2023-04-01

Some parts / notes from a presentation given for the NY Comics Symposium, mostly quotes from other people and things that I want to remember for later. Not intended as an essay or anything, just stuff for me to try to follow up with and flesh out later.

I mostly showed slides and talked for a while... (note to self, if I ever have to do this again I definitely need to script it.)

The original title of this was: Sweet Emergence.

some general ideas:

• knowledge
• inner / outer
• microcosm-macrocosm (relation between personal, inner world and something larger)
• seeking the origin
• an uncertain afterlife / heaven / hell
• an unknown depth

knowing:

what does this mean to me as an atheist now? Q. Why did God make you? A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.

• (Baltimore Catechism No. 1) -- emphasis on the "to know" part of this.

Dark Souls - Solaire

• I AM the Sun.
• why was Solaire looking for the sun underground (basically) ?

Utriusque Cosmi...Historia / History of the Two Worlds

light at the earth's center

"The perturbations attendant on creation had caused some of the celestial light to be trapped in the cold mass of the central earth. Obeying the law of gravity, this celestial substance began to rise towards its rightful place in the heavens, and it was thus that our sun was formed."

• Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi...Historia, Vol 1, 1617.

Microcosm - Macrocosm

• The great order (universe, macrocosm) is reflected in the small order (human, microcosm)

"In the firmament the sun is the visible representation of the divine fire and of love. Its corresponding part in the human body is the heart, 'which emits vital rays (the veins) in a circle from the centre, and thus animates each individual limb.'"

• Alexander Roob, Alchemy and Mysticism, Taschen, 1997.

Inner Sun

"I focused all of the movement by imagining a shaft of light coming into the bare stage. It gave me a specific direction with which to orient myself, illuminating each of the steps along the way. A world came to life under an imaginary sun. I could almost feel the warmth of its rays on my skin."

• Gelsey Kirkland (with Greg Lawrence), Dancing on My Grave, 1986.

(in the following sections I basically summarized the plots of the movie Sweet Whip and the manga Metamorphosis which, in retrospect, was maybe not the best way to do this talk...)

Sweet Whip

• directed by Takashi Ishii, 2013 - 2016.
• starring Mistu Dan & Yuki Mamiya as the main character Naoko.

A Strange Sweet Smell

• the pursuit of something unknown

"Who are you?"

• Mother's first words when she returns home after a long, brutal struggle.

Dr. Naoko Misaki

• adult Naoko works as a fertility doctor, she helps people who can't conceive, conceive.

Terror with a guarantee of safety

"Who are you?" again...

• a mysterious arm from out of frame stops Naoko from killing her past self (or just herself.) This is perhaps the Naoko who narrates the whole story, a higher self outside herself. The divine being / knowing.

Metamorphosis

• a manga by Shindo L,
• main character: Saki.

Dreams:

None (she just wants friends.)

• taken from a description of Saki's likes and dislikes on a color illustration at the beginning of the book.

Ecstasy

• pursuit of ecstasy, both physical and emotional
• love / being loved is a form of ecstasy
• inner and outer at odds

Changes

• in the end she still hates herself
• no change despite all the transformation

Fat Girl

• directed by Catherine Breillat, 2001,
• "Don't believe me if you don't want to."

Chaos

• Elden Ring: Frenzied Flame ending -- a pursuit of knowledge even though what you seek might lead to complete chaos and destruction.