the bottom of each post enable navigation through the parts of the analysis.
A description and a plot synopsis of the movie follow.
Inception is a 2010 science fiction/action heist film written, co-produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film stars a large ensemble cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine.
Plot
Dominick "Dom" Cobb (above left) and Arthur (above right) are "extractors", who perform corporate espionage using an experimental military technology to infiltrate the subconscious of their targets and extract valuable information through a shared dream world. Their latest target, Japanese businessman Saito, reveals that he arranged their mission himself to test Cobb for a seemingly-impossible job: planting an idea in a person's subconscious, or "inception".
Japanese businessman Saito.
To break up the energy conglomerate of ailing competitor Maurice Fischer, Saito wants Cobb to convince Fischer's son and heir, Robert, to dissolve his father's company. In return, Saito promises to use his influence to clear Cobb of a murder charge, allowing Cobb to return home to his children. Cobb accepts the offer and assembles his team: Eames, a conman and identity forger; Yusuf, a chemist who concocts a powerful sedative for a stable "dream within a dream" strategy, Ariadne, an architecture student tasked with designing the labyrinth of the dream landscapes, recruited with the help of Cobb's father-in-law, Professor Stephen Miles. While dream-sharing with Cobb, Ariadne learns his subconscious houses an invasive projection of his late wife Mal.
Above left: Eames, a conman and identity forger. Above right: Yusuf, a chemist.
Ariadne, an architecture student.
Above left: Doms's late wife, Mallory 'Mal' Cobb. Above right: Professor Stephen Miles.
When the elder Fischer dies in Sydney, Robert Fischer accompanies the body on a ten-hour flight back to Los Angeles, which the team (including Saito, who wants to verify their success) uses as an opportunity to sedate and take Fischer into a shared dream. At each dream level, the person generating the dream stays behind to set up a "kick" that will be used to awaken the other sleeping team members from the deeper dream level. The plan is for Yusuf to drive off a bridge in the first level, Arthur to use the elevator in the second level, and Eames to create an explosion in the third level simultaneously.
Robert Fischer.
The first level is Yusuf's dream of a rainy Los Angeles. The team abducts Fischer, but they are attacked by armed projections from Fischer's subconscious, which has been trained to defend against extraction. The team takes Fischer and a wounded Saito to a warehouse, where Cobb reveals that while dying in the dream would normally wake Saito up, the powerful sedatives needed to stabilize the multi-level dream will instead send a dying dreamer into "limbo", a world of infinite subconscious from which it is very difficult to escape. Despite these setbacks, the team continues with the mission.
Eames impersonates Fischer's godfather, Peter Browning (Tom Berenger), to suggest Fischer reconsider his father's will. Yusuf drives the van as the other dreamers are sedated into the second level.
Eames impersonating Peter Browning.
In the second level, a hotel dreamed by Arthur, Cobb convinces Fischer that he has been kidnapped by Browning and Cobb is his subconscious protector. Cobb persuades him to go down another level to explore Browning's subconscious (in 'reality', it is a ruse to enter Fischer's).
The third level is a snowy mountain fortress dreamed by Eames. The team has to infiltrate it and hold off the guards as Cobb takes Fischer into the equivalent of his subconscious.
Yusuf, under pursuit by Fischer's projections in the first level, accidentally drives off a bridge and initiates his kick too soon. This removes the gravity of Arthur's level, forcing him to improvise a new kick that will synchronize with the van hitting the water, and causes an avalanche in Eames' level. The Mal projection kills Fischer, Cobb kills Mal, and Saito succumbs to his wounds; all three fall into limbo. While Eames sets up a kick by rigging the fortress with explosives, Cobb and Ariadne enter limbo to rescue Fischer and Saito.
Cobb reveals to Ariadne that he and Mal went to limbo while experimenting with the dream-sharing technology. There, they spent fifty years constructing a world from their shared memories. When Mal refused to return to 'reality', Cobb used a rudimentary form of inception by compromising her totem (an object dreamers use to distinguish dreams from 'reality') and implanted in her mind the idea that the world was not real. However, when she woke up, Mal was still convinced that she was dreaming. In an attempt to "wake up" for real, Mal committed suicide and framed Cobb for her death to force him to do the same. Facing a murder charge, Cobb fled the U.S., leaving his children in the care of Professor Miles.
Dom and Mal together.
Through his confession, Cobb makes peace with his guilt over Mal's death. Ariadne kills the Mal projection and wakes Fischer up with a kick. Revived at the mountain fortress, Fischer enters a safe room to discover and accept the planted idea: a projection of his dying father telling him to be his own man. While Cobb remains in limbo to search for Saito, the other team members ride the synchronized kicks back to 'reality': Ariadne jumps off a balcony, Eames detonates the explosives in the fortress, Arthur blasts an elevator containing the team's sleeping bodies up the shaft, and the van hits the water. Cobb eventually finds an aged Saito in limbo, reminding him of their agreement. The dreamers all awaken on the plane and Saito makes a phone call.
Upon arrival at Los Angeles Airport, Cobb passes the U.S. immigration checkpoint and Professor Miles accompanies him to his home. Cobb spins his spinning top to verify he is not still dreaming, but leaves it spinning on the table to join his children in the garden.[b]
Dom reunites with his children.
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Ending
The film cuts to the closing credits from a shot of Dom's top beginning to wobble (but not falling) (see screencap at left), inviting speculation about whether the final sequence was reality or another dream. When asked in an interview if the top stopped spinning, Nolan replied, "I've been asked the question more times than I've ever been asked any other question about any other film I've made...That's definitely the question. It keeps coming back to that. What's funny to me is that people really do expect me to answer it."[c] Nolan said in the same interview, "I put that cut there at the end, imposing an ambiguity from outside the film. That always felt the right ending to me – it always felt like the appropriate 'kick' to me...The real point of the scene – and this is what I tell people – is that Cobb isn't looking at the top. He's looking at his kids. He's left it behind. That's the emotional significance of the thing."[c]
Nolan has also said, "I don't remember specifically where the idea [for stealing an idea] came from except that once I started exploring the idea of people sharing a dream space - entering a dream space and sharing a dream. That gives you the ability to access somebody's subconscious. What would that be used and abused for? That was the jumping off point."[d]
a. Poster for Inception: The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, Warner Bros. Pictures, the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.
b. Wikipedia, Inception. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception.
c. Jensen, Jeff (November 30, 2010). "Christopher Nolan on his 'last' Batman movie, an 'Inception' videogame, and that spinning top." Entertainment Weekly. Web. URL = http://www.ew.com/article/2010/11/30/christopher-nolan-batman-inception.
d. Weintraub, Steve (March 25, 2010). "Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas Interview." Collider.com. Web. URL = http://collider.com/director-christopher-nolan-and-producer-emma-thomas-interview-inception-they-talk-3d-what-kind-of-cameras-they-used-pre-viz-wb-and-a-lot-more/.
[Image at left from the Wikipedia 'Inception' page; "Inception (2010) theatrical poster",[a] licensed under fair use via Wikipedia.]
Welcome to the analysis of Inception. Buttons at the bottom of each post enable navigation through the parts of the analysis.
A description and a plot synopsis of the movie follow.
Inception is a 2010 science fiction/action heist film written, co-produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film stars a large ensemble cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine.
Plot
Dominick "Dom" Cobb (above left) and Arthur (above right) are "extractors", who perform corporate espionage using an experimental military technology to infiltrate the subconscious of their targets and extract valuable information through a shared dream world. Their latest target, Japanese businessman Saito, reveals that he arranged their mission himself to test Cobb for a seemingly-impossible job: planting an idea in a person's subconscious, or "inception".
Japanese businessman Saito.
To break up the energy conglomerate of ailing competitor Maurice Fischer, Saito wants Cobb to convince Fischer's son and heir, Robert, to dissolve his father's company. In return, Saito promises to use his influence to clear Cobb of a murder charge, allowing Cobb to return home to his children. Cobb accepts the offer and assembles his team: Eames, a conman and identity forger; Yusuf, a chemist who concocts a powerful sedative for a stable "dream within a dream" strategy, Ariadne, an architecture student tasked with designing the labyrinth of the dream landscapes, recruited with the help of Cobb's father-in-law, Professor Stephen Miles. While dream-sharing with Cobb, Ariadne learns his subconscious houses an invasive projection of his late wife Mal.
Above left: Eames, a conman and identity forger. Above right: Yusuf, a chemist.
Ariadne, an architecture student.
Above left: Doms's late wife, Mallory 'Mal' Cobb. Above right: Professor Stephen Miles.
When the elder Fischer dies in Sydney, Robert Fischer accompanies the body on a ten-hour flight back to Los Angeles, which the team (including Saito, who wants to verify their success) uses as an opportunity to sedate and take Fischer into a shared dream. At each dream level, the person generating the dream stays behind to set up a "kick" that will be used to awaken the other sleeping team members from the deeper dream level. The plan is for Yusuf to drive off a bridge in the first level, Arthur to use the elevator in the second level, and Eames to create an explosion in the third level simultaneously.
Robert Fischer.
The first level is Yusuf's dream of a rainy Los Angeles. The team abducts Fischer, but they are attacked by armed projections from Fischer's subconscious, which has been trained to defend against extraction. The team takes Fischer and a wounded Saito to a warehouse, where Cobb reveals that while dying in the dream would normally wake Saito up, the powerful sedatives needed to stabilize the multi-level dream will instead send a dying dreamer into "limbo", a world of infinite subconscious from which it is very difficult to escape. Despite these setbacks, the team continues with the mission.
Eames impersonates Fischer's godfather, Peter Browning (Tom Berenger), to suggest Fischer reconsider his father's will. Yusuf drives the van as the other dreamers are sedated into the second level.
Eames impersonating Peter Browning.
In the second level, a hotel dreamed by Arthur, Cobb convinces Fischer that he has been kidnapped by Browning and Cobb is his subconscious protector. Cobb persuades him to go down another level to explore Browning's subconscious (in 'reality', it is a ruse to enter Fischer's).
The third level is a snowy mountain fortress dreamed by Eames. The team has to infiltrate it and hold off the guards as Cobb takes Fischer into the equivalent of his subconscious.
Yusuf, under pursuit by Fischer's projections in the first level, accidentally drives off a bridge and initiates his kick too soon. This removes the gravity of Arthur's level, forcing him to improvise a new kick that will synchronize with the van hitting the water, and causes an avalanche in Eames' level. The Mal projection kills Fischer, Cobb kills Mal, and Saito succumbs to his wounds; all three fall into limbo. While Eames sets up a kick by rigging the fortress with explosives, Cobb and Ariadne enter limbo to rescue Fischer and Saito.
Cobb reveals to Ariadne that he and Mal went to limbo while experimenting with the dream-sharing technology. There, they spent fifty years constructing a world from their shared memories. When Mal refused to return to 'reality', Cobb used a rudimentary form of inception by compromising her totem (an object dreamers use to distinguish dreams from 'reality') and implanted in her mind the idea that the world was not real. However, when she woke up, Mal was still convinced that she was dreaming. In an attempt to "wake up" for real, Mal committed suicide and framed Cobb for her death to force him to do the same. Facing a murder charge, Cobb fled the U.S., leaving his children in the care of Professor Miles.
Dom and Mal together.
Through his confession, Cobb makes peace with his guilt over Mal's death. Ariadne kills the Mal projection and wakes Fischer up with a kick. Revived at the mountain fortress, Fischer enters a safe room to discover and accept the planted idea: a projection of his dying father telling him to be his own man. While Cobb remains in limbo to search for Saito, the other team members ride the synchronized kicks back to 'reality': Ariadne jumps off a balcony, Eames detonates the explosives in the fortress, Arthur blasts an elevator containing the team's sleeping bodies up the shaft, and the van hits the water. Cobb eventually finds an aged Saito in limbo, reminding him of their agreement. The dreamers all awaken on the plane and Saito makes a phone call.
Upon arrival at Los Angeles Airport, Cobb passes the U.S. immigration checkpoint and Professor Miles accompanies him to his home. Cobb spins his spinning top to verify he is not still dreaming, but leaves it spinning on the table to join his children in the garden.[b]
Dom reunites with his children.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ending
Nolan has also said, "I don't remember specifically where the idea [for stealing an idea] came from except that once I started exploring the idea of people sharing a dream space - entering a dream space and sharing a dream. That gives you the ability to access somebody's subconscious. What would that be used and abused for? That was the jumping off point."[d]
a. Poster for Inception: The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, Warner Bros. Pictures, the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.
b. Wikipedia, Inception. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception.
c. Jensen, Jeff (November 30, 2010). "Christopher Nolan on his 'last' Batman movie, an 'Inception' videogame, and that spinning top." Entertainment Weekly. Web. URL = http://www.ew.com/article/2010/11/30/christopher-nolan-batman-inception.
d. Weintraub, Steve (March 25, 2010). "Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas Interview." Collider.com. Web. URL = http://collider.com/director-christopher-nolan-and-producer-emma-thomas-interview-inception-they-talk-3d-what-kind-of-cameras-they-used-pre-viz-wb-and-a-lot-more/.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Inception analysis - part 7: Wrapping up the analysis: The ultimate inception targets
CATEGORY: MOVIES
Robert Michael Fischer, the heir to a business empire, appears to be the inception team's target. However, the true target of the inception is Dom Cobb (as explained below), with Fischer actually being a part of the (real) inception team. The implantation of an idea in Dom's unconscious while he's in a dream state is a metaphor for how certain movie-makers subtly plant ideas in the minds of movie-goers.
Some reviewers of Inception have argued that the film is itself a metaphor for film-making, and that the filmgoing experience itself, images flashing before one's eyes in a darkened room, is akin to a dream. Writing in Wired, Jonah Lehrer supported this interpretation and presented neurological evidence that brain activity is strikingly similar during film-watching and sleeping. In both, the visual cortex is highly active and the prefrontal cortex, which deals with logic, deliberate analysis, and self-awareness, is quiet.[a]
Christoper Nolan intended Inception to be a metaphor for film-making, so that we will realize that ideas can effectively be 'planted' in our minds by movie-makers, while we are in the above-described 'cinema dream-state' that occurs when we watch movies. Unscrupulous movie-makers have taken advantage of us while we're viewing their movies, to subtly influence our beliefs so as to help further certain agendas.
Recall the idea of a 'lesbian wedding' mentioned in part 4 of this analysis. Ariadne's totem is a bishop chess piece (above left screencap). The hat of a bishop (as in the Catholic adoption) is sometimes considered to be a phallic symbol. This points to a kind of 'maleness' within Ariadne, as does the way she is dressed throughout much of the film, e.g., as shown in the above right screencap, she's wearing shoes that look similar to men's shoes when she steps on the wine glass in Dom and Mal's wedding suite (recall that this action points to the lesbian wedding idea). What must have happened in reality (i.e., outside Dom's dream, which as we've observed, is constituted of everything we see in the film), was that Ariadne and Mal were lovers at some point, and Ariadne planned to 'adopt' Mal's kids so that the two of them could raise the kids together, without Dom. When Mal later decided she wanted to end the affair with Ariadne and stick with Dom, she stabbed Ariadne in an attempt to get rid of her. Once Ariadne fully realized what Mal's plan was (to get back with Dom, as stated), she shot Mal dead out of jealousy, making it appear to Dom as if it was a suicide; then, Ariadne framed Dom for Mal's death, in the sense that she effectively used inception to convince Dom that Mal's (supposed) suicide was his fault; and, she set things up such that it appeared to the authorities that Dom murdered Mal. Dom is dreaming the events of the movie while he's locked up in some kind of institution, having been found guilty of murdering Mal and trying to make her death look like a suicide.
The over-arching scenario being depicted in Inception is one in which, in reality, Ariadne was Dom's psychotherapist, she was having an affair with Mal (as stated above), and she used a combination of drugs and hypnosis to induce a dream-like state in Dom, in order to plant the idea within Dom's mind that he was responsible for Mal's death. In Dom's dream, the therapist, Ariadne, appeared to him as someone who was helpful, whereas in reality, she's a feminist ideologue, and was doing harm; in fact, in reality she was trying to separate a father from his children, not bring them together.
Ariadne appears to Dom as someone who is helpful, but she is, in reality, ill-intentioned.
Ultimately, the message of Inception is that ideological feminists are psychologically manipulating men so that they come to accept the tenets of feminism. One way these feminists do this is by being involved in making movies which influence men's minds while these men are in the above-mentioned 'cinema dream state'. Another way this happens is that psychotherapists who are feminists, subtly psychologically manipulate their male patients. In both cases, the method used targets men who have 'unresolved'/'unstable' animas. This weakness is used by these feminists to 'burrow' their way into the men's unconscious minds, by, in effect, 'usurping' that part of each man's anima that serves as mediator between his unconscious and conscious mind. Then, these women make subtle suggestions to each man's unconscious to further their feminist agenda, insofar as unconscious 'thoughts' of the men lead to their conscious attitudes and actions.
The overall point is that men are the ultimate targets for feminist inception.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Begin reading here if you arrived at this page by clicking on the 'Read the latter portion of part 7 of the Inception analysis' link, in the 'Recommended minimum reading for this blog' post:
Regarding the idea of movie-makers influencing the minds of audience members, Sergei Eisenstein argued that the film technique of montage, especially intellectual montage, is an alternative system to continuity editing. The montage technique relies on symbolic association of ideas between shots rather than association of simple physical action for its continuity. Eisenstein believed that intellectual montage expresses how everyday thought processes happen. In this sense, the film montage will, in fact, form thoughts in the mind of the viewer, and is therefore a powerful tool for propaganda.[b]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In her essay, The Politics of Sound and Image, feminist author Debbie Ging states,[c]
"Although Eisenstein's films and Soviet photo-montage are not generally directly associated with a revolutionary feminist politics, they still offer powerful techniques to feminist filmmakers in the context of a postmodernism of resistance.
...
"[T]he subjugation of women is not necessarily an inherent aspect of montage cinema, a point which I think is well illustrated by its successful appropriation for the purposes of political feminist cinema.
...
"What is of interest to this discussion is the fact that so many avant-garde filmmakers have successfully appropriated montage, as we know it from Eisenstein's earlier work, for the purpose of radical feminist politics." (emphasis in original).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If a movie-maker desires to convey a disjointed space, or spatial discontinuity, aside from purposefully contradicting the continuity tools, he can take advantage of crosscutting and the jump cut. Nolan uses not only montage, but several jarring jump cuts and crosscuts, in the action sequences in his Inception. Nolan's purpose in using these techinques in a movie about planting ideas in peoples' minds, is to tell us that certain film techniques are, in fact, currently being used by unscrupulous movie-makers, to influence the thinking of audience members.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sergei Eisenstein c. 1935. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Sergei Eisenstein' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.]
There is some interesting material that is applicable to this analysis, in chapter 5 of Eisenstein's Towards a Theory of Montage.[d] Eisenstein tells us, "[A]ll cinema is montage cinema, for the simple reason that the most fundamental cinematic phenomenon - the fact that the picture moves - is a montage phenomenon. What does this phenomenon of the moving photographic image consist of?
"A series of still photographs of different stages of a single movement are taken. The result is a succession of what are called 'frames'.
"Connecting them up with one another in montage by passing the film at a certain speed through a projector reduces them to a single process which our perception interprets as movement...Montage pervades all 'levels' of filmmaking, beginning with the basic cinematic phenomenon, through 'montage proper' and up to the compositional totality of the film as a whole. So far we have not treated the question of the shot as a montage sequence of frames. Now we perceive even the still shot as a montage process, as the first link in a continuous chain of montage that extends throughout the entire work." (emphasis in original).
To develop the idea of a single shot as a montage, Eisenstein begins with some art history:
"[T]he method...of depicting sequential phases for conveying a sense of movement[,] is firmly entrenched in those paintings which particularly surprise us by showing movement while simultaneously maintaining the integrity of the object, person, or phenomenon depicted. Such qualities are possessed in equal degree, for instance, by the lithographs of Daumier and the ceilings of Tintoretto. The 'trick' of the unusual mobility of their figures is purely cinematic. Unlike the miniatures of the Middle Ages, however, they do not give the temporally sequential phases of the movement to one limb depicted several times but spread these phases consecutively over different parts of the body. Thus the foot is in position A, the knee is already in stage A + a, the torso in stage A + 2a, the neck in A + 3a, the raised arm in A + 4a, the head in A + 5a, and so on. By the law of pars pro toto, from the position of the foot you mentally extrapolate the attitude which the entire figure should be taking up at that moment. The same applies to the knee, the neck, and the head, so that in effect the figure drawn in this way is interpreted as if it were six successive 'frames' of the same figure in the various sequential phases of the movement. The fact that they are serially juxtaposed to each other forces the spectator to interpret them as 'movement' in exactly the same way that this occurs in cinema."
Note that the above description of the appearance of movement in a still figure, is suggestive of the movements of a marionette, i.e., of a puppet operated by strings. In fact, Eisenstein was interested in the field of biomechanics, and according to Alexander Zholkovsky of the University of Southern California, "Eisenstein extolled marionettes as an ideal model of centrally controlled and therefore perfect movement."[e]
By using montage in a movie about inception of an idea, Nolan wants us to 'drill down' to the idea of a single shot as a montage, and to derive the idea that we, the audience members, are like marionettes being manipulated by certain ideologically-motivated movie-makers.
a. Wikipedia, 'Inception'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception.
b. Wikipedia, 'Soviet montage theory'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_montage_theory.
c. Ging, Debbie. "The Politics of Sound and Image: Eisenstein, Artifice, and Acoustic Montage in Contemporary Feminist Cinema" in The Montage Principle: Eisenstein in New Cultural and Critical Contexts, ed. Jean-Antoine-Dunne and Paula Quigley. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004. pp. 68, 75, 76.
d. Eisenstein, Sergei. Towards a Theory of Montage, ed. Michael Glenny and Richard Taylor. New York: I.B. Tauris & Co., 2010. pp. 109, 110-111.
e. Zholkovsky, Alexander. "Eisenstein's Poetics: Dialogical or Totalitarian?" Web, n.d. URL = http://dornsifecms.usc.edu/alexander-zholkovsky/eis/.
Robert Michael Fischer, the heir to a business empire, appears to be the inception team's target. However, the true target of the inception is Dom Cobb (as explained below), with Fischer actually being a part of the (real) inception team. The implantation of an idea in Dom's unconscious while he's in a dream state is a metaphor for how certain movie-makers subtly plant ideas in the minds of movie-goers.
Some reviewers of Inception have argued that the film is itself a metaphor for film-making, and that the filmgoing experience itself, images flashing before one's eyes in a darkened room, is akin to a dream. Writing in Wired, Jonah Lehrer supported this interpretation and presented neurological evidence that brain activity is strikingly similar during film-watching and sleeping. In both, the visual cortex is highly active and the prefrontal cortex, which deals with logic, deliberate analysis, and self-awareness, is quiet.[a]
Christoper Nolan intended Inception to be a metaphor for film-making, so that we will realize that ideas can effectively be 'planted' in our minds by movie-makers, while we are in the above-described 'cinema dream-state' that occurs when we watch movies. Unscrupulous movie-makers have taken advantage of us while we're viewing their movies, to subtly influence our beliefs so as to help further certain agendas.
Recall the idea of a 'lesbian wedding' mentioned in part 4 of this analysis. Ariadne's totem is a bishop chess piece (above left screencap). The hat of a bishop (as in the Catholic adoption) is sometimes considered to be a phallic symbol. This points to a kind of 'maleness' within Ariadne, as does the way she is dressed throughout much of the film, e.g., as shown in the above right screencap, she's wearing shoes that look similar to men's shoes when she steps on the wine glass in Dom and Mal's wedding suite (recall that this action points to the lesbian wedding idea). What must have happened in reality (i.e., outside Dom's dream, which as we've observed, is constituted of everything we see in the film), was that Ariadne and Mal were lovers at some point, and Ariadne planned to 'adopt' Mal's kids so that the two of them could raise the kids together, without Dom. When Mal later decided she wanted to end the affair with Ariadne and stick with Dom, she stabbed Ariadne in an attempt to get rid of her. Once Ariadne fully realized what Mal's plan was (to get back with Dom, as stated), she shot Mal dead out of jealousy, making it appear to Dom as if it was a suicide; then, Ariadne framed Dom for Mal's death, in the sense that she effectively used inception to convince Dom that Mal's (supposed) suicide was his fault; and, she set things up such that it appeared to the authorities that Dom murdered Mal. Dom is dreaming the events of the movie while he's locked up in some kind of institution, having been found guilty of murdering Mal and trying to make her death look like a suicide.
The over-arching scenario being depicted in Inception is one in which, in reality, Ariadne was Dom's psychotherapist, she was having an affair with Mal (as stated above), and she used a combination of drugs and hypnosis to induce a dream-like state in Dom, in order to plant the idea within Dom's mind that he was responsible for Mal's death. In Dom's dream, the therapist, Ariadne, appeared to him as someone who was helpful, whereas in reality, she's a feminist ideologue, and was doing harm; in fact, in reality she was trying to separate a father from his children, not bring them together.
Ariadne appears to Dom as someone who is helpful, but she is, in reality, ill-intentioned.
Ultimately, the message of Inception is that ideological feminists are psychologically manipulating men so that they come to accept the tenets of feminism. One way these feminists do this is by being involved in making movies which influence men's minds while these men are in the above-mentioned 'cinema dream state'. Another way this happens is that psychotherapists who are feminists, subtly psychologically manipulate their male patients. In both cases, the method used targets men who have 'unresolved'/'unstable' animas. This weakness is used by these feminists to 'burrow' their way into the men's unconscious minds, by, in effect, 'usurping' that part of each man's anima that serves as mediator between his unconscious and conscious mind. Then, these women make subtle suggestions to each man's unconscious to further their feminist agenda, insofar as unconscious 'thoughts' of the men lead to their conscious attitudes and actions.
The overall point is that men are the ultimate targets for feminist inception.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Begin reading here if you arrived at this page by clicking on the 'Read the latter portion of part 7 of the Inception analysis' link, in the 'Recommended minimum reading for this blog' post:
Regarding the idea of movie-makers influencing the minds of audience members, Sergei Eisenstein argued that the film technique of montage, especially intellectual montage, is an alternative system to continuity editing. The montage technique relies on symbolic association of ideas between shots rather than association of simple physical action for its continuity. Eisenstein believed that intellectual montage expresses how everyday thought processes happen. In this sense, the film montage will, in fact, form thoughts in the mind of the viewer, and is therefore a powerful tool for propaganda.[b]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In her essay, The Politics of Sound and Image, feminist author Debbie Ging states,[c]
"Although Eisenstein's films and Soviet photo-montage are not generally directly associated with a revolutionary feminist politics, they still offer powerful techniques to feminist filmmakers in the context of a postmodernism of resistance.
...
"[T]he subjugation of women is not necessarily an inherent aspect of montage cinema, a point which I think is well illustrated by its successful appropriation for the purposes of political feminist cinema.
...
"What is of interest to this discussion is the fact that so many avant-garde filmmakers have successfully appropriated montage, as we know it from Eisenstein's earlier work, for the purpose of radical feminist politics." (emphasis in original).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If a movie-maker desires to convey a disjointed space, or spatial discontinuity, aside from purposefully contradicting the continuity tools, he can take advantage of crosscutting and the jump cut. Nolan uses not only montage, but several jarring jump cuts and crosscuts, in the action sequences in his Inception. Nolan's purpose in using these techinques in a movie about planting ideas in peoples' minds, is to tell us that certain film techniques are, in fact, currently being used by unscrupulous movie-makers, to influence the thinking of audience members.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is some interesting material that is applicable to this analysis, in chapter 5 of Eisenstein's Towards a Theory of Montage.[d] Eisenstein tells us, "[A]ll cinema is montage cinema, for the simple reason that the most fundamental cinematic phenomenon - the fact that the picture moves - is a montage phenomenon. What does this phenomenon of the moving photographic image consist of?
"A series of still photographs of different stages of a single movement are taken. The result is a succession of what are called 'frames'.
"Connecting them up with one another in montage by passing the film at a certain speed through a projector reduces them to a single process which our perception interprets as movement...Montage pervades all 'levels' of filmmaking, beginning with the basic cinematic phenomenon, through 'montage proper' and up to the compositional totality of the film as a whole. So far we have not treated the question of the shot as a montage sequence of frames. Now we perceive even the still shot as a montage process, as the first link in a continuous chain of montage that extends throughout the entire work." (emphasis in original).
To develop the idea of a single shot as a montage, Eisenstein begins with some art history:
"[T]he method...of depicting sequential phases for conveying a sense of movement[,] is firmly entrenched in those paintings which particularly surprise us by showing movement while simultaneously maintaining the integrity of the object, person, or phenomenon depicted. Such qualities are possessed in equal degree, for instance, by the lithographs of Daumier and the ceilings of Tintoretto. The 'trick' of the unusual mobility of their figures is purely cinematic. Unlike the miniatures of the Middle Ages, however, they do not give the temporally sequential phases of the movement to one limb depicted several times but spread these phases consecutively over different parts of the body. Thus the foot is in position A, the knee is already in stage A + a, the torso in stage A + 2a, the neck in A + 3a, the raised arm in A + 4a, the head in A + 5a, and so on. By the law of pars pro toto, from the position of the foot you mentally extrapolate the attitude which the entire figure should be taking up at that moment. The same applies to the knee, the neck, and the head, so that in effect the figure drawn in this way is interpreted as if it were six successive 'frames' of the same figure in the various sequential phases of the movement. The fact that they are serially juxtaposed to each other forces the spectator to interpret them as 'movement' in exactly the same way that this occurs in cinema."
Note that the above description of the appearance of movement in a still figure, is suggestive of the movements of a marionette, i.e., of a puppet operated by strings. In fact, Eisenstein was interested in the field of biomechanics, and according to Alexander Zholkovsky of the University of Southern California, "Eisenstein extolled marionettes as an ideal model of centrally controlled and therefore perfect movement."[e]
By using montage in a movie about inception of an idea, Nolan wants us to 'drill down' to the idea of a single shot as a montage, and to derive the idea that we, the audience members, are like marionettes being manipulated by certain ideologically-motivated movie-makers.
a. Wikipedia, 'Inception'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inception.
b. Wikipedia, 'Soviet montage theory'. Web, n.d. URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_montage_theory.
c. Ging, Debbie. "The Politics of Sound and Image: Eisenstein, Artifice, and Acoustic Montage in Contemporary Feminist Cinema" in The Montage Principle: Eisenstein in New Cultural and Critical Contexts, ed. Jean-Antoine-Dunne and Paula Quigley. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004. pp. 68, 75, 76.
d. Eisenstein, Sergei. Towards a Theory of Montage, ed. Michael Glenny and Richard Taylor. New York: I.B. Tauris & Co., 2010. pp. 109, 110-111.
e. Zholkovsky, Alexander. "Eisenstein's Poetics: Dialogical or Totalitarian?" Web, n.d. URL = http://dornsifecms.usc.edu/alexander-zholkovsky/eis/.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Inception analysis - part 6: The entire movie depicts a dream
CATEGORY: MOVIES
The view of buildings and alleyways from above during the chase scene in Mombasa (above left), which supposedly takes place in reality, is reminiscent of some of the pen-and-paper mazes drawn by Ariadne (above right)
Two walls seem to close in on Dom during the chase, as might happen in a dream.
One of the key pieces of evidence that the entire movie is someone's dream, comes in the scene in Mombasa, in which Dom visits a room where people come to dream for several hours each day (above left). As the man showing Dom through the place (above right) says, these people come here not to sleep, but to be woken up: "Their dream has become their reality - who are you to say otherwise?" Since the man is here speaking to Dom, it is Dom who is dreaming everything in the movie; and, as will be explained in the next post in this analysis, he is the target of an inception.
The fact that the spinning top shown at the end of Inception begins to wobble, means that there's about to be a 'kick' out of the current dream (of Dom re-uniting with his children).
The view of buildings and alleyways from above during the chase scene in Mombasa (above left), which supposedly takes place in reality, is reminiscent of some of the pen-and-paper mazes drawn by Ariadne (above right)
Two walls seem to close in on Dom during the chase, as might happen in a dream.
One of the key pieces of evidence that the entire movie is someone's dream, comes in the scene in Mombasa, in which Dom visits a room where people come to dream for several hours each day (above left). As the man showing Dom through the place (above right) says, these people come here not to sleep, but to be woken up: "Their dream has become their reality - who are you to say otherwise?" Since the man is here speaking to Dom, it is Dom who is dreaming everything in the movie; and, as will be explained in the next post in this analysis, he is the target of an inception.
The fact that the spinning top shown at the end of Inception begins to wobble, means that there's about to be a 'kick' out of the current dream (of Dom re-uniting with his children).
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Inception analysis - part 5: Dom is undergoing individuation
CATEGORY: MOVIES
One thing that is being depicted in Inception, is Dom Cobb's process of individuation. According to Jungian psychology, individuation is a process of psychological integration, having for its goal the development of the individual personality. "In general, it is the process by which individual beings are formed and differentiated [from other human beings]; in particular, it is the development of the psychological individual as a being distinct from the general, collective psychology."[a]
Top left and right: The fact that the mazes Ariadne hands Dom to work his way through, are rectangular or oblong rather than square or round, respectively, indicate that they represent what Jung called 'disturbed' mandalas. The shapes of these mazes indicate an emphasis on the horizontal, and thus, an over-emphasis on the ego-consciousness at the expense of vertical height, which represents the unconscious.[b]
The fact that the arrows Dom draws in the scene at left, show a clockwise movement, indicates a movement toward the conscious (whereas a counter-clockwise movement is one toward the unconscious).[c] The line drawn between the arrows, however, indicates that Dom's movement toward the conscious is 'blocked' in some way.
a. Jung, C.G. The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 6. Princeton University Press, 1971. para. 757.
b. Jung, C.G.. The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 12. Princeton University Press, 1968. paras. 287, 291. Google Books. URL = https://books.google.com.
c. Ibid., para. 166.
One thing that is being depicted in Inception, is Dom Cobb's process of individuation. According to Jungian psychology, individuation is a process of psychological integration, having for its goal the development of the individual personality. "In general, it is the process by which individual beings are formed and differentiated [from other human beings]; in particular, it is the development of the psychological individual as a being distinct from the general, collective psychology."[a]
Top left and right: The fact that the mazes Ariadne hands Dom to work his way through, are rectangular or oblong rather than square or round, respectively, indicate that they represent what Jung called 'disturbed' mandalas. The shapes of these mazes indicate an emphasis on the horizontal, and thus, an over-emphasis on the ego-consciousness at the expense of vertical height, which represents the unconscious.[b]
The fact that the arrows Dom draws in the scene at left, show a clockwise movement, indicates a movement toward the conscious (whereas a counter-clockwise movement is one toward the unconscious).[c] The line drawn between the arrows, however, indicates that Dom's movement toward the conscious is 'blocked' in some way.
a. Jung, C.G. The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 6. Princeton University Press, 1971. para. 757.
b. Jung, C.G.. The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 12. Princeton University Press, 1968. paras. 287, 291. Google Books. URL = https://books.google.com.
c. Ibid., para. 166.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Inception analysis - part 4: References to other films
CATEGORY: MOVIES
Top left and right: The people sleeping in the room in Mambasa (left), is similar to the roomful of unconscious patients in Coma (right), the 1978 film based on Robin Cook's novel of the same name. (Coma was re-made as a television mini-series in 2012). Above left and right: Dom holding Mal's foot (left) is a reference to the same thing as the prominent showing of women's feet in certain of Quentin Tarantino's films, such as the fitting of a shoe to Bridget Von Hammersmark's foot by Colonel Hans Landa in Inglouorious Basterds (right). What both of these refer to is Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Jung's idea that in dreams, the foot represents the relation to Earthly reality.[a]
Top left: Some people sitting near Dom and Fischer in a hotel restaurant, look over at the two men. This is an indication that the people sense the 'foreign nature' of someone in the current dream. Top right: The liquid in Fischer's drink begins to vibrate as the hotel building becomes unsteady. Arthur tells Ariadne that this unsteadiness is due to Dom drawing Fischer's attention to the strangeness of the dream, which is making his subconscious look for the dreamer (supposedly, Arthur, who is sitting with Ariadne in a different part of the hotel). Above left: At certain points in Martin Scorsese's 1976 film, Taxi Driver, the main character, Travis Bickle, senses that strangers (such as these two men) are looking at him. As indicated in the analysis of Scorsese's movie on this blog, part of it depicts a dream Travis experiences. Above right: We're shown a close-up of Travis's drink 'fizzing' after he puts two antacid tablets in it.
Top left: Heywood Floyd touches the rectangular black 'monolith' in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. As indicated in the analysis of 2001 on this blog, Floyd's body is occupied by an alien life force representing 'feminine evil', and the monoliths in the movie were placed by an alien race representing the same. Top right: Inception's Ariadne touches a large rectangular mirror-door. This corresponds to Floyd touching the 2001 monolith; and as stated, Floyd's body is occupied by an alien life force representing feminine evil. Thus, the fact that Ariadne here sees herself in an object representing the Space Odyssey monolith, is a clue from the makers of Inception that in actual reality, i.e., 'outside' all of the dream layers of the film, Ariadne represents the presence of feminine evil, i.e., she is a feminist ideologue. As suggested in part 2 of this analysis, Ariadne's appearance as someone who is helpful to Cobb, a man trying to re-unite with his children, is really just a 'front'. The audience of Inception never sees Ariadne as she is in reality because, as will be described later in the analysis, the entire movie is a dream.
Above left: Ariadne steps on and breaks a wine glass, alerting Mal to her presence. Above right: Moments after Mal confronts Ariadne, we hear a crunching noise when Mal steps on shards of the same (now-broken) glass. In this scene, the two women are alone together in a suite in the hotel where Dom and Mal spent their wedding anniversaries together. In some lesbian Jewish wedding ceremonies, both participants step on a wine glass.
a. "The foot, as the organ nearest the earth, represents in dreams the relation to earthly reality..." (--Jung, C.G., The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 5, Princeton University Press, 1967, para. 356.)
Top left and right: The people sleeping in the room in Mambasa (left), is similar to the roomful of unconscious patients in Coma (right), the 1978 film based on Robin Cook's novel of the same name. (Coma was re-made as a television mini-series in 2012). Above left and right: Dom holding Mal's foot (left) is a reference to the same thing as the prominent showing of women's feet in certain of Quentin Tarantino's films, such as the fitting of a shoe to Bridget Von Hammersmark's foot by Colonel Hans Landa in Inglouorious Basterds (right). What both of these refer to is Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Jung's idea that in dreams, the foot represents the relation to Earthly reality.[a]
Top left: Some people sitting near Dom and Fischer in a hotel restaurant, look over at the two men. This is an indication that the people sense the 'foreign nature' of someone in the current dream. Top right: The liquid in Fischer's drink begins to vibrate as the hotel building becomes unsteady. Arthur tells Ariadne that this unsteadiness is due to Dom drawing Fischer's attention to the strangeness of the dream, which is making his subconscious look for the dreamer (supposedly, Arthur, who is sitting with Ariadne in a different part of the hotel). Above left: At certain points in Martin Scorsese's 1976 film, Taxi Driver, the main character, Travis Bickle, senses that strangers (such as these two men) are looking at him. As indicated in the analysis of Scorsese's movie on this blog, part of it depicts a dream Travis experiences. Above right: We're shown a close-up of Travis's drink 'fizzing' after he puts two antacid tablets in it.
Top left: Heywood Floyd touches the rectangular black 'monolith' in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. As indicated in the analysis of 2001 on this blog, Floyd's body is occupied by an alien life force representing 'feminine evil', and the monoliths in the movie were placed by an alien race representing the same. Top right: Inception's Ariadne touches a large rectangular mirror-door. This corresponds to Floyd touching the 2001 monolith; and as stated, Floyd's body is occupied by an alien life force representing feminine evil. Thus, the fact that Ariadne here sees herself in an object representing the Space Odyssey monolith, is a clue from the makers of Inception that in actual reality, i.e., 'outside' all of the dream layers of the film, Ariadne represents the presence of feminine evil, i.e., she is a feminist ideologue. As suggested in part 2 of this analysis, Ariadne's appearance as someone who is helpful to Cobb, a man trying to re-unite with his children, is really just a 'front'. The audience of Inception never sees Ariadne as she is in reality because, as will be described later in the analysis, the entire movie is a dream.
Above left: Ariadne steps on and breaks a wine glass, alerting Mal to her presence. Above right: Moments after Mal confronts Ariadne, we hear a crunching noise when Mal steps on shards of the same (now-broken) glass. In this scene, the two women are alone together in a suite in the hotel where Dom and Mal spent their wedding anniversaries together. In some lesbian Jewish wedding ceremonies, both participants step on a wine glass.
a. "The foot, as the organ nearest the earth, represents in dreams the relation to earthly reality..." (--Jung, C.G., The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. 5, Princeton University Press, 1967, para. 356.)