The Outsider (Analysis of the Self)
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Alone, Alone, all all alone Alone on a wide, wide sea..
STC
In View of Bayesian Constructs
One of the most enigmatic of H.P. Lovecraft\u2019s literary creations
is that to be found in The Outsider. Written in 1921 and published
in Weird Tales in
1926, the story has intrigued many readers who have attempted to explain its
subject matter as derived from the work of Oscar Wilde, John Keats, and Edgar
Allan Poe, among others. One must not fail to mention the tale of Dostoevsky
of the same name, The Outsider.
The central problem in finding the answer to the question of
meaning is that ultimate answer will not likely be found in Literature, but in the reductionism of Science. From the
literary point of view the most one can say is that the narrator in Lovecraft\u2019s
tale finds himself in a disconnect between the world, and what is commonly
called the Self, which science
considers an essential, yet undeniable Illusion.
Jean-Paul Sartre expresses the concept quite succinctly in Nausea - When Antoine Roquenton contemplates himself he dissolves into an abstraction which on further thought fades out completely.
Lord Dunsany, (Edward J. M. Plunkett) investigates the establishment, and spread of Illusions in society in some of his fantasy tales, notably here, A Tale of London and Thirteen at Table. In a far land known in Baghdad, a hashish-eater is asked by the Sultan to tell a dream of London (England). So the dream begins - one familiar with London would wonder at the outset - "Where is this London? It has no resemblance to the one I know at all!" Still later, some of the fictions in the dream of the hashish-eater do not meet the Sultan's approval, and are immediately altered. Finally the description of "London" is found acceptable to both; if by some chance the dream is recorded or spread by word of mouth to those who in ignorance accept all the details, and add some of their own, the myth becomes all the more convincing. The London of the hashish-eater spreads as a true narrative, nonetheless it is an Illusion. So the more detailed and enjoyable the more resonant such a myth becomes.
In Thirteen at Table, a hunter, Linton, weary from a prolonged fox hunt comes upon a dismal cottage in wilderness isolation. After seeking shelter form the owner, a Sir Richard the hunter is invited to dinner. The table is long and the owner and hunter are seated at opposite ends. Dinner guests are announced by the owner and are asked to be seated about the table, altogether thirteen of them. Unfortunately, for Linton he can see none of them, However, one, a certain Miss Rosalind Smith who he interprets as quite "pretty," not in flesh and blood, but derived from impressions of the chair on which she sat, and smoke about a nearby candle providing hints of her outline. He regales the ladies with incidents from his fox hunt (adding fictions when his memory fails) for a good long while. Then in his fatigue he offends the ladies, and in a rush of air they all rise to exit the dining room. Linton then grows very weary and falls to the floor, to awaken in bed the next morning. He apologizes to Sir Richard, but is reassured the apology is unnecessary since Sir Richard has been trying to get rid of the pests for some time. Seemingly, the women were all Illusions to an unaffected observer, but to the participants any hints of their existence were enough to give them substance leaving Linton assured that they existed in fact. James, Linton's attendant had no memory of these events at all. In subsequent years stories of gay parties at Sir Richard's home became well known. All that is needed to establish the existence of illusion of the delightful ladies is two "chosen ones," even though they were provided with limited evidence. However, one important fact remains - Linton and Richard would remain convinced in spite of all doubters - they had seen the miracle, and they among all were chosen to see it.
And remember, these may have been written by the same grizzled old man who showed Gerald from Tong Tong Tarrup while at the Edge of the World an old woman singing; to him a moving experience. He may have been the same grizzled, old man who showed Winston through an open window above a curio shop in Oceania, an old woman singing at her laundry, another transfixing event from the year 1984. Here we are informed the grizzled, old man was a Liar.
What is called for now in the analysis of the Self is a continuation of change in thinking of humanity which led to the origin of Western science from 2721 to 2521 BPE. Here, the Ancient Greeks diverted away from the anthropomorphic gods to other archetypal basic principles. The most enduring of these revisions established forms of primordial matter as preeminent, including Water, Fire, Air, Atoms, et. al. The older gods including Zeus, Hera, etc. were declared to be illusions. Similarly, today the Self is no longer considered a "ghost like," spiritual component of a human, but an illusion intimately associated with and subsumed by the primordial forms of matter composing the structure and function of that human body - including inherited, archetypal thought patterns.
At this juncture, where the suggestion of "admiration" transduced into mimicry requires further examination. Among many other variations consider a student who finds the teacher particularly appealing; and long after the course has ended the student maintains, "I learned so much from him. My point if view was completely changed by that man.." At the risk of introducing what might seem initially as "the Self as a mystical, immaterial component of humans," is it possible that the Self is transferable from one mind to another? If the Self can be transferred from a flesh and blood arm to a rubber replacement in experiments, why not from one person to another? At the risk of misinterpretation consider the exceptional story, A Tale of the Ragged Mountains, by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe envisions two men (a possible third?), very similar in appearance who share the same memories. In the case investigated, Augustus Bedloe plagued by "neuralgic attacks," seeks the aid of a Doctor Templeton an acolyte of Franz Mesmer. Templeton succeeds in helping Bedloe to alleviate his symptoms using mesmerism. Following, Bedloe describes his excursion through a bizarre wilderness into a weird civilization; the experience having much the appearance of "falling asleep." Later the return to normalcy much like that of "waking up." He however, describes himself as "dead." These same experiences are then revealed by Templeton to be shared by one other strikingly similar man - one with the name, Oldeb. So, one interpretation here is Bedloe and Oldeb all share aspects of the same Self. Poe might have been suggesting reincarnation. A newsman farcically spells the name, Bedlo. The e a mere typographical error, he suggests smugly as a man's identity is erased. Poe's satire suggesting little confidence in the newsmen. Further, another satirical poke at the medical profession suggests when Beldoe died (again?) in the story it was because in the "proper application of blood letting" by leeches, a vile, black leech intruded and caused his demise. Very similar satire when compared to the Mad Hatter discussing with the March Hare the failure of butter to repair a watch. The suggestion - butter was the right corrective, and "It was the best butter!" quips the Hare but, "There must have been some 'crumbs in it." adds the Hatter. Superb!!
One might point out here that Poe is far superior to Lovecraft in his story telling - Lovecraft's stories are weird, no doubt, but Poe's have multifaceted "meanings." In this regard, consider the illusion of the Self in connection with the illusion of the Spirit, Poe develops in his, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. Here a dying man, Ernest Valdemar seeks to be mesmerized near to the point of death for the purposes of determining the effects of "animal magnetism". Some background information includes a quotation from the Principia of Isaac Newton in 1713 - "A subtle Spirit which pervades and lies hid on all gross bodies; by the forces and action of which Spirit, the particles of of bodies mutually attract one another at near distances, and cohere (animal magnetism?)...and electric bodies operate at greater distances and the members of animal bodies move at the command of the will, namely, the vibration of this Spirit, mutually propagates along solid filaments of the nerves, from the outward organs of sense to the brain, and from the brain to the muscles..." Even as a narrow empirical generalization, "There are many crumbs in it!" especially for a man of Newton's stature in the sciences. The nod to the, On the Nature of Things and the "animal spirits" of Lucretius are quite obvious. If you believe in the Illusion of Gravity, why not that of Animal Spirits? Valdemar remains in a dead communicative state for some time; then he demands to be awakened. On being revived from the mesmerized state his body almost instantly decomposes. So, when the Spirit leaves the body the attractive forces (animal magnetism) do also. Whether this event is another case of Poe's ridicule of a ridiculous idea is difficult to determine. However, it is likely since Poe did dabble in science and wrote science fiction as indicated in his The Fall of the House of Usher, where the principal character, Roderick Usher, believed that the rocks, fungi, water of the tarn and atmosphere attendant to his mansion had somehow shaped the personalities of his family members over time. Here, the name of Spallanzani and his "spontaneous generation" experiments of 1773 are alluded to; which experiments seemed to indicate that "air" contained an "active principle" causing the dead, organic ingredients in his sealed flasks experiments to generate living things; the principal in the air destroyed by boiling. Pasteur eliminated the active principle in air by his famous "Swan Necked Flask Experiments" of 1861, these experiments were unknown to Poe since he died in 1849. Air could enter the flasks, but dust containing microbes were trapped in the swan like curvatures of the tubes supplied to the flasks. Quite neatly, the Self is apparently another active principle of illusion found in humans, whose origin can be explained by simple scientific analysis.
But, here as noted earlier, the Self is a cherished, illusion like the Spirit,
disturbances of such are by no means to be desired since normal functioning is
not possible in its absence. Extreme disturbances might be considered a form
of mental illness. Yet the reader will be grateful to Poe for his "food for thought."
Certain other science fiction creations regarding the Self and the relation to the physical body are extant, notably, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick in which the central problem is a Self with attendant emotions is difficult to program into advanced Nexus 6 androids; this feature is the only character which allows them to be distinguished from true humans. Given enough time the Nexus 6 will store up enough experiences to develop a Self - a dangerous outcome. How to distinguish one's Self in this future society depends on owning large, exotic animals, including ostriches and other rarities. Lacking resources one must acquire mechanical replicants.
As a biographical study, the l995 film, Crumb has achieved universal acclaim, and in one case rated among the ten greatest films ever made. Crumb, his family, admirers and detractors are the centerpieces for this biographic study of this most famous of all underground cartoonists. In effect, Crumb describes what he thinks were the seminal influences of family and society in the formation of his Self and those of his two brothers, Charles and Maxon. In doing so the film calls attention to their domineering father, emotionally unstable mother and the media misrepresentations of 1950's family life, with its distilled purity not even to be found in the real families included. The film surges in the diametrically opposite direction, including even the (what might be called in polite society) "sordid" details of Crumb's experiences, both real and imaginative. Crumb decries bitterly of his mistreatment by the merchandising system of Art in the United States. Well worth a study if the viewer is interested in the Self and its origins.
Of all the film depictions of the nature of the Self, the surreal/existential 1920, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde featuring John Barrymore in the title role is the most exemplary. Here, a medical doctor devises a potion by which he can transform his benevolent Self into his alter Self, the heinous Mr. Hyde. Even with the period affectations, Barrymore's physical transformation (with minimal special effects) is almost miraculous, revealing him at the very summit of his artistry - the closeups of changes in body form, facial features and appendages were a sensation at the time and continuing into the present. In the end he fails to return to Dr. Jeckyll Self and meets his demise as Hyde. The film does perpetuate that Hyde with his criminal tendencies is necessarily "ugly;" that ugliness expressed in general body conformations and facial features. This silent film with the characteristic exaggeration of facial features for communication suggests the eyes and the face in general as the pathway to the nature of the Self.
The creations of Lovecraft, Dick, and Crumb are singular enough to cause one to question the origin of their inspiration for the ideas in their writing and art. Editors and commentators suggest three possibilities - divine revelation, schizoid personality problems, visions derived from within the brain (not based on previous experience) - "archetypal subject matter" expressed in vivid "phosphene graphics" - seeing light where no light is entering the eye. The standard explanation is generally mechanical effects - "seeing stars" on mechanical impact. (Consider the film, Pickman's Muse, based on Lovecraft's, Pickman's Model for what appear to be some vivid examples of a church seen this way.) C.G. Jung and Wolfgang Pauli discussed the the last of these as archetypal influences the same the world around, some based on mathematical (Fibonacci, etc.) progressions, as related to synchronicity. Crumb, in particular states in an interview that he did not draw with any purpose beyond compulsion, since he became depressed if he did not draw for some time. He "worked out" his drawings to see them. His inspirations came from somewhere, but he could not pin point their origins. Lovecraft based his stories on waking experiences, but most notably on dreams. Dreams are composed of discordant subject matter until sense is made of them just on waking. Lovecraft though thoroughly scientific in his viewpoint, might have expressed his fear of the apparent "meaninglessness" of Reality with monsters creeping out in the non-sequential sleep state. Dick had "visions" which caused him to write a huge volume (summarized in the Exegesis) in an attempt to explain them. He might have combined schizoid tendencies with the effects of amphetamines taken to allow writing sixty pages of script in a day, often, a "night."
Mark Twain quipped that, "Everybody is a little insane at night." Phillip Dick in a similar vein added more specifically, "Do not make important decisions at two o'clock in the morning." However, Nietzsche insists, "0f intoxicated midnight's dying happiness, which sings: The world is deep, deeper than day can comprehend."
Some philosophers after years of writing begin to think the origin of their ideas came from divine inspiration (a kind of Messianic Impulse). Whatever the cause, the basic explanation from the view of science, must reside in the physio/chemical nuances of brain function, either genetic, accidental, or induced by chemicals from outside, creating in each an unusual, creative Self.
The regions of the brain involved in segments of the Self seem most notably the temporofrontal and the limbic regions. Objective chemical substances seem to be responsible for subjective experiences including excitement, calm, enthusiasm and all the rest as essential parts of the Self. When something new is seen, a release of a specific substance, "dopamine" from the visual centers is transmitted and a transient sense of excitement evolves in the pleasure center. Repeats of the same experiences lead to a reduction of dopamine secretion and a concomitant reduction in excitement, interpreted subjectively as, "boredom." Similarly, production of another substance, "oxytocin" is associated with feelings of calm and safety. Serotonin contributes to a sense of happiness, epinephrine the feelings of stress, the endorphins associated with pain relief - which suggests a similarity to over the counter acetaminophen which targets the pain center specifically. The male and female sex hormones play essential roles in the sense of Self.
The list of substances and their specific chemical actions could be extended, but the question remains, "Where do the subjective feelings come from? One might say: They reside in the realm of illusion as do colors, beauty, cuteness, hot and cold, and all the other illusions of subjective experience." Specifically, photons have no color. They are subatomic particles (often described in elementary texts as sometimes acting as a particle and others as a wave) combined with a carrier wave of a certain frequency. The previous statement includes conceptions which are inadequate to the situation. Heisenberg declaims that photons do not fit the language conception of particle nor wave. There is another "state" which neither idea from common experience includes. There is no "word" for that state. Only the conceptions and procedures of mathematics allows the language limitation to be circumvented. Where do Einstein's Relativity, and Darwin's. Origin of Species fall in this consideration? Einstein did not receive the Nobel Prize (no testable consequences included?). Would Darwin have received the Prize for his "story telling" non-mathematical model? So, referring to the "Self" as an "Illusion" instead of a "Real" may include the same language limitation. Color is a elaboration by the eyes and the brain. Then, what is the origin of the seeming subjective state?
Here is a suggestion. The chemical systems of the human body include information about a dynamic "steady state"; a system of "adjustable balance of no further change." Then a disruption (change) occurs. The interpretation is "something is different," and a departure from the steady state is at hand. The brain must "learn" (store information physically and chemically) to see (recognize) by manufacturing illusions of shapes and colors, pain, etc. later to be used to match to new encounters. Information about an injury, for one example, is carried to the brain by nerve impulses or glandular secretions, Upon reception in the centers of the brain (where there is a "map" of all body parts) the body is prepared to "move away or toward" the altered state - such preparations and the fictional illusions involved constitute the subjectivity. This feeling is the subjective sense that, "I am injured" in the absence of information of the exact nature of the injury. Missing limbs often feel "in pain" since a functional, organic memory of the injury remains as "information," perhaps in cliques surrounded by neurons discussed above. The energy equivalent of information (capacity to make choices) has been calculated.
Physio/chemically, how might the unpleasant feelings such as \u2018pain\u201d and "reactions" be
produced?
Researchers including Marco Gallio, suggest a key actor in the process involves a protein located in the cell
membrane \u2013 Transient receptor potential
cation channel, subfamily A, member 1 (mercifully
known as, \u201cTRPA1\u201d); a substance implicated
as a sensor of irritating environmental substances and mechanical injuries.
This protein is also involved in responses including watering of the eyes,
cough, and itch behavior and moving away or toward high and low
temperatures. What are some of the
physio/chemical interactions occurring involving this protein?
Researchers suggest the processes evolved hundreds
of millions of years ago; variations in activity occur, but the common features
were probably evolved in the ancestors of diverse groups (flatworms,
insects and chordates) in that distant past.
The planaria worm normally avoids high temperatures and irritating substances, such as \u201cwasabi.\u201d However, in
variants of this animal without the TRPA1, normal avoidance behaviors fail. What
does the planaria normally detect? Experiments suggest that the detected
substances in the danger situations are hydrogen peroxide and other reactive
substances containing oxygen. In the familiar "itch syndrome" of humans and other animals such
detection then influences nearby nerves linking the injury site to brain and
initiating avoidance or attraction response, including gradient movements, scratching, coughing and watery eyes.
From there, itch sensitive cells in the spinal cord are
activated sending neural messages to the parabranchial nucleus of the brain
stem. From this nucleus message are sent to other parts of the brain yielding
the ultimate sensation of \u201citch.\u201d Anesthetizing these pathways yields a
reduction in the itch phenomenon.
Further research has identified in the cortex of the cerebrum specialized
neurons of unusual shape and size with few dendritic connections; POSTULATED among other
functions is the production of the Self. Evidence of this connection is provided by a severe form of dementia resulting from a significant loss of these cells.
Named VENs, after their original
discoverer, von Economo in 1929, they are unusual in being elongate, with spindle shaped bodies, and located in
the anterior cingulate cortex and the frontal insular cortex of the brain.
These areas are thought to involved in the most inner thought patterns
including love, anger, time, reaction timing, empathy and cooperation, taste
(and related judgment of behaviors), assessment of personal standing and the
interpretation of other environmental signals, and many others if not all of the
other aspects assigned to the Self; all if these being synonymous with Consciousness.
Ultimately, signals to these areas of the brain from the
parabranchial nucleus regarding an itch, might mimic the effects of information
from all parts of the body about the overall state of affairs in these regions and how
to react to them. Especially relevant here to an interpretation of Lovecraft\u2019s The Outsider is that these regions are
particularly active when a subject sees
himself in a mirror!
The Self is therefore, the chemical consolidation of a harmonious union of all items contributing to the maintenance of the "steady state." Hunger, compulsion to breathe, and other subjective motivations are preparations innate in the systems maintaining the most nearly optimal steady state. These elaborate systems of fictions are a compromise when knowledge of chemical substances is lacking. Knowledge of the molecular formula of a dopamine molecule tells nothing to the uninitiated, but volumes to an organic chemist as cascades of interactions with these substances. Attaching a phosphate chemical group to a molecule is a far cry from "subjective experience" except when used in the cognitive sense.
A hive of bees is in a hubbub. Time to swarm? Explorers go out to seek new hive sites, as in a hollow tree. An explorer finds such a site. Is it "too big or too small?" No need for contemplation. The bee enters the hollow and walks about. If the distance walked matches the bee's neural diagram, he returns to the hive with the good news. If not the bee searches again. No need for "good news." The bee does a "waggle dance" or some other signal is provided. The selected portion of the hive departs for a new location. The new site allows the bees to reach a "steady state" once again; and construction of the comb and the rearing of young begins anew. A wren selects a bird house in somewhat the same way, then a mate visits; a steady state is reached by the pair and nesting begins. Subjective thinking is so entrenched in humans that objective descriptions are very difficult to achieve. And lest we forget, "Will there be enough room when Aunt Maisie and her umpteen Kids come over on Sundays?" Explanations of the situations of the literary characters' "disequilibrium states" could be achieved in the manner just demonstrated.
Perhaps as near an analogy as can he derived from this situation is that of Jonathan Miller (The Body in Question, 1982) put somewhat poetically: the "Self" is a kind of melody played by the orchestra of chemical processes of which the body is composed.
Quite obviously, in such discussions the conceptions of \u201cspirit,
\u201csoul," and \u201cconsciousness,\u201d do come to \u201cmind\u201d in treatment of these
matters. Generally, scientists do not include them in formal scientific
presentations. Nonetheless, "consciousness experiments" are planned by
Lucien Hardy at the Perimeter Institute in Canada. In brief, the Bell Test will
be involved - a way of determining if atomic
particles at a distance are, in fact, entangled (linked); (such tests suggest that
they are). In this case, EEG brain activity of test
subjects will be used from people 100 kilometers apart to switch settings on measuring devices at each location. If the
readings differ from the results of previously done
Bell Tests, such results would indicate a violation of Quantum Physics by a
process outside established science namely, the
"Consciousness." Such a result would mean that physics can be
overcome by processes outside standard
formulations. One investigator has set the goal of locating consciousness in the quantum states of calcium phosphate in the brain stem.
As is their wont, Psychiatrists, School Programs, and the Medical Profession as a whole, treat being an Outsider as a kind of mild or severe mental illness. The closest categorical, diagnostic term is probably, Schizotypal Personality as opposed to a person with a Normal Personality. What would become of the productivity of art and science if all people had the empty headedness of normalcy? Why not ask the Sweet Little Ladies shown above in photographs just after graduating from high school or college? What would they say?
To repeat - leave off reading fiction
for a time and seek
the science behind some of the included ideas you took for granted. Mysteries might exist only because of the limitations of methodology used to solve them. You might
be pleasantly surprised.
Here is an example of the specifics of the scientific rather than philosophic approach to the matter of how memories (part of the Self) work. If one learns a key sequence (on a piano) the memory (playing over and over again) is stored in the cortex of the brain (as cliques?). Then, when the same subject falls into deep (REM) sleep, the memory fades from the cortex and reappears in a deeper region, the putamen also in the brain. These facts were substantiated using fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance) and EEG apparatus to monitor electrical activity of different parts of the brain. They reveal that the cortex stores memories short term so that it can be freed up for new learning episodes.
When you have exhausted resources for your study, then try to develop a personal synthesis (review of the literature) of your studies. What about Macbeth, and \u201cA tale told by an idiot?\u201d Does it mean anything in the terms of your synthesis? If not, the matters of the Self remain unresolved, its existence accepted only in an unexamined world. And, before you begin your synthesis, read Hermann Hesse's, The Glass Bead Game, wherein the society of Castalia prepares students to be the Master of the Game, the object of which is to begin with an central idea, and then link it seamlessly with as many other ideas as possible. Is there any value in such a project without identified particulars and physio/chemical interactions to produce reliable predictions? Sabina Spielrein, on a plaque attached to an oak tree fed with her remains wrote: "My name is Sabina Spielrein. I was a human being." What does that mean?
If the Self is an Illusion, what are the particulars of the Best Self to play its role?
Emmet Ray, "a truly great artist" second only to Django Reinhardt, at the end of the film, Sweet and Low Down after dismissing a show girl, takes his guitar, smashes it, weeping that he made "a mistake." What was the mistake? Did he discover that life really was a, "Tale told by an idiot?" How would his "expressing feelings" have made a marked difference? Would the average "Self" leaving a theater after viewing this film have been able to say anything beyond, "That was a good movie!"? A more bewildering example of the subjective/objective interpretation of the Self was attempted by Woody Allen (writer/director) in another of his films, The Purple Rose of Cairo, where such a person leaving a dark theater and entering a brilliant day, experiences a sudden transformation of the Self, from the movie of the Copacabana to the real life experience of blinding light, raucous noise and hot macadam.
What physical/chemical changes in the brain adjust to this sudden change in perspective? Is it derived from such changes experienced by an aging person comparing his/her Self with a younger Self?
A short story replicates this sudden, unfortunate realization, written by Weston H. Charlton, published in the romance pulp, Nonesset, (Oct. 1930); where a aging onetime starlet, "Powdered Pigeon" demands a role in a movie featuring a chorus line of beauties. She gains the role, but on seeing her fading physique demands that the film be destroyed, and she disappears into seclusion.
Similarly, Sartre describes the experience of Antoine Roquentin in Nausea, while examining his own face in a mirror - "Perhaps it is impossible to understand one's own face...People who live in society have learned to see themselves in mirrors as they appear to their friends. I have no friends. Is that why my flesh is so naked?" A situation very similar to what Lovecraft's Outsider experienced. At this juncture inclusion of the phenomenon of institutionalization as experienced in hospitals, jails, laboratories and the confines of religious sects, etc. seems appropriate.
Transformations of the Self
1
Roquentin enters a café and is overcome with a sense of Nausea brought on by the surroundings - coarse people speaking superficially, discordant colors and his own state of
disorientation. Then the Ethyl Waters recording of Some of these Days, begins to play; and he suddenly recovers.
The artistry of the performer provides the curative power \u2013 and he thinks, \u201cIt
filled the room with its metallic transparency, crushing out miserable time
against the walls. I am the music.\u201d
10
Stephan Dedalus on returning from school and meeting chums swimming off a bridge - It was a pain to see them and a swordlike pain to see the signs of their adolescence that made repellent their pitiable nakedness. Perhaps they had taken refuge in number and noise from the secret dread in their souls. But he, apart from them and in silence, remembered in what dread he stood in the mystery of his own body.
15
Madame is at lunch with Millie. Drinks are served. Madam is
reminded of her drinking at home \u2013 alone; purchasing bottles of gin from
assorted stores to conceal the quantity drunk. She calls it "sustenance." Millie has been drinking before
entering the restaurant. She continues. Suddenly, Millie faints face first in the mashed potatoes, and
paramedics are called. Madam never took another drink.
18
"Gatsby? What Gatsby?"
23
A young woman on a date enters a nostalgia café with
memorabilia on the walls and period music playing. While waiting to be served
she informs her date about each of the decorative items as learned from her father\u2026After a short period the date proclaims, \u201cI cannot date you anymore. You\u2019re
too smart for me!!\u201d She later tells her father\u201d \u201cYou ruined me! I cannot talk
to people\u2026\u201d
46
A young fellow enters an avenue art shop. He peruses the
holdings. \u201cTwo Girls at a Piano\u201d by Monet appears on the wall as a large reproduction. For an interminable moment he is transfixed. He muses, \u201cDid that girl's lips move as they discussed the music? Did I hear the
music? One girl is pointing at the sheet music. Did I see her arm stretch out toward a note? I am there in the moment Monet captured." He could not buy the painting and is haunted for the rest of his life.
47
Bloom is in a barber seat. Subdued comments are exchanged with the barber. A pithy statement. Then Bloom and the barber suddenly stare into the wall mirror before them. A fellow is in another barber shop seat in another time. Subdued comments exchanged followed by a pithy statement. Suddenly both turn and stare into the wall mirror. To the barber: "We are in Joyce's, Ulysses. We are there! What is not in that book?"
52
On a Arbor day of April 30, 1948 a maple tree in planted in the corner of the playground of my one room school house. The school now a national monument, and me to be soon forgotten as were the ripples on the nearby Paradise Brook. The Tree remains as do the ancient Horse Chestnuts from which we gathered gem like chestnuts on those later fall days.
**********
Movie critics attempt to list, "Ten best films of All Time" based on their emotional effects. How does the chemistry of emotion gain such preeminence? Was that the best criterion?
Robert Crumb packed his cherished 78 RPM records as life in the U.S. became intolerable to him, sold his art and moved to a remote province in France - not a perfect place, but life would be better there.
Phillip K. Dick once said he wrote his novels to "be in the story." He was displeased when a novel was finished - so he went on to another. In high school he secretly read a science fiction magazine while his teacher explained geometry. Dick could create the world he wanted to live in. The other students were "good dobe's" living in the world created by the teacher. He also asked, "What kind of a world is it if (a dear friend died meaninglessly)?"
Could the man on the street envision a perfect Self in a world he could successfully live in, or even consider the possibility? Among other sources consider the novel, Rosshalde, again by Hermann Hesse mentioned above; as the Atlantic - Journal Constitution describes, "Shimmers with the vitality of richly imagined existence." Or in all cases do we find that:
"I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles."
Socrates, perhaps the greatest philosopher of all suggests this answer to Glaucon:
"Socrates, how can I achieve immortality?"
"First you can give birth to a child.
Or, you can give birth to an idea.
Or, you can give birth to yourself as
The Embodiment of Knowledge."
"Knowledge" taken here are the correspondences (intersections) of the caused order of the consciousness with the acausal, preformed order of the physical universe.
The Outsider attempts to make such correspondences through reflection and creativity allowing opportunities for such intersections.
Friedrich Nietzsche: Repeatedly, his works are described as, "The most beautiful and lucid prose in German literature. He had a poetic temperament and enforced his ideas with symbolic analogies. At eighteen he lost his religious faith and began his search for a new god." This was to be the Superman, so eloquently proclaimed in Thus Spake Zarathustra and Ecce Homo. Nietzsche taught the will to power for only by this will could the Superman be evolved (superior to man as man is superior to an ape). Just out of curiosity, what kind of Self did he have? How many of the men on the street read his words? To paraphrase Richard Feynman, "People need philosophy as much as birds need ornithology." With the advancement of Science some philosophers admitted they did not know enough. They became limited to not what we can do, but what we should do.
A quote from the Superman: "Will a Self'.- Active, successful natures act, not according to the dictum, 'Know thyself', but as if there hovered before them: will a self and thou shalt become a self..." Apparently, Nietzsche suggests a free will choice of a Self. As already obtained, science considers free will is a kind of "illusion."
Nietzsche in Section #8 of Twilight of the Idols approaches the matter from the aspect of compulsion derived from a state of intoxication, a state of heightened excitability of the "entire creative mechanism" without which no art is possible. Crumb describes the heightened state succinctly as his "compulsion to draw" and to see the essences of facial expressions, and details in the structure of ordinary objects including utility poles, train tickets, etc. Section #10 further describes two major variations of this heightened state, namely the Apollinian and the Dionysian. The first of these characterized by a the effect of the eye's power to "see". The painter, sculptor and epic poet are best examples of this state. The Dionysian is exemplified by Dick and Zelig where the heightened state allows the facility of metamorphosis, the incapacity not to react and all its attendant functions of 'representation, imitation, transmutation" etc.; briefly put as the ability to "play any role at the slightest instigation." Examples of this phenomenon include, "the actor, the mimic, the dancer, the musician, the lyric poet." (See section #11 for further exposition not included here.) Zelig could transform ("play act") the role of anyone he meets - including becoming a "doctor" when being interviewed by a psychiatrist, or becoming (in manner and appearance) any ethnic group with whom he came into contact. Dick, in the writing of his Exegesis, exemplifies the epic poet with enhanced vision, and compelled to explain his visions by transforming himself into a visionary mystic who would reveal metaphysical truths hidden in his unique experiences. A careful reading of Nietzsche's Twilight expands matters far beyond what is possible here in brief summary, including the architect and his creations.
Many of these creative types are classified by Anthony Gregorc (l978, etc.) as "Abstract Sequential"; they have feelings of superiority, enjoy charismatic attention, have fertile minds the products of which they formulate into systems.
An exemplar of this type is Carl Gustav Jung of the Zurich Institute and one of his many acolytes, Marie-Louise von Franz, who created and developed the Archetype Concept. Here they detailed two major influences on the Conscious Mind, (the Psyche) as expressed in compulsions. Accordingly, two major influences are the Body Functions (eating, sexuality, etc.) and Thought (mathematical and literary ideas) exist. In one case a subject may be compelled by the desire to eat to the point of being physically immobilized. In the other a subject is compelled by an idea to the point of not being able to be counseled that they have gone "too far -" an idea such that a person has been selected as the "savior of the world." Of course, all humans are influenced by body functions and ideas, but here extreme cases were presented for the purposes of illustration. The origin of of the body functions are generally unknown to those who experience them. The desire to eat derived from subconscious, physiological processes causing the funnel of matter and energy into the thermodynamics of living system. The desire to create derived from certain "subconscious inherited influences" judged somewhere near twenty-five in number that express themselves in blends as expectations of what will be encountered in experience. August Kekule, the chemist for a long period in his studies was perplexed by the structure of the benzene molecule. Then, in a dream he saw serpents rolling about (in the manner of wheels) orally holding their tails. From this experience he fulfilled his need for the "benzene ring." Dostoevsky was perplexed by certain philosophical matters, and when he had written one thousand pages in The Brothers Karamazov he said he had written all he wanted to say on the matters. Psyches participating in such systems might ask, "Why am, or How am I doing this?" Jung provides a working model. At present, Jung's work on archetypes has been judged as having the merits for inclusion in the pattern of integrated human knowledge. Marie Louise von Franz's work on the meaning of Fairy Tales suggests in their limited number of variations the summary of literary structures appealing to the human mind. How do Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, published by Giambattista Basile (1634) and Charlotte Bronte's, Jane Eyre (1847) or Jane Austen's Persuasion (1817) resonate with this classic story's archetypal images?
Ayn Rand defined art rather succinctly as, "Reality transformed by the imagination according to a personal metaphysics."Accordingly, Dostoevsky, Howard, Crumb, Allen and the other writers mentioned here, and the scientists including Darwin, Heisenberg, Newton and all the others not included here took the reality known to all (characters locations and incidents, etc.) , and using the imagination of the subconscious and the metaphysics of its archetypal components transformed that reality into another more entrancing than that experienced by the "ordinary person." So, as Gerald SeBoyar of the University of Chicago in his Outline of Literature suggests, an average person can meet in these "fictions" people and events far more interesting (genuine) than those met in "real life," visit places they will never in fact visit, and thus meet a beneficially transformed reality. In no way is this experience an "escape from reality into a dream world;" instead, using the transformations of events and personalities by a skilled "abstract self," a view based on the most complete assemblage of archetypal elements collected in the human genome over the millennia of human history to delineate reality is possible.
If all experience is illusion (nihilism?) - the efficient mode is to develop a
procedure to isolate the most reliable illusions allowing interplay with the unknowable
reality. In effect, Science develops definable particulars and
manipulations of these particulars to produce reliable facts and highly
reliable predictions; arrangements become "coercive" rather than merely
persuasive. Furthermore, some authors have suggested that the most basic of the archetypal explanatory particulars of science were known and originated by the Ancient Greek thinkers (Democritus, Leucippus, Heraclitus, et. al.). Few, if any of these particulars are sensible in the human
mind. The manipulations are those of mathematics.
Of course, Nietzsche declaims all of the business of the reductionism of rational thought, and its elemental particulars and procedures ultimately falsify the testimony of the senses, and creates a "real world" counter to that experienced. In particular, he denounces the "ugly" Socrates and his dialectics, in his Twilight of the Idols, to which the reader's attention is directed. Considered the greatest philosopher of the modern era his contentions should be considered.. When does nonsense seem sensible?; or are the reports of the sense organs to be the only reliable testimony? This reliability is doubted here.
How much science did Edison know when he invested the "light bulb"?
Resolution - Common features of the Outsider include living most successfully in isolation from other people. When not in utter isolation in a favored location thoughtful productivity falls away. Alone, they must complete themselves, the Self. Living in isolation they are free to "create." through art or science. Ludwig Wittgenstein is a particular example of this type. Outsiders cannot live harmoniously with other people, including if they marry, wives and children. Personal fulfillment is the goal. Lovecraft, Dick, Nietzsche, Hesse seem to fit this description quite well. They are unable to live life as others do. Virginia Woolf had a sense of superiority - no one else was capable of her insights - such insights obtained from her unique, "stream of consciousness." They isolate themselves in creative acts stemming from "compulsion" which associates observe and want to protect, but cannot participate in. They must hear the musings of an inner voice - the clatter of other peoples' meaningless chatter interferes. They will abandon everyone else to follow the creative compulsion. They wish to complete, describe and preserve the Self - something of them worth preserving. Biographers are not privy to the cause(s) of the compulsions, and can only describe the effects. The lives recorded (parents, siblings, etc.) by such biographers are what the artist seeks to escape from, and their efforts are very wide of identifying the causes. Colin Wilson traces the history of outsider individuals who expressed their world views in the formation of unique systems of philosophy - The Outsider and Beyond the Outsider; from this view far closer to the lives of such creative individuals.
{An ancillary point to be considered is some of most well defined Outsiders continued to live with and helped to support parents or older adults (by birth or marriage) well after attaining majority.}
Not always do they succeed in this self preservation; read Dostoevsky's, The Outsider, and his related, White Nights, for a vivid, fictional depiction of this failure. Lovecraft's Outsider creates a quite distinct Self as he wanders and explores his surroundings alone; only are his efforts at creating his world thwarted when he meets other people at a celebration. On the penultimate page of Hesse's, Rosshalde, this author describes his own situation in this scenario:
"Never had he lived out a love to its bottommost depths, never until these last days.....What remained to him was his art, of which he had never felt so sure as he did now. There remained the consolation of the outsider, to whom it is not given to seize the cup of life and drain it; there remained the strange, cool, and the irresistible passion to see, observe, and to participate with secret pride in the work of creation."
Poetry, approaches particulars manipulated by mathematics: Read Poe's Alone, where explains he is not like other people, he does not see as they do, and his emotions are not derived from the same source. In fact he suggests all experience is illusion.
If experiencing a sense of disillusionment on reading the ideas contained above, consider the words of the mystic, William Butler Yeats where he catches a small fish whose metamorphosis into a beautiful young woman, who calls his name and then disappears causes him to know "everything," and ultimately "nothing."
Is the material presented above an explanation or a description? If the Self is an illusion, created by genetics and environment, what developments in indoctrination (education) and medicine (gene editing, etc.) might make possible the development of the "model self" without unsavory aspects of criminal behavior, laxity toward responsibilities, respect for all variations of humanity (all living things?), violent reactions to restrictions, etc. which current educational paradigms, religions and social organizations have at least in large part failed to accomplish?
As Alice Hargreaves asked in a state of bewilderment on visiting New York to receive an award from Columbia University in the early 1930's, where she was mobbed by newsmen wanting to meet, "Alice" -
"What is all the, FUSS?"
An insightful study seems likely in the comparison of
William Butler Yates and Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Among other facets of the
Self to be considered might be interactions in their childhood experiences in
school, in classmate comparisons, parents, learning preferences; and as an
adult, word choice, linguistic/mathematical preferences, religious/agnostic
organizing principles and success with women and other associates. Similarities
shared by them are striking with the exception of when success was achieved in
their lifetimes. Notably, both were analytical and logical, but turned to the mystical in their creations by way of musical language and complex, mythical
worldviews, some of which neither probably took seriously. Yeats dabbled in
theosophy and other forms of mysticism as an escape from his father\u2019s
entrenched logical analyses. Further, he was perplexed by the idealized
existence the mind could create, so untapped by the experienced reality.
Lovecraft like Yeats became thoroughly materialistic, yet when his scientific
aims were foreshortened, he turned his attention to the matters of the
insignificance of human convictions in a meaningless Universe \u2013 or one so
different to see it in reality was a call to insanity. Yeats continued to
struggle with the variance between the preferred Universe of the human
convictions and reality; especially disappointing was his failure to establish
a rewarding relationship with a beautiful woman. He hoped, perhaps that he and Maud Gonne has inspired N. Rimsky Korsakov to compose, The Young Prince and Princess in Scheherazade.
What would have satisfied and Poe, Yeats and Lovecraft in their longings? Miss Cubbidge, after being carried by a Dragon from home to a blissful, foreign land with no faults to beleaguer the human spirit, where she lived in an eternal youth, in a dream state, without the passing of a single day, receives a letter from a childhood friend - where the friend states, "It is not proper that you should be there alone." In response, Miss Cubbidge might have invited Poe, Yeats and Lovecraft by way of the Dragon to enjoy the bliss as well. Mr, Plunkett, had he known might have made arrangements ahead of time.
Alas, instead Lovecraft created considerable numbers of articles, letters and poems; most significantly a modest number of tales fused into the Cthulhu
Mythos, (considered by some as so noteworthy as to be the basis of a "cosmic philosophy") now included in Penguin Classics editions, for which he has in all probability achieved immortality; if more
recent writers continue to make additions. Yeats achieved the Nobel Prize for
his artistic creations. Far more important, Yeats has achieved a lasting
success with the casual reader and academics beyond his life time. Lovecraft's works were preserved by two fans in the Arkham House volumes. Poe died in a desperate state, not knowing he had created science fiction, horror, detective and many other story forms. Like Lovecraft he did not know of his future reputation. All three writers have
touched on matters which will uniquely
influence humanity in any and all times \u2013 one definition of genius.
Yeats and Lovecraft may be representative of the Human Self in the guise of superior beings destined for exceptional achievements. As time passed their goals became more
modest. Lovecraft dreamed of being an astronomer, a goal frustrated when he
failed in studies of mathematics. So he returned to his fanciful childhood and wrote
of celestial sightings, and created the Old Ones from another Universe hidden
underground plotting to return to world domination. Yeats strove to understand
the psychology of the human Self as it experienced the denial of life goals in
a Universe of contrary design. He failed, but wrote fancifully, bemoaning his failure and
that of characters in his emotive poetry. Are the necessary ideas to reach goals of understanding of the
human predicament beyond reach except in the most localized, mechanical
operations? Is an explorer searching for a beautiful bird to be named after himself forced to accept an Antarctic mite secured from a bag of Penguin dung?
Yeats - "All of these things were wonderful and great,
But now I have grown nothing, knowing all."
Lovecraft - \u201cThat is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die."
Poe - "Yes! I repeat it-as thou shouldst be!!
What we have here is a simple response to other
investigators attempting to decode Lovecraft\u2019s The Outsider. If some over simplifications have crept in, or even
some complex nonsense, at least there may appear a germ of thought for further
investigation. Incidentally, how well did you distinguish statements with content from those without? Of necessity, the presentation is somewhat disjointed as the subject is developed, since no one coercive view is available. If you cannot think anything on reading this paper - that is the most likely outcome. So office workers are trained to say only a scripted dialog from which they cannot deviate. Knowledgeable people seal themselves away in institutions (whose motives or even locations are somewhat hidden) so that the workers can concentrate on a minute matter with some hope of reaching an understanding. Needless to say, they often do not succeed even under optimum circumstances. A noted authority involved in the Human Genome Project admitted he did not like to change workers, "We cannot train new people because even we do not know what we are doing."
So, if the White Queen can think six impossible thoughts before breakfast, why not try the Illusion of the Self? The matter of the nature of the Self in common parlance remains, and as with matters of cherished importance to humans, belief in the Self will very likely persist into the future; its existence doubted by scientists in the security of their laboratories. Once they step out of their laboratories belief in the Self might return in force.
Of necessity, a chemical understanding of the Self will result in pharmaceuticals to repair "faults" in this essential illusion. However, the workmen and their cement and tools who installed the new pool and yard amenities will be forgotten when neighbors and friends join in a beautiful sunny day for a cherished get together.
"AAHHH! Smell the hot dogs!!! Please pass the relish!! Lovecraft's Outsider was just a 'nut case'"!
"Smiling they live, and call life pleasure;
To me that cup has been dealt in another measure."
Shelley 1818
Question: "Why did Lovecraft write The Outsider?
Hypothesis: The genetics, etc. of his conscious and subconscious formulating his Psyche (Self), was that of an Abstract Sequential - involving the following traits. Note: these traits are effects not causes. He preferred the world of the intellect. He had a fruitful mind which arranged ideas in complex patterns. His thoughts were centered on the present, but also the past and projected future. He was logical, analytic and correlative. He validated his own ideas and used accredited experts, also. His waking attention was focused on knowledge, facts and ideas. He created by joining ideas together in theories and models. He enjoyed knowledge, thoughtful communication as in an environment intellectually stimulating. He was highly verbal, using most appropriate words precisely (even at the risk of adjectival insistence bordering on bombast. Towards others he paid few compliments (and then overflowing in content), disliked close relationships, emotions, practicality, being questioned, opinions of others, "lesser minds" (a sense of superiority), competition and being disregarded (he liked his ideas paid attention to and being the center of attention. Therefore he might appear "arrogant.") When challenged he could be belittling and caustic, "cutting someone off the knees with three words." In groups he was charismatic. He preferred being alone or with those who were focused on the "what" rather than the "who". Therefore, he was an Outsider. His attention to the works of other writers, his choice of subject matter in reading and study were the effects of his psyche (Self) rather than causes. Only 2% of a human population are of this category, and being alone is a natural outcome in a world among strangers - so he spent time writing, walking, watching, reading among the books shelves of libraries and, night streets, alone. He had few close friends, those like minded. A specific friend, a cat seen though a window, sprawled on a roof, he named Aristotle. On a casual encounter a typical person would ask, "Are you a professor? You talk as though you are very educated." Lovecraft might have pondered - "I will write a story of someone who is as alone as I am; - Where are all the interesting people?" Lovecraft could depict the world not as it is, but as seen by the archetypal metarepresentations of his unique human Self.
\u201cYour Old Buddy,
Whizbang!!\u201d
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