…[R]ather than creating immutable, unchanging spaces that define a particular experience, they suggest inhabitant and structure can—and should—mutually influence each other. -Ethan Marcotte

Such to the dead might appear the world of living — charged with information, with meaning, yet somehow always just, terribly, beyond that fateful limen where any lamp of comprehension might beam forth
–Thomas Pynchon, Against The Day

There is limited scientific evidence to associate creativity with mental illness. Despite this, many authors promoted a connection. Explanations for this contradiction are explored, and social and research implications are discussed.

Also, the venerable Aldous Huxley: Aldous Huxley interviewed for The Paris Review (1960).

As a side note, doesn’t Sigur Ros sound like something like the slow, majestic, time-lapse march of gold– and emerald-colored lichens?

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
~Nelson Mandela

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is on a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others. ~Martha Graham

A few thoughts on a new-ish theme for an old, worked-over hero:

origin mythos partially intact:
Frank Miller’s Bruce Wayne as a boy falls down the well; something dark and sinister there imprints certain psycho-spiritual template, brings about changes in character and the eventual downfall of the system of securities around him–> leading to the death of his parents (seen much much later to be the work of the psychospiritual agent within him), alienation of his world, and his journeys to Africa, the Middle East, Russia, Central Asia, China, then over to California, evenually back to Gotham City..

(each of these journeys a sub-story, possibly through flashbacks or inter-episode events… e.g. confronting night-demons in the Middle East, psychotropic gladiatorial combat in African jungle (** where the combatants drink some hallucinogenic root/tea and have a dream-scape combat in the ether between consciousnesses) etc. –> all the while pursued, haunted, and driven by the psychospiritual agent within him… accruing knowledge about life, magic, fighting styles, “controlling his madness”, and more and more it dawns on him that he has another soul living within him)

Bruce Wayne, after a period of trying to subvert the internal-agent, begins to believe he must fight fire with fire. He embraces many of the dark arts he has learned, taking for his familiar a largish bat… consecrating the moment with vows for blood… he decides to use the blood of criminals to pay his end of the power-bargain. Becomes a semblence of Batman… but Batman as wizard. His fighting technique is a blend of martial arts and magic, sometimes simple spells to bolster a jump or apply mind-coercion… in the heat of battle it is hard to cast large spells so he uses simpler augmentations… but has several vials, potions, prepared items– changing the infamous “tool-belt” to a “reagent belt” or something.

Using spells and future-scrying, Bruce Wayne rebuilds his old fortune, finds and re-hires Alfred (family butler), and has several run-ins with criminals– however, oddly enough, many of the criminals start saying things, as if they were possessed, momentary-“puppets” of what Bruce/Batman believes is the force/creature within him, and he believes his strange war with his origins has been elevated to a new surreal level.

As in the first Bob Kane series, the initial classic enemy is Clayface.

ROBIN: As the fighting escalates, and the enemies become more surreal, powerful, and powered by extra-human gifts (a thing not lost on Bruce Wayne), Batman is approached by a strange humanoid, offering partnership: the Robin, who has a human-type side (Dick Grayson), but is really some hybrid like Bruce himself– seems to be overrun by a psychotic, avian-like soul given to hysterical laughter at times and a vicious cruelty that belies his short wiry stature… outfit more like a kingfisher, spiky hair, jewel-like body armor, features angular, mischevious evil faerie (Robin Goodfellow, kind of Gaiman’s interpretation of the Shakespeare creature). It is an odd trust at first, but Robin proves himself over and over again in helping and defending Batman, though Batman is often forced to hold Robin back from utter cruelties and tortures.

Later it becomes known that Batman’s arts have placed him firmly in the wizard category, and he has entered into a new and dangerous variation on the “familiar”-realm by adding Robin (with an animal nature) to his existing bat-familiar. Other wizards arise to put down the upstart and his violation-of-magical-nature, adding a new level of conflict to the rising tide of supervillians.

A bit after some great adventure and action, the idea begins to occur to Batman/Bruce Wayne that he actually is insane, and much of what he experiences on a daily basis is a psychotic episode. Robin delights in this idea when Batman confesses it to him, and there is no end to the lengths Robin goes to performing practical jokes or making up nicknames for the Batman. “Batty” “the Dark Plight” etc

So, it’s been a while. I might not have even tried this (this=Blogger), but I am a little Microsoft-Accessed-OUT at the moment, and left my inherited laptop machine scrying through its own innards, looking for viral infections and the like– if I am going to try to exercise regularly, I see no reason my computers shouldn’t suffer the disciplines of health too– and I fired up the old Linux box (psychonaut, I have told you all before) and *that* reminds me of posting. For some reason.

But I dissemble, as I disassemble… I have been itching to convert said Access database to MySQL and pump it over to psychonaut and then practice administering via the web. And all that involves getting some of the Linux chops back up, so…

And the itch goes further, I suppose… I have been mapping out writing-thoughts in my head, of late, and realize that writing, like drawing, is a perishable skill and must be maintained through practice. Of some sorts.

Which brings us to this, here, now: some sort of attempt at writing. An update, if you will.

I was, just this morning, writing out a bunch of lists, and as I am still in the blush of such an orderly mindset, I will give you, gentle reader, one of your very own:

1. Plane ride. But you’ve already heard.
2. Database for the parents. Which is interesting in a way, for it suggests some interesting workings of the mind. For example– and this has happened several times now– I will be totally stumped by some aspect, give up on it, and find that later– days, a week– I will be building something more complex, based on that very knowledge I abandoned which has surreptitiously become so clear to me as to be rendered transparent.
3. Continuing previous thought: catching myself in thought recursion + ReJon’s ideas about programming accenting certain of his human traits, contrary to popular misconception
4. Running 4 miles, right past Randall’s house, but I don’t know which one. I think it was the grey-blue one that I heard some Radiohead out of the other day. I run once every 2–3 days. Running sucks.
5. I made some puppet heads, shamelessly lifting techniques from Chris Sickels and Scott Radke. I am currently summoning up the time, energy, and mood to foam-out their bodies and put them in endearing or creepy poses.
6. bought the domain name psychicradio.org for a tighter coupling of site & comics.
7. continuation: I sliced up the panels of all the old and most the new comic pages and put a semi-random linkage walk-thru of them… go to psychicradio.org and see. Then tell me if it is interesting, groovy, frustrating, and/or inconsequential (those are your only options, so keep to them).
8. Went to the Comic-Con with the beautiful Iryna (who doesn’t have a web page anymore but should) and we had an insane comic-frenzy and a t-shirt buying competition and she bought us both H.P. Lovecraft plush Cthulu dolls. People of the world, please curb your envy.
9. From K.J. Hays: “the average comic con attendee was between the ages of 30 & 40″
10. Launched into an insane work-week, getting so much done that I almost forgot that I am a lazy-ish person. I have even had mild fantasies of re-stocking my old planner with new calender pages… not that I have any pressing engagements at present, but it’s like the baseball field… if I have the blank pages, the appointments will come.
11. Went to the library today, here’s what I got:
    • The Green Arrow, written by Kevin Smith
    • Y The Last Man. heard alot about it at Comic-Con
    • The Books of Magic: Girl in the Box. Liked Neil Gaiman’s issue, thought I would see how John Ney Reiber would do.
    • The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 2. a classic.
    • Bone. Jeff Smith. got to check it out.
    • The Batman Archives. After some heated conversations with comic-sage John Mark, I decided to get the full scoop, from the beginning. This has all the Bob Kane ones from Detective Comics. And what I find most interesting is that in the beginning (issues 1–5) Batman kills about 1 person per episode. Threw a jewel theif off a building. Kicked an Indian thug– who was unwise enough to stick his head out the window– and broke his neck. Poison-gassed another Indian thug.

So, I am trying to decide some things. Mostly, I am digging deep down inside myself to see if I have the patience and fortitude to actually draw some comics. My drawing is rusty, and though sometimes its cranky and twisted lines please me, more often than not I cannot draw what I see in my head. Not like I used to, when I was an avid penciller. As I said before: perishable. Since I have decided, by and large, to concentrate on the comic-images for artistic purposes, this seems a liability. So you see, some soul-searching is in order.

Alright, that’s about all I can muster for the day. I am going to try my hand at hand-coding some Queries, and as that is a boring task, I will spare you the numbing journey.

Good weekends to you all.