my life as a artist
we are normal and we dig bert weedon
Tuesday 14th August 2007 11:56 PM
An overseas reader asks 'Who is Ricky Gervais?' Indeed.
'A hippy from the horn queries the provenance of the phrase, 'Old Nobodaddy who farts aloft'. I'd like to say it's one of mine, but it's from William Blake. He is sometimes eerily contemporary. Jerusalem the hymn is taken from a longer poem by Blake, called 'Milton', and immediately prior to the words, '..and did those feet…' Blake says;
' Rise up young people of the new age, set your foreheads against the ignorant hirelings, for they are in the courts, camps and universities, and would, if they could, forever depress mental, and prolong corporeal war. Artists, sculptors, bloggers, on you I call. Suffer not the fashionable fools to depress your powers by the prices they pretend to give for contemptible works, nor the expensive advertising boasts they make of such works. Believe there is a class of people whose whole delight is in destroying.'
I once did it as a moody preamble to a country and western version of 'Jerusalem', at a gig at Birmingham University. Afterwards, one of the students commented admiringly, in a strong local accent, 'Yer must have been really shit-faced when yer wrote that.'
Last night, on the Guardians rabid recommendation, I watched the Richard Dawkins thingy, 'Enemies of Reason', on the telly. It was surprisingly enjoyable. He's got a bit of the hawk about him, and it was no surprise to see him bagging a few rabbits at a psychic fare, but later, when he met a fox and a lion, he got a bit ruffled.
The fox was an astrologer. 'Let me experiment on you' pleaded Richard.
' No', said the fox. 'You're mischief-making, and my art relies on good intention.'
'When you say that, that puts you in a win-win situation' replied Richard.
'Yes', purred the fox, 'I'd like to think so'
Then Richard met Satesh Kumar, who's a lion, and who roared at Richard with a ferocious smile. Richard turned into a rabbit.
'It's all your projection' said Richard.
'No', said Satesh 'It's my understanding. Spirit is everywhere, that tree, that rock. The tree has treeness.'
Richard smirked, and said in a patronising voice ' And I suppose that rock has 'rockness'?'
'Exactly', said Satesh, and beamed.
What I found amazing, infuriating, saddening, and by force of habit, amusing, was the fact that on both occasions, Richard came away from the encounter feeling that he'd bagged another rabbit. So did the Guardian reviewer. He said it was like lambs to the slaughter, and not really a contest, because all the people Richard talked to were a 'crazy bunch' and 'bonkers'
During the programme, Richard lovingly described an experiment by Professor Skinner, famous for his theories of really quite selfish and unacceptable behaviourism. In it, a pigeon, who only really achieves full expression whilst soaring above laboratories, shitting on behaviourists, was put in a small metal box and fed dry pellets, randomly, down a chute.
If a pellet fell down the chute, at the same time as the bird was looking over it's left shoulder, and this event was repeated soon after, the pigeon would think that the looking over the left shoulder was the thing that had caused the pellet to arrive, and would then keep repeating the action to the point of mania.
What Richard deduces from this, is that human beings are prone to superstition. If you're a sensitive, spirit-filled denizen of sunshine and sky, and you're being held in a small metal box against your will, and being tortured by a white-coated psychopath, then looking over your left shoulder, to the point of mania, sounds like a good afternoon out to me.
Comments
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Posted by Anastrozole , on Saturday 8th December 2007, 7:16 PM
I have passed on your Richard Dawkins preview and review blogs to one of my friends, who, as a committed atheist, needs some loving support - his young son thinks the Bible is a really good book, has the best stories, and it is ALL true so there
Posted by Mrs Nobodaddy , on Tuesday 21st August 2007, 4:20 PM
I'm sorry, but you've got Richard Dawkins all wrong. He's someones who loves this planet, the universe, and it's inhabitants. Read his books and reconsider.
Posted by Les Miserable , on Saturday 18th August 2007, 12:48 AM
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