Two interesting posts on the relationship between movies and religion recently leads me to remind folks of the splendid character Mason Lang in The Invisibles. This quasi-Bruce-Wayne figure, partly as a result of an early experience with non-ordinary reality (which he perceived originally as a classic alien abduction scenario) grew up a little… odd. Lang, a rich benefactor of the Invisibles combat-magic cells, has a theory…that some movies contain hidden subtexts designed for the Invisibles and allied occultists and mystics to receive.
And, to benefit those who might not have met the thoughts of Mr. Lang, here’s some quotes. (All words by the Magus Grant Morrison.)
“Speed is about human evolution, right? It’s so obvious. The bus represents the world. Watch it again – they’ve got every nationality on there. Not only that, but it’s being driven to disaster by this guy who’s either made up to look Cro-Magnon or chosen becasue he looks that way. He’s our brutal evolutionary heritage, driving the world to armageddon while everybody argues. The whole thing’s symbolic… Just look at the amount of times you see the number 23. it’s in scene after scene. That’s not coincidence. The whole things a coded message.
…and finally , after the whole tantric love trip on the subway train at the end, they burst out into the street in front of a cinema showing 2001-A Space Odyssey…”
“I see this weird stuff every time I watch a movie. Think about Pulp Fiction – the glowing thing in the 666 suitcase is Marcellus Wallace’s soul, right? The band aid on his neck in the bar scene with Bruce Willis is where the soul was extracted. I mean I could go on all day. Check out Speed next time you watch it, just keep in mind that the bus is the World and that big gap in the highway construction is the Apocalypse.
…it means… I don’t know. It means, basically, that some movies are clearly being made by Invisibles and they contain messages for other Invisibles. Invisibles talking to each other in ther own secret language… the movies are signals, they let us know that others are out there…”
And this one goes a little deeper behind the curtain…
“I remember looking at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia when I was a little kid. That’s what I love about illusions; they’re right up there in front of you but somehow you don’t see them… until suddenly you do… and I saw that I lived in a world where the symbol was more important than the reality. Where the menu was supposed to taste better than the meal.
They’re bombing Planet Hollywood… those terrorists know exactly where the power lies. None of it’s real.
Kennedy was a good man. Nixon was a bad man. Is that true or is that just what we’ve been told is true?
Half of the stars in Hollywood are gay pretending to be straight… Walt Disney was a shit.
The moon landings happened in a studio.
The America I thought I lived in was a trick; I’d only ever really seen it on TV, in comic books and movies… especially movies. The Rosicrucians who built this country wouldn’t know where they were if you brought them here, would they? Not until you showed them Independence Day.
That night when I pissed down over Manhattan, I saw time. I saw time itself… America has been in a declared state of national emergency since March 9th, 1933, giving the president powers to suspend freedom of speech and take control away from all communications media at any time.
Who cares? Bruce Willis is here to save us all.
The more I looked, the less real America became. And the less real it became, the stronger it got. Planet Hollywood.”
As someone who’s had a fair share of emotional experiences watching movies – which I would not hesitate to call mystical – I kind of identify with Mason. (Maybe my old idea of reviewing movies in the style of Mason Lang should be revived? Hmm…)