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Two-part Conversation with John Cussans
Part One: Drug Cult Cartel Magic (0 – 29 mins)
Mexico, the witchcraft center, the Narcosatánicos, encounters with occult forces, psyops in Hollywood, tabloid journalism, The Believers, Mexican magic, Maximon & Baron Samedi, the Mayan death god, drug cult cartel magic, Breaking Bad, Jesus Malverde, sorcery or Hollywood, Santiago Atitlan, Mayan shaman brotherhood, meeting Mitch, the nagual and the tonal, the miracle of sin, the path of transgression, Seen and Not Seen.
Part Two: The Repressed Trauma Norm (29 mins – 1 hr 7 mins)
The video nasty, faking magic, I Spit on Your Grave, cinematic violence, mimetic violence, different responses to rape and violence, cannabis & movie watching, George Bataille, transgression & revolution, conservative censors and radical revolutionaries, Quadrophenia & mimesis, freedom of choice, cultural Band-Aids to trauma, opposite backgrounds, cramming Marxism, seeking repressed memories, recovered memory syndrome, the traumatic effects of television, appointments with fear, the occult conspiracy of the unconscious, the traumatic imprint, the trauma spectrum, the unlived life of the parents, red herrings on the quest for wholeness, collective skeletons in the closet of society, willed secrets.
Part Three: Sleepers on A Mission (1 hr 7 mins – end)
Symptomology of trauma, the mother & the matrix, the hard work of reconciliation, maternal dreams, the mother’s death, a monstrous mother, compartmentalization of trauma and abuse, Countess Dracula & Dorian Gray, the dead and the living.
Songs: “Knob Wobbler,” by Gib Strange; “Summer Ends” and “A Hell Below” by the Raveonettes; Aurora Ave, by Rose Windows.
Great conversation. An easy depth with you pair – if that makes sense?
Thanks Jasun
Fantastic back and forth. You and John work really well together. I look forward to part 2.
My parents let us watch pretty much anything but drew the line at Faces of Death and I Spit on Your Grave, both of which I’ve still never seen. Georges Bataille was required reading first semester of art school.
Great talk
In highschool a kid told me about one of the scenes in FOD where a girl dies from a toxic waste leech that attached to her from going swimming.The whole day I felt utterly sick and depressed just from hearing that story so yeah glad I skipped that one.Also in highschool I belonged to a horror movie club called the Gore Core where we watched obscure/B level horror movies.
I remember we watched I spit on your grave and was the only one who was completely sick/appalled by it and this included the girls in the club although they may have missed being there that night.
Some how everyone else found the torturing rape committed was mitigated by the revenge latter on.It was like the two different acts were of even temperament and everything came out in the wash.
It really had an alienating effect that the others were effected so little by the sadistic violence in the film.I really liked Texas chainsaw massacre but somehow felt it to be very different.Still have a hard time understanding why some things effect me while other things that might be considered equal do not.
When I was in art school in the late 90’s I used to do these weird little psychological performance pieces with my friend Elliot. We specialized in male characters who lacked a certain self-awareness and were somehow lost and confused about how to navigate the modern world. Anyway, I remember I had this bit where I’d be this film critic who would discuss the film I Spit on Your Grave, praising the mise-en-scene of the first half and then complaining that the second half loses focus, etc. The joke was he’d never directly address that he liked the rape part and not the revenge part, he’d just use film terms without really addressing the content and then suggest a re-cutting of the film where she gets raped and then it rolls credits.
It was 1999 and edgy humor was in. Anyway, I’ve outed myself here. Cancel me now. What? I’ve got nothing to cancel? Oh…
I’m really glad my parents never let me see I Spit on Your Grave or Faces of Death. And I’ve noticed as I get older I’m less able to handle horror movies, particularly cruelty or torture. It is interesting how some things affect us more than others. Also interested in what does and doesn’t offend different comedy audiences.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do.
–Philip Larkin, from “This Be The Verse” in High Windows