Friday, May 13, 2011

Increasingly irregular skull-blogging: Anthroposophy edition

According to Trevor Constable, Rudolf Steiner was a "Prodigal titan" and a "God-like man":
I can do that.
Me neither. But everyone is "SHUT UP SMUT!" and then I am thrown out of the pub. There is NO JUSTICE.

A pilot test of Steiner's prescription for witch repellent
Here in New Zealand we are primitive peasant folk, and Steiner is best known for his contributions to pest control. In particular for his 'peppering' process [now with less pepper] of burning the pelt and testicles of an unwanted species when Venus is in Scorpio, and asperging fields with the ashes to repel that species of pest and reduce its fertility.

Witch-repellent pilot test: Results of placebo, a diet of eggs
and acrylic, and two varieties of biodynamic alphabet spaghetti.
Peppering did not work in a field test but that has not discouraged the anthroposophists and biodynamicists who pointed out that the soil was not damp enough when the ashes were sprinkled. MORE RESEARCH IS NEEDED.

Of course here at Riddled we are more concerned with Rudolf Steiner's views on skulls. Goethe reckoned "that the skull-bones are metamorphosed vertebrae, bones of the spine". Steiner said No, they are like the long bones of arms and legs and ribs, but inside-out:
...if we compare the inner surface of a tubular bone with the outer surface of a skull-bone... The inner surface of the tubular bone corresponds morphologically to the outer surface of the skull-bone. The skull-bone can be derived from the tubular bone if we picture it as being reversed, to begin with, according to the principle of the turning-inside-out of a glove. In the glove, however, when I turn the outer surface to the inside and the inner to the outside, I get a form similar to the original one. But if in the moment of turning the inside of the tubular bone to the outside, certain forces of tension come into play and mutual relationships of the forces change in such a way that the form which was inside and has now been turned outward alters the shape and distribution of its surface, then we obtain, through inversion on the principle of the turning-inside-out of a glove, the outer surface of the skull bone as derived from the inner surface of the tubular bone. From this you can conclude as follows. The inner space of the tubular bone, this compressed inner space, corresponds in regard to the human skull to the entire outer world...
Steiner was apparently under the impression that the parietal and occipital bones have marrow on the outside, suggesting a lack of direct first-hand experience.

He was also sadly unclear on how one should turn a tubular bone inside out like a glove. Perhaps it involves Fritz Leiber's Invertor...

Or the Rhennius Machine from Zelazny's Doorways in the Sand...

... Or Portal #4 in Seven Exits from Bosz.

Bloody hell, the witches are back, and just as fertile as before. SO MUCH FOR PEPPERING.*
Witch test fails to repel pilots
* The Popering, on the other hand, is just fine.

5 comments:

mikey said...

"What the hell?" I stood at the sideboard, highball glass in my left hand, pouring the Sailor Jerry's. But the glass remained stubbornly empty. "What is this devilment?" I demanded. "What do you suppose Smut is doing to the space time continuum NOW?"

On the stereo, Pat Benatar stopped in mid-chorus. "It's empty, mikey", she said abruptly.

I turned. "Say Whut?" I responded, demonstrating both my immediate grasp of the situation and my intellectual depth.

"Empty" said Pat again. "The Sailor Jerry's. You've finished it. The solution is to walk around to BevMo and get another jug."

"Nope", I told Pat decisively. "One might THINK that would work, but after whatever Smut's done to reality, they'll ALL be empty."

"Then you face a Sailor Jerry-less future" she concluded.

"Wait", I suggested. "Perhaps not. There's something...I read it somewhere:

"But if in the moment of turning the inside of the tubular bone to the outside, certain forces of tension come into play and mutual relationships of the forces change in such a way that the form which was inside and has now been turned outward alters the shape and distribution of its surface, then we obtain, through inversion on the principle of the turning-inside-out of a glove, a fully refreshed jug of Sailor Jerry's.

Pat thought about it while the band just noodled behind her. "Y'know, mikey? That just might work!"

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I still looking for the type of beer that will help me understand this post.
~

Substance McGravitas said...

Witch-repellent pilot test: Results of placebo, a diet of eggs
and acrylic, and two varieties of biodynamic alphabet spaghetti.


I have found that witches will not come near when I have smeared myself with shit. The type of shit does not appear to make a difference.

Smut Clyde said...

Post makes more sense if turned inside-out.

Smut Clyde said...

the type of beer that will help me understand this post.

Any attempt to grapple with Rudolf Steiner philosophy is going to come out weird. You try reading him. It is like a primer in psychotic ideation and loose metaphors taken literally. "The skull as an inverted femur" is just a warm-up for Steiner. Don't start him on (for instance) the unification of embryology and cosmology.

And yet he is seen as an influential figure in early-20th-century culture. His straight-out-of-his-arse ideas on agriculture and pest control -- combining homeopathy, astrology, sympathetic magic and a basic barminess all of his own -- are taken seriously among New Zealand organic farmers, to the point that they are almost synonymous with the Green movement. Here and in the UK, Steiner Schools are seen as a legitimate part of the educational system, where teachers are expected to accept the basic tenets of 1920s pseudoscience.

If this is human intelligence at work then we are a doomed experiment. But you knew that.