I was talking with a friend and was reminded of a most marvelous coincidence that still gives me delight nearly ten years later. It has to do with a pop band, a sixteenth century painter, and Andrei Tarkovsky coming together perfectly. In fact, it there are several remarkable coincidences that brought about this magical moment. So if you’re interested, read on and explore this Enormous Room with me.
It all started with me doing some research for a history class. I decided to touch on some art from that time period. As I googled around I thought of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. I’ve always liked his pantings, his depth of field, exhibiting that Medieval virtue of copiae, that is of abundance, and nigh limitless interest.
In my search, I recalled that the Russian director Tarkovsky included one of Bruegel’s paintings in his film Solaris (1972). Solaris is a rich sci-fi film on guilt, mystery, and love set in orbit around the eponymous planet. The protagonist Kris Kelvin is sent to check the mental stability of the scientists observing the planet, whose communications have become increasingly unsettled. What he discovers is… increasingly unsettling. (Ad wizards, call me. I work cheap). It may feel ponderous and dull to the uninitiate, but repeat viewers will find the film rife cinematic glories.
Anyway, in the course of this strange film is a scene in which the gravity is shut off for a brief moment and the characters begin to float. They are in the library, surrounded by books and paintings and other artifacts of humanity, and everything hangs in hock for a moment. It is a magical moment, but this is the scene in which a Bruegel painting shows up, so I searched Youtube to see if I could find the clip.
Here’s the picture btw:
Unrelated (or so I thought): While I was working, I was listening to the new (at the time) album from Beach House: Depression Cherry. I found the clip from Solaris and watched it as the following song played:
You and me with our long hair on the gold wall After midnight we could feel it all I'd go anywhere you want to You should see there's a place I want to take you When the train comes I will hold you (When the train comes I will hold you) 'Cause you blow my mind On the bridge levitating 'cause we want to When the unknown will surround you (When the unknown will surround you) There is no right time There is no right time The branches of the trees They will hang lower now You will grow too quick Then you will get over it The branches of the trees They will hang lower now There's a place I want to take you When the unknown will surround you There's a place I want to take you (were you high) When they knocked on the door looking for you When the unknown will surround you (take my hand) As our bodies lift up slowly There's a place I want to take you (were you high) When they knocked on the door looking for you When the unknown will surround you (take my hand) As our bodies lift up slowly There's a place I want to take you
Here’s where the coincidences started happening.
The song above, which was playing while I skimmed the video to see if Bruegel’s ‘Hunters in the Snow’ was used, was titled Levitation.
Levitation happens in the video while the song Levitation was playing.
The length of the song was was 5:55.
The length of the video was 5:55.
The next coincidence I haven’t been able to locate, but I had just a day or so earlier come across a website that allows you to play the audio of one Youtube video over the picture of another, just by adding links. So my technologically challenged self could easily lay the song over the top of the video. So I did.
Reader, the result was stunning.
In fact, someone else has noticed this same coincidence and through the magic of human ability he was able to witchcraft the music over the scene. You can watch the scene and hear the song by clicking this link. I encourage you to do so.
On May 5th I will be putting SOL on sale for .99 until the 11th. It is a sci-fi novella written in collaboration with D. H. Lawrence (Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Sons & Lovers, Women in Love). If you like Solaris, then you’ll like Sol.
Corla defected to the moon to live with the newly arrived and technologically advanced Entozune. Her disdain of earth's old ways led her to embrace the alien society, such that she became a surrogate for a childling Entozune. She returns to the earth's atmosphere in order to recover in the light of the sun and wean the offspring. Back on earth she experiences crisis, both sexual and existential.
Sol is a powerful collaboration between D. H. Lawrence and H. W. Taylor, combining the sensual prose of Lawrence with the uncanny imagination of Taylor to bring this tale of awakening and renewal. The first of its kind, the world of literary sci-fi will never be the same.
Next newsletter I promise I’ll start the horror serial I promised earlier this year…