The curtain is raised; the music must cease.

The temple is gone; and far in the distance

Appeareth the terrible form of the – Sphinx.

Fr Schlegel on Schleiermacher’s speeches

It’s the enigmatic character of the sphinx that Schlegel has in mind there, not that the sphinx is frightening … in the end of the day after all the drama you find yourself as it were facing the stage, the curtain goes up, the music stops, the tempo of the old religion is gone, but behind it, the equivalent of, very simply, the sphinx, with the old knowing but not telling-smile on its face.

That was Schlegel’s point.

Death and Transfiguration could also be one of the many sub-titles for ‘The Fugitive Stag‘ …

Richard Strauss: Death and Transfiguration, Op. 24 (Karajan, Berliner Ph… https://youtu.be/4f92pYZYGfc via @YouTube

RICHARD S WAS ONLY 24 WHEN HE COMPOSED D & T – GREAT MUSIC FOR A FILM SCORE … AND WILL FEATURE IN ‘THE FUGITIVE STAG‘ …

As they stormed the stage in an attempt to silence him, the security detail posted around Baron Cohen moved in to fend them off. The security squad, it transpired, had been paid for by a mysterious benefactor who stepped in at the last minute to sponsor the event.

Baron Cohen and his entourage later fled in a private ambulance. The organisers, a pro-gun, pro-Trump group known as the Washington Three Percenters (WA3%), said that they were “appalled” by the stunt, which they complained made them “look bad”.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/comedian-sacha-baron-cohen-takes-aim-at-pro-gun-rally-with-spoof-racist-singalong-vqfdrkxfv

“All is within us”, purgatory and hell,
Seeds full of will, the white of the inner bark
the rich and the smooth colours,
the foreknowledge of trees,
sense of the blade in seed, to each its pattern.
Germinal, active, latent, full of will,
Later to leap and soar,
willess, serene,
Oh one could change it easy enough in talk.
And no one vision will suit all of us.

Say I have sat then, the low point of the cone,
hollow and reaching out beyond the stars,
reaches and depth, the massive parapets,
Walls whereon chariots went by four abreast

Ezra Pound

There is a hex on us … the authority of the past; and to exorcise these ghosts is the great work of magical self-liberation. Then the eyes of the spirit would become one with the eyes of the body, and god would be in us, not outside. God in us: entheos: enthusiasm; this is the essence of holy madness. (Norman O Brown 31 May 1960 Columbia University).

On one level, ‘The Fugitive Stag’ is just that .. an exorcism. Breaking free of the ghosts of the past … and celebrating that liberation.

This is what The Fugitive Stag is all about, and because of ‘discovery’ its sequel is now underway. I look forward to discovering its director and producer and lead actors.

... AND TO GIVE HIS OR HER LOVE, AND AWARE THAT BEAUTY IS SUMMONING HER or HIM.” … wrote Andrei Tarkovsky.

BEAUTY SUMMONED ME. BEAUTY CHALLENGED ME. I TOOK UP THAT CHALLENGE, AND ITS FRUIT IS THE TALE OF THE FUGITIVE STAG.

MAYBE BEAUTY IS SUMMONING YOU – IF YOU ARE A FILM DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER OF ACTOR, WILL YOU CONSIDER GETTING IN TOUCH WITH ME?

“A man was journeying in the wilderness and he found Aletheia (Truth) standing there all alone. He said to her, ‘Ancient lady, why do you dwell here in the wilderness, leaving the city behind?’ From the great depths of her wisdom, Aletheia replied, ‘Among the people of old, lies were found among only a few, but now they have spread throughout all of human society!’”
[This fable is preserved only in a Latin text. Aesop’s Aletheia (Truth) is Veritas in the Latin – 6 BC]

ALETHEIA IS CELEBRATED IN THE TALE OF THE FUGITIVE STAG

Let us stop! For it does not always avail, when

Pure truth openly shows its countenance.

More often, too,

Silence is the wisest thing that the mind of man can devise.