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Tag Archives: conventional reality

Doctor Strange I – the trashcan tilted the better to see now the street

14 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by m lewis redford in poems, poeviews

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Tags

2012, avoidance, change, comics, conventional reality, Dr Strange, Edward Hopper, ellipsis, encounter, eyes, Gene Colan, hands, humanity, life, living, moment, quotidian, reality, seeing, skyline, step, Steve Englehart, streets, time, trees, walking

 

 

 

                                                              I

                                the always-aslant encounter
                                                              of humans and street
                                              making their lives
                                                              in the grounds they see
                                making their lives in the grounds they are given
                                                                                 constant encounter
                                              as variable as the daily

                                                                                 for those who see
                                elliptical to the happenstance –
                                                              the skyline to the treeline
                                                                                 the glide to the cobble
                                              the palm to the point
                                                              the both-step-aside to avoid each other’s path
                                                              and collide –
                                                                                 Hopper saw it
                and Colan saw it and Strange had already
                                                              stepped into it
                                                                                 stepped through it stepped out again

                                              moment

                                                                                 but now
                                his pupils are that much more round
                                              the trashcan tilted the better to see now the street
                                                                                 the face in the orb implied
                                that everything had changed and that
                                                              things
                would never be the same again

 

I am psyched that the first trailer for the Doctor Strange film has just been released; I think this is going to see me lose my 56 year old jaded-cool; I am more excited about this than I was for the Batman movies, even though Batman is my character (oh, sorry, didn’t you know?), (in fact, I envisage Batman, ideally, as more akin to Doctor Strange, the character should be more mystical than he is generally presented); I am glad to see the trailer dealing with kaleidoscope-reality, this has a lot to go for it from the start; Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One is a genuinely creative piece of casting but I hope she is not as ‘explainey’ and active as this trailer suggests (or even as dynamic as she was Gabriel in ‘Constantine’, a female sage should have more devastating effect but with less of the door-slamming); (and talking of door-slamming: I was disappointed that the trailer starts of with the ubiquitous iron door slam portending dire catastrophe for gawp-eyed Humanity, I was hoping Doctor Strange, at least, would approach tale-telling differently, but I suppose superhero movies have hit their formula now, no one’s going to play with it with that much money going in … mind you, Stark’s humour, and the first Avenger’s humour were interesting innovations, I might hope for something innovative in Strange, not humour, so much, as power through deft and understatement, rather than grunt); the round loft-window gave me The Smile at the end; Cumberbatch has a Good Walk as he broaches realities, he has the right eyes to see-through fingers for the part as well; I once hoped that David Lynch might write and direct Doctor Strange … that would have been interestingly different and so right … it was not well-received (have a look in the comments section of https://longboxgraveyard.com/2012/11/28/76-superhero-greenlight-doctor-strange/) … actually, dab’n’abbit, here is my tender, but I’ll settle with what this film seems to promise:

Dr Strange operates in worlds which are ‘mystical’ in the sense that they function within natural laws and forces which are alternate to our own – they are worlds which we just don’t get and it would be better for us that we didn’t know about them so we can continue functioning ourselves.   And yet Stephen Strange is of and from this world – he is all too human but has mastered the Mystic Arts.   He therefore lives between the two worlds – the physical/political and the occult worlds – or rather he lives amid, at the same time.   He is ‘strange’ because he bridges these two worlds, and this is the central pull of the character for me.   In comics the ‘occult’ world was depicted fantastically (the floating-island footsteps of Ditko, the swirls of Colan) because it was a visual medium meant for younger audiences (growing up); but the occult world doesn’t so much ‘look’ strange (like a childishly re-arranged physical world), in fact it isn’t even a different world it is the same world ‘seen’ (and ‘heard’ and ‘felt’ and acted in) differently.   What was equally attractive about Dr Strange (and under-used in the comics) was the depiction of the character in ordinary, recognisable surroundings but knowing he was actually operating in a world out of the space-time continuum.   I would conceive that Strange’s ‘battles’ took place while he was strolling through a park, while walking on the street, in the blink of an Eye (herm).   I once heard David Lynch talk about how he achieves perspectives in his work by ‘filming through the eye of a duck’ meaning that he doesn’t just film ‘lineally’ he films simultaneously/alternately – he shoots a scene/whole films which physically depict one narrative but which affectively show an alternate landscape in which they play out.   What better ‘mise-en-scene’ist than David Lynch to depict the life of a character who has ‘mastered’ the arts of living bridged across two worlds-in-one?   No need of CGI, no need of costumes, not even much need of action!   I know, I know, not the ingredients for your standard superhero blockbuster money-maker.   But they have been done and will continue to be done under their own momentum.   Dr Strange has always been a peripheral character because he is so … strange.   Perhaps this would be time to make a different take on the comics-to-film translation formula …

Anyhoo, I wrote a series of poems tracking Doctor Strange through a key set of issues written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Gene Colan; (Dr Strange #6-13 (Feb 1975-April 1976)); these issues are some of the best comics I have ever read; they were also seminal in shaping me to become the significantly un-noticeable writer I have become to this day; I posted them in 2012 and then re-posted them again in 2014 because I thought the film was immanent – it wasn’t; but, dammitall, I like these babies so I’m going to post them again, spread out until November 4th …

 

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

change wormhole: top table
comics wormhole: Poewieviews
Dr Strange & Gene Colan wormhole: Dr Strange VII – the madness of Mordo
Edward Hopper wormhole: New York, New Haven and Hartford, 1931
eyes wormhole: b / r / e / a / t / h / i / n / g
hands wormhole: really
life & reality & streets & time & walking wormhole: 1964
living wormhole: dash
seeing wormhole: rhymed
skyline wormhole: miss / ad / venture – poewieview #22
trees wormhole: like ink – poewieview #23

 

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Dr Strange II – … things are the same again

06 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by m lewis redford in poems

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Tags

2012, 20th century, 6*, anatta, beauty, change, chaos, conventional reality, Dr Strange, ellipsis, emptiness, Gene Colan, life, occult, power, samsara, society, speech, Steve Englehart, time, ultimate reality, world

 

sequel to Dr Strange I – the trashcan tilted the better to see now the street; evincement of “[Dr Strange] … lives between the two worlds – the physical/political and the occult worlds – or rather he lives amid at the same time.   He is ‘strange’ because he bridges these two worlds … I once heard David Lynch [who I think should direct the upcoming Dr Strange film] talk about how he achieves his perspectives in his work by ‘filming through the eye of a duck’ meaning that he doesn’t just film ‘lineally’ he films simultaneously/alternately – he shoots a scene/whole films which physically depict one narrative but which affectively show an alternate landscape in which they play out.” (from four-colour pulp into cinematic di[gital]pix[el][live ac]tion so easily makes for semantic palava (if you read what I mean) … the foredreading of Dr Strange); Dr Strange does not appear in this segment of the Dr Strange heptaptych, but then again, he does[n’t] … thing is, it’s strange

 

 

                … things are the same again
                                always have
                                always had
                                              the second half of the twentieth century
                incorporated it
                                              you either had it or you wanted it
                                either way it fed the corporation
                                everyone fed the corporation
                                                              by wealth by health
                                                                                 by belief
                                              this is the way things are
                                                              dwelt at the very heart of the world
                                                                                 turning growing fiery
                there comes a time
                                when the power and the beauty
                                                              become elliptical
                                                              to each other
                                              to themselves
                                                                                 then chaos will come
                                you mark my words
                thinks the aged Genghis high on the edge of the world
                                              aged enough in life
                                to see beyond the self:                     there is nothing there
there is nothing there

 

askance from: Dr Strange #6-13 (Feb 1975-April 1976); Marvel; writer: Steve Englehart; artist: Gene Colan

 

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

20th century wormhole: ‘like a piece of ice on a hot stove / the poem must ride on its own melting’
beauty wormhole: the utter beauty of giving when receiving
change & Dr Strange & Gene Colan & world wormhole: Dr Strange I – the trashcan tilted the better to see now the street
emptiness wormhole: rainbow
life & samsara wormhole: born again
power wormhole: Vajrapani
society wormhole: thinking wide enough
speech wormhole: letters to Mum V – carrying on in duty and love
time wormhole: poised patiently for / hours

 

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Dr Strange I – the trashcan tilted the better to see now the street

29 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by m lewis redford in poems, poeviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

1975, 2012, 6*, being, change, conventional reality, Dr Strange, Edward Hopper, encounter, Gene Colan, hands, horizon, humanity, Klaus Janson, life, occult, passing, seeing, skyline, Steve Englehart, streets, trees, ultimate reality, world

 

 

 

                                              I

                the always-aslant encounter
                                              of humans and street
                                making their lives
                                              in the grounds they see
                making their lives in the grounds they are given
                                                              constant encounter
                                as variable as the daily

                                                              for those who see
                elliptical to the happenstance –
                                              the skyline to the treeline
                                                              the glide to the cobble
                                the palm to the point
                                              the both-step-aside to avoid each other’s path
                                              and collide –
                                                              Hopper saw it
and Colan saw it and Strange had already
                                              stepped into it
                                                              stepped through it stepped out again

                                moment

                                                              but now
                his pupils are that much more round
                                the trashcan tilted the better to see now the street
                                                              the face in the orb implied
                that everything had changed and that
                                              things
would never be the same again

                                              continued …

 

askance from: Dr Strange #6-13 (Feb 1975-April 1976); Marvel; writer: Steve Englehart; artist: Gene Colan

 

 

————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–

being & seeing wormhole: scattered
change wormhole: letters to Mum I – a walk / and talk
Dr Strange & world wormhole: four-colour pulp into cinematic di[gital]pix[el][live ac]tion so easily makes for semantic palava (if you read what I mean) … the foredreading of Dr Strange
Edward Hopper wormhole: tag cloud poem VI – anyone’s eyes
Gene Colan wormhole: quest in brown
hands wormhole: is she / looking at me?
horizon wormhole: Jean Miller kissed Salinger
life wormhole: thinking wide enough
passing wormhole: just
skyline wormhole: a maturity
streets wormhole: the long road
trees wormhole: tag cloud poem VII – form new freedom:

 

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… Mark; remember …

"... the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful; it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe to find ashes." ~ Annie Dillard

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    • Chapter 1
    • Chapter 10
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    • Chapter 4
    • Chapter 5
    • Chapter 6
    • Chapter 7
    • Chapter 8
    • Chapter 9
    • Introduction
  • collected works
    • 25th August 1981 – count Up
    • askance From Hell
    • Batman
    • Bob 1995-2012
    • David Bowie Movements in Suite Major
    • Edward Hopper: Poems at an Exhibition
    • Eglinton Hill
    • FLOORBOARDS
    • Granada
    • in and out / the Avebury stones / can’t seem to get / a signal …
    • Lapping Reflections [Deep Within Waters]
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    • nan
    • Portsmouth – Southsea
    • Spring Warwick breezes / over Bacharach fieldwork and boroughs with / the occasional shift and chirp of David / in the pastel-long morning of the sixties
    • The Boats of Vallisneria by Michael J. Redford
    • through the crash
  • index
    • #A-E see!
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