Kong, The Ape of God
In the midst of the Great Depression, a giant ape appeared in American culture. After an overview of American history, I look for a way to save Kong from its fateful death. Such an alternative can be found in a dream series of theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli.
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References
05:00 - A lesser-known but important bridge between Kong and Godzilla is the 1953 monster film "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_from_20,000_Fathoms. For Kaiju movies, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiju.
07:30 - On Cooper's inspiration for Kong, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kong#Conception_and_creation
08:25 - For Cooper’s dream, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merian_C._Cooper#King_Kong. I’ve searched for such a dream in "Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong" by Mark Cotta Vaz and did not find anything.
09:10 - In the 1976 version, Kong climbs to the top of the World Trade Center. Peter Jackson reverted back to the Empire State Building for his 2005 movie.
10:00 - Looking through popular movies with a bald eagle, I could only find “Mighty Eagle” from the movie "Angry Birds". But that doesn’t count, does it?, https://angrybirds.fandom.com/wiki/Mighty_Eagle_(Movie)
10:45 - James Truslow Adams coined the expression the American Dream in 1931, https://www.britannica.com/topic/American-Dream
12:00 - For a vivid description of the mid 1700s, see https://www.lindaleegraham.com/crossing-the-atlantic/
14:40 - On religious life in colonial America, see https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/religion-colonial-america-trends-regulations-beliefs
17:10 - The next part was written with the help of two documentaries: "When the World Breaks" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1447483/) and "1929, la crise" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6946794/)
23:10 - Which makes you wonder what the long-term consequences of the pandemic are going to be… Is the rise of visual generative intelligence artificial the equivalent of the rise of the movie industry during the 30s?
24:10 - On how movies helped through the Great Depression, https://bestmoviesbyfarr.com/history/how-movies-got-us-through-the-great-depression/
31:40 - The visual design of the island is said to have been influenced by the famous painting, "The Isle of the Dead". “The film's dream climate was further accentuated by the use of Arnold Böcklin's macabre painting, The Isle of the Dead, to represent Skull Island, the home of Kong.”, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26303203
32:05 - On the blackness, see Psychic Epidemics, https://www.dionysophy.earth/podcasts/living-symbols/episodes/2149099027
32:50 - On the relationship between Ishamel and Queequeg, see Edward Edinger’s "Melville's Moby-Dick: An American Nekyia".
34:00 - On dinosaurs, see http://jungiantherapy.com/jungian-dream-analysis/
35:50 - My dream about dinosaurs being experimented on:
"The dinosaurs are rebelling" (dreamt on 06/09/2024)
I am driving somewhere. I think my wife is nearby. We end up seeing a structure in the middle of nowhere. It's a military base. I sneak inside (was I caught?) and I see some video display on the wall. It's about dinosaurs. "Oh shit, dinosaurs are real," I say to myself. I believe the videos are a way to acclimatise people before an encounter with a real dinosaur. I am lying down on the floor, faking sleep or coma, while keeping an eye or ear on the footage. It's better I get some exposure before the real thing.
Next, I am outside. I can see at a distance a tempest forming on top of Melbourne. "These aren't real clouds. They are geo-engineered." Next, the sun shines, and I get annoyed. I wanted to take a photo of the weather for my wife, but the sun is shining too brightly, making it impossible.
Next, I see military vehicles driving away from the city. I remember one submarine, cars, and trucks. They were fleeing something. It makes me pause. "It means that they lost control over the experiment they were doing on the dinosaurs. I must flee with them now." I jump on a boat and we defeat three successive raptors by making the boat jump and letting the propeller slice them into pieces.
We are still fleeing away from the city or the military base. We are wondering how to deal with this. I feel the dream is starting to fade, but I hear someone’s voice. It was a scientist, maybe a military general, someone wise or knowledgeable. He said this as I woke up: "Those who think that they [the dinosaurs] are the enemy are fools. They rebelled because they did not have enough power."
39:00 - The gibbon dream and its interpretation is from Jung's Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12, par 164ff.
41:10 - The "universal Catholic Church" dream is discussed twice in Jung's corpus. See Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12, par 176ff. and Psychology and Religion, CW 11, par 40ff.
46:55 - "Dionysus expands identity but crushes individuals. There is no liberal dignity of the person in the Dionysian. The god gives latitude but no civil rights." (Camille Pagila, Sexual Personae)
48:00 - I wonder if we can start to explain the furry phenomenon with this loss of the animal-in-man, i.e. the loss of the instinctual personality of the animal psyche...
49:10 - On ritual sacrifice, "The annual sacrifice of a maiden to the dragon is perhaps the ideal sacrifice on a mythological level. In order to mollify the wrath of the Terrible Mother the most beautiful girl was sacrificed as a symbol of man’s concupiscence. Milder forms were the sacrifice of the first-born and of various domestic animals. The alternative ideal is self-castration, of which a milder form is circumcision. Here at least only a modicum is sacrificed, which amounts to replacing the sacrifice by a symbolical act. By sacrificing these valued objects of desire and possession, the instinctive desire, or libido, is given up in order that it may be regained in new form. Through sacrifice man ransoms himself from the fear of death and is reconciled to the demands of Hades." (Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, par 671)
51:30 - Quoted from Jung's Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12, par 522.
52:30 - "The “mother” corresponds to the “virgin anima,” who is not turned towards the outer world and is therefore not corrupted by it. She is turned rather towards the “inner sun,” the archetype of transcendent wholeness—the self.30" (Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation, CW 5, par 497). See also John Layard, The Incest Taboo and the Virgin Archetype on this topic, as footnote 30 indicates.
52:40 - For another example of the virgin anima, see the bond between Elizabeth and the Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s "Frankenstein".
53:18 - The positive pole would be Captain Jack Driscoll, a heroic figure who is able to overcome the savage nature of Kong without harming it. The negative pole would be filmmaker Carl Denham whose boldness goes too far, as he is the one who captures Kong to bring him back. In one way, without Carl, there would be no expedition in the first place. And yet Carl’s unchecked power motif sets in motion the events leading to Kong’s death. Both Jack and Carl are representations of the American psyche of the early 20th century.
59:00 - On the unsatisfactory nature of the "universal Catholic Church" dream, see Jung's Psychology and Religion, CW 11, par 40ff.
59:30 - The "transform animals into men" dream and its interpretation is from Jung's Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12, par 183ff. and Psychology and Religion, CW 11, par 54-57.
1:03:00 - The "everything must be ruled by the light" vision is from Jung's Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12, par 117ff.
1:04:40 - See also Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12, par 181: "[When] the ape first appears, it was said that “everything must be ruled by the light,” and everything, we might add, includes the Lord of Darkness with his horns and cloven hoof—actually a Dionysian corybant who has rather unexpectedly risen to the rank of Prince [i.e the ape as the Simia Dei appearing as a devil].”
1:07:15 - Quoted from Jung's Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12, par 191.
Music and Soundscapes
03:10 - Godzilla King of the Monsters - Ending, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXTdArIvggI
05:10 - Main Title (King Kong Film score by Max Steiner)
16:05 - "Aint She Sweet?" (Gene Austin, 1927), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xpSeaxRpCc
21:10 - 1932 Democratic National Convention, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mqWhDwAFmk
24:40 - A Boat in the Fog (King Kong Film score by Max Steiner)
30:05 - Ending scene of King Kong (1933)
36:00 - Entrance of Kong (King Kong Film score by Max Steiner)
44:10 - The Snake - The Bird - The Swimmers (King Kong Film score by Max Steiner)
49:30 - Extract from King Kong (2005)
56:30 - Aeroplanes (King Kong Film score by Max Steiner)
1:04:40 - Finale (King Kong Film score by Max Steiner)
King Kong Film score by Max Steiner, https://archive.org/details/MAXSTEINERKingKong-CompleteFilmScore/
All use of audio under Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
