Warning! This Newsletter May Cause Stendahl Syndrome!
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Jason Murphy is a novelist, screenwriter, and content creator. He believes musical theater is gutter pantomime performed by half-wits with painted faces, enjoyed by lower-wits.
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Early Neanderthal Art
As I read about the ascension of proto-man, climbing his way up Maslowe’s Hierarchy, I didn’t really think about art. Maybe that’s my American upbringing - it’s only valuable if it helps you survive! Otherwise, it’s fluff and nonsense. That is, of course, an ignorant point of view. Art is valuable, of course. I just didn’t expect them to know that. I would think art was strictly the purview of those with the capacity for abstract thought.
The history of human creativity stretches far back into the annals of time, and one of the most fascinating chapters in this narrative is the art created by our ancient relatives, the Neanderthals. We long thought them to be brutish and simple, but new archaeological evidence highlights their cognitive and artistic capabilities. Neanderthals made art! This exposes a hidden dimension of their lives and rewrites our understanding of the genesis of art.
Neanderthals, an extinct species of hominins who lived in Europe and parts of Asia, are believed to have appeared around 400,000 years ago. For a long time, they were considered to be lacking in complex cognitive abilities, including the capacity for art and symbolic thought. By that, we can assume that they were only capable of producing entertainment like Tijuana Bibles and episodes of Sexy Reality Hogshit.
One notable example is the cave art found in Spain's La Pasiega Cave, which dates back more than 64,000 years. These intricate red and black paintings depict abstract patterns and hand stencils, indicating a form of early symbolic expression. Or maybe they’re gang tags. We don’t really know. They haven’t just discovered cave paintings, however. Archaeologists have found engravings, jewelry, and other adornments. Excavations in Croatia revealed that homo neanderthalensis fashioned eagle talons into jewelry, likely worn for aesthetic or symbolic reasons.
The discovery of Neanderthal art challenges the notion that symbolic expression and art were exclusive to Homo sapiens. It also raises questions about the interactions between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, and whether artistic influences were shared or evolved independently in different hominin populations. Like, did they argue about who could win in a fight? Batman* or Galactus?
*Batman has 3 days prep time.
https://phys.org/news/2023-01-neanderthals-oldest-art-world-wasnt.html
https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/neanderthal-art-discovery/
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43115488
From a certain perspective, there’s something deeply unsettling about art from pre-history. We don’t really know much about that era, obviously. Anthropology helps us speculate about their understanding of the world and how they interacted with it via “science.” But art can hide secrets. Art can reveal superstitions, especially in primitive people. I had a script that featured Neanderthals drawing horrible, nightmarish creatures on cave walls, indicating that early humans were not the only sentient beings in the world. The scene didn’t make it into the final film, but I’d love to re-use it at some point.
Stendahl Syndrome
Remember that moment in Avengers: Endgame when Captain America lifts Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir? I saw the film on opening night. As a Marvel nerd, I was already connected to the story through decades of mass comic book consumption. When Cap raises the hammer and the camera shows his determined face in the close-up, it was the fulfillment of what 10-year-old Jason had wanted to see on screen for a very long time. And the crowd erupted into a rapturous roar. You could feel it in the air. I’ve described it before as ‘being electrocuted by joy’. That’s called collective effervescence, I think. And while it’s not exactly what we’re talking about here, it’s intimately connected to the impact of art on the human psyche.
That brings us to Stendhal Syndrome. Also known as Florence Syndrome or hyperkulturemia, it’s a psychosomatic disorder that occurs when an individual becomes profoundly affected by experiencing great works of art or overwhelming beauty. It’s not just tears and clapping, though. It’s profound, characterized by a rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion, fainting, and even hallucinations. It is believed to be triggered by the intensity of emotions elicited when encountering exceptional artistic masterpieces.
Stendhal Syndrome often takes hold when people find themselves surrounded by an abundance of art, such as in a museum, gallery, or a historically rich city like Florence. The sheer magnitude of artistic beauty can lead to sensory and emotional overload, pushing the human mind and body to its limits.
Stendhal Syndrome is relatively rare, and its exact prevalence is not well-documented. However, it has been reported that tourists, particularly those with a strong affinity for art, are more susceptible to experiencing the phenomenon, especially in places of great cultural significance. There are other ‘syndromes’ named for their location (see Jerusalem Syndrome).
But here’s the ‘funny’ thing - some researchers don’t even believe it exists. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, you won’t find it listed.
https://www.cbtcognitivebehavioraltherapy.com/stendhal-syndrome/
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/stendhal-syndrome-can-the-beauty-of-art-make-us-ill
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29489968/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20432683/
Recently, my reading took me down the path of ‘information hazards', like Roko’s Basilisk. I don’t know if you’re familiar with ‘info hazards’, but it’s something of a meme lately on the internet. The idea is that some things are just too dangerous to know, for a variety of reasons. The ability to make bio-weapons, nukes, etc, but also, things that can cause you direct harm just by knowing them.
Since art is information and is apparently capable of striking someone dumb, can it be weaponized? Is it possible to use what we know about the brain to craft an image that can shut someone down? I’ll stop now. This is starting to sound like an issue of Doom Patrol.
Machalismos
It’s such a fun word to say.
Maschalismos!
Maschalismos is the ritualistic custom aimed to prevent the dead from rising as undead creatures and haunting the living. Long before Bela Lugosi put on the cape, even before Stoker crafted his epistolary tale, primitive dummies were sure that their loved ones were going to rise from the grave and feast on their blood. As can be expected, they came up with a variety of gruesome safeguards to make sure no one crawled out of their grave.
These practices varied greatly across cultures. Some cultures would cut off the deceased’s extremities and tie them beneath the armpits. Others were known to stick pins through the joints of the corpse, or maybe an egg under the chin for a woman who died in childbirth. Some American Indians would slit the soles of the feet of the dead. The Basuto people of South Africa would cut the sinews and spinal cord so that the revenant could not rise. The Aboriginal people of Australia got particularly brutal. They would beat the body until its bones were all broken and then fill the body with rocks.
And it turns out all of these tricks worked! Not a one of these people were attacked by the living dead. Nice job, maschalismos!
As a horror writer, of course I’ve got a fixation on proper body disposal. Any number of things can happen if you don’t desecrate a corpse. Maybe the dead guy has unresolved business and has to crawl from his grave to find peace. Maybe it’s a familial curse, causing each of the dead in a family’s lineage to roam the countryside for blood. If you thought your Aunt Janice was a drag when she was alive…
Personally, there are very few of these problems that can’t be solved with some sodium hydroxide. Turn them into soup. It’s the only way to be sure.
The CIA Pipeline Hack That Didn’t Happen
Stories about tradecraft are rarely this “neat” and cinematic. The real stories are often filled with patience and subtlety, dragging on for years without any sort of satisfying resolution. So when I read about this story many years ago, I thought it stood out as a brilliant example of perfectly executed spycraft.
According to sources, in 1981 the Reagan administration discovered a massive level of theft of American technology by the Soviets. At this point, they could have gone ‘hermetic’. Shut everything down, bring the assets in, and make some arrests. But CIA director William Casey and National Security Council staffer Gus Weiss had a better idea. They knew what the Soviets were going to steal. Among the supplies and intel, they stole microchips, so Weiss and Casey hatched a plan to corrupt those microchips. After being altered, they wouldn’t break down. They would simply switch to a different logic and start delivering false signals.
The Soviets also pilfered some software needed to operate a pipeline delivering Siberian natural gas to Western Europe. Before the code was stolen, however, Weiss and his team added a few lines of code. This code ran perfectly for a few months, but then the pumps and compressors on the pipeline were told to significantly increase the pressure.
The most spectacular result of this hacking, according to Reed, was a massive explosion during the summer of 1982 in the controversial pipeline delivering Siberian natural gas to Western Europe.
They expected the pipeline to spring leaks everywhere. Instead, it exploded. The Air Force thought it had the power of 3-kilotons.
Mission accomplished, right? The Americans found the treachery and responded with beautifully destructive sneakiness. There’s only one problem - it may not have happened at all. Years later, more details have emerged. Scholars have been asking questions and filling in blanks. There was a pipeline explosion in Siberia in 1982, but according to various intel agencies, it was not tradecraft that made the thing blow, but ineptitude. A Russian engineer discovered a leak. Rather than have it fixed, he just increased the pressure to compensate. And he kept doing it. Eventually, the gas built up and a passing train ignited the cloud.
https://www.wired.com/2004/03/soviets-burned-by-cia-hackers/
https://www.zdnet.com/article/us-software-blew-up-russian-gas-pipeline/
https://sofrep.com/news/the-myth-of-the-cia-and-the-trans-siberian-pipeline-explosion/
https://unredacted.com/2013/04/26/agent-farewell-and-the-siberian-pipeline-explosion/
Between this and finding out Frank Abagnale crafted the Inception of lies, it’s been a really disappointing year. Do you have any more exciting stories of tradecraft or spies? It’s easy to find Hollywood examples, such as Mission: Impossible XII - Tom Cruise Fist-Fights the Undertaker on the Moon. Then there are the more realistic portrayals of spies - like Bridge of Spies or other boring movies that I’ve never seen. I’m tempted to say that you can’t have a realistic portrayal of tradecraft that is also fun. That said, there are a few - Argo? Munich? Even those probably take some extravagant liberties with the truth. Does that matter? Is the real story more important than the enjoyable one?
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The whistleblower hearings were a bust. It’s pretty much what I expected - lots of hearsay, no evidence. It got me to thinking more about the Rare Earth theory and why we haven’t encountered aliens yet.
Strangerous viewer @re_andria had this to say about the theory:
I tend to agree. Pop culture has poisoned our idea of what aliens are going to be like. Budgetary constraints have kept us from imagining them as anything other than bipedal humanoids with bilateral symmetry. Anthropocentrism has caused us to assume that their values would at least be tangentially similar to ours. Those are all pretty big assumptions.
Speaking of space travel and meeting aliens, I’m really enjoying season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Unfortunately, this fine show is foisting a musical number on us soon. So I have to banish it to the cornfield forever. No more musical episodes, dammit. Gutter. Pantomime.