Lifeline (1959) Interview : “Mars and Venus speak to Earth.”

 

Link to Adam Curtis's blog with video

Lifeline was a medical interview program made by the BBC and produced by Hugh Burnett during 1957 to 1959. In “Mars and Venus speak to Earth” the interviewer has George King, a taxi driver who founded the Aetherius Society describe being contacted by “The Space people”, plays a recording of his mothers description of a “flying saucer” and demonstrate a “trance” in which Mr King in a monotone voice contacts a space person “Aetherius from Venus” to deliver a message, which may have been a part of George King's motivation in appearing on the show.

The programme then has an Astronomer “Dewhirst” present his perspective on the abnormal account and then a Jungian psychiatrist interprete symbolically the significance of Mr Kings abnormal account. The program functions as part of a dominant discourse of Science that phenomena can be investigated rationally and explained using Science. 

 

There are a number of power relationships evident in the medical interview program, Mr King is exposed to public scrutiny and compelled to provide evidence for his world view while the psychiatrists remain anonymous due to category entitlements of their profession and subject his account to the Scientific Discourse of Astronomy and Psychiatry circa 1959. He is treated as an object of enquiry, made very much part of an outgroup, with the dominant ingroup being the scientists. Part of this scientific discourse is the value of impartiality, thus Mr King is invited to provide a trance, which I would argue is form of display in the spiritualist tradition, he speaks in a monotone, the intonation is supposed to convey otherwordliness and tries to evoke the transmitted entity as being superior and benevolvent, Aetherius refers to the interviewer as “my friend”. The interviewer questions Mr King as the transmitted intelligence Aetherius, asks him “ Where are you speaking from now?” around 17 minutes, 47 seconds into the program (I, 17:47), Mr Kings reply as Aetherius is “I am sorry my dear friend, I cannot answer that question for you”. Mr King is invoking a resistance discourse, the Scientific fallibility discourse, that Science does not know everything and thus there are limits to the human ability to account for abnormal experience. This counter discourse is apparent in Mr Kings attempt to account for the construction of “flying saucers” indicating that they are made of an “organic metal” around 7 minutes 22 seconds and that it has a “living cellular structure”.

The topic flow of the interview is controlled by the interviewer, with the interviewer making interrogations, repeating the points he wants to make . Cohesion is maintained in Mr Kings account by anaphoric reference using “it's” and “it is” which occurs in many of the utterances of the scientists. When the interviewer invites Dewhirst the Astronomer to “deal” with Mr Kings account of the construction of a flying saucer Dewhirst indicates “Mr King and I are not speaking the same language” around 23 minutes in the program and indicates the lexical item “organic metals” is completely meaningless. Thus Mr King is clearly speaking a inferior language variety in the context of the program. Part of the problem is that Mr King is trying to use the Dominant Scientific discourse to provide validity to his account against ingroup Scientists. They function as gatekeepers in this program for what constitutes scientific truth. Mr King in using the lexical item “organic metals” is using two mutually exclusive concepts in a dialectical way to indicate the material is a synthesis of these two mutually exclusive concepts. Mr Dewhirst the Astronomer, a member of the dominant ingroup of scientists refuses to acknowledge it as a lexical item. Both the scientists and Mr King are trying to evoke truth values consistent with the Dominant Scientific discourse, the value of empirical observation but Mr Kings evidence is based on flawed testimony and cannot be falsified as it has a heavy religious component thus the scientists describe him as “sincere but deluded” and thus provide an account for Mr Kings actions, that is representative social issues of the time.

The interviewer and other scientists speak a formal scienfic Oxford English register and use forms of politeness and titles when referring to each other. Politeness and impartiality aside I am inclined to wonder how nice it is to be subjected to investigation and described as “sincere but deluded”. Mr King had an agenda and the scientists referred to him as Chairman of the Aetherius Society. Thus there must have been reasons for Mr King to maintain involvement with this program, possibly psychological and esteem based. He eventually became a cult leader and the Aetherius Society is an  established UFO religion.

 

The 1959 TV broad cast is also referenced in a documentary "TV's Believe it or not", describing the development of TV broadcasts over time. The interview is described as an example of the bizarre content of early TV programs. .   

Tom Brown's Schooldays and the Olympic Games

Before the first modern Olympic games, held in Athens in 1896, there were regional “Olympic festivals” motivated by various ideologies and consisted of an amalgam of sports, for example, the 1850 Wenlock Olympic Class, a small village in Shropshire had tilting, football, quoits, cricket and fun events such as a wheelbarrow race (Toohey 2007 : 32).

The motivation for holding the Olympic festivals involved a valuing of the perceived glory of the ancient world and a belief of the intrinsic values of playing sport, often associated with a militant nationalism, such as "fitter men of the nation will mean the nation is more successful at war", for example. The Olympic ideal was that people were motivated to  play sport due to its intrinsic benefits, thus the compeditors were amateurs. It was associated with a “Muscular Christianity” which held the value of “a sound mind in a sound body”, comparable to the ideals of moral and physical development found in “Tom Browns Schooldays” by Thomas Hughes, a ex-pupil of Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School who extolled the virtues of “Muscular Christianity” (Toohey 2007 : 31). The Ideal of Olympianism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. It blends sport with culture and education. Creating a way of life based on the joy found in effort, educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles (Toohey 2007 : 42). Thus the early Olympic festivals were attempting to revive a somewhat fictional memory of the Greek Olympic games that were to embody the “Muscular Christianity” found in “Tom Browns Schooldays”.

The Modern Olympics grew out of the correspondences of individuals holding local “Olympic” events and the first attempt to internationalise the “Olympic” festivals was Dr Brooks of the Much Wenlock Olympics in 1881 who attempted to organise an Olympic festival in Athens. This attempt failed but the Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who met Dr Brooks in 1890 while organising an international congress on Physical Education managed to fashion a Olympic revival which culminated in the 1896 Olympic games in Athens.

Hosting the Olympics Games is now seen as a great opportunity for revenue, economic development and urban renewal (Shoval 2002 : 584) and since the 2008 Olympic games has become a “mega event” (Gold & Gold 2008 : 300) thus there is much competition amongst potential hosts. For the initial Modern Olympic games held in Athens in 1896 the instructions were written in French, at the time French had a history of being the language of diplomacy and high culture within Europe and thus had significant linguistic capital. The London bid for the 2012 Olympic Games won over the Paris bid in July 2005. The London bid won in terms of the cultural resources that London could bring, comedians, actors, monarchy with a rhetoric of urban renewal and infrastructural development to areas of the city.

For the 2012 Olympic games, French was selected to be one of the official languages of the 2012 Olympic games, it was used to introduce the games, it took precedence during the presentation of medals and was used in other ceremonies, was present on “billboards and pageantry” and used for signage and commentary. This was a requirement imposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as part of the conditions for hosting the 2012 Olympic games. The motivations behind this may reflect an awareness of the linguistic dominance of English, thus attempt to introduce a degree of linguistic pluralism and also be a nod toward the history of the Olympic games.

Bibliography

Gold, John R. & Gold, Margaret M. (2008). Olympic Cities: Regeneration, City Rebranding and Changing Urban Agendas. In Geography Compass. Volume 2, 5. Pages 300 -318.

Shoval, N. (2002). A new phase in the competition for the Olympic Gold: the London and New York bids for the 2012 Games. In the Journal of Urban Affairs. Volume 24, 5. pages 583 -599 

Toohey, K & Veal, A.J. (2007). The Olympic Games: A Social Science Perspective. Published By CAB international. Pages 31 & 42.

Character silhouettes for Byzantine RPG

 

On the De Rerum Natura  "Nature of Things" by Titus Lucretius Carus, translated by William Eleary Leonard. The poems main purpose was to convey the Epicurian philosophical position and provide comfort for a Gaius Memmius. Ataraxia is described as a kind of peacefulness of mind  derived from suspending judgement, in terms of belief in the afterlife, the supernatural and political positions. The Stoics defined this as mental tranquility, apatheia, the absence of passion.

It has content that is a near the modern view,

     The narrow path of man's ambition;
     Since all their wisdom is from others' lips,
     And all they seek is known from what they've heard
     And less from what they've thought. Nor is this folly
     Greater to-day, nor greater soon to be,
     Than' twas of old.

There are things outside immediate human experience, that cannot be directly known within the human life span, it takes many generations of accreted knowledge. The limits of Titus Lucretius Caruses knowledge is thus, he knows the world is not eternal, uses a theory of atoms described by Democritus, he looks at mist and air and talks about ether. He describes a theory where the closer the planetary bodies and constellations are to the earth, the slower they move through the sky, thus the sun and moon move slower than star constellations. Looking at his descriptions of the origins of life, in Book V, he writes that "from the sky breathing creatures can never have dropped" and "Nor land dwellers have ever come up from the seas of salt" and thus what remains is that life came from the earth. This argument is justified by observation of the growth of plants, with the " concretion of rain and the heat of the sun" and he describes the earth by the metaphor of "Mother". In the absence of 2000 years of cultural evolution and the recent development of scientific enquiry I doubt I could reach a better conclusion. I find it interesting that he considers the other alternatives as well, this could be due to other sources, such as origin myths.

Near the end of book V it has a description of the plague of Athens, based on the description by Thucydides (431 BC) in his The History of the Peloponnesian War.

Its description via wikipedia is here.

 Various pathogenic sources have been suggested, including Measels (morbillivirus), Yersinia pestis, Salmonella typhi, influenza with a toxin producing staphylococci, more recently Rickettsia prowazekii and hemorrhagic viruses. The strongest argument seems to be for Rickettsia prowzekii, which is spread by the human body louse Pediculus humanus and is a small intracellar bacteria that stains poorly with Gram stain (Murray et al 2009 : 432). Clinical disease starts eight days after exposure with non specific symptoms, then myalgia, fever, headaches and potentially pneumonia, arthralgia and neurological involvement. A petechial or macular rash occurs in 20 to 80 % of patients. Mortality is around 20 to 30 % when untreated.

Ultimately the pathogenic source of the plague of Athens cannot be conclusively identified, there may be issues with Thucydides description.

Bibliography

Murray, Patrick : Rosenthal, Ken S & Pfaller, Michael A. (2009). Medical Microbiology. (Sixth Edition). Published by Mosby Elsevier. Page 432.

Sketching St Pauls, Symonds Street



An attempt to draw parts of St Pauls Church on Symonds street. It has arches and spires with patterned bricks. Didn't quite work the roof tiles out.  Freehand then used ruler later.





St Pauls #1
29-8-12






St Pauls #2
21-10-12

St Pauls #3
10-11-12

Jennie #2
16-9-12

St Pauls #4
19-11-12

Notes concerning Olympic games

The biggest influence on me concerning the Olympic games would be the comic "Asterix at the Olympic Games" by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo (1968), which apparently satirized the use of performance enhancing drugs by athletes, an issue that was recognised by the Olympic games committee in 1968 and attempted to police, the first banned substance identified by the IOC was ethanol in a pentathelete but as analytical methods improved further substances were identified over time . The earliest proof of this issue was at the 1960 Rome Olympic games when Danish cyclist Knud Emarch Gensen fell from his bike and later died, he was found in autopsy to have high levels of amphetamine which is stated as causing him to loose consciousness during his race. I was oblivious to these issues as a kid and felt sorry for the Romans who got trashed by the Gauls due to the deus ex machina of Getafix's potion (I also now get the joke name), despite all the effort the Romans put in. Incidentally the "Asterix" comics pretty much were  my first exposure to ancient history as well, such as it is. 

Asterix at the Olympic Games.

The Olympic games in ancient greece had a religious significance, honoring the culture hero Heracles and were over time associated with a period of peace between city states, held at Olympia in western Pelleponnesus in the city state of Elis (Toohey et al 2007 : 13), these games were exclusively male, women could compete in the Games to Hera and it was believed that the gods influenced athletic ability. The first known Olympic victor was a cook called  Corobeus of Elis who won the stade race, a running lap around the stadium which ended with contestants facing a sacred altar to honor Zeus (Toohey et al 2007 : 13). Over time the amateurism was lost and the idea of the gods influencing the outcome became increasingly suspect. Amateurism in this context means doing something for intrinsic rewards as compared to doing something for extrinsic rewards (Toohey et al 2007 : 31).

The first known example of cheating in the Panhellanistic Olympic games occurred when the boxer Eupolus of Thessaly bribed three opponents to loose to him. (Toohey et al 2007 : 22).

In the end the influence of the Romans was not benign, Sulla sacked Olympia to finance his army in BC 85 and Nero postponed the Olympic games from AD 65 to AD 67 to fit them into his schedule so he could compete in the chariot race and in the end failed to compete, yet he was still proclaimed the winner, thus clearly near its end it became a debacle. In AD 393 the Emperor Theodosius I abolished all pagan festivals and this included the Olympic games.

Bibliography

Goscinny, Rene & Uderzo, Albert. (1968). Asterix at the Olympic Games. Published by Orion.

Toohey, K & Veal, A.J. (2007). The Olympic Games: A Social Science Perspective. Published By CAB international. Pages 9 to 24.

Safety Not Guaranteed. A movie coming out in October 2012

 

 

 

14-9-2012.  Aubry Plaza (Not really a fan but she knows her audience).

                     Apparently the interview dates from around July 17th

 

Aubry Plaza was on the Late Show with David Letterman, possibly "playing herself".

 

Around six minutes into the interview. (To paraphrase)

 

Letterman asks, "What do you do for fun?".

 

Plaza (Looks right, then left back to Letterman) "Umm, well thats an interesting question. Not a lot. I play a lot of board games."

 

Letterman "Like what?"

 

(Audience laugh)

 

 She answers (deadpan) " I play the Battlestar Galactica board game."

 

(Audience laugh, someone claps)

 

Letterman mumbles, hand motion conveying apology "I don't know what that is"

 

 Plaza " It's a, it's based on the TV series you should see it on your i pad "

 

(To paraphrase) Letterman straightens up his tie "You know what? I started playing last weekend with my son  this board game and it drives him crazy, it's Risk. Have you ever played Risk?"

 

Plaza "No I haven't played Risk but I would like that."

 

 Letterman "It's the game that goes on for ever. It goes on for ever". Letterman coughs.

 

(Audience clap) 

 

Plaza agrees then responds

 

"The one I play is also like that. It's an eight hour.., Its one of the most complicated board games you can play and I wear the, a costume when I play."

 

(Audience laugh)

 

Letterman "No you don't"

 

Plaza "No, yeah I do."

 

Letterman (His tones go down) "No you don't."

 

Plaza "OK"

 

Letterman laughs.