Emil Racovitza as diver at Observatoire océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer, 1899, picture by Louis Boutan
I remember being in a little boy and spending hours staring (at least it felt like hours), mesmerized, at the little model of an old-time diver in my parents’ fish tank — I called him, Underwater-Man. The bubbles would float up, giving the illusion that there was a little man in there, exploring the seafloor. It always reminded me of the movie 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. I always found the outfit eerie and full of mystery. According to this article from Openculture.com, the above image is the first-ever photo of a person under the sea, taken around 1899.
It is incredible to think that its been 45 years since RHPS came out. This cultural phenomenon has influenced scores of young people with lots of time in their hands and given many of us an appreciation for camp and parody that I think is lost on so many today. The lack of seriousness in this production gave it is a long-lasting, communal experience. Every screening was the same, yet always a different experience.
I don’t want to sound like an old fart, but I will. Still, the truth is that today’s generation of young people is too serious and sensitive to appreciate the brilliance and empowerment that Rocky Horror’s vulgarity and offensiveness provided to so many awkward young people over the decades. It’s a brilliance that has not been repeated, and I hope it never is…Rock on Rocky Horror!
Since learning is the gate, when you read a book don’t think this is the Way. This misconception has many people remain ignorant of the Way no matter how much they study and how many words they know. – Yagyu
The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture. Because it seeks to turn other ideas – uncertainty, progress, change – into crimes — Salman Rushdie
“Wherever they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn human beings.”
Heinrich Heine
I still remember the confused and scared emotions when I first saw the images of books burning. It was an old World War II documentary back in the late 70s, early 80s. The date fails me, but I remember it was not long after my dad had died. My mother dealt with the depression of her husband’s loss with an addiction to valium.
Initially, books were a liberation for me from the fears and pains of the world I had been thrust into by my father’s unexpected death. I found refuge in the adventures of heroes like Conan the Barbarian, a loner who, through his brawn and smarts as a thief, made his way in an unforgiving, violent world. I also found wonder in sci-fi stories by Asimov and Clarke. I was moved by Shelly’s version of Frankenstein, which to my young minds surprise, was very different from the movies I had grown up watching. So it was with a sense of horror that I watched Nazis burning books on a pile. Why would anyone do such a thing?
Over the years, I learned that book burning was not a Nazi phenomenon but a weapon used by those seeking to control people’s minds. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 came into my life during my teens. It brought the whole subject into context, helping me frame lifelong values around all forms of censorship. Censorship is the first sign of tyranny, a signpost to sound the alarm.
When you burn books, you are attempting to exterminate ideas. And when you have no more books to burn, the only repository of ideas left are minds.
I find book-burning, for any reason, repulsive, and I consider it a crime against humanity. Humanity would be nothing without ideas. Our culture, our traditions, the very essence of what makes us humans comes from our thoughts. Books are mediums that document ideas, good or bad. And they serve as a testament to where we have been and where we can go. They help to inspire and to warn.
During the summer of 2013, while on a business trip to Berlin Germany, I found time to visit the site of the book burnings of 1933. There is a memorial there, a room with empty bookshelves. The moments I was there brought me full circle to that moment so many years ago when I was a kid.
Jackasses from every corner of the political spectrum will argue that banning books is for the good of this or that group. They will claim that it’s not all books, just the ones that “shouldn’t be.” Fear these people and do not trust their intentions; they are never good. Anyone that seeks to erase ideas will rewrite histories and have no restraint from erasing people.
CYBERTONIA 