Astral Facts, Early Spring 2017
Astral: (Theosophy)
Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance
alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits;
astral bodies of persons; astral current.
“Hunger
Games: Where in Panem Are You?”
In the fourth Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) Professor Alastor “Mad Eye”
Moody repeatedly gives Harry some essential advice in life (although it isn’t
really “Mad Eye” who says it). Anyone
reading the book might not note the emphasis, and anyone only watching the film
would certainly not note it, since the advice is not mentioned in the film. (Ironically, this provides all the more
reason to pay attention to its presence in other versions!!) In the audio books version, narrated by Jim
Dale, that advice is strongly emphasized, like in all caps: “CONSTANT VIGILANCE!” and Dale’s reading adds
an emphasis strong enough to cause people listening in their cars during a
commute to snap to immediate attention to traffic around them.
While such “literary” works may not qualify as “literature” in the
academic sense, they do remind us of the allegorical nature of our own
lives. A case in point would be the
article from the Seattle Times, March
29th of this year, reporting on the research done by Professor Kate
Starbird at the University of Washington on the “alternative media ecosystem”
expanding throughout the apparent mainstream social media stream in a sort of “information
war for your mind” which Starbird says, “we’re losing.” As reporter Danny Westneat puts it, “The
information networks we’ve built are almost perfectly designed to exploit
psychological vulnerabilities to rumor” according to Starbird’s research.
This follows the book iWar: War and
Peace in the Information Age another best-seller by award-winning
journalist Bill Gertz published last January.
In it Gertz uses very readable language in detailing how issues and
concerns about simple circumstances of individual personal identity theft is
just a small tip of many icebergs drifting in the current media streams, rivers,
and tsunamis of OSR (Open Source Resources).
“Don’t go near the [allegorical] water” still seems to be good
advice. . http://iwarbook.com/
X Marks Your Spot
I suspect many people must have similar experiences as I do when
I go to the mall and drive around for twenty minutes in order to find a parking
spot that is five or six spaces closer than the first one I found. Then when I actually enter the mall itself, I
am totally disoriented, which must be why every entrance has a map with a red “You
are here” X to help me find that same store I
have been to multiple times previously (from various directions).
Literature and the rest of the Humanities offer their audiences another type
of “X: are you here?” stimulation. Regardless of “literary” merit, such texts do
also draw upon Mad Eye Moody’s “Constant Vigilance” caveat with the Hunger Games trilogy as somehow cropping
up to ask us if we control our environment or vice versa. While my “millennial-aged” son dismisses the
texts as silly propaganda that social ills can only be solved by inexperienced idealistic teens rather than by experienced and ethical adult authority figures (gotta
love that boy!), the text does make many of us wonder where we might be situated if in Panem, as
posited in a recent article in the Business Section of the Seattle Times and an earlier item in the Business Insider:
Hunger Games: Which District Are You?
Where do You Find Yourself?
In the past, one would say “imitation is the greatest form of
flattery,” but in this post-modern age, perhaps the new adage is “spoofs are
proofs” as noted with the examples of four spin-off “mocking-jay” versions giving
homage, as reported in the Washington
Post several years ago:
"May your Trends always be in Fashion"
The
Starving Games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz3nnWSxavs
Sesame
Street: The Hungry Games (Catching Fur) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT7nD02Im5E
"May the cookies always be in your flavor"
To sum up:
Maintain “Constant Vigilance”: keep your eye on the
ball, your shoulder to the wheel, your nose to the grindstone, and your ear to
the ground – just don’t expect to get anything done in that position!
But at least the odds will always be even in
your favor!
Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.
