Synchromysticism

" Synchromysticism:
The art of realizing meaningful coincidence in the seemingly mundane with mystical or esoteric significance."

- Jake Kotze

May 31, 2021

The Metaphor of The Rose ... and What Does it Really Mean (Sex or Love ... or Both)?

The Little Prince and his Rose
Amanda McBroom's
hit song 'The Rose'
As fate would have it, I read two books I had never read before in my life back-to-back, that even the so called "experts" can't agree on as to what the books are really all about, James Joyce's 'Ulysses' and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 'The Little Prince', both stories heavily reliant on rose metaphors.
I think if I had have read both books by myself without listening to podcasts telling me what to believe these books were all about, I would have been lost and given up on reading these books as "great works" of literature ... well given up on 'Ulysses' at least.
Bloomsday, Gallen and Cyclops?
And while the "experts" views on what they think the elephant in the hat is to them can be helpful in pondering just what the authors of both books may have been trying to convey in their stories, I always tend towards what resonates in my own heart, not theirs.
Poor old Carl Jung couldn't make head or tail out of reading Joyce's 'Ulysses', so what chance would a dumbf#ck high school dropout like me have of coming to any concrete conclusions about what the author was writing about, without the help of more educated folk and their opinions of reading the book?-)
Where would the world (and talk shows) be without the "experts" of this world?
But hey, I'm only throwing my hat into the ring to get trampled by elephants (experts) that may or may not be there, as far as literal metaphors go:-)
The Dubliners, initially known as "The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group", formed in 1962 and made a name for themselves playing regularly in O'Donoghue's Pub in Dublin.
The change of name came about because of Ronnie Drew's unhappiness with it, together with the fact that Luke Kelly was reading Dubliners by James Joyce at the time.
A rose by any other name
would smell as sweet
?
Bon Voyage Gavin MacLEOd?
Jack & Rose?
The rose metaphor really comes into its own (pardon the pun) in the last chapter of Joyce's novel 
Reading Ulysses: Episode 18 - Penelope
It was only when I was listening to a podcast called 'Adapt or Perish' where the two married hosts were giving their opinion about whether the Little Prince's rose should be represented as a sexually mature woman in adaptions of the book for movies/musical/ballets that got me thinking more about the rose as a metaphor in these works.
Homecoming/The Little Prince?
The Adapt or Perish Podcast
These two married hosts I find annoyingly entertaining and frustratingly tiresome as critics of adapted works, especially when it comes to 'The Little Prince' and its adaptions.
I guess I have them to thank for telling me about "the creepy" animated Plasticine adaption of the book on You Tube, which I didn't mind as much as they did.
The best animated version I found was this version below, which kept the drunkard in the "adaption" of the book.
But what I find ironic about listening to the two hosts of the 
'Adapt or Perish' podcast bitch on about the rose being turned into a sexy female dancer in two adaptions and what they see as the creepy pedophilia aspects of the movie musical adaption (which I haven't seen, and probably won't) is that I found the 2015 movie version where an old man pursues the friendship of a young girl living next-door to him rather creepy in today's more educated world.
Watching that so-so 2015 movie version of the book's storyline was basically my introduction to the book, and what prompted me to buy an illustrated (English language version, I don't speak or understand that much French) book version to read myself.
I agree more with the two hosts of the 'Cover to Credits' podcast about the 2015 movie version and its creepy elements, than what the 'Adapt or Perish' podcast hosts had to say about the 2015 movie.
Arielle Lipshaw and her husband Jeremy
produce the
Adapt or Perish podcast
Having just read 'Ulysses' before reading 'The Little Prince' I was wondering if the 'Adapt or Perish' couple had ever bothered to read 
'Ulysses'?
And that Arielle also read parts 7 & 8 of the 'Penelope' chapter of the Librivox audio version of 'Ulyesess':-)
Sometimes a rose is just a cigar, as Freud would probably have said?-)
And I find it amusing that Bob Fosse and Freud both died on the day I celebrate my birthday:-)
I wonder what Jung would think about that?
But as I go through all of those works mentioned in this post, I just wonder how much works like Joyce's 'Ulysses' would have had on authors such as 'The Little Prince''s author and his thoughts about the rose metaphor in his book ... not to mention Mc Broom's lyrics for her song 'The Rose' when maybe she had read 'The Little Prince' as a child?
Sopho-More-Lit Podcast #69 Ulysses
Sometimes a rose is just a rose, as Arielle likes to say in the 'Adapt or Perish' podcast about the Little Prince's rose.
Everyone has an opinion these days, I guess?-)
I wonder if snakes have one?-)
But critics and opinions are like arseholes, as I think Freud used to say, in that everyone has one and knows (nose?-) one?-)

May 29, 2021

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 44 times Around the Sun and the Elephant in the Hat?

What about 44 times ... around the sun instead?-)
Saint-Exupéry dies at 44 in 1944?
I like how Saint-Exupéry starts his Little Prince story off by giving the example of the hat and tells his audience that it is not a hat, but a snake which has swallowed an elephant.
Then he offers his (metaphorically blind) readers his metaphorical hat of a story to ponder over:-) 
So, what's your take on the elephant in the hat?-)
And why leave the drunkard out of the filmed versions of the story I wonder?
Homecoming/The Little Prince?
Home is where
the hat is, don't they say?-)

Tell God Your Travel Plans?-)

A full-page travel advert in a
Queensland
newspaper for Melbourne 
WHO would have thought that in 2021 we Australians would still be gambling a 14-day quarantine stay at our own expense in a Covid leaky hotel room if we got caught out holidaying in another state when the borders shut on us?
A news story in the same newspaper
 the
Melbourne travel ad was in:-)
Wasn't Jesus a carpenter, too?-)

True Spirit Becalmed No More?

Timing is everything it seems, as I saw this news story about actress Teagan Croft picking up the lead role of Jessica Watson in the Netflix movie 'True Spirit' that has been in the becalmed waters of production hell for years -
TRUE SPIRIT: The Movie, Is Ready to Set Sail
And just as I have had my Netflix subscription cancelled at the end of this month, too.
Oh well, if this movie's becalmed track record is anything to go by, I won't have to worry about renewing my subscription to Netflix anytime soon to catch its first screening;-) 
In the Doldrums of Everyday Living
Oddly enough, my last post was about finding the podcast 'Homecoming with Jessica' -
Homecoming/The Little Prince?
Could be a sign that the movie is finally sailing for the finishing line?-) 
Jessica Watson: Finding Point Nemo
I also saw an article about Captain Kerry in that newspaper's QWeekend lift-out in May this year.
And you can take it firsthand from me that Kerry is a very fine captain and whale spotter -