A History of the Ancient Southwest - Lekson (Non-Fiction)

I've never really been big into non-fiction.  Not because I don't see it as good art, not even because I don't find it interesting, but because I love fiction so much.  Reading takes time, and every book you read is a billion books you didn't.

How then, you might foolishly ask, did this particular non-fiction work end up on this blog?  Once upon a time I had to choose a class last-minute when I realize something I had already registered for wasn't going to work with my schedule.  My choices were very, very limited.  I ended up taking a 5000 level archeology class that--for whatever reason--had no prerequisites.  (This is equivalent to a 500 level class at most universities.)  I could probably write several pages on what a trip it was for me, a non-archeology major, to take this class and how hard it kicked my butt, but I'll spare you.  The important thing here is that I read a book called "A History of the Ancient Southwest", which, as it turned out, was one of the most fascinating and illuminating books I have ever laid my hands on.

Stephen Lekson is a wonderful writer, with a natural story-teller's finesse and an infectious sense of humor.  You might find it hard to believe that a book with such a dry-sounding title could be funny, or even engaging, but he makes it work.  The text reveals that even the title is a kind of tongue-in-cheek joke about archeologists.   It doesn't read like a textbook, but like a very informative narrative, or rather, set of narratives.

If you are into paradigm shifts--and who isn't?--this book will interest you.  It is written in such a way as to be accessible to the non-scholar as well as to Lekson's colleagues.  Your understanding of the Native American populations in ancient northern Mexico and the south-western United States will be shaken, expanded, and turned on its head.  Both from that class and from this book I learned very interesting things about this time period and area, as well as about all of the pre-Columbian Americas.

Some of the ruins in Chaco Canyon, an integral city in the book's narrative.

Perhaps you are not convinced that you, too, will be interested, but I'll bet you're wrong.  Allow me to posit just a few of the tidbits gleaned from the material.  We often hear of the genocide that took place when "the white man" came to the Americas--and certainly no one is trying to overlook the inhumanity involved in the treatment of Native Americans--but did you know that the vast majority of these deaths were inevitable?

Archeological evidence now (very strongly) suggests that the Native American population was much, much larger than has been widely believed in the past.  There may have been as many as twelve million people living in America at the time of European contact.  The diseases that the white man unknowingly brought then swept through the American continents much faster than any explorer could, taking out somewhere in the vicinity of 80-90% of the population long before any white man set foot into the inner-land areas.

This means that for later (more western) contact, seventy years or more may have passed between the epidemic and European contact with specific "tribes" (a term which is becoming increasingly nebulous in regards to ancient peoples).  What the white man saw when they got further into the continent were not the very advanced societies that preceded contact, but the tattered, shredded remains of those societies.

I could go on, but really, Lekson says it better.  Go on and discover some of the beautiful mystery that is the ancient Southwest, including the Chaco Meridian!  Tally-ho!

 

Lekson

- MA 12.18.2012

Something Special

No, no.  I'm not getting lazy about posting.  I have something kind of a special in store for today's entry, but it won't be ready until late this evening.  Check back tomorrow!  In the meantime, here is a humorous gif:

I admire how unfazed she seems.  Perhaps this has happened before.

-MA 11.19.12 

Primer (Movie)

Before I begin allow me to offer a warning: If you do not know what Primer is about, consider yourself blessed to be able to watch it with no preconceptions of what you are seeing.  Do not look it up on IMDb or Wikipedia, do not talk to friends about it, simply go out, rent the film and watch it.  More so than any other film of which I am aware, it is important to watch Primer for the first time without knowing what it is about.  I won't tell much about the actual plot here. 

I recently decided that Primer (2004) is my favorite movie, dethroning Groundhog Day.  Anyone who knows me well has heard me talk about this movie.  I post about it, I think about it, I quote it. I have seen it thirteen or fourteen times and I would gladly watch it again.  Primer, to me, is just about the perfect film.

Primer was a labor of love.  The man behind the masterpiece, Shane Carruth (Writer, Director, Lead Actor, Composer, Producer, and Editor of the film), began with a dual idea of what he wanted to portray.  a)  He wanted to present a more realistic depiction of technological invention, having been disappointed over the years by how far the movies depicting invention had strayed from the reality of it, and b) to write a morality play about the acquisition of power.  The purity of this genesis is to be applauded, if more filmmakers began their films with these kinds of ethereal goals (as opposed to, "I want a movie with good explosions" or, "I want a movie that would be fun for a young couple to watch together") I think we'd see a lot fewer achingly predictable films.

Carruth was not a movie maker before the creation of Primer, he was (and probably still is) an engineer. Perhaps this is a part of what makes the film so comfortable about being non-conventional.  Unfortunately, despite the film's critical success he has yet to make another (although Arrested-Developmentesque talk about another film has floated around for the past few years).  Primer was produced for the meager sum of $7,000--which is not even enough to film a decent commercial these days--and yet the film looks flawless.

Aaron looks on as Abe drops little circles of paper on the plates.

The plot of Primer is beyond complex.  It is not the kind of film that twists the mind a little bit, but becomes clear by the end or after a second viewing (such as Seven Pounds or Inception, which I like to think of as "Primer Lite").  The film intensely challenges the attention and intelligence of its audience.  The characters (engineers themselves) speak confident technical jargon one strains to keep up with.  The events of the film do not unfold as a clever brain teaser like so many other "cerebral" movies, rather the scenes pan out in frustrating confliction with one another, mirroring the confusion the characters are feeling, creating an near-impossible web of convolution and interest that preys on the mind.  Though the subject matter is not horror fanfare, the film often takes on sinister notes of dread, because we fear what we don't understand. 

The music (again, composed and performed by Carruth) is beautiful and unearthly.  Moving from more concrete acoustic instruments to fragile synthetic sounds.  It would have been easy to just through in a few notes and low noises and call it good, but the more I hear it, the more I realize the music was as carefully thought out as the rest of the film.

Primer is humorous and entertaining, the acting and cinematography is superb, but all of that is swallowed up in our need to understand what is happening on screen.  It can seem more laborious than fun to watch Primer, but once you begin to see what it is about, how its various parts connect, and how many vital scenes are implied but never shown, you start to feel that the tremendous payoff is worth the work.  The ending alone opens the door to an imaginative frenzy of possibilities in the mind of the astute viewer.

I'm not going to pretend that there are no flaws in the movie.  A few of the lines fall a little flat on the part of the actors, and some viewers might feel cheated about a few of the "side-effects" shown not being adequately explained.  In one or two shots you can see a boom mike, if you look very closely.  My biggest complaint with the film (which really is not a serious infraction) is that I think it would be difficult to know the film was meant to be a morality play if you didn't know it was intended as such.  Carruth mentions this in the DVD commentary, but I don't feel like it's really possible to know that's a main point of this film just by watching it.  But every film has at least a few weak points. 

If you are the kind of person who is only interested in a movie that helps you relax or that demands your attention with surface level twists, conflicts, and gags then Primer is probably not the movie for you.  Certainly, there are people who hate it, who see it as a gross waste of time.  I've read several reviews regarding the film as "nonsense" of one sort or another, I assure you that is not the case.  If you like art to challenge you, if you are interested in the experimental, the strange, (if you liked Faulkner's "As I lay Dying" in other words...) then I definitely recommend watching Primer several times, preferably back-to-back.  I suggest watching with the subtitles on, as the characters sometimes talk over each other and speak quickly.

As you unlock the treasures of this film you might find yourself asking, "How could I ever have been satisfied by finding out that Bruce Willis was dead?"

"I was dead the whole time, sry!!"

If you have already seen Primer, click here for some of my thoughts on particular scenes.

-MA 10.15.12

P.S.  The internet is trying to tell me "confliction" isn't a word.  No matter.

See You Dead - Helmet (Song)

The first great work is the third track from Helmet's 2004 LP "Size Matters", titled "See You Dead" (feel free to click on this link for a YouTube video of the song, or look it up on Spotify for a higher quality version).  This song is an interesting mix of quintessential Helmet trademarks such as Hamilton's alternatively calm and aggressive vocals and relentless metal-esque guitar riffs as well as some lesser-heard qualities, such as a very catchy chorus and a build-up that actually leads to a triumphant climax near the end of the song.  Helmet's songs rarely have such a conventionally satisfying hit to them, tending to lean more toward angry and unresolved feelings.

As much as I love the musicality of the song, what really pushes this into the unusual territory of being a truly great work are the lyrics, specifically how they seem to grow organically from a single thought.  Here are the lyrics in their entirety:

I'd like to see you in two pieces.
You won't be walking, barely breathing.
I'd like to see you at my door,
We're together like before.
 
I could miss you more right now or I could slit your throat.
Sometimes I get so down, you're not around and I'd rather see you dead.
Sometimes I get lonely and all I need is just to see you dead.

Tonight you're sleeping by his side,
I tried to see you, but you let him decide.
I'm a threat now, are you scared?
It's just murder, at least you know I care.

I could miss you more right now or I could slit your throat.
Sometimes I get so down, you're not around and I'd rather see you dead.
Sometimes I get lonely and all I need is just to see you dead.

Specifically, pay attention to the line "I'm a threat now, are you scared?"  To me, this song tells the story of a man who would like to be able to at least talk to his ex, but her new boyfriend sees the man as a threat.  The speaker here is angry and a little bit amused to be viewed in this way, when in his mind all he's trying to do is keep up some contact with an ex, being polite and/or friendly.  The violent lyrics are a satirical renouncement of being called dangerous, which is a level of subtlety you don't often see in popular art, for the author will always run the risk of people passing over the irony, and missing the point completely.  He's finding and showing the humor of the boyfriend's overreaction.  In a way "owning up" to the insult gives the speaker power over it. 

But the speaker betrays himself, and we see in the lyrics that he does miss his ex sincerely, and does actually long for her company, which could make him a legitimate threat to a new relationship, an interesting extra layer to add.  I like the admittance of need which seems almost out of place in a very "male" song.

It's an awesome song, successful on so many levels, and much deeper than it at first appears to be.  Raw, yet catchy, a perfect example of Hamilton's prowess behind the mic, with a guitar, and with a pen in his hand.

-MA, 10.8.2012