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Rapid Eye 2
Painters, cyberpunks, dog-boys, mad scientists, occultists, neoists, performance artists, film-makers, writerss, leopard-girls and voodoo horsemen. Hacking into the new virtual geography, where time and space do not exist, but where thought survives, as in art. In this age of transition and sensory overload, new ideas and organisations of perception form. To be marginalised, misunderstood, ignored, reviled. But melancholy can fuel creation. Imagination can replace fantasy. Hope can overcome fear. Different interpretations of the past and fresh approaches to art and technology can ensure the evolution and refinement of the perception of everyday life. In the virtual universe, there is no death.
- GenresNonfiction
Paperback
Published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 26, 2020
I’ve been reading a lot of old magazines lately, a number of them ‘countercultural’ or ‘occultural’ including all three ‘Rapid Eye’s’.
I chose to review this one because this issue is probably the best of the three but first a tiny bit of background.
It might be said that I was part (in a very minor way) of the countercultural ‘scene’ back in the day; the ‘day’ being around the late 1970s-mid ‘80s. Thus I am a) old(ish!) and b) am reviewing from a nostalgic viewpoint. Rapid Eye 2 was originally published in 1992 which is a bit late in my reading of ‘this type of stuff’ and I suppose the question I was asking myself as I thought about this book was; ‘what relevance does it have in the post internet world to today?’ The short answer is ‘some’.
Certainly the topics are just as valid today, the survelliance state, underground film, William Burroughs and the cut up, drugs, Lovecraft and the like. There are some interesting writers, Colin Wilson, Christopher Mayhew, Nick Toczek, Sandy Robertson, and (of course!) Genesis P-Orridge. Some of this now feels very dated dated. Who really cares nowadays about Richard Kern, Jorg Buttgeriet or indeed many of the old ‘mondo films’ of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s? Much of the thrill of them was actually seeing, through the haze of videotape noise something your parents wouldn’t like. Kern and Buttgeriet looked they had fun messing about with the camera but its not much fun to watch, “its a girl, she’s fondling a gun, look, bondage, oo-er” (Kern), or “is that meant to be a decaying penis? It’s covered with green slime?” (Buttgereit). To save you the trouble of viewing them yourself watch John Waters 1974 film ‘Female Trouble’ where Mink Stowe plays ‘car accident’. That's how its done!
But it is equally a snapshot of the times. Who could now believe that anyone would really get worked up about these films (all probably online somewhere). Who would believe anyone would prosecute Savoy Books for ‘Lord Horror’ and ‘Meng and Ecker’. And yet read the piece and be amazed.
So, why should we really care now? Well, partly for the interesting items on Mescalin, Lopsang Rampa, poet Aaron Wilkinson (still making great work) and a still timely (timeless?) article on the ‘anti-intellectual ethic’; but mainly for the editors long (almost 100 page) piece of highly literate ‘gonzo’ journalism; ‘The Plague Yard - An American Travelogue’, in which muses on art/culture and its relevance to the consensus reality of the USA of the mid-nineties. His visit coincided with a major period of the ‘culture wars’ in which right wing republicans attacked the funding of ‘liberal arts’ organisations who supported the work of artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Karen Finley and Andres Serrano, hence why the latter’s ‘Piss Christ’ on the cover. Dwyer main thesis is that ‘real life’ as many experience it, is shallow and unfulfilling and that the best art (be that art that which jolts or lifts the viewer) challenges that perception. Dwyer is wide-ranging in his references; Oscar Wilde, Timothy Leary, The Sex Pistols, Jeff Koons, Charles Manson, Jean Cocteau, Jane Mansfield, Gilbert and George, Stanley Kubrick, Anton LaVey and Derek Jarmen to name but a few, and the piece encompasses all that he loves and hates about the US. Its a masterful text, well written and impassioned, interwoven with wry observation and humour. It’s great writing, and as such is timeless.*
It still seems to be fairly readily available and is certainly worth a read, as are the other two issues. Perhaps some younger counterculturalists could comment below...
*In a moving 1996 coda to this piece Dwyer writes that he sees the world as some sort of connected dada-esque reality. Sadly he was not experience much more of it, he died of an A.I.D.’s related illness a year later.
I chose to review this one because this issue is probably the best of the three but first a tiny bit of background.
It might be said that I was part (in a very minor way) of the countercultural ‘scene’ back in the day; the ‘day’ being around the late 1970s-mid ‘80s. Thus I am a) old(ish!) and b) am reviewing from a nostalgic viewpoint. Rapid Eye 2 was originally published in 1992 which is a bit late in my reading of ‘this type of stuff’ and I suppose the question I was asking myself as I thought about this book was; ‘what relevance does it have in the post internet world to today?’ The short answer is ‘some’.
Certainly the topics are just as valid today, the survelliance state, underground film, William Burroughs and the cut up, drugs, Lovecraft and the like. There are some interesting writers, Colin Wilson, Christopher Mayhew, Nick Toczek, Sandy Robertson, and (of course!) Genesis P-Orridge. Some of this now feels very dated dated. Who really cares nowadays about Richard Kern, Jorg Buttgeriet or indeed many of the old ‘mondo films’ of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s? Much of the thrill of them was actually seeing, through the haze of videotape noise something your parents wouldn’t like. Kern and Buttgeriet looked they had fun messing about with the camera but its not much fun to watch, “its a girl, she’s fondling a gun, look, bondage, oo-er” (Kern), or “is that meant to be a decaying penis? It’s covered with green slime?” (Buttgereit). To save you the trouble of viewing them yourself watch John Waters 1974 film ‘Female Trouble’ where Mink Stowe plays ‘car accident’. That's how its done!
But it is equally a snapshot of the times. Who could now believe that anyone would really get worked up about these films (all probably online somewhere). Who would believe anyone would prosecute Savoy Books for ‘Lord Horror’ and ‘Meng and Ecker’. And yet read the piece and be amazed.
So, why should we really care now? Well, partly for the interesting items on Mescalin, Lopsang Rampa, poet Aaron Wilkinson (still making great work) and a still timely (timeless?) article on the ‘anti-intellectual ethic’; but mainly for the editors long (almost 100 page) piece of highly literate ‘gonzo’ journalism; ‘The Plague Yard - An American Travelogue’, in which muses on art/culture and its relevance to the consensus reality of the USA of the mid-nineties. His visit coincided with a major period of the ‘culture wars’ in which right wing republicans attacked the funding of ‘liberal arts’ organisations who supported the work of artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Karen Finley and Andres Serrano, hence why the latter’s ‘Piss Christ’ on the cover. Dwyer main thesis is that ‘real life’ as many experience it, is shallow and unfulfilling and that the best art (be that art that which jolts or lifts the viewer) challenges that perception. Dwyer is wide-ranging in his references; Oscar Wilde, Timothy Leary, The Sex Pistols, Jeff Koons, Charles Manson, Jean Cocteau, Jane Mansfield, Gilbert and George, Stanley Kubrick, Anton LaVey and Derek Jarmen to name but a few, and the piece encompasses all that he loves and hates about the US. Its a masterful text, well written and impassioned, interwoven with wry observation and humour. It’s great writing, and as such is timeless.*
It still seems to be fairly readily available and is certainly worth a read, as are the other two issues. Perhaps some younger counterculturalists could comment below...
*In a moving 1996 coda to this piece Dwyer writes that he sees the world as some sort of connected dada-esque reality. Sadly he was not experience much more of it, he died of an A.I.D.’s related illness a year later.
Displaying 1 of 1 review