More Bosch

Having deluded myself that Bosch was part of the Free Spirit movement (I am so gullible and suggestible that everything I read convinces me at the time - through 'suspension of disbelief') -  I have moved on to Laurinda Dixon's book, which has copious other pictures from the same period (to demonstrate that he was not a lone genius working in a wilderness) but she casually dismisses the idea of Bosch as a member of a heresy.  Her thing is that his imagery comes from Alchemy.

I love watching academics and conspiracy theorists haggling for their pet theory.

And I had never thought of Bosch as a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci, so I live and learn.

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On this detailed Bosch website by Adam McLean, there is a quick review - overview - of many books on Bosch, and Ms. Dixon's alchemical theory gets dismissed, along with books trying to tie Bosch into esoteric ideas from (say) the Anthroposophy people...

He covers all the 'interpretations' from Jung to astrology and 'secret Cathar' - and dismisses them.  He doesn't seem to have written up the 'druggie' one (ergot poisoning, St Anthony's Fire, or deliberate use of hallucinogens like Datura, or Belladonna or whatever).

I think I might invest in his DVD 'course', which apparently has high quality images, and avoids interpretations to concentrate on the painting itself.  120 minutes of video.   And his Alchemy Website looks interesting, too.  Lots to explore...on rainy days...

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You may also find something useful at this other Bosch resource, although I haven't tested all the links.

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Oh, and one obvious parallel that I haven't mentioned.  The fact that The Surrealists embraced his work, and Dali (in particular) seems to have employed some of the same kind of techniques and imagery. Here's Anthony Christian on The First Surrealist.  He seems sure that Bosch was just having fun at everyone else's expense! But then again, he reckons his psychic friend has chatted to Bosch about it!

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And here's Philip Coppens on Bosch

Either way, he is sometimes said to have been the spark that ignited the surrealist movement of the 20th century, which would produce modern greats such as Salvador Dali. Dali knew the works of Bosch (who was furthermore highly popular in Spain) and felt compelled to deny the influence: “I myself am the anti-Hieronymus Bosch.”

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And finally, the entry for Bosch from the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (H2G2):

Think of mixing Fellini with David Lynch, sprinkling in a little James Joyce, and having it all put on canvas by Salvador Dali.       Carl Linfert, Hieronymus Bosch, 1989

and the H2G2 link for The Garden of Earthly Delights

Freelance intellectual - or a load of Bosch

As soon as I decided to drop out of school - skip doing A-Levels and university, etc - I knew I had committed myself to an alternative path.

I have never regretted it.  Not having to write a thesis or a paper, or sweat over an MA, and all that.

Of course, if I could have been paid to potter about the libraries of the world, that would have been ideal, but the strings attached seemed too much for me.

So although people associate me with performing, clowning, juggling, circus, etc - I have to admit I did all that because (a) it kept me fit and outgoing, to counterbalance all the reading at a desk (b) to earn money in as short a time as possible, leaving loads of free time to read and research.

And I just follow my nose to what interests me.  I can dedicate time as I choose. I once spent about three years studying astrology, not just the popular stuff but quite esoteric interpretations, and also computer programs related to it, etc (they were pretty primitive in the 1980s).

I love serendipity and cross-referencing, and the internet has increased the possibilities enormously.

So recently I:

• Planned to set up a blog about scams, cons, hoaxes, forgeries, tricksters, etc, and decided to us one of my favourite Bosch images, of the street magician, complete with pickpocket working the crowd.

• I spotted one odd face in the crowd, who seems almost like just a head...and it reminded me of something

• Digging back in my mind, I uncovered the memory of a book about Bosch's Millennium (often called The Garden of Earthly Delights), and this particular author, analysing the picture, highlighted the face in the bottom right corner of the centrepiece, which he suggested was the Grand Master of a heretical sect called The Adamites, who did not believe in Original Sin (amongst other things), a group he thought Bosch belonged to.  I thought these faces uncannily similar.  Other researchers have suggested that the image below is a self-portrait of Bosch as a younger man.

• Believe what you like, but I may pursue some of this. Just for the hell (or heaven) of it.

• I have also been reading Joseph Campbell's book about James Joyce - "Mythic Worlds, Modern Words" in which he relates Joyce's major works to Dante's Divine Comedy.
• I have never read the Commedia, and it looks like a lot of poetry to get through, so have started with a comic book version, just to get the shape of it all.
• Which brings me back to Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, etc, as perceived by 13th and 15th Century artists.  Just an average day in a random researcher's life. It's hard to know where I might end up.
• She lit a burner on the stove
  And offered me a pipe
  “I thought you’d never say hello,” she said
  “You look like the silent type”
  Then she opened up a book of poems
  And handed it to me
  Written by an Italian poet
  From the thirteenth century
  And every one of them words rang true
  And glowed like burnin’ coal
  Pourin’ off of every page
  Like it was written in my soul from me to you
  Tangled up in blue

Women writing

I seem to have found myself reading women authors in the last few days.

I don't know if I should make that distinction any more (just as 'actress' has mostly become replaced by 'actor' for all - although I still fail to see how using the masculine version for both can really prove liberating. When I asked a woman she said that 'actress' seemed like a qualification, somehow implying 'a lesser version of', but I don't fully understand. But hey, I'm only a bloke).  Maybe male actors should be called actresses instead?

Ahem.  Anyway, I found a copy of The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, and what a delightful read!  A fictionalised account of her years in Paris in the 50s, as an adventurous, modern and bohemian woman.

I also discovered that The Stacks at the library had a copy of Slouching Towards Bethelem by Joan Didion, a series of essays about the USA in the early and late 60s.  A fairly harsh eye on various sub-cultures, but a touch of nostalgia, too (for her family background).  Her portrait of the Haight, however, offers little joy.  Not that I intend to romance the late 60s, as methedrine and other harder drugs screwed up the London scene, too.  And when I ran off to explore the US in 1970 I spent a long time in San Francisco and deliberately never went to explore Haight-Ashbury, as the whole scene sounded over the hill.  Sad.

Finally, I am browsing and skimming through Marina Warner's book about story-telling: From the beast to the blonde : on fairy tales and their tellers, which has some fascinating content, and may earn a more close reading.

Cryptoamnesia

OK, OK, so I can't think of something original to call this compilation blog!  I test all new titles in Google, and things like "IMHO" went long ago, and so did some of the complicated inventions I think of (but they ain't snappy and memorable).

I settled on Time Piece, because I already wrote an obscure on-line article for The Maybe Quarterly (complete with cut-up random sound track from a fellow student) with that title, but a quick search turns up some early, short movie of Jim Henson's* (1965) - which would simply be embarrassing, except for the fact that I worked with Jim on The Dark Crystal (as part of his personal crew) so that makes it a synchronous kind of a hit.

Wyrd!

I just used it because the title echoed my own initials (how trivial and egoistic can you get?)

*  Dislocation in time, time signatures, time as a philosophical concept, and slavery to time are some of the themes touched upon in this nine-minute, experimental film, which was written, directed, and produced by Jim Henson-and starred Jim Henson! Screened for the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in May of 1965, Time Piece enjoyed an eighteen-month run at one Manhattan movie theater and was nominated for an Academy Award for outstanding short subject.  

from IMDb]


A minute and a half on YouTube    (remember, this comes from 1965!)




You might need MySpace to watch this, or you can find it on iTunes (for money!)