Adjusting willfullness

The Adjustment Bureau. Another film of another Philip K Dick book.
What an incredible imagination tat man had. Blade Runner of course was a stunning film. I haven't read a single one of his books. But those I have seen made into films have been engaging stories. Science fiction is the genre but of course with so many other genres contained within them.

More and more I rate Matt Damon as an actor. I love the appearance of Terence Stamp - he is so, uhm, so British, so 60's. Somehow he is a stage lovey. I enjoy watching his contribution to films.
 Agent Thompson

I love the never quite getting there feel in this film. The idea that really we don't truly have free will. There is a plan and there is some guidance given along the way. However there are chance things too. A little convenient the idea that water hides us temporarily from them. So when it's raining like it has been here in England for the past two days, we have been slipping through the net. I wonder what the plan has been and if my foolish choices have been flummoxing them all the time. of course I am probably too much high maintenance to be able to keep a lid on me. And with so many people in the world there aren't enough agents of fate to be following each and everyone of us. Apparently. Which means that there is a rippling effect of chance as well as a rippling effect of the choices made by those that are being "watched over".

Oh and the hats are both a limit and give the agents a power. I loved their books. It seemed to show all the possible ripple effects - kiss her and this will happen. However, the Chairman it seems was able to re-write the script. The agents had to keep events changing so as to keep to the script, knocking out any effects that chance might make to the plan being followed. Short sighted in way.
It was an interesting conversation when Agent Richardson explains the effects of allowing humans to have complete freewill. The agents stood back and he spoke about all the devastation caused by humans free choices. Mainly he talked about wars. Norris retorts that the world is in pretty bad shape now. Good point I thought, to which Agent Richardson points out that it's not in as bad as state as if they hadn't been involved. That's true love. And thereafter anything can be achieved I guess.



A quote from the Guardian about this film - A love born of pheromones, or just genetic predisposition?
Pheromone - any chemical substance released by an animal that serves to influence the physiology or behavior of other members of the same species.

Is it all written in a plan somewhere?? If it mine seems a funny plan and very different from what it seems I think I want. Perhaps my strong urges have caused it to be such a wriggly line, and the agents have to keep getting me back on course because they are not watching me all the time.
I wish I had met someone who truly loved me.

A would-be panegyric to the glory of free will makes determinism seem preferable
The theological theory of determinism is the basis oh Philip K Dick's book. And I think this theory manifests through other stories of his. I am not certain about this having not read them and watched the film. But I like the way he takes these theories and weaves them into stories asking big questions.
But of course the fiction also leaves many unanswered questions around the theory. Like the fact that the agents determinedly follow the "plan" and don't question it when chance itself is so very persistent. And why on earth would humans have been created with the belief of autonomy - what benefit would that bring to anyone unless it was all some big game. For what point?
Humph!!! It starts to turn into a conspiracy theory then and breeds in me distrust. Yuchy!

"Free will is a gift that you only use when you have to fight for it"
What does that mean exactly? Agent Harry says this to Norris.





Lots of interesting ideas from Philip K Dick anyway.
I liked A Scanner Darkly and Blade Runner and The Minority Report.
I think I have seen Paycheck and didn't really like the film. It's Ben Afleck I think - I am not keen on him as an actor. It's a similar bravado role I think like Tom Cruise. It was a pity he was in Minority Report actually. I liked Total Recall too. I have yet to see Next and Screamers. I think I should like to read a book as well.

Bliss
XX

Chasing nothings

There is nothing in this world, yet everyone is madly pursuing this nothing - some more, some less.

- Sri Anandmayi Ma

I was at the Tate Modern yesterday. As I got closer to the exhibition room where Miro's 150 pieces of work were I felt an excitement rising in me. There were some that totally sucked me in. Others I looked at and liked. I was amused by him too at times.
There was in particular I really liked - Le repas des fermiers. It was fairly early if I remember correctly, maybe 1924 or some time around then. He was already very much representational and more surreal.
I was surprised there was little mention of his inspiration taken from the Dutch Interior paintings. Nothing at all. I am certain the uses of symbolism were very much a part of that inspiration.
It was interesting as the commentary around the gallery linked a lot of the work with his political viewpoints and of course a lot of the time he was painting during the civil war. But I wonder how much is really known what was going on in his thoughts. My friend and I were saying how if said with conviction and associating specific symbols with ideals and emotions. But it would be very easy to asociate them with other issues. We identified a lot of sexual references and anger. Not knowing his life story, we wrote his story from our imaginative interpretation of what we saw in his work.
My friend pointed out that his series of 50 black and white images were very similar to some of what I call my doodles. I was flattered. And laughed.

I have to go and get ready. I have been procrastinating since 6:30 this morning. Such an early waking after such a late sleeping. I am not sleeping well. So much goes through my mind. Too much goes through my mind. I think I have noticed a slight lift in my mood these last few days. I may even have been a little manic on Thursday which of course I love. After experiencing the wonder of the UCL buildings and stimulated visually again yesterday, I think that lifts my mood immensely but I think there is no ceiling to it. I get higher and higher. I love it of course. I was ready to start sketching today b ut have to damn well go out. Oh well.
I realise it takes great great courage to add to a sketch my own symbolism or interpretations of feelings. It's off the beaten track. Oddly though people have preferred the less usual things I have sketched. Interesting. Maybe it shows a creativity from within that a staright forward sketch copy doesn't reveal. Is that how it is for me when I look at art like that. When I look at the wonder of Vermeer and the detail and the eactness, but the depth and the inside view - it goes deeper and is layered and gives me a sense of him not the painting itself. And similarly, Miro's earlier work did something similar. Whilst I wondered in pleasure at some of the later work, there was less of a sense of him I think apart from the prolificacy I sense. Almost as if painting was like turning page after page of a book, racing towards the end to know the outcome. An urgency?

And this I can relate to the mad pursuance. In search of something  that perhaps isn;t there and is here all along. As I was looing at his works, I wanted to have one. To own something he had created. Not a copy but an original just to feel that energy. I get this feeling for so many things and then settle for a copy of second best and it becomes just another thing I have spent money on and now own amongst other things I own. However, I have started putting art on my walls. Copied of course and some orginals from friends. And I can look at it and appreciate the work. I wanted every book I opened, I wanted every copy I saw. I bought one copy - the farm at Mont-Roig. A very early piece of work. I loved the original. I feel very honoured to have seen it. I love the Vermeers that JH bought for me. I adored the original - breathless when I stood and embraced it with my eyes.
I appreciate the pieces of work my friends have given me.
But actually I need none - I have experienced the real thing and somewhere in the electricity wtihin my brain it will reside. If I forget then it is of no consequence, I have experienced and there is always room for experience. I am glad I did not purchase all that I wanted there on the spot.

I am off tog et ready - bath, drive, walk then lunch. I don;t need any more food for a week I think!!

Bliss
XX

Birthtime spendings

My friend's birthday day out in London ..............

Joan Miró's works come to London in the first major retrospective here for nearly 50 years. Renowned as one of the greatest Surrealist painters, filling his paintings with luxuriant colour, Miró worked in a rich variety of styles. This is a rare opportunity to enjoy more than 150 paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints from moments across the six decades of his extraordinary career.
Miró is among the most iconic of modern artists, using a language of symbols that reflects his personal vision, sense of freedom, and energy. The exhibition includes many of the key works that we know and love. It also shows that, behind the engaging innocence of his imagery, lies a profound concern for humanity and a sense of personal and national identity. Extraordinary works from different moments of his career celebrate his roots in his native Catalonia.

The exhibition also traces an anxious and politically engaged side to Miró’s work that reflects his passionate response to one of the most turbulent periods in European history. Working in Barcelona and Paris, Miró tracked the mood of the Spanish Civil War and the first months of the Second World War in France. Under the political restrictions of Franco's Spain, Miró remained a symbol of international culture, and his grand abstract paintings of the late 1960s and early 1970s became a mark of resistance and integrity in the dying years of the regime. Telling the story of Miró's life and the time he witnessed reveals a darker intensity to many of his works.

(There is no mention of the influence on Miro by the Dutch Interiors - and nothing was featurred in the exhibition from the Rijks Museum - I wonder why??)

Franz Kafka
An explorer visits the penal colony, where an officer demonstrates to him the Harrow, an instrument used to inflict capital punishment. The Harrow is an extraordinarily elegant instrument: the condemned man lies face-down on a Bed, while a complex system of needles inscribes the commandment he has broken (e.g. HONOR THY SUPERIORS) on his back. The needles pierce deeper and deeper until the prisoner dies. In the process of dying, however, the condemned man finally understands the nature of justice and his punishment. His face is transfigured, a sight edifying to all those who watch. The officer begins to demonstrate the Harrow on a prisoner condemned to die because he was sleeping on duty.



The machine was conceived and developed by the former Commandant. It soon becomes clear that the explorer does not approve of the death-machine and that he feels morally bound to express this disapproval to the new Commandant, who is already known to have serious questions about using the Harrow as a method of punishment. Suddenly, the officer removes the condemned man from the Bed and takes his place. Before doing so, he adjusts the machine to inscribe "BE JUST." The Harrow begins its grisly work on the officer's back, but malfunctions

Bliss
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