Schizopolis Notes

Introduction a nod to Cecil B. DeMille's Ten Commandments
The rotating lens making us aware it's a film and alternating perception between half, full and long shots
"The delicate fabric that holds all of us together will be ripped apart unless every man, woman and child sees this film..."
No fish were harmed in the making of this film

Eventualism commercial. Scientology spoof.
Here I am now (find yourself), control your own mind (how to think), Eventualism

Waitress brings plate with act 1
Superspeed noise-rock beginning of the day. Routine as a blur of repetitive motion.

Interview with a fan of Eventualism. OCD tooth brushing.
In control.
Grainy fantasy, kisses her, spits out her tooth
Brother calls/people looking for information exposing Switters company
"How long til they find out you don't have a brother?"

First I am born. Then the trouble begins.
Fantasizes about being an orphan, tries to lose parents at July 4th celebration.
They find me.
Out of body experience during baseball.
Acute sensation that something terrible will happen to me

Cut to
Title on a crazy man's t-shirt. He is not wearing pants and is running around like a lunatic away from orderlies.
Symbolic of the movie itself. Running rampant through the viewer's mind.
Bicycle past background of an interview.
Cut to
Older man entering photo printing place. He flips through the photos and has a heart attack.
Cut to
Doctor giving a medical explanation for the heart attack.
Intercut with two people trying to resuscitate.
Cut to
Cubicle and co-worker, depressed and going on and on
Polite society, chit chat,

Masturbating in bathroom, doctor describing his condition
psycho-neurotic disorder
Mirror, making faces, different extreme emotions, altering his persona, stepping outside himself and attempting to feel

Cut to
Notepad, writing a letter, formatted as if it were a real letter, but instead it's just the letters of the alphabet
The words have lost meaning for him, and his routine has made him become detached from his reality
Throws it away and hears music as it enter the trash. Auditory hallucination.

Enter nameless numberhead man. Lester news.
Listing his vices/problems which caused his death
Grainy fantasies of him doing the same.
Eating poorly, chronic insomnia, blood pressure
Sneaking candy bars, swollen ankles, urination
No speech
Vague order talk, suggesting a conspiracy

Uncle calls, $50 grand offer for information

Back to interview
Detailed biography
Describing his condition
Detachment
Breaking the fourth wall by showing the crew messing up the filming

Cut to Schwitters Head
Enter Elmo Oxygen
Weird odd sound music
Pest control
Insects
Nameless numberhead man's wife
Unintelligible speech. So far removed from normal thought patterns, but we see that actual words are not what makes up reality but rather the action shows us.
Pan over to two agents (harlequin) God figures, finishing each other's sentences.
Smellsign

TV interview
Debunker of Schwitters
Interspliced with interviewers daydreams, nudist logging, ping pong,
My tooth, pain. Unused take.

Cut to Elmo
Jazz, noises, samples music as he wanders through the house, taking pictures of himself

NNHM comes and meets up with co-workers all standing outside
Mole/spy, paranoia, suspicion
Semantics

Elmo
Sex, stumble, fall

Boss calls munson
Gives him conflicting instructions, making it impossible
Munson's face is totally straight
delay in reaction
Edited a few seconds earlier to make it feel disjointed
Boss goes back to work, awkwardness

Elmo
Harlequin

NNHM & Munson
NNHM is bitter
Munson has an office
Superspeed drive home
White car

Abrupt cut to random conversation with neighbor
Sex with neighbor's wife
Golf ball

Generic greeting
Dad coming home, picture perfect family, with the conversation dissected to minute detail, giving us what is being conveyed rather than what is actually said.
Left to right walk into home.

Elmo, talking on phone, making a date

Dinner
Wife, daughter between, Husband
Suspicious phone call
Bear goes into the box (phallic?)

Interview
Dog, diagonal characteristics versus horizontal, night, indicating he has been there all day, marking passing of time
haven't you read my manual? Dog awakes

Munson
dinner table working on speech
tape recorder
not a cause, course, a fashion, or religion
Eventualism is a state of mind, time and again we see the reliance on a proven methodology, a methodology separate from human experience, built upon figures, not feelings, which encourages our dependence on the empirical world, a world with no room for ground rule doubles.
Generic greeting, wife leaving

Elmo on a date.
Fleshframe. Sneeze?
Goes in for it

Wife returns, generic convo
Bed, she leans in and he denies her, work stress
Enticement to agree
Staring at painting of landscape
Masturbates
Solo fantasy world exceeds reality

Cut to
Press conference
ARHADL
Race horses do not urinate more than non-racing horses
Nonsense

Cut to
Funeral for Lester
Munson hears what he wants to hear.
Aren't you glad it wasn't you?
Don't you wish you felt something?
Attraction to wife?
Amen.

Elmo moves left to right
Flowers for his wife
Harlequin, backseat, soon

NNHM
Mole paranoia
Munson debunks the paranoia
smoking, grainy fantasy of his death of smoking
Wife, thinner and thinner, flipping the idea of the typical
Boss yells, excuse

NNHM wife goes to develop film

Elmo rummaging through house
Is that any way to talk to a lady?
Sex noises
Jigsaw
Video camera, Schwitters wife, painting
Altering the format

Cut to IDEA MISSING on tree

Cut back to Elmo
Small and demented, piano music playing, he looks small in the far shot as he finally travels right to left
A bug-like sense, infesting
driving past left to right, walking right to left, conflicting ideas
Harlequin stop him and finally he talks normal and the fourth wall is once again broken by his acknowledgment of being in a movie and leaving to go with the two to do something more interesting, to fulfill his potential and step up things
Main attraction, points to cameraman and crew. A shortcut, a vehicle.
Boom mic guy, sound mixer.

Schwitters speech.
Anything that can be imagined is legitimate. Any action that can be contemplated can be taken. Eventualism isn't designed to answer all questions, it's designed to question all answers. It's not about healing pain, it's about the pain of healing.
Cut to Munson in office telling spies to go away
Bomb threats, boss yelling
NNHM man, paranoia, hit by co-worker, Munson worked up, shuts down paranoia by out-rationalizing him
Compares it to a movie. No Way Out.

Cut to Elmo's car being towed.

NNHM's wife, with alternate reality wife with glasses, tooth problems, dentist
Speak Italian. Showing off teeth. Channel 9.
Dr. Korchek. And bugs.

Interview, crew walking in front, reading from a paper
The fallacy that work under pressure results in a direct pipeline to creative genius, that divine inspiration can be conjured by anything but the most mind bending concentration, this is the world of the poseur, the pretender, the fraud.

Cut to boss ripping Munson apart.
Talk to Schwitters. Adjust the deadline. NNHM.

Wife picks up pictures.
Did they all come out okay?
They all came out, okay.

NNHM getting fired. Giant box makes him look small.
Munson reveals info about the phone calls.
He gives up. Package?

Cut to
Crazy man, pumping up tires on his bike, orderlies sneak up.
Masturbation?
Captured

NNHM, close up on intense speech, showing his version of getting fired, where he quits
Tries to make her eat, but no cut away, no response. Disjointed.
Gets up, and we connect that NNHM's wife.
Phone call.
looking through pictures. she hides them, eats chips.

Boss yelling at Munson.
Calls the spies, they already have a guy.
Bathroom, purple/red bathroom door.
Black and white striped socks, taken off in stall next door.

Explorations 1-6
Enormous expansion
The absolute and essential role
Public perception of reality
Transcendent idea of reality
Collective unsconcious
Long overdue recognition of our own significance

Repeated

Fat chick comes and visits NNHM. Documents.
Flip on seduction scene.

Candy bar, walking to car, key won't work. Identical car nearby.
Music slowly builds as he watches another version of himself, jumpsuit, running
Everything he's not. He follows. Left to right.
Advancing the plot.
But a turn makes it right to left. Flipping reality.
He goes to loon in the house, spying through the back window.
Quick cuts, showing him watching himself, then behind him, side of him, all around him, close up through the window of him closing his idea. Escape.
Wakes up in the other body. Walks out front. Only one car. He slightly smiles.

Woman fishing, whips a 2 out of the lake. Act 2.
Wood. Relaxation rather than service or job.

Picks up phone and wife comes over.
"I'm having an affair with my wife."
White blown out close ups of her face during sex.
In bed, opposite sides from earlier scene.
Talking about Fletcher.
She talks. He hears what he's like.
Videotape (suggesting porn) Sex Lies & Videotape
Why don't you leave him?
Romanticizes her. Wants to run away with her.
You say a lot of things.
Looks at painting.

Cut to: Newscast Havarti comet plunging towards Earth. Calculating odds.
Price of capturing naked crazy man $367.50
Eventual destruction of this reality.

Elmo, handheld shot, giving us a new feel for Elmo in his new role
Chasing down a guy and beating him up
"Is that good?" Asking for

Madame Rose. Palm reading. A woman will change his life. Wind chimes. Left side of the screen.
A stranger. The wife's alter-ego?
Casual elevator music in the car ride to work. Lingers in the car. jogs inside.
familiar with routine

Confident, as he seduces, pitches flossing, Florida, be true to your teeth and they won't be false to you.
Calls Greg. Fake laughs, takes picture. Comfortibility. Patient with dementia.

Courting, glasses wife alter-ego. Nervous. She wears black and white stripes under a red blazer.
Card. Jiffy Massage. Voice over, attractive woman #2, spinning camera, demented love letter, grainy fantasy of greeting her, kissing her, marrying her, playing with baby, toilet paper discussion, which way it goes, toothpaste cap. Intersplicded with him writing letter and leaving it at her apt.

Elmo busting in house and beating a couple.

Diner, NNHM and fatty, guy asking for money. Golf, and generic talk. golf ball bouncing in reverse of earlier shot, we see Munson look back at it. Placing us back a few days in time. Left to right pulling into driveway. Wife left Munson. She starts to unpack. Wearing green. He's on the left. Tells her of her new love. Semantics of feelings, falling vs sliding. She matches the green of the house. Old rag and rotting fruit. Green car. Worm.

Newscast. National debt. Rhode island sold to investors and make it a mall.

Slow long shot and music of him pulling into parking lot.
Brother, 8 hours, $15,000. Thug takes tape.

Elmo ripping tags off mattresses.

Dentist visit for debunking Tribby. Reveals info with defector. Message from brother. As dentist he's on the right. NNHM's wife. Mentions attractive woman #2.

Elmo, trailer, not money. Looking for spiritual fulfillment. Feminine side must speak. Language does not always require speech. Metaphors too complicated, wants a female. Artist, diva, fruit. Third person. Harelquin as producers.

Practicing his response to AW#2. Registered letter have to sign for.
Three lawyers, close up, reading off his letter, behind him shot as he reacts. Grainy fantasy of legal battle. She wins, he masturbates in bed. Greg has disappeared with all the money. Laughs. Thug waiting.

Cut to interviewer. Head cut off as he cleans his glasses, So we see time and again that a man can not escape his own nature. But instead he must reconcile himself to that nature. We are what we pretend to be, because we pretend to be what we really are. The act is not an act.

Thug shoots Korcheck. Munson goes back to his desk from afar, down the hall.

Woman walks to mailbox, takes out mail, and 3. Act 3.
Upbeat music, wife being interviewed, she was going to go back to work, but didn't. Female perspective.
Interview with Schwitter's wife. Interview. Lester's wife. Traveling with insurance money.
AW#2. Wife. receptionist.

title cards
Do you feel outside forces control your destiny? pg. 151
Wife with daughter, answers phone, male voice speaking Japanese.
Munson describing Lester's death and promotion

Are you one of the Haves or Have Nots? pg 12
Wife describing soap opera. Answers door. Package, video. Heavy weight honeys. Porn tape.

Are your fantasies your own? pg 91
Munson come shome, speaks Japanese in reverse of scene in act 1.

Do you believe in cause and effect? pg 227
Sneaking phone call, leaving to go out. Arriving at Korcheck's house. Italian speaking.
she comes home. Left sitting foreground, right background. Right to left leaving, left to right returning.

Do you love humanity but hate people? pg 111
Bed, from her side of the bed, His side bed, her side.

Do you wonder why you were born? pg 401
Funeral, what was really said, or her version, inspiration to leave him
Packing, neighbor convo, gold ball, look back
Her leaving him, AW#2 falling speech shot focusing on her reactions, behind him
Her dialogue minimal focusing on her reactions. He accepted job, not AW#2.

Coffee shop, imagines watching herself sitting across the room. Closes eyes, transfers bodies. Munson comes and romances her, not having his side of things prior we're trying to piece together the story with her minimal responses. Hotel room. Stroking her hair. All the people I've know, and decisions I've made coming together at this point.

Schwitters speech.
The public perception of reality before Eventualism was inadequate. Eventualism provides one with nothing less than a transcendent idea of reality. Soon it's influence will extend beyond the tangible, empirical worold and into the collective unconcious where it will become even more powerful. Eventualism is the long overdue recognition of people everywhere, of their own significance.
Turns around, thumbs up.

Wife wakes up, looks in room and smiles, downstairs, smiles as she walks over to Munson. Is it finished?
Lingering moment.

Woman has final say on every single subject. final arbiter of taste and justice. God.

Harlequin can't find Elmo.

Boss. Praises Munson. Writing his words, speaking his language. When I first got here we had a saying...
Leaves office, change, but still the same.

Schwitters kind of a jerk. Auditorium filling up. Schwitters wife video camera.
Busy writing speech.

Nonsense introduction. Backstage. Husband and wife.
Assassination by Elmo.

Plane landing. Lester's wife reading Eventualism. Interviewer next to her at airport. Pan down to striped socks.

Elmo detained and questioned.
Schwitters in bed wounded. Assistant. Boss. Tape of assassination. Meat or card replies to get well. Elmo & wife.

Disjointed language. Half nonsense/half normal.

I'm talking about perception and communication skills. Houseplant. I can make sense out of yesterday, can you understand the power of that? You will learn something from me. Crotch, look away in horror.

Reverse of dinner, answering phone, suspicious lingering on wife. Spider.

Mall, and detailed out the rest of his life. Superspeed him sitting slower.
Successfully thawed. Until then I wait.

Crazy man being taken away.

Outro. Answer questions.
Blip of credits.

Kwaidan - The Black Hair

Dye in the water
To moving shadows
Samurai leaves wife
Future seperate
Wife weaver
Cut to
Bride ceremony
Relief at her marriage
Parents to son-in-law
Cut to
Running water
Bucket, rope, well
Functioning of society
Built around her
Red umbrella
Green kimono
Pampered
voice over
New bride to new post
Good family, respect & notoriety
Village, shops, covered as a ghost
Pale faced husband
Dissolve to
Ex weaving. Sound carries over cut back to husband
New wife
Dawn, prayer, long drawn out silent, slow moving moments
Selfish and callous
All in blue
Still in love with first wife
Regret
Red dress pushed to the ground
Images of ex
Arrow striking wood
Horseback contest of skill
Missed third mark
Off angle rotate in memory
Throws off shot
Sound carrying over
Right to left
Hits targets
Slow close up, cut to weaving sounds, focus on hair
Hits target
Purple, eyebrows, yawn, throws fan
Playing game, she quits
Husband reading, passed out, hidden
Pushes her away, hits him, twice
She calles him out on living in the past and using her
Eerie clang music
Nurse and husband
Sends her back to her parents
Find Ex and make amends
Years later returns home Kyoto
Heavy shadows, all doors locked
Wife spinning wheel, turns to him
Camera swoops in opposite her turning
How did her find her in all those black rooms?
Maze, labyrinth
He professes his love, asks for forgiveness
True love, dedication, she was not worthy of him
Poverty
So happy to be together again if...
Only for a moment?
Hair monologue
Red bedspread
Letting go of sorrow, telling the past
Dawn
Bridal chamber
No sleep
Past, present, future
dream
Wakes up
Head rolls left to right to face the sun
Rolls her over, close up
Corpse!
No sound
Bird's eye view
Dragging, wood sounds, faint strings
Hair moving, he lashes out, flailing
No sound
His face paler all the time
Crashes through
Camera twists slowly as he runs
His own hair is growing long
Falls through the floor, crawls,
Water, inverted reflection, freeze frame
Sunken, rotting face

Joseph Campbell Notes - Emanations: From Psychology to Metaphysics

It is not difficult for the modern intellectual to concede that the symbolism of mythology has a psychological significance. Particularily after the work of the psychoanalysts, there can be little doubt, either that myths are of the nature of dream, or that dreams are symptomatic of the dynamics of the psyche.

According to this view it appears that through the wonder tales - which pretend to describe the lives of the legendary heroes, the powers of the divinities of nature, the spirits of the dead, and the totem ancestors of the group - symbolic expression is given to the unconscious desires, fears, and tensions that underlie the conscious patterns of human behavior. Mythology, in other words, is psychology misread as biography; history, and cosmology.

The entire spectacle is before us. We have only to read it, study its constant patterns, analyze its variations, and therewith come to an understanding of the deep forces that have shaped man's destiny and must continue to determine both our private and our public lives.

But if we are to grasp the full value of the materials, we must note that myths are not exactly comparable to dream. Their figures originate from the same sources - the unconcious wells of fantasy - and their grammar is the same, but they are not the spontaneous products of sleep. On the contrary, their patterns are conciously controlled. And thei understood function is to serve as a powerful picture language for the communication of traditional wisdom.

They link the unconcious to the field of practical action, not irrationality, in the manner of a neurotic projection, but in such fashion as to permit a mature and sobering, practical comprehension of the fact-world to play back, as a stern control, into the realms of infantile wish and fear.

And so, to grasp the full value of the mythological figures that have come down to us, we must understand that they are not only symptoms of the unconcious but also controlled and intended statements of certain spiritual principles, which have remained as constant throughout the course of human history as the form and nervous structure of the human physique itself.

Psyche life energy = libido
"On Psychic Energy" C.G. Jung
Theory of the Libido

The apprehension of the source of this undifferentiated yet everywhere particularized substratum of being is rendered frustrate by the bery organs through which the apprehension must be accomplished. The forms of sensibility and the categories of human thought, which are themselves manifestations of this power, so confine the mind that it is normally impossible not only to see, but even to concieve, beyond the colorful, fluid, infinitely various and bewildering phenomenal spectacle.

The function of ritual and myth is to make possible, and then to facilitate, the jump - by analogy. Forms and conceptions that the mind and its senses can comprehend are presented and arranged in such a way as to suggest a truth or openness beyond.

Myth is but the penultimate; the ultimate is openness - that void, or being, beyond the categories - into which the mind must plunge alone and be dissolved.

They are mere symbols to move and awaken the mind, and to call it past themselves.

This recognition of the secondary nature of the personality of whatever deity is worshipped is characteristic of most of the traditions of the world. In Christianity, Mohammedanism, and Judaism, however, the personality of the divinity is taught to be final - which makes it comparatively difficult for the members of these communions to understand how one may go beyond the limitations of their own anthropomorphic divinity. The result has been, on the one hand, a general obfuscation of the symbols, and on the other, a god-ridden bigotry such as is unmatched elsewhere in the history of religion.

Sigmund Freud "Moses and Monotheism"

The lapse of superconciousness into the state of unconciousness is precisely the meaning of the Biblical image of the Fall. The constriction of conciousness, to which we owe the fact that we see not the source of the universal power, turns superconciousness into unconciousness and, at the same instanct and by the same token, creates the world. Redemption consists in the return to superconciousness and therewith the dissolution of the world.

The hero is the one who, while still alive, knows and represents the claims of the superconciousness which throughout creation is more or less unconcious. The adventure of the hero represents the moment in his life when he achieved illumination - the nuclear moment when, while still alive, he found and opened the road to the light beyond the dark walls of our living death.

God assumes the life of man and mand releases the God within himself at the mid-point of the crossarms of the same "coincidence of opposites," the same sun door through which God descends and Man ascends - each as the other's food.

Notes

Action Comics. The first superhero punch expanding into imaginary mindspace in an evercontinuing fracturing and expanding explosion of superhuman force.

The ripples of epic violence shattering through the minds of humanity. A spear thrust straight through the serpent end of alpha male ego.

Straight through to a kid punching a bully. Action Comics #1 rolled up on the ground.

Man of Tomorrow. Scheduling Superman.

Superman as a superexample of how a man should be.

Man of Steel. Supermechanics.

Superman repairs the damage his battles cause.

Last Son of Krypton. Superhumanity.

How can they be so human? Why can't they see?

The Flash.
Speed Force. The impulse of the universe. Spark of humanity. Divine thunderbolt. Quicksilver. Mercury. Primordial energy. Velocital center.

The Universe ended. Infinite Crisis. Company versus the people. Batman is our inside man. The pull upwards of our gods forces our consciousness to expand to heights we would not reach otherwise.

Barry Allen was prepared to exist on a higher plane: the Speed Force. It was here that he was able to examine the problems of the DC Universe, or the force that guides it, it's wavelength if you will.

Examining the heroic ideal. Perfecting humanity. The scientist looking at the patterns and making connections.

Hal Jordan. He doesn't exist. But his will makes it so. So malleable was the matter of his world that he was able to remanifest himself. Order. Form. Structure.

Flame. The torch in the darkness. Giving shape by the casting of the light from the Lantern. The first tool against the unknown.

Brave and the Bold.

Hypertime x Speedforce = existence

Enjoying every instance of existence. Nirvana in slo-mo.
Time to think. Time to plan. Eternity adrift.

Power pulsating, emanating from within, down your arm, up into your fist, and fired from your ring. The Green of creation.

The Trial. A cop crosses the line. His record tarnished. He had no choice. It was all determined before he was born. It was the stuff of lightning striking.

The Sun. You unleash on your friends. You destroy your entire life. Everything that made you a hero instantly negating your entire existence. Does reigniting the dark make good?

Justice League.
Superman's reality shattering raw power. Batman's mind focusing the beam. Wonder Woman tempering it with ruthless mercy. The Flash keeping the world spinning generating a containing force. Green Lantern forges the form upon the river of hypertime.

Green Arrow shoots straight. Black Canary shows how the chicks bring it.

The Atom drops it down a notch. Martian Manhunter helps out with a hand. Hawkman barges in and demands. Aquaman acts like it doesn't matter.

Plastic Man. He needs a job.

Mercury University.
Wally West needs to settle down. Wife Linda, and supersped siblings Jai and Iris, have to act like a family. A professor position? Seems being a superhuman since you were ten gets you a little far in today's economy. What do you mean DC 1,000,000? What do you mean by 853,000 BC? The end of the Universe? On the planet Merecury? Where a school exists with a dark secret that is keeping the entire DC Universe from plunging into the final moments of entropy of the human mind?

Wow, that's a lot of info. Good thing you have such good teachers such as Coach John Fox who jogs on the cosmic treadmill before breakfast each morning. Or Dr. Jesse Chambers who teaches abstract mathematics, philosophical physics, thirteen languages (including Interlac), as well as business ethics. Professor Chunk's lecture may be agonizingly slow, but every word out of his mouth on the subject of metaphysical mechanics will blow your mind.

Wally's all set to instruct the younger generation, the hyperactive kids he's always had a bond with. Didn't he? The joke's gotten old and now it's time to grow up Wally. You got two kids after all. Jai and Iris try to make friends but with their family legacy they're either made fun of or ignored. Each copes in their own way. As does Linda. A 21st Century gal (extra-dimensional/temporally displaced mother of two) living in a superspeeding society that blurs around her like a strobelit social club.

Bart Allen. Loner. Rebel. Longhaired slowpoke. He doesn't run anymore haven't you heard? Grew up too fast that poor boy. Only lived a handful of years and look how grown up he is. He's the traitor to the bloodline. He wants to be an Allen. All he can ever hope to be is not a Thawne. Anything but that.

But at least he's got Turtle. He moves slow despite being the son of the great Flash of the 38th Century. A King of the Multiverse. All is perfection under his rule. All are content. An embarassment who can not run.

Xs at least brings in some cheer. She won't let either of these two brood for very long. She hides her heartache but racing past it all and keeping pace are not that far apart.

Max Mercury will not let him get away with this. His body may not even be his anymore, but his mind, that spark, that eventual existential moment where what you are pulses through each beat, that's where he'll hide until the moment is right. Then he'll strike.

The Rival may be the bizarro Zoom, energy altering my flesh, and Eobard may have the passion to drive this plan, and Hunter can think he's in charge. But they're all pawns.

It's Savitar. That sonofabitch. I know it's him. He thinks he's god and of course he'd find a way here. Scheme his way, play us all, just so he could get what he wanted: to peer out upon the final moment of existence and withhold the entire world from unexisting.

It's not the natural way though. And not even those thugs, mercurial mercenaries all, the Rogues, could stop the natural order from taking place. The countdown must begin. The very end of everything must begin.

Kid Eternity! is going to die. And Kid Eternity! shall live. Two opposing forces collide in this explosion of intense energy! Superhero power. Mystical heroism. Timeless travels. He might have to guide your soul to Valhalla, or perhaps unite conflicting ideals, forge concepts into functional form. Wisdom from lives lived. The ideal of that person. Memory layered over fiction, human pressed upon power, igniting the spectacle. The spark of eternal creation. The grindstone of superpowers. The rock of eternity. The flint of form.

Marvel Family. Rock. Eternity.

Superman Family. Mineral. Force.

Batman Family. Body. Discipline.

Flash Family. Knowledge. Energy.

Wonder Woman. Spirit. Mercy.

Green Lanterns. Space. Willpower.

Aquaman. Government. Tranquility.

Evolution of Language Notes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language

http://wiki.cotch.net/index.php/Linguistic_evolution

On Language: Descent From the Tower of Babel
Rod Mengham

http://library.thinkquest.org/C004367/la1.shtml

Introduction
Humans are the only species that has evolved an advanced system of communication between individuals. Whereas other species communicate through ritualized and repetitious songs, calls, or gestures, humans have developed linguistic systems that can express a literally infinite variety of separate and distinct thoughts. This incredible evolutionary leap is what distinguished humans from all other organisms on earth.

The Evolution of Language
Language first appeared between 30,000 and 100,000 years ago in the species Homo sapiens. But how did language evolve? Currently, there are two rival answers to this question: the first and more common explanation is that language was an adaptation of some sort; the second (chiefly espoused by Stephen Jay Gould) is that language is a spandrel, a nonadaptive element arising as a byproduct of other processes. We will consider these explanations in reverse order.

Language as a Spandrel
Some people, Stephen Jay Gould most prominent among them, believe language to be the byproduct of other evolutionary processes, not a special adaptation that arose by ordinary natural selection acting on mutations. As Gould puts it, "Natural selection made the human brain big, but most of our mental properties and potentials may be spandrels - that is, nonadaptive side consequences of building a device with such structural complexity" (The Pleasures of Pluralism , p.11). In other words, our ancestors encountered environments which required the type of advanced reasoning only provided by a larger brain; however, language capability was not one of those functions for which the brain was selected. Instead, language is a result of exapting neural structures formerly used for other functions: "Many, if not most, universal behaviors [including language] are probably spandrels, often co-opted later in human history for important secondary functions" (Ibid).

This view has been reinforced by the famous linguist Noam Chomsky, who argues that the brain's language capability cannot be explained in terms of natural selection. He attempts to explain the brain not through biology or engineering principles, but instead through the effects of physical laws. According to Chomsky, there may be unexpected emergent physical properties associated with the specific structure of the brain that explain language.

Language as an Adaptation
The mainstream view is that language is an adaptation, evolved in response to some selection pressure toward improved communication between humans. This explanation is associated with many speculative possibilities and proposals for the adaptive function of language, and some (such as Steven Pinker) postulate "mental modules" that compartmentalize linguistic functions.

There are many different possible "adaptationist" explanations for the evolution of language. For instance, perhaps there was a need for improved communication between hunters at some point in the history of Homo sapiens, and oral expressions were simply the optimal way to solve the problem. More plausibly (or at least more importantly), sharing information between individuals probably conferred an extremely major advantage: groups of humans with language, or even "proto-language", could share a wealth of information about local hunting conditions, food supplies, poisonous plants, or the weather. It would be extremely beneficial to the survival of all members of the tribe if only one had to encounter a poisonous plant, rather than each member having to rediscover the fact for himself!

It is also simple to imagine a series of "oral gestures", perhaps indicating the presence of an animal to another person by imitating the animal's cries. Steven Pinker suggests in his book The Language Instinct, "Perhaps a set of quasi-referential calls . . . came under the voluntary control of the cerebral cortex [which controls language], and came to be produced in combination for complicated events; the ability to analyze combinations of calls was then applied to the parts of each call" (p. 352).

Another possible source of selection pressure towards better linguistic abilities is the social group. Social interactions between people with widely divergent or conflicting interests "make formidable and ever-escalating demands on cognition" (Ibid, p.368). Increasing cognitive ability could easily have focused on the improvement of language as well, since so many social interactions depend on effective persuasion.

Language Evolution and Memes
It is possible to imagine numerous potential scenarios by which language might have evolved as a purely biological adaptation. However, in her book The Meme Machine, Susan Blackmore reveals a different theory of language evolution: she proposes that it evolved for the sake of memes, not as an adaptation for the benefit of genes.

Blackmore explains that memes first came into existence with the advent of true imitation in humans, which allowed memes to spread through populations. Recalling that fecundity, or proudction of new copies, is essential to a replicator, she proposes that language came into existence as a mechanism for improving the fecundity of memes. Sound transmission has many advantages for the purpose - sounds can be heard by multiple listeners and can be used even at night. After sound transmission (proto-language) came into existence, the "digitalization" of language into discrete words arose as a mechanism for ensuring meme fidelity, or lack of errors in the new copies. She explains that those alterations that produce the most copies of the highest fidelity will be those that predominate, thus improving the language.

Blackmore goes on to suggest that grammar was an adaptation to improve the fecundity and fidelity of existing memes; its recursive structure then provided the framework for the development of more complex memes, which then favored the existence of more complex grammar, etc. in a self-sustaining process. Furthermore, language then began to exert pressure on the genes, creating a selection pressure toward bigger brains that are better at language. If people prefer to mate with those possessing the best or most memes, then the genes that allowed those people to be good meme-spreaders will be differentially transmitted into the next generation. This process again leads to a self-catalytic process of brain evolution that places a strong survival and reproductive advantage on those most capable of meme transmission.

Finally, Blackmore believes that language is an unavoidable result of the existence of memes, which follow naturally from the ability to imitate (an ability that is, surprisingly, realized in very few species). She states, "verbal language is almost an inevitable result of memetic selection. First, sounds are a good candidate for high-fecundity transmission of behaviour. Second, words are an obvious way to digitise the the process and so increase its fidelity. Third, grammar is a next step for increasing fidelity and fecundity yet again, and all of these will aid memorability and hence longevity" (p.105).

Looking Further: Links and References
The following links and references are useful in the study of the evolution of language.

Books
The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker
How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker
Words and Rules by Steven Pinker
The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life by Daniel C. Dennett (see ch. 13)
Websites
Evolution: The Pleasures of Pluralism by Stephen Jay Gould (also available here)
'Darwinian Fundamentalism': An Exchange - discussion between Daniel C. Dennett, Robert Wright, and Stephen Jay Gould
Evolutionary Psychology: An Exchange - discussion between Stephen Jay Gould and Steven Pinker
The Gestural Origins of Language by Michael C. Corballis (from American Scientist)

Superheroes - Modern Mythology Notes

Yet the medium from which they spring - the 6x9in, 4-color comic book - continues to be a marginalized channel of communication held by many to be an irredeemably corrupt and corrupting form of discourse, or else suitable only for children and the semi-literate.

June 1938 - Superman 'Action Comics #1'
Golden Age late 1940's
World War II
Shift to crime, western, and horror comics

Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Frederic Wertham
1954 Congressional Hearings
EC Comics 'Tales From the Crypt', 'Vault of Horror'
Comics code - self-censoring ban by the publishers themselves on violence, explicit sex, gratuitous gore and the triumph of evil or antisocial behavior.

Silver Age
Flash (1956)
Green Lantern (1959)
Supergirl (1959)
JLA (1960)

Fantastic Four (1961)
Spider-Man (1963)
X-Men (1964)

Superhero Genre
Lost Parents
*the hero is marked out from society. He often reaches maturity without having a relationship with his parents

The man-god
*at least some of the superheroes will be earthbound gods in their level of powers. Other superheroes of lesser powers will consort easily with these earthbound deities.

Justice
*the hero's devotion to justice overrides even his devotion to the law.

The normal and the superpowered
*the extraordinary nature of the superhero will be contrasted with the
ordinariness of his surroundings.

The secret identity
*likewise, the extraordinary nature of the hero will be contrasted with the mundane nature of his alter-ego. Certain taboos will govern the actions of these alter-egos.

Superpowers and politics
*although ultimately above the law, superheroes can be capable of considerable patriotism and moral loyalty to the state, though not necessarily to theletter of its laws.

Science as magic
*the stories are mythical and use science and magic indiscriminately to create a sense of wonder.

Superman and the superhero emerged at the end of the Great Depression and during the run-up to the outbreak of the European war.

A new kind of popular hero had emerged: the self-reliant individualist who stands aloof from many of the humdrum concerns of society, yet is able to operate according to his own code of honor, to take on the world on his own terms, and win.

For Americans, the historical path from Munich to Pearl Harbor coincides with the emergence of Superman and Captain America - solitary but socialized heroes, who engage in battle from time to time as proxies of US foreign policy. A darker side of the Lone Wolf hero is embodied by the Batman, a hero whose motivations and emotions are turned inward against the evils within society, and even the social and psychological roots of crime itself. The tension between these two veins in the superhero tradition remains to the present day.

The mythologizing of the dangers of scientific knowledge is one of the mainstream currents of science fiction, from Frankenstein through to the famous Spock/McCoy reason/conscience conflict in Star Trek (a conflict which is spuriously resolved by the deus ex machina of Kirk's
overarching 'humanity', which embraces such contradictions and thereby resolves them.)

Langue & Parole

Superhero costumes are either sexless, denying the humanity of the hero within, or garments of great erotic significance.

Good girl art (Wonder Woman) takes the signs of pornographic discourse and integrates them into the context of non-pornographic story structures. In this way, the sign of pornography (never explicitly delivered) comes to stand in for an entire pornographic subtext, a series of blanks which readers remain free to fill in for themselves. And it is within the neo-pornographic texts of Good Girl art that the distinctions between costumed heroes and villains can first be seen to break down, a change that influenced mainstream comics.

Costume creates a community between its wearers.

All Star Comics #3 (1940)
Justice Society of America

Intertextuality forms the Marvel & DC Universes.

Serial continuity
The back-story

Hierarchical continuity
A beats B
C defeated by B
A bests C
The pressure of combat also forces from heroes the quality which sums up the moral nature of the superhero: the 'extra effort'.

Structural continuity
Serial (diachronic 'over time')
Hierarchical (synchronic 'in the moment')
Combines to produce the entire contents of the Marvel & DC Universes.
Metatext.

T.S. Eliot's 'Tradition and the Individual Talent'
"what happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it. The existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new (the really new) work of art among them. The existing order to persist after the supervention of novelty, the whole existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered..."

Clearly, intertextual and metatextual continuity create a subsidiary world in which the process of time can be kept under control.

Continuity, and above all metatextual structural continuity, is the strategy through which superhero texts most clearly operate as myths. Continuity provides the interaction with the audience which characterizes mythological discourse: myths...{are} 'machines for the
suppression of time', the contemplation of the unity being more important than any suspense engendered over the outcome.

Return of Barry Allen Notes

Costume differences
Power differences
Protecting mob boss to prevent a crime war
Amusement Park
Mirror Maze
Wally smashes through
"I prefer to get where I'm going as directly as possible"
"Putting the spirit of Barry Allen to rest was a long and painful
process. Your death left a wound that never healed."
"Once upon a time, Barry Allen sacrificed his life to save the universe.
In tribute I took his name and identity...but not his courage. That was
his alone. Now he's back...and whatever tomorrow may bring, one thing is
certain. He's the greatest hero I've ever known...and I'm proud to
follow in his footsteps."

Train derailed towards a school full of kids, speed powerless, Barry
shows to save the day. All three Flashes use vibrations to slow the
train. Using speed to stop speed. Kids ask Barry for his autograph.
"Like I'm not even there. Even I'm astounded at the attention he
commands."
"I owe everything to Uncle Barry! My powers...my identity...everything!
The man is like a god to me!"
Moving away, changing superhero identity.
"I'm the Flash. Stay used to it."
Barry returns to the scene of his ressurrection.
The Combine. High-tech crime.
Wally gets taken out, Barry snaps when the criminals say they took down
the Flash, Wally's costume rips at the top, revealing his hair ala Kid
Flash costume. "I'm the Flash!"

Origin. 10 years old. Similar costume. "Barry Allen took me under his
wing. He gave me a purpose...a direction...an identity that would
totally define my life. It was the greatest gift I ever received."
" I wanted to honor his memory...so I tried to fill his boots. Itook up
the mantle of the Flash, and did my best to further his heritage."
Johnny Quick. CEO. Max Mercury.
Shrinking force field trap.
Subway booth attendant. Max. Jay's hero.
Wally's vibrations with Barry's allows Barry to escape. "Help you? Why?
You stole my name! You tried to replace me...tried to make the world
forget about Barry Allen!"
"Forget Barry. Forget the fear. Forget everything..." "everything I do
now...who is it for?"
Press conference, Flash is dead.

"When I was a kid, I looked up to him with stars in my eyes. I thought
he was perfect...but I was just blinded by hero worship."
"How could I hold my own against the man who taught me everything I
know? He's stronger than me. He's faster than me. He's better than me.
For the first time since I was a kid, I'm just Wally West. I'm not a
hero anymore."
Construction site. Foundation. Jay hero discussion.
Jay, Max, Johnny.
Out trick him. Barry vs Max. Original superspeedster. Agility.
Wally Alley Book.
Reveals Barry's true identity.
Construction site destroyed as Barry grabs helmet.

Lessons from Johnny, mathematical formula, describing a
fourth-dimensional construct. 3x2(9YZ)4A
Draws speed from time. Positive thinking.
Max. Zen of speed.
Overthinking speed. Force Wally to confront what he doesn't want to.
Fear.
"No one can tell me that I'm afraid of speed! I love what I can do!"
"but you love your uncle Barry even more. That's why you took his name
and scotume, isn't it? In a sense, you did it so the world wouldn't
forget him...or his heroism. You keep saying you don't want to replace
Barry, but the moment you become as fast as him...that's exactly what
you'll have done."
Jay. Heart. Faith.
Wally plan trick.
Releases prisoners. Anti-Barry. Cop.
Doubt. Museum. Rubble.
Bird's eye shot, Wally small on huge symbol.
Cosmic treadmill.
Jay fights off Barry's mask. Revealing identity.
Rips off symbol. Breaks his leg.
"One true Flash!"
Eobard Thawne. Reverse Flash. Suit.

Recall in slo-mo. Origin. 25th Century. Technology has wiped out crime.
No heroes. Nostalgic for 20th Century. Heroic Age. "His was a soul pure
and noble. He, of all heroes, deserved in recompense for his sacrifice a
long and prosperous life. The tragedy of his plight had always moved me.
I worshipped him. And no matter that he'd been dead five hundred
years...I grieved for him. He was my hero. He was my friend."
Plastomorph surgery, cosmic treadmill pawn shop, fortune spent on
painful treatment giving powers.
Museum, taking in Barry's life as Flash, studying his enemies.
"We both wanted the same thing out of life, Wally...a chance to fill
Barry Allen's boots. Think about it. We're a lot alike. You might even
call us brothers."
Escape. Threatens Linda.
Acceptance. "Since Barry's death, my speed has waxed and waned. I never
thought the electric power that sparked it could ever be recaptured. I
was wrong. The power is within me. It always was."
Lightning gives edge.
Threatens to go to Thawne's childhood and terrorize him tricking him to
go back to the future.
"The ghost of Barry Allen...the one I've kept alive all these years...is
finally at rest. He no longer dominates my life...but he'll always watch
over me."
His future in the book, tosses it into water.