Unsolicited Recommendations 7
You might've imagined I've grown tired of cramming my opinions into blog posts but allow me to assure you I haven't. I've been busy with a couple of things both announced and unannounced that will be crammed into your eyeballs and earholes in the next month or two. That and the ever increasing crime rate in New York that means I have to dodge bullets in increasingly innovative ways says I have to treat each one of these as the last. No pressure.
One movie and one book-
Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing
I think there comes a point in any reasonable person's life where they wonder about the psychology behind an atrocity. What is it that such and such persons felt was sufficient cause to do such horrific things?
One of the closer, and truthfully more harrowing, analyses I've ever seen to try and answer that question is Joshua Oppenheimer's 2014 masterpiece, The Act of Killing. The documentary centers around the Indonesian Massacres of 65'-66' and the life of Anwar Congo. Anwar was a small time gangster in the city of Medan in north-west Indonesia. Small time gangster amounting to the selling of counterfeit movie tickets. Coincidence and circumstance conspired to place him at the head of one of the most ruthless and terrible death squads of that particular conflict.
I'm not going to delve further to not ruin the impact, but a more shocking example of the banality of evil you would be hard pressed to find. Anwar, being a part of the political group to come out on top in that particular conflict, was lauded and lionized for the many, many atrocities he committed, and he accepted that role. That's where the journey starts.
It's not a happy or sanitary story, but much like Hannah Arendt's The Banality of Evil, it answers often unaddressed questions that make you grow as a person.
Umberto Eco - Baudolino
Umberto Eco's Baudolino is a book I've recently fallen in love with which doesn't get nearly the attention it merits. I imagine this is because it has to compete with its older brothers-The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum. Both of which require patience to get the best results (especially if you're looking to understand the underlying mysteries Eco references.) Baudolino, standing at a hefty 528 unabridged pages, is also not a quick read.
However, it is a book that actually merits that overused word "epic." Why? Because, and I promised myself not to make a dick joke, it does a lot of things with that length. It's both one of the funniest and most profound books I've ever read. It does require you know a little bit more about both semiotics and medieval politics than is reasonable, but with same basing and googling, it is not hard to traverse.
The main character, Baudolino, comes across not as an archetype or someone you're meant to project upon but a flawed and lovable protagonist. Over the course of a journey to find the mythical Prestor John, we see Baudolino evolve and change. However it is never written in a boring clear cut "this is the character arc" kind of way. He's an honest liar, a cowardly brave man and a pacifist who's constantly getting caught in wars. He's funny and profound, jovial and scarred, and one of the best main characters I've had the chance to acquaint myself with. The cast he's surrounded with, both historical and fictional, are equally as charming and convincingly villainous.
So yes it's 528 pages, but you'll leave it both smiling and thinking.
The Shape of Things to Come
Heard in whispers and rumors
A word here another there
It was all known, it was all written
And still, we flew, we dared
A world of high contrast blacks and whites
A world of sickly, dying, grey delights
A world of burning, wicked lights
The shape of things to come
Read from multiple omens
Inferred by augurs and seers
And that which displeases the king
Ends the unbelievers
A world of stars in retrograde
A world of fires fated to fade
A world of only flayers and the flayed
The shape of things to come
A brief dalliance with logos until its course is run
A battle to battle, not to be lost or won
This and no other,
Is the shape of things to come
Babalon’s Bands IV - Ultra Violence (Ultra Silvam)
Ultra Silvam are a band which kind of came out of nowhere to me. Ok they came out of Malmö you smartass but what I mean is that I haven't heard the name and next thing I knew, I was hooked. That's how quick it happens kids.
The band formed in 2015 and except for their initials and promo pics, very little is known about who the fuck these people are. They go by M.A (bass and vocals,) O.R (guitars) and A.L (drums) but Ill talk about them via their respective roles as they had no lineup changes yet. So if you see me dancing around a title like I was a singing bear in the Jungle Book, that's why.
It would be two years before the band released an official demo. It was the year of our lord 2017, Britain was contemplating Brexit, Robert Mugabe officially became the "former" Zimbabwean president and Ultra Silvam came out swinging. In 13 short minutes (and 29 shorter seconds,) the band gave us a taste of what was to come. Their sharp, abrasive sound was already starting to show its teeth and unveil its aggressive potential. While I wouldn't say that these early, early recordings are an absolute must, if after two albums and a live record you're still hungry, it's definitely a fun 13 minutes. It also has a track you won't find anywhere else, namely "Crooked Horned Prophet."
Their debut however, "The Spearwound Salvation," is definitely a must. Finding an album that doesn't sacrifice brutality for sharpness and manages to walk that line with grace is rare indeed, but Ultra Silvam do just that. It's a whirlwind of knives in that airy early-Destruction kind of way. Clocking in at 27 minutes, the album doesn't meander at all. It's fitting that it has the word "spear" in the title as that's what it feels like, an exact and meticulous spearpoint, carefully sharpened so you couldn't touch it without drawing blood. No idea why the title has salvation in it though.
I am not a huge live albums guy so I'll just mosey on up to 2022 and their sophomore album, "The Sanctity of Death." The album's title again has a deep resonance with the sound. On "The Sanctity of Death," we find Ultra Silvam gearing up to present bigger sounds, bigger concepts, and a bigger sense of reverence to their source material.
While the band definitely brings a greater sense of bombast and ambition to the sophomore, it is by building a very intricate picture with a lot of parts. The guitarist in particular channels his spearpoint sharpness into these twisted melodies and an atmosphere of deeply fucked up worship. The sophomore is catchier than the debut and a bit more melodic, but it by no means lets go of the trigger. It's odd, while it is more melodic, the onslaught driving the album is so violent that I couldn't in good conscious say it's MeloBlack. But whatever it is, it's uniquely brutal, and I for one am looking forwards to spitting blood through my broken teeth to it.
So it's almost exactly a year after release, what are they doing now? Well, aside for a western European tour alongside the venerable Balmog (excellent Spanish/Catalan black metal) in March, I don't know. But whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be horrifying
P.S
If you are like me and were curious about what Ultra Silvam means literally, it means “Beyond the Forest” which was an old name for Transylvania.
Unsolicited Recommendations 6
Recently I've been too busy with other work-related activities and the national American sport of dodging bullets to consume a ton of culture from outside my little world. But what I tend to do in those time is reread and rehear stuff I already enjoy, so you know these two books have an unsolicited stamp of approval that has stood the test of time-
Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" and Ernst Jünger's "Storm of Steel"
You might've noticed a certain uptick in movies and TV being made about the First World War. My gamble is that it's less difficult to create a relatable struggle when there's no unambiguous evil. Barring the Ottomans, who were trying their damndest to get in on it early.
That being said, knowing the events is half the struggle and getting a grip on the feeling on each side is a very different game. The American and British novelists have quite a few famous ones (like T.E Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" or Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" to name two) but the German ones are known mainly by name rather than by people having actually read them.
This is a shame, as these books show the other side of this world changing conflict. "Storm of Steel" in particular has a lot of insights into the different divisions in the German forces (Lower Saxons and Prussians for eg.) It's hard to imagine but both Germany and Italy were united countries for about 50-60 years at the time The Great War broke out. It was all duchies, kingdoms, palatinates and presumably Palpatine-nates before that.
Meanwhile " All Quiet on the Western Front" is one of the greatest anti-war novels of the modern age. Unlike Jünger's book, it is a less complex and less flowery book, but the way it talks about the feelings and trauma of Paul Bäumer and company is both fascinating and hits home very hard. I believe many of the characters in the book are archetypes of people we see around us, and Remarque's insight can teach us a lot. We all know an armchair Kantorek, a dry and witty Westhus, or an overcompensatory Himmelstoß.
The books serve as interesting counter pieces to each other. Jünger was a more philosophical, more decorated soldier while Remarque was more sensitive and more clearly scarred by what he endured. Reading both, while not providing a complete education, definitely gives a better center to understanding this conflict.
P.S
Remarque's followup, "The Way Back" is also an excellent read. The Netflix movie for All Quiet is also pretty damn good.