How Matthew discovered the Stark Truth via the interview with Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu
Matthew’s political transformation from a Leftist to a “Starkian” Alt-Centrist
The connection between politics, sexuality, and aesthetics Beyond Liberalism: A Political New Wave Neonationalism; nationalism and politics based on aesthetics
Creating an Archeo-Futuristic sub-culture that is so aesthetically pleasing that it can out-compete Liberal-Universalism and Global Capitalism
Architecture as a form of erotica The Alt-Of-Center Guide To Aesthetic Warfare
The phenomenon of progressive cultural interests gaining an identitarian consciousness
The scene as the inevitable result of urban, middle to upper class “SWPL’s” becoming “Red Pilled” The Idea of Homonationalism San Fernando Valley Photo Essay and Neon Signage on Ventura Blvd
Income inequality and the demographic transformation of The Valley and LA
Intro: Nefarious from the Album EgoWhore by HoodooEngine which Jamie co-produces and does bass and rhythm guitar for
The main thrust of Narrative Machines is the way in which myths function in our lives
How the conflict with our longing to connect with the sacred leads to seeking re-connection in the form of reified ideology in the current “Meme Wars”
Jean Baudrillard’s book Simulacra and Simulation
The concept of hyper reality and how social interactions are mediated by social media
Post Modernism and Deconstructionism; skepticism towards all ultimate truths Hobbes vs. Rousseau: the debate over human nature
Jamie’s illustrations in Narrative Machines
The Artist David Mack
Aesthetic theory and how artist can affect the world politically Interrogation Machine – Laibach and NSK
Aleksander Dugin, Nick Land, and Neo-Reaction
The relation between myth, retro-aesthetic creative movements like vaporwave, and the current cultural climate
The 80’s Retro themed show Stranger Things
The aesthetics of Horror and horror writer Thomas Ligotti
Surrealism and connecting to the sacred or primal force
Jamie’s book Join My Cult!, occultism, and Aleister Crowley David Bowie Inspires Jamie’s Upcoming Book, “Masks”
Yukio Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask
Jamie’s involvement in the goth industrial music scene of the 90’s and 00’s
The ways in which virtual reality, myth, and “the real world” have collided
Alternate Reality Games, the film The Game, and playing with peoples perception of reality through media
Robert Stark, co-host Pilleater, and director Richard Wolstencroft discuss the new film Ghost in a Shell based on the 1995 anime.
Topics:
How it compares to the original film
The plot and characters
The film’s aesthetics, 1980’s retro-futurism, holograms, and cyberpunk
The synth soundtrack
The Robot Geisha scene
The fictional futuristic Asian city filmed in Hong Kong
Richard Wolstencroft’s experience in Hong Kong and observations on Asian culture
Comparisons to the films Akira and Blade Runner, and William Gibson’s Neuromancer
The Anime Right
The “white washing” controversy about a White actress playing an Asian role
Scarlet Johansson
Takeshi Kitano
Themes of Trans-humanism and Cybernetics Ray Kurzweil’s Wildest Prediction: Nanobots Will Plug Our Brains Into the Web
The Philosophy of Mind, Gilbert Ryle’sGhost in the machine, and Arthur Koestler’s Ghost in the machine Hubert Dreyfus’s views on artificial intelligence influenced by Martin Heidegger
Political messages in the film
“Ghost in a Shell” as a metaphor for the rootless atomized society where people lack any real identity
Richard’s upcoming film The Second Coming Volume II
Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to Robert Brenner. Robert Brenner is a writer, critic, satirist, futurist, urbanist, and porkatarian. His work has appeared in the Huffington Post, New York Magazine, Salon, the Barnes & Noble Review, Medium, Different Truths, Antiserious, and Theory In Action. He is a graduate of the Writers’ Institute at CUNY.
Paul Schrader, who wrote both films, and directed Mishima
Schrader as a subversive non-conformist who exists within Hollywood culture
The theme of alienation in both films
The Nietzschean theme of a weak man empowering himself
The life and legacy of Yukio Mishima
How both Yukio Mishima and Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver are similar archetypes, existing in different environments
How both characters are aristocratic individualists, who envision an ideal world that is at odds with their current situation
An Aristocratic Individualist is someone who follows their own path instead of submitting to societies standards
Aristocratic Individualism is about having a clear vision for an ideal society, rather than individualism in the sense of everyone doing what ever they want
Examples of Aristocratic Individualists include, J. R. R. Tolkien, Aleister Crowley, Oscar Wilde,H. L. Mencken, David Lynch, Richard Wolstencroft, Salvador Dalí, Jonathan Bowden,Ernst Jünger, and Friedrich Nietzsche
The theme of romantic rejection, and the corrupting nature that sex plays in both films
Mishima’s story, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
How Aristocratic Individualists resent that they are being denied their rightful place in society, and the normie response that it’s a coping mechanism for losers
How Aristocratic Individualists take actions that can lead to either greatness or alienation
How Yukio Mishima rebelled against Japan’s process of modernization and Americanization
The scene where Yukio Mishima spoke to leftist college students, stating that he is fighting against the same forces they are, but they dismissed them
The parallels to to how European New Right thinkers such as Alain de Benoist share views with the dissident left( ex. anti globalization, anti-consumerism, anti-imperialism, and pro-environment)
How Yukio Mishima was dismissed in his time, but dissidents are later validated in times of turmoil
Mishima’s Japanese minimalist aesthetic vs. Taxi Driver’s urban grittiness of 70’s New York City New York Neon: Taxi Driver locales in Time Square, and “porn tourism,” which seeks out the remnants that have survived gentrification
The Neo-noir genre
The Retro-futurist theme in Mishima, combining ancient Japanese culture with the 80’s vision of the future(Vaporwave) Eiko Ishioka, who was the art director for Mishima
The fantasy dream sequences in Mishima, and the dream like quality to 80’s films which are the essence of art Bernard Herrmann‘s Jazz score for Taxi Driver, which captures the feeling of alienation and urban grittiness, and Philip Glass‘s minimalist classical score for Mishima
Aristocratic Individualist Fashion style including designer Comme des Garçons and the director John Waters
