Platypus of Truth

As Counting Crows tells us it's been one long December, but there's reason to believe maybe next year will be better than the last.  I suppose by now I can say that I successfully got out of the canyon, Hollywood, and all that. So, aside from surviving Harvey, what occurred here at Platypus of Truth? Well, for starters, this year has been the least productive of posts since I started blogging. There are some outside reasons for that: new job, shorter summer, travel to see relatives, Harvey. There are also internal reasons. Unlike previous years, 2017 wasn't given over to reviewing books so much as to learning how to watch film. A new discipline means more time spent on organizing my thoughts and less time spent on writing. 2017 also saw an uptick in artwork on the blog as I began attempting to work in new mediums, particularly digital ones. Finally, I spent the year barfing out a lot of bad Eliot as free verse seemed the best way to get my thoughts out. There were other k...

Sappho Resistance is always a bitter agony but the bitterest antagonist is oneself. All right rebellion begins in the self and ends in the self; For Men may master many things but which of them can tame his little tongue? Teach us, Queen of Lesbos, How the tongue is tamed; For what Men cannot do a Woman might. O Fire higher than the Pierean Muse, Burn my blindness that my sister May teach me what she has to teach!

Chains There are chains we make and Chains we break All praise to God, the maker and breaker of chains! Whatsoever ye bind on earth Shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye loose on earth Shall be loosed in Heaven Praise be to God who sets The captives free and Binds rebel angels in the Lake of Fire Which is the Second Death! Can you bind the Pleiades or Loose the cords of Orion? Praise then the God who set The stars on course when Jael Smote Sisera.

It's too early for spoilers, so all I will say is: "Go see The Last Jedi "!

December Loving Christmas is easy As a child; You have to learn to hate it. Business encroaches and Seasons fall out of joint The further finance forces you From home. Moloch always did hate children. I tried to find the snow That fell at Christmas But it withered with the Carols that Anglicans are Too holier-than-thou to Sing. Or maybe it was just the Commercialism Harvey blew All the way to the windy side of Thanksgiving. There was no magic In those eight lost years When we hauled our own Christmas trees from the Jones' and set them up Beneath the vault of a Cathedral ceiling. There was pain in every Movement of the saw. These words are blood upon The snow. They lead past the river to Our exile.

Poor Bob... He set out to traverse the upper elementary like Flat Stanley. On the way, he lit the teacher's desk on fire and our Admin decided to make an example of him. Below is the rule of our Awesome Imperiatrix as the 9th graders describe it (with a little help from Frank Miller and Herodotus).

Drawing of life form uncovered by the disastrous Miskatonic expedition to Antarctica in the 1920s No organic specimens related to these drawings has been located though a related bronze artifact of unknown provenance is in the keeping of the Mathematics department Please forward this picture and attached memorandum to Mr. Weyland

Oedipus cut out his eyes and placed them On a table So he could see himself Oh tell Artaxaca that his bridges are broken down!

November These are the days when I feel It would not be sad to die; My hopes and dreams add up To so little. Does life go on there In cities under grey skies? In places I know not? Tell me all your ways and stories: Men in heavy coats and caps, Coffee held in hands wrapped in finger-less gloves, Who breathe the air in plumes of smoke. I dreamt I wandered through the cities of the North And loved them. Their seasons' beauties were beautiful to me Who knows only hot and hotter. If you care to know, here is the thing that I am saying: Can our sorrows be sharpened to a sweetness and what Kassandra said come true? What is the weight, then, of one dead Irishman In a world that belongs to Swedes and Anglos? We died in droves an no one noticed except To hang signs saying "No Irish need apply". (God make us kind to Mexicans!) Can I reach across the ages and make meaning From their deaths? The only thing that matters here is service And the Iliad of...

See the Lilith of the Waste Place Stand beside her spouse the Dragon

October October is The return of the world To the way it should be. Days grow short -even this far south. Slate grey skies Agree With a head held together By Cymbalta And too much tobacco. The Sibyl of Cumae Writes her books on Autumn leaves, Carving strange signs In outlawed pumpkins. The Sphinx stands in my way, Corpses beneath her feet Glow strangely In the fading light. There are things in that smile That only heroes know, But I am no Oedipus, And there are questions Not worth answering. (Though one is free to ask.) Hippias stood upon the Shores of Athens Coughing out pieces of his Head. Is there a coffin in Egypt For my tooth? The Sphinx smiles on. I turn away.

A while ago, I posted about an imaginary pitch I composed with my study hall students called Bad Nun . It was a sort of swan song for a position I was leaving after six years. While working with Clip Art the other day, I decided to go back to one of my old concept pieces and dress it up a little. Just a reminder that while things can be misplaced, they are never really lost...

We have been watching some of Jim Henson's quintessential productions this past month: The Storyteller, Labyrinth, and The Dark Crystal . Looking back, there are things these films share in common. There is a sense of gentleness, wonder, and wisdom about them that speaks to the best creative impulses in late 20th century pop-art. These films strike a blow for the world of the imagination without being anti-intellectual, despairing, angry, or escapist. There is instead a true sense of "escape" in the way in which J.R.R. Tolkien envisioned it: they are dreams of a better world. When each is finished, we return to the primary world refreshed and enlightened; ready to carry on the battle. I don't know if these films will last -many younger people I've met don't like them- but for a generation of us, they have done good yoeman's labor. For that, I am thankful.

September September is The Legend of Zelda Link running through the forest Shield in hand A spreading oak tree A cave Broken memories and the effort that goes into forgetting If I forget thee oh Jerusalem May my tongue be cut out May my right hand lose its skill The white girls sat in a row of Deracinated messy buns And drank the PSLs Which they purchased with their souls Paltry things Worn white in women's work Handed down by a post-war committee Oh you cannot buy a soul Not at Target or at Walmart Though you took a trip to Selma Or you stood at Standing Rock I stood upon the rock I stood upon the rock But the memories slipped Through my hands And shattered

This film, like so many of Jim Hanson's works, is a miniature gem finely cut. All the characters and the world they inhabit are perfectly designed for the medium in which they exist. If they were taken out of the medium, or even redone in the same medium with modern technology, it would dramatically alter the whole -it would become something else. I think that's why the comics have turned to the mythology and history of The Dark Crystal . They are at enough of a remove that the change in medium doesn't violate the original work. All that to say that there is something insistently Toronto School about telling an entire film story with puppets; a furious insistence that the medium is the message. The story of The Dark Crystal  reaches the level of myth. Its theme is the recovery of lost unity by the meeting of opposites: Uru and Skeksis, make and female, light and dark. The symbol of union is well chosen: a shattered crystal that turns light into darkness. It is an image of...

Another Labor Day Weekend is upon us and that means that another Summer Vacation has come to a close upon this middle earth. With that, it's time for 2017's annual Seven Heavens of Summer Reading Awards. As in summers past, I award the the most interesting books of the year's summer reading to the various medieval planets that most correspond to their virtues. Sun: The Sun is the heaven of scholars. A hundred years ago, J.R.R. Tolkien was penning the first words of what would become Middle Earth. It has taken two lifetimes to bring out all that was in that tweedy little don's head. Christopher Tolkien, at 93, has brought out what he considers the capstone of his father's work Beren and Luthien . Though there is no new material here, the arrangement allows the reader to see how the central tale of Tolkien's mythology evolved over the course of its creator's long life. The Solaric Award, then, goes to both Tolkiens for two life's-works well done. Mercu...

Having watched The Blair Witch Project , I went looking for another groundbreaking horror film from the same time period to compare it with. That led me to Scott Derrickson's Exorcism of Emily Rose . This was yet another of those films I remember being talked about when I was in college (Derrickson was an alum after all) but, in spite of rooming with film majors, I never got around to seeing. I had my doubts: "a court room drama mashed up with an exorcism movie -really?". It sounded like some cheesy, low budget, well-meaning, Christian film. That -or it was going to be a Hollywood gore-fest that was going to have me traumatized for weeks. When I heard a few years ago that Derrickson had been tapped to direct the Marvel Universe property Doctor Strange , I suddenly began to see things in a different light. I figured I'd go back and give The Exorcism of Emily Rose  a chance. I'm glad I did. I took five pages of notes on the movie during my first viewing (I think t...

Having looked at James Cameron's Aliens  and  Terminator 2: Judgement Day , I thought it was time to watch another classic Ridley Scott film to go with my viewing of Alien . In order to keep with the science fiction theme, I chose the director's cut of Blade Runner . This movie should not work. It is too slow, lacks explanations, and is full of evil and unlikable characters -yet it's an artistic masterpiece! Why? What's going on with this film? Visually, it's stunning. The cityscape blends historic L.A. buildings with maze-like Mayan-mechanical and bits of the Tokyo redlight district into a unity that has influenced the look of scifi across the globe. These visuals subtly underline the basic concept of the movie: Theseus and the Minotaur, the rat in the maze. Speaking of the story, it doesn't need all the info supplied by the theatrical cut as it's all there -if you watch carefully. Once you you figure out what's going on, the characters become muc...

I finished the Steam port of SquareEnix's Final Fantasy III . It took me a year, and having to go all the way back to the start to relearn the job system, but I did it. Final Fantasy III  is a role player's RPG. The job system makes the characters much more customize-able than other early titles in the series and the lack of save points in dungeons make proper supply and strategy non-negotiable. All-in-all, it's the most difficult classic role playing game that I've encountered -no wonder it took so long to hit the U.S. market. That said, however, what would have been a disadvantage when I was a kid is now a major selling point of the game. Final Fantasy III  requires and rewards thought and care as players delve into its lushly imagined world -and a delightful world it is! The tone is light and upbeat with its Funkopop-like animation and sense of high adventure, but without the kiddieness of a Secret of Mana (though it also should be noted that there are no moments...

Works of Art endure for a reason. Even when aspects of them become out outdated, (say as in the case of the Iliad, composition-in-performance goes out of fashion) the power of the story shines through. That's a rare thing for a genre that is as dependent on up-to-date technology as a Science Fiction Film. The story, the message, has to be uniquely powerful to endure once the future becomes the present or special effects take another leap forward. I spent some time this week on a sci-fi film that has endured, even though 1997 has come and gone: Terminator 2: Judgement Day . My reasons for picking T2 were three-fold: 1. I hadn't seen it in over ten years, 2. It's a James Cameron film that fits in with my Save the Cat homework, 3. the film had a powerful impact on me when I was a teenager and I wanted to see how it held up. The edition of the film I viewed was the extended cut. While I get the impression that Cameron prefers the theatrical version for aesthetic reasons, I...

My Save the Cat  homework continues, this time branching out into films within the broader horror genre. Where I began with Alien , a 70s horror classic, I decided to move on to the late 90s with The Blair Witch Project . My first introduction to The Blair Witch Project,  appropriately enough, was a student film advertising Biola University's Saddie Hawkins week: The Babs Witch Project.  I particularly liked the on campus tie-ins in the spirit of the original: hanging stick figures outside the cafeteria. Anyhow, I regret to say that in spite of spending six years hanging out with film majors, I never saw the original. So here I am now, yet again, a day late and a dollar short. It's a happy coincidence however, since I now know more about Film and legend tripping . Preface aside, there are three things about The Blair Witch Project  that I appreciated and think helped to sell this rather unorthodox film: 1. Nostalgia -The film is set in 1994 and was released in ...

This summer has been a film summer as much as it has been anything else. That is due in large part to kicking things off with a read through the unofficial screenplay bible  Save the Cat . While I was casting about for a means to better digest its principles, I noticed that another Alien  prequel had landed and so my Save the Cat  homework for the next few months was set. In order to prepare for Alien Covenant , I would work through three other movies in the franchise and an assortment of related films. You can find my assessment of Prometheus  here . In anticipation of Alien Covenant , I chose to work through the films according to the mythos' chronology. That meant beginning with the most recent of the three, Prometheus . I then moved on to the core of the franchise with Ridley Scott's Alien  and Jame Cameron's distinctly different sequel Aliens . Each of the core films is very much the product of the decade that produced it. Alien  is a horror pic th...

Pastel is the right medium for The Silmarillion  even if I haven't figured out how to properly scan it. I suppose that's ok given that Tolkien himself could never settle on the right medium for his massive corpus of myths and legends. Following his father's will, Christopher Tolkien attempted to codify the stories of the Elder Days into a definitive version -a sort of "elven bible" -the published Silmarillion . Over the next forty years, however, Christopher developed his own ideas regarding the presentation of his father's work. As a scholar himself, he chose to bring out groups of fragments as they stood contextualized by a mass of critical apparatus. As a consequence, The History of Middle Earth, and the stand-alone volumes that followed it have garnered many scholarly readers and very few lay ones. For good or ill, it is the choice Christopher has made and his long work is now complete with the final volume: Beren and Luthien . Beren and Luthien  present...

In preparation for this summer's Alien Covenant , I went back and did something I should have done a while ago, watched Ridley Scott's Prometheus . The film marked Scott's return to the franchise after being there at its creation in 1979 when he directed Alien . The Alien  franchise is a bit of a mish-mash, which each film in the series having its own unique director who exercised considerable freedom. Scott's  Alien  is a simple yet elegant "monster in the house" horror film. James Cameron's Aliens blends "monster in the house" with Ellen Ripley as the "dude with a problem" who must willingly confront and destroy the monstrosity from which she originally fled. As opposed to the original movies limited cast and claustrophobic feel, Cameron gives us an action flick with plenty of "red shirts", a "boss bad guy" complete with an evil lair, varied locations, and cool sci-fi gadgets galore. David Fincher's Alien 3  ...

As part of my Save the Cat  homework, I'm working my way through the Alien  series. It also has the added benefit of getting me ready for a viewing of Alien Covenant , whenever that happens. In addition to all the Alien  material, I've also been taking a closer look at some of my favorite comic book artists. Mike Mignola and his team have been right at the forefront with Helllboy: Into the Silent Sea and Hellboy: The Midnight Circus  along with Witchfinder  volumes I-IV. On a very different end of the spectrum, I've also been looking back through Doug TenNapel's old black and whites. My eye is specifically on the use of shadow and highlights and last weeks Alien -inspired mini-comic reflects that. This week again merges my two fields of study into my ongoing quest to become a better artist. The above picture is a refinement of my first Alien  homage refined with Prismacolor markers and colored pencils (no computer editing). The second is a new piece co...

This summer, I'm spending some dedicated time with my art markers and copy of Clip Art Studio. As part of this artistic endeavor, I've put together a rudimentary comic inspired by Ridley Scott's Prometheus  and Alien Covenant . My goal was to try illustrating in simple black and white under the influence of Doug TenNapel's early work and Mike Mignola's Hellboy . So here we go...

Ok, so one more before I close up shop for the night. Incidentally, have you noticed that the focal character in each Alien  movie is a woman? That makes it rather unique in a male dominated genre. When I was in college, the one unforgivable sin was not inviting the our female friends over for an Alien  marathon. So, Ripley, Shaw, Daniels... Why is it always a woman? Is it a matter of "give me the same thing... but different"? Is it that images of motherhood and birth dominate the dark language of the films? Does one necessitate the other? Given Alien's  roots in H.P. Lovecraft's fiction, the choice to consistently move away from an academic, male, hero is a decisive one. It's given us some great characters and a great string of movies (I leave the exceptions up to you).

Here are two more entries in what's shaping up to be my Alien -inspired oeuvre. These aren't taken from any movie in particular, but rather involve images from across films, comics, and concept art surrounding the series. After looking the material en masse, it underlines the Save the Cat  principle of "give me the same thing... bu different!" That's what these movies are: giving us the same thing by different. We, the audience, are paying for story, but fundamentally we're paying for the " Alien  Experience" one more time.

Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea S.T. Coleridge: U bless Snek Mike Mignola: Bless Snek? U crazy? S.T. Coleridge: Y U noe bless Snek? U bless Snek Mike Mignola: U bless Snek, Snek et U: CHOMP! That's about the shape of it, and well taken it is. Of course, there's also the nods to the styles of Prince Valiant, Gustave Dore, and Arthur Rackham, not to mention the allusions to Moby Dick , Diogenes, Robert E. Howard, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner . If you're a Lit Geek and a Pop Culture Geek, then it's still pretty hard to get cooler than Mike Mignola. Oh, did I mention that he critiqued the entire 19th century scientific project in the same terms as The Abolition of Man ? Yeah, cool stuff.

I was dissatisfied with my first attempt at creating a creature from Alien . Here is my second attempt using only black pen. I've tried to pull toward the Egyptian elements of some of the original artwork that keep the world of Alien  close to its lovecraftian roots.

Alien Covenant  has just come out and I thought I would make a small contribution here with a quick bit of fan art. The art of Alien  puts teeth into H.P. Lovecraft's tales of forgotten extraterrestrial civilizations or Clark Ashton Smith's journeys of interstellar doom. They are the consummate horror stories for a secular age.

Summer has returned, though you wouldn't know it in Texas right now. Whatever the weather may be doing (and it's appreciated), school is out and that means that it's time for a new "Seven Heavens of Summer Reading". Stuff has been piling up on the shelves, so there's lots to work through. In the comics department, Valiant Comics is leading the field with Divinity , XO Manowar: Soldier , and Britannia: We Who Are About to Die . All of these are absolutely excellent middle-brow fair. Historical reading finds me following up last summer's A Storm of Spears  with Christopher Matthew's new ANZAC salvo on all things hoplite Beyond the Gates of Fire . We'll see if Matthew's team can send old V.D. Hanson's Western Way of War running for cover by showing that their models of hoplite battle can shed new light on the well trodden sands of Thermopylae. In the Fantasy genre, my wife and I are taking a second trip through The Last Unicorn  after s...

For Those Who See Those who See Echo Divinity Wisdom Love Might Crucified on the World And for the World In the burning dream of William Blake Painted with Autumn leaves Summer sunsets There is meaning in the Fall of a sparrow or the expiration of a flea Did you have courage to stand there when Life Passed out of them in gasps and a spasm? Then you are like your Creator Who hung stars and suns as Eyes that do not shut Burning Seraphim

This year marks the completion of Houston Grand Opera's staging of the complete Ring Cycle  by Richard Wagner. My wife and I have been able to attend all four operas and have witnessed Wagner's retelling of the creation and destruction of the Nordic World. I haven't seen anything like it. The La Fura Dels Baus  staging HGO used seemed to swirl the Volsungsaga  with The Orestiea , Final Fantasy , Mad Max: Fury Road ,  The Wasteland , The Dry Salvages and The Abolition of Man . It was a heady cocktail that appeared to leave those over forty cold while it made the twenty-somethings I know weep with rapture. So you know where I fit in, I bought the boxed set on DVD. Wagner's work is a paean to the power of Nature and a warning to those who would use power over Nature to gain power over others. It's a timely message for the city of Houston, a place that worships unbridled wealth, revels in the wholesale destruction of the natural world, builds its low-cost of living...

Still playing with my Clip Studio Paint... Here we have test of certain effects and wire modeling. There are dual inspirations here: Ghost in a Shell  and The Hunger Games . So whether this is The Major plummeting to the tune of Inner Universe  or Katniss imagining what it would be like to leap from the top of Training Center is something you get to decide. Of course, it could also be a reference to an Evanescence song. It all depends on what you were up to during the Oughts.

I'm still learning the ropes of Clip Studio Paint, so here's a little of what I've been working on. These are two characters from an unpublished novel ( The King of the Summer Court: The Strange Life of Ronald Fairfax Volume IV) . Each one took more time than I care to admit, but at least it gives you an idea of my learning curve.

concept art from an unfinished novel ( The Place of the Skull: Volume II in The Strange Life of Ronald Fairfax ) done in Clip Art Mr. Hunter looked at the clock and dropped his lecture voice. “Ok.  So it’s Halloween season, right?  Do you know Huntington has its own history of ghost stories?” “Like Mellonheads?”  Horrowitz ventured. “That’s a rather newer one, but ok, so you’ve heard of the Mellonheads.”  Mr. Hunter leaned back against the wall.  “Anyone else?” “Hannah Cranna?”  One of the boys in the back piped up. “Yep,” Mr. Hunter nodded, “ that’s one from Monroe.  Now, how many of you know about Sigismund Chesterville?” To his surprise, Ronald found that his hand was in the air.  “Fairfax?”  Mr. Hunter turned to face him.  “Evidently, we’ve got a connoisseur of local history.” Ronald’s mouth felt dry and his mind went curiously blank.  He had a sudden sense of panic at the thought that he might be asked to say...

So... I have Clip Art now. I am learning how to use it and getting another reminder that my creative abilities lag behind that of many 14-year-olds. Sigh... Anyhow, as a preliminary test of these new tools, I decided to sketch my version of The Hunger Games  heroine, Katniss. I made sure to get the rough composition down before seeing the movie in an effort to record what I saw while reading the book. So, here we go. And yes, the jacket is from L.L Bean.

We're never on the cutting edge of anything over here at Platypus of Truth. So, today's confession is that we have only just finished reading The Hunger Games  by Suzanne Collins. The movie is in our Netflix queue. We intended to read this book when it first became popular, as we did Stephanie Myers' Twilight . Business got in the way as it usually does and the years rolled on. When I finally snagged a copy from the school library, I wasn't sure what to expect. I'd heard so much about the novels and the films at this point and yet I remained fairly spoiler free and couldn't form any real conception except "it's sort of like Battle Royal , but not". I was pleasantly surprised. The Hunger Games  packed Hemingway's terse prose with Orwell's conscience to deliver a world peopled by incredibly well-drawn teenagers forced to grow up way to fast. The pacing is perfect, and the Games, when they finally appear, were not at all what I was expecting...

Sunny Day The Sunny Days have returned (You can have them) Soon, no one will want them. Heat and humidity will send Us all in doors and things will go unseen as so much of the World Does that can’t be Viewed from a screen. I think Hell is full of screens Where we watch anything but what we should be watching. You, Stranger, who pass Through this day with me, Stop a moment with me to regard the things That need regarding.

Proclamation, December 2017 I Do Proclaim: That this is my hour. I take as my demesne All things that you reject: Rainy days, Cold, crisp Autumn, The glistening thickets of Winter, Old churches, Graveyards. And the moss about the foot of trees. I will be kind to postmen, And those who prepare my food. Praise God for tobacco, and The fellowship of working men Smoking cigarettes on the porch. I will thank God for immigrants Who cut grass, Domestics, All who do the work my Irish ancestors did. Praise the Almighty for every man Who calls himself a stranger in his home, Chronically reduces his boil to a simmer. I will not forget you either, If you have what you love Taken from you Yet remain unbowed. You are my teacher. I welcome All From the boarders of my kingdom In the particular- A shake of hands Or a nod Between potentates.

On Rainy Days On Rainy Days like this one I feel Gettysburg in my bones- or maybe Plymouth- seeing puffs of smoke in the wet air when no one else is out. You happy people who will not face the Rain, you Insiders, who never looked in through lighted Windows and wished to God that you belonged: What do you know of Astor or of woodsmoke- who never had the larger fellowship that comes with being Alone.

After a drawing by Rockwell Kent Marker on Strathmore Toned Tan A whale-ship was my Yale college and my Harvard. -Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Well, I've done it: I've finally finished Robert E. Howard's entire Conan oeuvre. The journey has been several years long, and I've also taken side trips to cover Howard creations Kull, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn, but I have finally reached the finish. What do I say now that I have reached the end? When I began this journey, one of my friends quipped that Conan should be known as "the venerially diseased" instead of "the barbarian". Others told me that they had simply given up along the way -the racism and misogyny were too much. I did give up on Howard's younger contemporary, Fritz Leiber, for about that reason. Having read to the end, I can confidently say that these criticisms are true: Conan is not a good man, and Robert E. Howard was a cynical nihilist out to earn a buck -but that's not the whole story. Conan and his creator also reflect the realities of the Great Depression and a life on America's not-so-tamed former frontier...

This post will cover two of Robert E. Howard's Conan short stories: Beyond the Black River and The Black Stranger . Prior posts on Conan and his world can be found by following the "Howard" tag at the bottom of this post. Beyond the Black River : The last phase of Howard's Conan stories find him transitioning from the world of oriental adventures to the American frontier. Beyond the Black River owes more to books like Buchanan's A Salute to Adventurers than to Chesterton's The Ballad of the White Horse . Nonetheless, Howard still preserves the ancient world setting by calquing the American frontier onto the Roman frontier and cover the whole thing with a facade of Hyborian places and peoples. The author's commitment to side with barbarism over civilization comes to the fore here and the lesson seems to be that of the noble savage showing up the folly and weakness of society. One wonders, given Howard's deification of the "barbarian," how ...