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In Egyptian religion Anubis had something of a counterpart Wepwawet*, who was portrayed with similar iconography; Wepwawet was the opener of the ways, death was not the end but the start of the next stage of existence, so Wepwawet was kind of like the angel of death, but he was seen as good, you'd be happy to see him.
I guess Greek religion was a bit closer to how any people view death today, when Heracles met people in the underworld they were grey and had a grey existence - the correct funeral rites were important, but they did not gain you every much....and Cerberus was there to make sure you did not escape! Actually that reminds me of another of those really old stories that just connects: Elpenor in the Odyssey when he begs Odysseus for a proper funeral, it just resonants, and the rationale is a little different, but that desire to be remembered and even honoured after you are gone just reaches out through time to me.
If you would like to write longer messages, or discuss more, I would be happy to see your words as a message .
*With Egyptian names you will often see them 'Greekified' if there is some Greek equivalent, or if they were named by Greek historians...some did not get that treatment, and because hieroglyphs only indicate consonants, you will often see Egyptian names with 'filler' e used as the vowel, that is why some Egyptian names have that typical sound....it is not really related to how the language actually sounded!
George Harrison of the Beatles once described song writing as going to confession; and I wonder if that is what is the key to much great art, being honest - it can be painful or embarrassing to be brutally honest, but in doing so you can relate to people.
The 'papa' 'vater' kind of gets to the centre of a lot of language, lots of words are labels, but when a child uses the words 'papa' or 'mama' those are a lot more than just labels, it is perhaps even something beyond a concept.
And again the choice of words in poetry, when you read a 500 year old poet, there is no way that you can get inside the precise thoughts of that person, but you take the essence and apply it to your own thought - there is the possibility that you are completely wrong, but in some ways that might not really matter. (Bad example, but first one off the top of my head, the song 'Every Breath You Take' isn't a love song, but if a couple just hear the chorus of that song, and make it 'their song' are they wrong? My contention you can't really be wrong with art.)
I think the Egyptians are very interesting because their written language was a language like ours "I met Gerald last Wednesday to talk about the tomatoes in his allotment.", but the symbols also meant something as well, so the writer could 'spell' the same words with different symbols to make a point - I guess in English we do have a parallel, does a local factory 'grow' or does it 'assimilate local resources to get bigger'.
I think with Bauhaus one might be looking to amplify the difference between human culture and nature - and I guess in many ways language can be seen as a key dividing line; I find it quite interesting how many of the concepts that exist for us as humans may have been present from the very earliest time - maybe even some of the imperatives that can be seen in higher animals to this day.
When you mention both ancient and the visual, I think it is interesting how culture like Egypt covered so many things with such dense writing - the visual art of the writing was closely tied to the the message - I wonder how (if) this was expressed in performance too.
Are there any historical groups or individuals who inspire, or influence your work?
In France (and Spain) there is a language called Occitan, and the poetry in that language is almost exclusively oral - so of course you have the words linked to the excitement of the performance.
In Old English the language worked very differently, but also to a point poetry and literature was presented differently, it was very much an oral tradition, so one can imagine a good speaker rousing his audience with the rhythm of some repeated consonants: Beowulf beat the barefaced brutality given grotesquely by the graceless Grendel (not an actual quote, my poor impersonation!)
From an artistic perspective, the piece uses alliteration as opposed to rhyme, and although this piece is old from our perspective, this aspect demonstrates a link to a far older period in English literature; if you look at works like Beowulf, or Cædmon's Hymn, alliteration was a key tool because of how the language worked in those times - lot's of words ending '-an' or starting with 'ge-' (pronounced 'yuh'), or 'th'.
In a somer sesun, whon softe was the sonne,
I schop me into a shroud, as I a scheep were;
In habite as an hermite unholy of werkes
Wente I wyde in this world wondres to here;
Bote in a Mayes morwnynge on Malverne hulles
Me bifel a ferly, of fairie, me-thoughte.
*1370s.
Sandwich? Really?
There's a place called Sandwich?!
There's a place called Sandwich?!
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