Dada and tradition, tradition and Dada, there's an obvious contradiction there. I'll justify it with my interest in the yin-yang, or the perpetual conflict between active and passive principles. Another analogue I've found is something I've picked up from the folk-psychology of astrology. But calling astrology "folk-psychology" doesn't give you an idea of the import I find in studying the motions and interactive cycles of the planets.
When reading my friend's chart reading by Katie Sweetman over at empoweringastrology.com the other day, I gleaned the importance of a "chart ruler" as regards one's ascendant. In some schools of Western astrology (I'd assume), the planetary ruler of your ascendant becomes your chart ruler. Following this line of logic, the chart ruler for my natal theme would by Pluto, or the modern ruler of the sign Scorpio.
There's a few curious bits that come up with this analysis of my chart and the title of this blog. First of all, Pluto lies in a tight conjunction with Saturn, and at a cursory glance it seems the synod between the two happened less than a degree of Saturn's movement before my birth. Now back to the duality of Dada and tradition. Saturn is typically associated with the father, with structure, discipline, tradition, norms, regularity, institution and stability. The great Capricorns of the world (MLK Jr for example) are paragons of discipline and structure. One may say Saturn is representative of rationalism, of reason.
Now on the other hand, the planet Saturn conjoins, and my chart's ruler, Pluto, is traditionally associated with much that may be in the line of irrationality. Halloween falls under the dominion of Scorpio and is a great indicator of the ethos of this period of the zodiac. Some of the issues raised by this archetype are those of secrecy, the unknown, sexuality and taboo. I feel justified in concluding from all of this that there is a strong conjunction, or mixing, of the archetypes of saturnine discipline and the plutonian "leap into the void" represented by my natal theme.
Thus we return once more to the contrast between Dada and Traditionalism. With this illuminating reprise of archetypes we've reached the core "conflict" of much of my thought. We can also find an analogue or parallelism in Nietzsche's "Birth of Tragedy." As many of you may know, this essay is an exploration of the in many ways opposed tendencies of Hellenic art. Nietzsche terms these tendencies the Apollinian and the Dionysian. If we've followed the preceeding dialectic closely we may see the point I've wished to raise here. In his analysis, the Apollinian tendency is that of rationalism, individuation and reason. This is opposed, in his analysis, to the Dionysian ideals of intoxication, unification and general irrationalism.
I find myself now confused as to the trajectory of this dialogue, but I've always felt a confusion of purpose. I guess I'll dive into some of my recent thought now that I've illumined you, the reader, as regards the title of this blog. My trip to the west coast this past weekend to visit my brother was an opportunity to connect closely with family that I haven't in a while, but also an opportunity to be exposed to different bits of reading. When I arrived, I found on my brother's bookshelf a copy of Foucault's "This Is Not A Pipe." Funnily enough, I'd made a mental note to read this as I've had a vested interest in Magritte at least as far back as a 2004 aesthetics course I took at the University of New Orleans.
I find myself now rehashing a few thoughts I had while reading a bit earlier. Dada, the great "irrational" movement of modernism, is widely noted as the precursor and progenitor of Surrealism. It is widely known that Breton, the cheif surrealist theorist, had a deep interest in the work of the Dadaists and not exclusive to Duchamp. Now typically the surrealist movement is associated with explorations of the subconscious, the dream-world, nonsense, nonsequitor and "automatic" constructions. After a reading of "This Is Not A Pipe" and an examination of the work of Magritte, however, said painter's work may not seem as flamboyantly surreal as that of say Miró or Dalí. The connection to the surrealist school, however, lies in base "irrationality" and nonsequitor.
Much of Foucault's essay discusses the dissection of signifier and signified, semblance and symbol. Magritte's principled work very consciously forces a disconnect between typical interpretations of text and images. "La trahison des images" is the most notorious example of this forged disconnect. When I think about the confusion caused by the presentation of the image of a pipe and a text reading "this is not a pipe," I'm immediately drawn to the beautiful and useful word "incommensurate." The confusion and perplexity inspired by Magritte's work forces one into a situation where there is no common measure between the image and the text. The assumed correspondence we liken to a "legend" or a simple image with caption is demolished by the guile of this composition. This is a trickery of much more import than I had first supposed years ago and is not merely a disruption or disparaging of art institutional norms.
Now we find ourselves in a similar arena to the base contradition from whence we began. Many system-devising magicians place an emphasis on a "finish" to their architection. After all, a finished system may be deployed or utilized while an unfinished (infinite) system has a more tenuous sort of utility. Magritte's work essentially reminds us of the perplexity and mystery bound in a reality of both finite and infinite elements. The confused tension, the irresolved conflict between active and passive, the continued interaction of differing elements may very well be the seat of propulsion. The majesty of Magritte's work is the light he shines on this base contradiction, the incommensurability of aspects of our experience. I'm reminded of the wise words of Rumi who embraced this perplexity in saying, and I think quite rightly, "sell your cleverness and sell all your knowledge and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition. One comes to God through being bewildered."
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