My life as a Kubrick Nut

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby Jerky » Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:27 pm

Because a couple people here were asking about it, here are links to parts 1, 2 and 3 of my life as a Kubrick nut, up to and (somewhat) including when and how my interest in his films merged into my interests in conspiracy theory, alternate history and parapolitics.

Hope y'all enjoy it!

Part One
http://kubricku.blogspot.ca/2014/07/con ... art-1.html

Part Two
http://kubricku.blogspot.ca/2014/08/con ... art-2.html

Part Three
http://kubricku.blogspot.ca/2014/10/con ... in-3d.html

Cheers!
YOPJerky
User avatar
Jerky
 
Posts: 2240
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2005 6:28 pm
Location: Toronto, ON
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:34 pm

Image
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
User avatar
seemslikeadream
 
Posts: 32090
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:28 pm
Location: into the black
Blog: View Blog (83)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby 82_28 » Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:17 pm

I appreciate your enthusiasm as far as Kubrick. Personally my faves are 2001 and 2010. Clockwork is perhaps the most repulsive thing taken artistically serious I have ever seen.

Like maybe ten years ago or so I went to a friend's halloween party. She had called me a few weeks prior, frantic that she had been raped. I of course was there for her. Her boyfriend was in Australia for like a year or something. Anyhow, she was in a sorority and who she was raped by was one of her boyfriend's frat "brothers". So I go to this party, against my little bit older than them sensibilities and I'm hanging out with her and others. And in comes a group of dudes dressed as droogs. She said, "that's the guy."

He came over to her and said in full droog regalia "I owe you an apology." I flipped out, but not to the point of escalating because I would have had my ass handed to me by many young bucks. So I went outside pissed, throwing shit, panting, staring off into space, hating humanity. She didn't know what I was so pissed about. When I explained it to her, she had no idea what CWO was. So I explained that the very fact a few weeks after he had assaulted you coming into your home dressed as a droog and then apologizing was the ultimate act of evil -- in fact beyond evil.

From that day on it solidified my hatred for A clockwork orange. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Sorry, clockwork can go to hell.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
User avatar
82_28
 
Posts: 11194
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:34 am
Location: North of Queen Anne
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby Jerky » Mon Oct 20, 2014 9:30 pm

Not trying to be a Dawkins-level a-hole, here, but if the rape that your friend suffered was the kind of experience that she, herself, could brush off with just an apology - regardless of the appropriateness of the assailant/apologizer's costume choice - then maybe it wasn't exactly on the "Irreversible" scale of traumatic experiences? Also, correlation doesn't necessarily equate to causation. It is possible to be a big Clockwork Orange fan and NOT be a rapist. I feel stupid even having to point that out, but there you go.

Jerky
(Big Clockwork fan. Not a rapist)
User avatar
Jerky
 
Posts: 2240
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2005 6:28 pm
Location: Toronto, ON
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby 82_28 » Tue Oct 21, 2014 1:10 am

Oh, I understand, Jerky. And there's nothing stupid about liking it or loving it. I just have never been able to stomach any kind of violence, no matter the reason. I know full well you're not a rapist or etc and wasn't implying anything of the sort. I understand it is a work of art and an ahead-of-its-time edgy work. Just my feelings, nothing on you at all. That little tale made me hate it once and for good.

I met David Prowse once and he was a sad, sad dickhead.

I felt the same way with Natural Born Killers and got into many an argument with friends who thought it was awesome and visionary or some shit (I know, Stone). It's just me, not you. Clockwork, I feel, for its day, wasn't a symptom but in fact a nexus. I'm sure Kubrick didn't mean it that way, because it was basically born in a vacuum of content like that that didn't really exist. Now that shit is perpetual no matter where you turn. Someone had to do it. I just remember in HS it being the super cool movie everybody just had to watch.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
User avatar
82_28
 
Posts: 11194
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:34 am
Location: North of Queen Anne
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby semper occultus » Tue Oct 21, 2014 3:15 am

...you were hardly alone in your reaction.....Clockwork Orange remains probably the most controversial mainstream film ever to be released in Britain

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/still_ticking_stanley_kubricks_ban_clockwork_orange

After its release in 1971, Stanley Kubrick’s film version of A Clockwork Orange was linked to a series of violent crimes. The first was the murder of a tramp by a 16-year-old youth; the second involved another 16-year-old youth who, dressed in the film’s distinctive gang uniform, stabbed a younger boy; the third was the brutal and horrific gang rape of a Dutch girl by a group of youths from Lancashire, as they sang “Singin’ in the Rain”.

Sentencing the 16-year-old for assaulting a child, a judge described the attack part of a “horrible trend” prompted by “this wretched film”.

Following death threats and warnings from the police over revenge attacks, Kubrick asked Warner Brothers to pull the film from its UK release.

But banning the film didn’t have the desired effect, for when the film was eventually released in the UK on DVD, it led to another spate of copycat crimes, the most notorious of which, was the murder of a bar manager by a “Clockwork Orange gang”.

Whether movies can make people commit crime, is a moot point, but as director of American Psycho, Mary Herron points out in the documnetary, Still Tickin´: The Return of A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick’s film is a “dangerous work of art,” one that some have suggested seduce “viewers into its violent world and implicates them in its protagonist’s crimes.”

Produced by Channel 4, Still Tickin´: The Return of A Clockwork Orange examines the controversy over Kubrick’s iconic film, explaining the film’s “demonic level of attention,” and its influence on culture, politics and society, which led to the director’s self-imposed ban.
User avatar
semper occultus
 
Posts: 2974
Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:01 pm
Location: London,England
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby TheDuke » Tue Oct 21, 2014 3:52 am

82_28 » Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:17 pm wrote:I appreciate your enthusiasm as far as Kubrick. Personally my faves are 2001 and 2010. Clockwork is perhaps the most repulsive thing taken artistically serious I have ever seen.

Like maybe ten years ago or so I went to a friend's halloween party. She had called me a few weeks prior, frantic that she had been raped. I of course was there for her. Her boyfriend was in Australia for like a year or something. Anyhow, she was in a sorority and who she was raped by was one of her boyfriend's frat "brothers". So I go to this party, against my little bit older than them sensibilities and I'm hanging out with her and others. And in comes a group of dudes dressed as droogs. She said, "that's the guy."

He came over to her and said in full droog regalia "I owe you an apology." I flipped out, but not to the point of escalating because I would have had my ass handed to me by many young bucks. So I went outside pissed, throwing shit, panting, staring off into space, hating humanity. She didn't know what I was so pissed about. When I explained it to her, she had no idea what CWO was. So I explained that the very fact a few weeks after he had assaulted you coming into your home dressed as a droog and then apologizing was the ultimate act of evil -- in fact beyond evil.

From that day on it solidified my hatred for A clockwork orange. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Sorry, clockwork can go to hell.


2010 isnt kubrick bru
TheDuke
 
Posts: 292
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:11 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby 82_28 » Tue Oct 21, 2014 4:30 am

I knew that actually. Great conflation job on my part as far as Asmiov's books.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
User avatar
82_28
 
Posts: 11194
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:34 am
Location: North of Queen Anne
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby 82_28 » Tue Oct 21, 2014 4:42 am

Jerky » Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:30 pm wrote:Not trying to be a Dawkins-level a-hole, here, but if the rape that your friend suffered was the kind of experience that she, herself, could brush off with just an apology - regardless of the appropriateness of the assailant/apologizer's costume choice - then maybe it wasn't exactly on the "Irreversible" scale of traumatic experiences? Also, correlation doesn't necessarily equate to causation. It is possible to be a big Clockwork Orange fan and NOT be a rapist. I feel stupid even having to point that out, but there you go.

Jerky
(Big Clockwork fan. Not a rapist)


She didn't brush it off. I urged her and other friends urged her to go to the police. She refused. All via the "greek system" they lived within and how it would hurt other houses or some shit. Anyway, she was my friend and I was patient with her decisions. I know absolutely nothing about the "greek system" other than that it's fucked.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
User avatar
82_28
 
Posts: 11194
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:34 am
Location: North of Queen Anne
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby zangtang » Tue Oct 21, 2014 4:50 am

i see what you did there........

a conflation recursion?
zangtang
 
Posts: 1247
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2005 2:13 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby 82_28 » Tue Oct 21, 2014 5:07 am

zangtang » Tue Oct 21, 2014 12:50 am wrote:i see what you did there........

a conflation recursion?


Jesus, I'm fucked now. Damn you Stanley Kubrick! None of this would be possible had he been aborted as a fetus. Where would we be then?

Point being, I don't give a shit. People are going to do what they want anyway and there is nothing I can do about it. However, the optional or alternate history without Kubrick could have turned out much worse.
There is no me. There is no you. There is all. There is no you. There is no me. And that is all. A profound acceptance of an enormous pageantry. A haunting certainty that the unifying principle of this universe is love. -- Propagandhi
User avatar
82_28
 
Posts: 11194
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:34 am
Location: North of Queen Anne
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby zangtang » Tue Oct 21, 2014 6:04 am

i meant the asimov thing...........
zangtang
 
Posts: 1247
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2005 2:13 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby 8bitagent » Tue Oct 21, 2014 9:29 am

OOoh can't wait to dig into these! Thanks for posting.

Anyone here a fan of WrongWayWizard? His exhaustively trippy articles on Eyes Wide Shut, 2001, Shining, and so forth were such a mind bender. I like how he compared 2001 esoterically to 9/11, and Eyes Wide Shut to post 9/11 Manhattan.

@82_28: Natural Born Killers is one of the greatest cinematic masterpieces I ever saw in theaters. I think I saw it about a dozen times when it came out and maybe 40-50 times on vhs.
I usually don't like ultra violent movies(the punching in fight club makes me cringe) but something about NBK feels magical to me.
"Do you know who I am? I am the arm, and I sound like this..."-man from another place, twin peaks fire walk with me
User avatar
8bitagent
 
Posts: 12243
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2007 6:49 am
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby alan ford » Tue Oct 21, 2014 9:36 am

Interesting development of the tread, if I could add in terms of "moral and immoral ( without defining them, use your intuitive understanding of the words)" Kubrick and Stone are "moral" directors showing "immoral" characters. Same as Jerky pointed describing "immoral" characters doesn't make them "immoral". However this reasoning involves "intelectual" reaction to the movies or any art. I understand 82-28 reaction as an "emotional" viewing of the movie ( and I hasten to add they are not mutually exclusive one can watch the movie from both perspective ).

To furthur broad up the discussion my example of the "immoral" director with "immoral" characters would be Tarantino. Except for the Reservoir dogs I find all the other of his work fairly weak and disgusting at a time.

And Jerky thank you for your link, there will be some interesting reading there.
alan ford
 
Posts: 124
Joined: Sat Apr 28, 2012 3:41 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: My life as a Kubrick Nut

Postby norton ash » Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:10 am

To furthur broad up the discussion my example of the "immoral" director with "immoral" characters would be Tarantino. Except for the Reservoir dogs I find all the other of his work fairly weak and disgusting at a time.


Natural Born Killers was slagged as a sick and exploitative horror-show in the same year that Pulp Fiction was heaped with praise. They're both very good films, but NBK has a much stronger moral basis and question-America/question-patriarchy/question-media poetics and subtext than Pulp Fiction does. Pulp Fiction is a shallow (if highly enjoyable) cartoon by comparison-- I think NBK is quite subversive for a Hollywood feature. Pulp Fiction is pretty much 'gangsters are cool and sexy and brutal violence can be funny'... but I will give it major points for pulling a time-shifting screenplay of what are essentially strong and well-written and well-acted 'vignettes' all together. But it's not a political or 'message' film, in the way that NBK most certainly is.

BTW, A Clockwork Orange was written as a semi-reactionary and conflicted howl of pain from Anthony Burgess in 1961:

Burgess had arrived back in Britain after his stint abroad to see that much had changed. A youth culture had grown, including coffee bars, pop music and teenage gangs.[10] England was gripped by fears over juvenile delinquency.[9] Burgess claimed that the novel's inspiration was his first wife Lynne's beating by a gang of drunk American servicemen stationed in England during World War II. She subsequently miscarried.[9][11] In its investigation of free will, the book's target is ostensibly the concept of behaviourism, pioneered by such figures as B. F. Skinner.[12]
(Wiki-weak, but it will suffice.)

There is a bright line between the rebel-punk ethos and the frat-boy-jock-thug attitude. It takes time for these things to evolve, I guess... I think this was a heartbreaker to Burgess, Kubrick and similarly, Kurt Cobain. I get a visceral kick from all of them, but it doesn't make me want to hurt people... it makes me angry, and it makes me think.
Zen horse
User avatar
norton ash
 
Posts: 4067
Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:46 pm
Location: Canada
Blog: View Blog (0)

Next

Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 44 guests