Benzel Hexentexte Syllabus Revised Summer 2018

Hexentexte, The Menace of Unreality, and The Anarchist Crowned, Unfinished Systems of Nonknowledge

Scott Benzel, Escuela Incierta, Summer 2018

“The past is not dead. It isn’t even past.” William Faulkner

Course Description

Hexentexte, The Menace of Unreality, and The Anarchist Crowned is a seminar course examining information asymmetry, secrecy, mimetic transmission, thought contagion, and related forms of 'capture' or 'possession'. The course will also explore the increasingly 'artlike' and 'unreal' effects of these phenomena within the realms of the social, the political, and the everyday.

Please do not be alarmed by the volume of reading material. Suggested Readings are incorporated into the lectures and may be skimmed or read in advance, at a later date, or not at all. Additional Readings/Primary Sources are included for further research. Screenings are excerpts of longer videos, most of which are available on Youtube.

Please note that this course includes some ideas, personages, texts, videos, images, etc. that are problematic. Some are of questionable veracity and are included as objects of the phenomena in question.

1. Hexentexte, Cosmology and Critique Your nearest Doppelganger is located approx.10 to the power of 10 to the power of 28 meters away, that is, a one followed by 10 billion billion billion zeroes meters; Four multiverses you might be living in Hexentexte Unica Zürn, Hans Bellmer, the anagram, and the recombinant text/body; Dion Fortune and the Magical Battle of Britain, William Seabrook's Hitler Hex; The Beatles, 'Number 9/Turn me on Deadman', phoneme reversal, Backmasking in Rock Music, Alyssa talking backwards, Rituals of Reversal as a Means of Rewiring Social Structure; W.S. Burroughs' Feedback from Watergate to the Garden of Eden and the Moka Bar hex, Wallace Berman's Semina and Aleph, Cameron, Michael Mclure's Ghost Tantras; Facebotlish and Cryptophasia Witches' Cradle William Seabrook, Maya Deren, and the Witches' Cradle; Marcel Duchamp, Anne Matta Clark, and Peggy Guggenheim's Art of this Century galleryß; Man Ray, Lee Miller, and The Fantasies of Mr.Seabrook Weaponized Anthropology and The Divine Horsemen Gregory Bateson, Margaret Mead, the OSS and CIA; Katherine Dunham, Maya Deren, Voudon, and Haiti; Iko Iko, transmission and contagion, Sybil Klein's Interpreting Indian Chants Information Asymmetry, Possession, and Secrecy Toxoplasma gondii, Peta Mitchell's Contagious Metaphor, Henri Bergson's The Persistence of the Past Art against Law Niklas Luhmann, artifice, decay, and autopoietic reproduction.

Narrow, here is your country . . .It lies in your hand. –Unica Zürn

Suggested Readings

Unica Zürn, Hexentexte Susan Zieger, The case of William Seabrook Evon Z. Vogt, Rituals of Reversal as a Means of Rewiring Social Structure Judith Noble, The Magic of Time and Space, Occultism in the Films of Maya Deren David H. Price, Buying a piece of Anthropology, Human Ecology and unwitting anthropological research for the CIA Henri Bergson, Persistence of the Past Niklas Luhmann, Autopoiesis of Social Systems from Essays on Self-Reference and Perception and Communication from Art as a Social System

Screenings

Scale of the Universe: From Planets to Multiverse Suketu Bhavsar, Multiverse Doppelgangers: Do Many Versions of You Exist? Nova, 4 Multiverses You Might be Living In The Beatles, Revolution 9- first 40 seconds backwards Satanic Backmasking in the Music Industry Alyssa Talking Backwards Antony Balch, The Cutups Wallace Berman, Aleph Michael McClure, reading poetry to lions Talking Twin Babies Maya Deren, Witches' Cradle Maya Deren, et al. The Divine Horsemen Nat Geo, Zombie Snails BBC1, Rats attacking cats Toxoplasma. Mind controlling parasite Robert Sapolsky, Interview: Toxoplasmosis The Dixie Cups, Iko Iko Sugarboy Williamson, Professor Longhair, et al., Jock A Mo

Additional Readings/Primary Sources

EV, Audio Reversal In Popular Culture Yvonne Chireau and Mambo Vye Zo Kommande LaMenfo, Esoteric Writing of Vodou, Grimoires, Sigils, and the Houngan’s Notebook October no.14, Maya Deren, Art and Anthropology Montgomery Mcfate, Anthropology and Counterinsurgency U.S. Dept. of State, Guyana Hodding memo, Bateson, Huxley Sybil Klein, Iko Iko, Interpreting Indian Chants Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Secrecy and of Secret Societies Hugh Urban, Elitism and Esotericism Aaron Lynch, Thought Contagion

2. The Menace of Unreality Vladislav Surkov, Alexandr Dugin, ‘Political Technologists’, Surkov/Dubovitsky's Almost Zero; Anna Chapman's 'Honey Trap', active measures, and kompromat; Topology, Jacques Lacan, the Cross Cap, the Klein Bottle, and Jean Baudrillard's Moebius: spiralling negativity, Bach's Crab Canon on a Möbius Strip Wilderness of Mirrors Bernays' Propaganda, Gerontion, Furioso, James Jesus Angleton and the literary roots of CIA, The XX Committee and the literary roots of British intelligence, Operations Mincemeat, Paperclip, Gladio, and Mockingbird Metamorphosis and Cryptography Picabia, Man Ray, Satie, Metamorphosis in 391; Walter Arensberg's The Cryptography of Shakespeare, With Hidden Noise, et al, Arensberg and Duchamp's cryptographic collaborations; Marcel Duchamp, A Life in Chess, Eve Babitz's Slow Days, Fast Company, John Cage and Marcel Duchamp's Reunion; Garry Kasparov, Deep Blue, and the 'psychological toll' of the glitch, Alphazero and Artificial General Intelligence; Satoshi Nakamoto, blockchain, and 0xΩ; Borges and the false translation of Kafka's La metamorfosis, The Vertical of Power Alexandr Dugin's Fourth Political Theory, A.E. Vaino's Nooscope, Pussy Riot's World Cup Pitch Invasion and Punk Prayer

“...those who do not answer “yes” or “no”, who do not say “white” or “black”, who know some third word.” Natan Dubovitsky, Without Sky

Suggested Readings

Natan Dubovitsky, Without Sky Peter Pomerantsev and Michael Weiss, The menace of unreality Kenneth R. Allan, Metamorphosis in 391 A Cryptographic Collaboration by Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Erik Satie Fernando Sorrentino, El kafkiano caso de la "Verwandlung" que Borges jamás tradujo Jacob Christiansen Senholt, Radical Politics and Political Esotericism Alissa Ordabai, The Occult Prong of the Kremlin’s Propaganda Machine

Screenings

BBC Wipe 2014, Vladislav Surkov BBC Newsnight, Aleksandr Dugin, 'We have our special Russian truth' Jean Baudrillard, The Year 2000 Will Not Take Place REN TV, Exposure with Anna Chapman, Honey Trap Jos Leys, The Klein Bottle from two Mobius bands Klein bottle fluid simulation Jos Leys, The cross-cap Jos Leys, J.S. Bach's Crab Canon on a Möbius Strip T.S. Eliot's Gerontion, read by Tom O'Bedlam BBC documentary, Operation Mincemeat Jean-Marie Drot, "Jeu d'échecs" avec Marcel Duchamp ESPN, El Hombre Vs La Maquina Google Deepmind DQN plays Atari Breakout Siraj Raval, How Does DeepMind's AlphaGo Zero Work? The Guardian, Pussy Riot claim responsibility for World Cup final pitch invasion Pussy Riot, Punk Prayer

Additional Readings and Primary Sources

Walter Arensberg, The Cryptography of Shakespeare Sarah Roger, Borges Translates Kafka Michael Howard, The Occult War Zoë Bernard, There is now a blockchain-based religion. No, this is not a joke. A.E. Vaino, Capitalization of the future Olga Ivshina, Nooscope mystery/ The strange device of Putin's new man Anton Vaino - BBC News Pussy Riot, Punk Prayer

3. The Anarchist Crowned, Nonlinear war The Yippies' Levitation of the Pentagon, NYSE Action, and Pigasus; Natan Dubovitsky/Vladislav Surkov's Without Sky; Ed Lorenz' Toy Weather, nonlinearity, and Chaos, The Strange Attractor; Kekule and the Benzene Ring, Ramanujan and Namagiri, Francis Crick, LSD, and the double helix, The Fundamental Fhysiks Group, Esalen, and the Physics/Consciousness Research Group; Bell's Theorem and entanglement, Lynn Hershman/Roberta Breitmore, Robert Anton Wilson, Discordianism, and Operation Mindfuck Agharta Saint-Yves D'Alveydre and Archeometre, Fabret d'Olivet, Agharta, the Lord of the Earth, and Synarchy, Miles Davis, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Helena P. Blavatsky, Hilma af Klint, Piet Mondrian L'Acéphale/La Cagoule (The Headless/The Hood) George Bataille, Michel Leiris, Roger Caillois, Jacques Lacan, Acephale, Anarchy, and Sacrifice; Dada, Gruppo di Ur, Julius Evola, and Traditionalism; Synarchy and the Cagoule Futurism, an aside Possibility space, art production, and the preferred future; Kodwo Eshun, the Futures Industry, and Samuel Delany's “significant distortion of the present”; 'Paypal Scifi', The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, All you Zombies, The Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age The Anarchist Crowned The God Emperor, Heliogabalus, or The Anarchist Crowned Zuerst die Füsse (Feet First) Justinus Kerner's Kleksographien, Victor Hugo's inkstains, and Herman Rorshach's test; Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater's Thoughtforms, Alexandra David-Néel's Magic and Mystery in Tibet and the Tulpa; Martin Kippenberger's Zuerst die Füsse, 4chan, Infinitychan, Pepe, Kek, and Meme Magic; the 'Ritual at CERN', Wolfgang Pauli, and the CERN Faust; The Pauli Effect, Pauli/Jung Synchronicity, and Pauli's World Clock Palantir, Peter Thiel and Tolkien's Secret Vice; Palantir at LAPD, Government 3.0, Donald Trump's 'Shadow President' in Silicon Valley; Seasteading, New Zealand, and Exit; the Stanford Politics and Apocalypse conference, Rene Girard's Mimetic Theory, Mimesis, Desire, and Violence; Gawker and Lawfare, Gamergate and Doxfare, regulatory capture, judicial capture, executive capture; Parabiosis, 'Blood Boys', Ambrosia LLC, and Laura Makarius' The Violation of Taboo and Magical Power QuantumSquirrel, FoxAcid, InQTel, 'The Californian Ideology' to 'The Silicon Ideology', QuantumTheory, QuantumSquirrel, and FoxAcid; InQTel, the CIA as Venture Capitalist, Vault 7 and 8 releases, et al.

Sometimes paranoia's just having all the facts. - William S. Burroughs