Kateness, apologies, reparations, begging for forgiveness...

[DANDOM%UMASS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu (Dan Parmenter at Hampshire College)]

IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu writes:

> First, it will be understood by now that this whole Houdini name
> business was a misunderstanding prompted by IED's inadvertant
> omission  of the title "Mrs." from a posting the
> other day.

Okay, misunderstanding.  Houdini's and my name are cleared.  Kate's
too!  She wrote a song about what might have been...

> Next, it should be pointed out that Kate has NEVER said or in any
> way implied that she "believed" in the theories of Wilhelm Reich.
> NEVER.

Okay, so I was wrong.  It struck me that by referring to the
'rain-making' device on the Picture Disc Interview was tantamount
to some sort of endorsement of its existance.  On repeated
listening, I must agree that she manages to come across more as
saying "apparently there was such a machine."  Fine, so I
misunderstood Kate's tone.  Sorry Kate!!

> If you are truly interested in getting both a full understanding
> of the facts and an idea of the beauty of Reich's own ideas and
> writings, as well as the remarkable and unique form which
> Reich's paranoia took in his later life, IED strongly recommends
> that you give Reich's own work a try, especially the later papers,
> published in the late 1940s and early 1950s by the Orgonon Press.
> And "A Book of Dreams" is another book well worth reading.

Would you also recommend The Book of Genesis as an unbiased account
of the creation of the world and the development of life? :-)

> As for Kate's "esoteric beliefs", they are only esoteric to those
> who don't take the trouble to find out about them. Kate has
> identified many of her philosophical and artistic influences over
> the years, both through explicit references and through the
> specialized vocabulary she often uses in her interviews. None of
> these influences is particularly esoteric.

Exactly what is this 'specialized vocabulary'?  Is this some
sort of way of leaving certain ambiguities in her answers?

    Well, I seem to have gotten myself in a bit of a pickle.
I apologize to IED and Kate.  To IED because I didn't realize that
he would be offended, and because I don't want him to hate me.  To
Kate for implying, via 'guilt-by-association' that she was deranged
for taking seriously the work of a controversial figure in recent
scientific history.  In point of fact, Kate is functioning as a
reporter of what Reich's son claims to have observed.
'Cloudbusting' is not Kate's interpretation of the life and works
of Wilhelm Reich, rather it is Reich's son's.

    Allow me to reiterate my belief, which I think IED might
agree with, that this video represents a version of Reich as viewed
through the eyes of a child.  On this level, it works very well
because it is completely irrelevent to the song whether Orgonomy is
true.  I happen to believe that it is not, but that is merely
the reactionary opinion of one who has read a good deal about
alternative belief systems.  To his credit, Reich could include
among his believers writers such as William S. Burroughs.  A student
at Hampshire College even went so far last year as to construct
an Orgone Accumulator in accordance with Reich's instructions,
to fulfill a Natural Science requirement.

    As for Kate and her magnificent song 'Cloudbusting', I
recall a line: "You're like my Yoyo, that glowed in the dark,
what made it special, made it dangerous".  This is my favorite line
in the song not merely because it is a clever and concise
delineation of Reich as observed by his son, but because it also
alludes to another facet to Reich's life and work.  It is a fact
that as part of his researches, Reich worked with Radium in
an effort to learn how to use Orgones to counteract the effects of
radiation.  His doceumented carelessness in its use is what
I think Kate is referring to since Radium, or something
like it was what did in fact make early glow-in-the-dark toys
dangerous.  A further example of the multiple levels of meaning
in a well-turned Kate lyric.  No slouch, she!

    Also to IED:  Thanks for that wonderful interview reprint,
and the assessment of her Canadian interview, as one of the neophyte
Kateophiles about whom you speak, it is true that we occasionally
view her as a bit of a winsome and romantic teenager, rather than
the serious artist that she clearly is.

    Also, in case you weren't aware, the Kate 'APAzine' is,
as its name might imply, in the tradition of Science Fiction APA
'zines, that is to say, a group of small, allied fanzines collated
by a central mailer, and redistributed to all of its contributors.
I am a part-collator of such an APA myself (not Kate related).

'All Yours' in profuse apologies and extreme Kate-ness,
Dan Parmenter

P.S. Kate Bush is GodDESS.
P.P.S. Does ANYONE know ANYTHING about the American Kitaro
tour? I *must* have information!!!
All I know is that it's supposed to be in August.