October 31st

Happy Halloween!

The Best Of The Worst?

Something in the nature of horror film genre lends itself towards parody. By design, horror films tend towards being serious, but when the budget or talent involved cannot match the seriousness of a film-makers artistic vision, disaster is almost certain to ensue.

For many fans of "B-Moves" and other assorted schlock, the pinnacle of the Good-Bad ("it's so bad it's good") Cinema was set by Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space. This film starred Bela Lugosi in his final roll, clearly nearing the end of his life and horribly addicted to pain killers, as well as horror stalwart and former professional wrestler Tor Johnson. The movie existed on a tiny budget, and Ed Wood's wild creativity could never compensate for his general lack of talent as a director. But for the virtually endless list of flaws that the movie suffers, Plan 9 is not without a certain well-meaning though weird charm. This does not excuse it as an artistic exercise; it is hardly a "cinematic achievement" by any stretch of the phrase, it did however dominate the position of "The Worst Movie Ever Made" in the minds and hearts of movie fans for decades.

But little did any of these devoted cinemaphiles know that something far worse was waiting to reach it's icy grip from the past and strangle Plan 9 into submission. No one would could have prepared for what was re-released like a Lovecraftian nightmare onto the world on January 30th, 1993.

The much-beloved television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 is known for it's unique format: take B-grade (or below) horror, science fiction, and drama films from the 1950's up to the 1980's and verbally skewer them for a television audience. On the aforementioned January date, the show aired an episode featuring the 1966 independent film Manos: The Hands of Fate. (And for those who have multi-lingual inclinations, the title of the film would translate to Hands: The Hands of Fate.) This episode would re-introduce an unsuspecting world to a film so profoundly bad that it would seemingly confound and unnerve even the cast of MST3K and would later go on to be described by the episode guide released by the show as the worst film that they covered yet one of the most popular episodes in the series' canon.

While the very notion of a television show devoted to bad movies being bothered by this movie paints a very vivid image, Manos must be seen to be believed. It is a movie so profoundly awful that it borders on surreal. The history of this strange piece was is one story that is doomed from it's very inception. In the case of most bad bits of cinema, there are generally only a few factors that can be blamed for a movie's demise. In this case it is a veritable cocktail of ruin: No budget, wooden acting, non-existent directorial skill, bad recording equipment, under-developed plot, pointless dialog, irrational editing choices, and a veritable Infernal Host of other factors that makes Manos devoid of any redeeming feature. Arguably it's worst feature, however, lies in it's writer/producer/director/lead male actor Hal P. Warren. His plot, that of a small family being terrorized by a coven of Luciferian polygamists and the groups Satyr Man-Servant, would have been an unremarkable but solid horror movie concept. Warren's sheer ineptitude in all of his listed capacities on the project combined with the other factors mentioned were a death-blow to the movie before it was even born.

None of it's cast would go on to any degree of notoriety. One member, who had been rumored to be plagued with personal problems prior to filming, committed suicide shortly after the film's release (though it has been joked that the movie is so awful that it could have a body count.) Hal Warren, in a nearly prophetic statement, would say that the after the film's quick and unceremonious death if the film's dialog could be re-dubbed, "it could be a comedy."

But like any manifestation of the Forces of Darkness, Manos: The Hands of Fate refused to die so easily. The power of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and it's devoted fan-base has given new life to the movie. In 2004, a trio of Canadian Film-makers released a documentary called Hotel Torgo after tracking down and interviewing Bernie Rosenblum, the stunt coordinator, electrical, and bit-part actor who is one of the last members of the cast and crew still alive to tell the tale of Manos.

So what did Hal P. Warren, suitably a fertilizer salesman from El Paso, Texas unleash upon us? Some people seem to view his film as a cinematic Crime Against Humanity. Others, perhaps with more of a pragmatic streak or sense of humor, view it as harmless and campy fun, or a cinematic cautionary tale. But this much is true: Manos: The Hands Of Fate lives. In 2011, filming of a sequel entitled Manos: The Search For Valley Lodge, begins filming in El Paso with a tentative release date of 2013.

Wanna Read More Of My Work?

Good Morning, My Readers!
I am pleased to announce that I am now a reviewer for The St. Louis Music Press, an up-and-coming Music, Concert, and Interview magazine.

Click here to read my review of the new self-titled release from Red Mass, and click here to read my review of Spirit Youth by The Depreciation Guild.

Also, the link to the St. Louis Music Press has been added to my list o' links.

Go!

Preview - Friday the 29th

Have you felt the awful power of this man? Do you know to whom he answers?

No?

Then I strongly recommend you come back on Friday to hear the awful true story behind this man's infamy.

The Oath?

The Hippocratic Oath states: "First, Do No Harm." Medical science and Doctors have done, throughout the course of history, as much as possible to keep the patients they have as comfortable as humanly possible.

This line of reason, however, is a very delicate one. Doctors, with the goal of preserving life in mind, periodically have to cause a patient temporary discomfort in order to keep them alive. In modern world, most people are willing to accept the pin-prick of a Polio innoculation in order to not suffer from an awful disease. But the line between maintaining that understanding can grow extremely blurry when it comes to the legal and ethical Rights of patients, as well as a Doctor's responsibility to keep a person alive. Where does it begins to cross into the territory of breaking the "No Harm" rule of the Hippocratic Oath?

The concept of Medical Ethics, like any other method of thought, has it's limits. Not every situation that a medical practitioner will encounter will be easy to confine into a "black or white" framework. Modern medicine has made massive advancements in the past 100 years. While fictional accounts such as Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun illustrate what was medically possible (if not very unlikely) at the start of the 20th Century, the story is more of a war protest than it was a novel regarding medicine. It does, however, raise a question regarding the role of morality in medicine and raises the question, arguably one of the first, of Quality of Life and going with a patient's desires for treatment. The story is that of a young soldier in World War I who is near-fatally wounded by artillery fire. He is a quadruple amputee and his face is badly mauled; he has blind, deaf, cannot smell, and is permenantly mute (essentially missing his entire face) yet still fully conscious. The doctor's responsible for the novel's protaganist refuse to euthanize him, leaving him a prisoner inside his own ruined form.

So what becomes of those individuals to whom life is as cruel (or more so) than the stroke of an author's pen? Of the many millions of possible examples where the lines might blur, two very different cases can give us an insight into the nebulous world of where "Right vs. Wrong" meet "Living vs. Dying."

The stories of Stephanie Keene, better known as "Baby K: and Dax Cowart, bring sharply into focus how modern medicine, with it's seemingly never-ending resourcefulness in saving life, falls into a trap: What is Right or Wrong, and what is Living?

Stephanie Keene was born in Virginia in 1992, to be did not have a true chance at life. In utero, she was afflicted with a condition known as anencephaley - somewhere in her development, she developed only a brain stem but no other portion of her brain. She would be, throughout her life, a vegetable, capable only of the functions of the autonomic nervous system such as breathing, heart-beat, and the ability to detect touch. She would never have had a conscious thought. Despite being notified this development prior to birth, her mother would not terminate the pregnancy due to religious conviction. Doctors also advised her, after being born, that she would not gain consciousness and suggested that the child be taken off of life support so that "nature can take it's course." After being weened off of life ventiation, the child did not thrive and had to be taken into hospitalization several times to be kept alive. A court battle ensued; the hospital and state wanted to take power of attorney from the patents, and the mother argued in court that her spiritual convictions that "all life is sacred" kept her from being willing to let the child die.

Baby K eventually passed away six months after birth without ever having a single conscious thought.

Dax Cowart, on the other hand, had lived a normal and healthy life. While assisting his family with menial tasks, he was badly burnt when a gas leak nearly took his life. The resultant fire left near-terminally injured; prior to being subjected to life-saving techniques, he begged repeatedly to be allowed to die. Left blind, deaf, and bereft of his hands, Cowart pleaded with doctors to not subject him to a treatment that could preserve his life due to the massive skin damage (nearly 70% of his skin was burnt away,) one of which was repeated bathes in water and chlorine. While this undoubtedly kept him alive, Cowart would claim that he felt as if he was "being skinned" and that he would scream with such intensity that he would pass out during each treatment due to the pain.

Dax Cowart is still alive today, living as a successful lawyer, but has said in repeated interviews that despite his present life and success that we would still have preferred to have died rather than be treated. He begged his care-takers constantly to let him die, but the state of Texas legally would not allow this, and doctors would thwart his multiple suicide attempts.

With these stories in mind, what is living? Do doctors have the right to dictate to a man such as Dax Cowart, who was clearly suffering, that living in agony is better than dying? What about Stephanie Keene? Was she ever alive to suffer? While it is impossible to argue the rights of a parent to protect a child, was she truly in her "right mind," able to make choices that were in her best interest, let alone that of a child?

I will leave it to the reader to make those choices for themselves. But the question of "What is Life?" is a fundamental of philosophy, and the world of science and medicine are not immune or exempt from these things.

Psyche in the Red

(Thanks for coming by. I would like to issue two apologies:
1. For the late date of this post. I am back on my feet and in fighting shape, thankfully.
2. Blogger is having difficulties with photos and formatting, so this blog appears more stripped than normal. This won't happen again.)


Few fields are as perplexing or intriguing as the study of the human mind. It could be argued that Psychology continues it’s grasp on the world for the fact that the actual function of thought and personality cannot be physically grasped. Yet the study of the mind and it’s functions could be one most important fields since the psyche and it’s “inner workings” are the very root of the human experience.


Sigmund Freud is often considered to be the “father” of Modern Psychology. His process of psychoanalysis and subsequent division of the psyche would pave the way for countless theorists, proving to infuriate and compel every college student who has taken part in a PSY-101 course world-wide. Of his many well-know concepts, Freud’s theory that the Unconscious Mind resonated strongly enough that 100 years later, people still struggle to make headway into the murky waters of what lies beneath waking perception.



In 1906, Freud began correspondence with an enthusiastic young Swiss doctor named Carl Gustav Jung. Freud received a copy of "Studies in Word Association" from Jung, which precipitated a meeting of these two minds in Vienna a year later. If the stories are true, Freud and Jung spent a near-solid thirteen hours in discussion during this initial meeting and would remain in close contact until 1913, when they had a falling-out over interpretation of Psychoanalytic Theory.


The dissolution of his relationship with Freud did not deter Jung; until his death in the 1950’s Carl Jung would continue to push the boundaries of psychology into new, esoteric territory. Jungian Analysis, as it is often called, blends Freud’s Psychoanalysis with theories on the origin of mankind’s inner nature. Jung believed that man shared a hereditary link to a rich encyclopedia of symbols that are universal, regardless of a person’s cultural origins.



One of the largest divisions between “traditional” Psychoanalysis and Jungian Analysis is the symbolic description of the function of the mind. Freud first presented his theory of the Id, Ego, and Super-Ego in a 1920 article called "Beyond The Pleasure Principle." In Freud’s view, these three segments were combined with the Unconscious Mind, representing the vast unseen repositiory of long-forgotten memories and repressed desires would influence (and sometimes wreak havoc) on the Conscious Mind and World. Jung on the other hand argued that the mind was broken into multiple symbolic segments: The "Persona," a sort of face shown to the world which serves to conceal and protect a person’s core nature; The "Anima" (for men) or "Animus" (for women) which is a sort of opposite-gender unconscious counterpart to the individual that represents a form of unification of a person’s rational and irrational personality traits; The "Shadow," a form given to the repressed or denied desires and elements of a person. Though Jungian Analysts warn that a person’s Shadow might be frightening, that it is also a source of powerful creative energy; and finally the "Self," which represents the whole of a human by unifying all of these elements of the Unconscious and Conscious mind together. Jung argues in his book "Modern Man In Search of a Soul" that the only possible way to live Life successfully is when we confront and integrate these elements, or in his own words, “It is only possible to live the fullest life when we are in harmony with these symbols; wisdom is a return to them.”


In 1938, a 38 year old Dr. Carl Jung began to experience a profound change in his own psyche, which he called like “Doing a schizophrenia,” or in his memoirs Memories, Dreams, Reflections, he would describe as a flow of symbols in his mind that he must “…let myself plummet down into them.” Between 1914 and 1930, Jung would record these incidents and transcribe them into a piece called "Liber Novum" (Latin for “New Book,”) or as it would later come to be known, "The Red Book," for the crimson coloring of its bindings and covers. For the sixteen years Jung would labor through this journal, loaded to the covers with internal and inter-personal symbols, illustrated by and hand and written in flowing calligraphy. Much of the book is filled with conversations with mythological and historical figures, or anthropomorphized psychological constructs in an attempt to control the “incessant stream” or realization in his psyche.


Amongst adherents of Jungian Psychology and Analysis, "Liber Novum/The Red Book" represents a pure look into the psychological framework of a man whose work inspires a near-religious devotion. But the family of Carl Jung, who held "Liber Novum/The Red Book" away from publishers since Dr. Jung’s death in 1961, feeling that it might not have ever been intended for mass-consumption. In 2009, Sonu Shamdasani and Stephen Martin (a pair of Jung historians and adherents) convinced the Jung Estate to allow "Liber Novum" to be digitally scanned, edited, translated, and published. As well, the book has been on display at the Rubin Art Museum of New York and The United States Library of Congress.


Carl Jung and his theories have had an impact on the modern world. The pop-culutre love of “dream interpretation” is rooted in Jung’s use of dream analysis to help diagnosis psychological disorders. He is often credited for being one of the cornerstones of Alcoholics Anonymous, in that he once told a seemingly-incurable alcoholic patient that he believed that religious devotion could offer him redemption from addiction. Allegedly, this patient began to seek religious education and conversion which allowed him to abandon his need to drink. Jung is credited with popularizing the terms “Introvert and Extrovert,” and is thereby, at least in part, responsible for the ever-popular Myer-Briggs Personality Test. In many ways, the sheer size of Carl Jung’s creative output is impressive, but with the inclusion of "Liber Novum" he and his theories stand ready to inspire and confound countless future Analysts who intend to plumb the depths of the mind.

Mea Culpa

Everyone-
Due to being sick as a dog as well as having to take care of an unexpected situation, this weeks T.O.J. is late. I will have it posted as soon as I can write it out.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need lie down.

Preview for Friday, October 15th

John is responsible for Book of Revelation. Padmasambhava is credited with Bardo Thodol. So who is this man, and what revelations did he share with us?

If you would like to find out, come back to T.O.J. on Friday.

T.O.J. Updates

Good Afternoon!

I'm pleased to launch three new ways for you to follow The Obscuritan Journal.

Are you a Twitter user? Go to Obscure Tweet to keep up with posts as they happen.

Prefer Tumblr? We have that covered here.

Can't get enough of Facebook? Here is the official fanpage for The Obscuritan Journal.

With these three links, denizens of the World Wide Web can access this page in more ways.

So what are you waiting for?

This Week

There will be no regular post this week. Instead, I intend on announcing a few new things for The Obscuritan Journal this Friday. So come back then and I can share with you.

See you then.

The Curious Case of Dr. Miklos Nyiszli

Common wisdom states that individuals who are not mindful of the past will continue to repeat themselves. For this reason, Mankind has made an effort to record every bleak moment, hoping to stop the tides of atrocity long before they begin to swell.

It is small wonder that much of history is centered around war and tragedy. In a way, it is easier for people to measure the events of the world by the gruesome sign posts created by battlefields and metaphorical Hell-mouths left by man’s uglier side. Hotel Rwanda, a 2004 film by Terry George, exposed many people for the first time to the horrors of the animosity between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes of central Africa. The Khmer Rogue executed approximately 200,000 of it’s own people from 1975-1979, and would later be chronicled by director Roland Joffe in his 1984 film The Killing Fields. Bookstores and Cinemas are awash with media telling us of people and cultures enduring a “Dark Night of The Soul,” surrounded by horror that, if they hadn’t actually occurred, no one would believe possible.

Somewhat lost amongst the piles of literature, poetry, and cinema of War and subsequent violence is the story of Dr. Miklos Nyiszli. A Hungarian pathologist and medical practitioner, Dr. Nyiszli found himself in a position that few humans could ever endure, attempting to survive a one of the places where inhumanity went on full display, a name which will likely be acid-etched into the collective Shadow archetype of Humanity; the Nazi extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Dr. Nyiszli wrote his only book, Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, shortly after returning home to Hungary from the camps as a document for the rest of history to study. He attempts to tell the unadulterated and uncensored tale of The Third Reich’s systematic murder of any individual who did not fit into their worldview. Where as many accounts of the Nazi’s concentration camps comes from the lives of the prisoners who were starved and tortured, Dr. Nyiszli came from a position that has made his book as well as his memory (he passed away in May of 1956) both invaluable and reviled.

In the summer of 1944, The Nyiszli family arrived by train to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Poland, with a convoy of Jews from Eastern Europe. During the “selection” process," Dr. Nyiszli was separated from his wife and daughter after volunteering the information regarding his profession. Little did he know, he would end up serving as the primary physician and autopsy expert for one of the most infamous of the Nazi war criminals: Dr. Joseph Mengele So, from June of 1944 to January of 1945, Dr. Miklos Nyiszli served with the Sonderkommando (a group of Jewish prisoners, executed generally every four months, who worked the Crematoria and gas chambers in exchange for a slightly better lot in life) as well as serving as the physician to the SS, who were not only Auschwitz’s administrators, but also chief Executioners. Dr. Nyiszli would primarily, however, spent the majority of his time in the camp performing autopsies under the direction of Dr. Mengele, who was attempting to prove via pseudoscience, the “inferiority” of “non-Aryans.”

Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account is a gut-churning tale with an unflinching narrative manner. While there are plenty of other stories regarding “The Final Solution” and the associated Nazi camps, Dr. Nyiszli’s book can be a cause for argument, and has remained such since it’s initial publication in 1947. At the same time, Auschwitz is also a valuable document, giving a unique insider’s view at the functioning and organization of a veritable genocide machine. Dr. Bruno Bettelheim, a psychologist who wrote the forward to the 1960’s paperback edition of Auschwitz (which has been included in most reprints since that time,) issued a scathing criticism of Dr. Nyiszli’s decision to assist as the chief pathologist at Auschwitz. Dr. Bettelheim also likened this to one of the most well-know stories of The Holocaust: The Diary of Anne Frank, arguing that the Franks, and by implication, Dr. Nyiszli and most other Jews, were led by the urge to attempt living life with “business as usual,” leading ultimately to the death of an entire family as well as approximately 6 million Jews and millions of other minority groups throughout Europe. This criticism, however, is light when considering the words of Michael Nevins, M.D., who wrote the essay Moral Dilemmas faced by Jewish Doctors during The Holocaust. Nevins flatly says “Dr. Nyiszli was a reprehensible individual who ingratiated himself with his masters in order to save his own skin.”

While it is difficult to understand how a seemingly rational person could take part in the activities of Auschwitz-Birkenau, leading millions to their deaths, does Dr. Miklos Nyiszli deserve the mountains of scorn that have been heaped upon him?

It is easy to find anyone who would take part in such atrocity as horrible or hate-worthy, but knowing that Dr. Nyiszli held no sympathy to The Third Reich turns the situation into a profound moral ambiguity. In Auschwitz, Dr. Nyiszli repeatedly points out that his concerns while in the camp were the safety of his wife and daughter, as well as trying to stay alive long enough to tell the public of the concentration camps. As well, the depth of violence being committed in the walls of Auschwitz-Birkenau was clearly a surprise to Dr. Nyiszli, and he repeatedly says that each new development he witnessed (I.e. the varying methods of execution and corpse disposal) disturbed him greatly.

Further, the argument that Dr. Nyiszli volunteered himself merely to preserve his own life is a somewhat problematic accusation. As a conscious human being, Dr. Nyiszli was determined to “save his own skin’ but could that same argument be thrown at the other members of the Sonderkommando? Without his instinct towards self-preservation (as well as his desire to save his family and preserve the tale of his hardship) the world would not have the intimate knowledge of “The Final Solution” that we do today.

Whether or not you agree with the choices made by Dr. Miklos Nyiszli from June of 1944 to January of 1945, this oft-forgotten story deserves to be retold, if not as a cautionary tale, but as a question of man’s instinct to survive versus the moral dilemmas that can face even the most common of people.