In mid-November 2016, I prepared and gave this lecture because some of my students felt very understandably personally threatened by the results of the election that year. I had insisted that no one was allowed to skip my class due to the election but I clashed with a few of the students. We were learning specific skills to present ideas, pitch them, acquire funding, and make our voices heard through animation. I was inspired to create a lecture about one of my heroes of animation, satire, and subversive social criticism, Jan Švankmajer. Unfortunately, I succumbed to my own hypocrisy and kept this post private for 9 years - due mostly to fear of reprisals. Also unfortunately, it remains relevant today. You are always doing a disservice to anyone who would have taken comfort or found inspiration in your words by not saying them. Get loud, talk hard. - Dillon
2016 - Nov - Hampshire College - Amherst, MA
This semester, I took some time to put together a lecture on one of my heroes, Jan Svankmajer, the preeminent surrealist Czech animator who stood up to the totalitarian Communist regimes by disguising his cynical critiques of society in playfulness and creativity. I have decided to share my lecture notes in this blog post. Take from this what you will, but I wanted to convey how important I think it is to remember how lucky we are to have our first amendment.
Punk Rock in the Regan Era
I mentioned to one of my classes shortly after the election that some people were saying that the bright side of this whole thing is that there is going to be some good music and art that comes out of it. I said that was bullshit, but I have to acknowledge the irresponsibility of that statement. There should be good music and art to come out of times of political unrest, but the reason that it's good is that people are so angry and frustrated that the only way they can achieve catharsis is to explode with rage. Angst and anger can turn the threat of violence into maniacal laughter. There is belonging in mutual exile. Mosh pits are terrifying to parents, but when you are in one you realize that it's all about looking out for each other in the face of danger, sometimes putting yourself in harm's way just to help someone you don't even know. In 1981, the year Reagan was inaugurated, the band FEAR played on SNL on Halloween - it was awesome and I'm sure terrifying for the regular Joe audience members in the studio. Here's that:
Now in hindsight, 35 years later, you can look at this and say "wow that looks like fun" and I'm totally sure it was - those kids were probably out of their minds; apparently Belushi bussed up a bunch of hardcore kids from DC to create an authentic experience. The final song that Lee Ving dedicated "to anyone who voted... for Republicans and Democrats alike" is called "Let's Have A War." The feeling that brought this genre out of the woodwork at the time was an intense angst and the peril that the cult of personality would infect those that had no choice but to be different - a beast that seems to be rearing its head again. To see a future where this kind of dangerous and great art is our only silver lining is terrifying to me. Dangerous art is dangerous. There are always consequences, and sometimes even casualties. But dangerous art can be heroic and profoundly inspiring. It can become a touchstone for our collective memory and a source of pride that even those on the fringe can find themselves on the right side of history.
Svankmajer in "The Golden 60s"
Stepping back in time a bit, one of Jan Svankmajer's earliest films "A Game with Stones" was made in 1965, when Czechoslovakia was ruled under a Stalinist regime. To give some context of what the political atmosphere felt like at the time, here is a video of the May Day Parade in Prague 1965. May Day (May 1) was the International Workers Day during Communism, but was known as Love Day before, during, and after. Love Day is the day you kiss your lover under a cherry tree to bring good luck to your relationship. Here is what that day looked like in 1965:
Now with some context, we get to the good stuff. The media at the time was still somewhat open, but controlled. Svankmajer referred to this era as "The Golden 60s." It seemed like at the time, different perspectives were welcome, at least to a degree. Here is the film "A Game of Stones" (1965):
In the film, the regulated series of play that the machine allows the rocks to engage in are ended abruptly as they are dumped out into a refuse pile. The cycle continues until their joyous playfulness turns into literally smashing each other to pieces, which leads to the destruction of the machine itself. It also seems to imply that the machine actually serves no useful purpose other than to bring about its own destruction.
The End of the Prague Spring 1972
In 1968, Alexander Dubček took over in Czechoslovakia and led a reformist movement known as the Prague Spring. That year, the Czechoslovak people briefly enjoyed greater freedom of speech, a freer press, and a more open cultural scene, with some Western influence allowed. However, in August 1968, Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops invaded Prague and crushed the movement. Dubček was removed from power in April 1969, and the period of “normalization” followed, when the government imposed harsh censorship and repression. “Leonardo’s Diary” was made in 1972, a few years after the invasion, when many reformist party members had been “purged” in a campaign of terror. From then on, all media was strictly scrutinized. Švankmajer himself was blacklisted for seven years after making Castle of Otranto (1977), because he refused to adhere to the censor’s creative suggestions.
To me, the seemingly random interplay of the animations and the live action footage actually have meaning. From the beginning, a sweet candy becomes a bomb. The rest of the film took me a bit to decode, but the best I can sum it up is the following: Sadism is the thread that ties love and war. In the end we are shown that beauty can even be found in an endless river of garbage - fitting that it was a violin, a tool for creating art.
The Early 80s
This is when it seems like things started to get really scary. All around Europe Communism was being run with an increasingly heavy hand. The cult of personality was actually enforced with penalties for not falling in line. In Czechoslovakia, foreign literature and art were shared primarily as samizdat — underground, hand-copied and translated pamphlets and manuscripts, which carried heavy penalties if you were caught with them.
In 1981, Svankmajer made the following film, "Dimensions of Dialogue." The three sections of the film, which are titled in Czech, are "Endless Discourse," "Passionate Discussion," and "Exhaustive Dialogue." Spoiler alert: as I read the film, I would say that each section suggests respectively that endless discourse is the thing that makes us human, passionate discussion eats us alive, and exhaustive dialogue inevitably leads to a destructive breakdown of the discussion. In that third section, the things each head brings to the conversation could be equated to their opinions on how to reach a common goal. Productivity ceases as we try to inject our preconceived opinions into new arguments where they are irrelevant. I don't see how you could make a statement that would piss off a Bolshevik any more than that. Svankmajer described in an interview that the film "ended up in the Ideological Commission of the Czechoslovak Communist Party Central Committee as a deterrant example." (Koepfinger, 2012) Here is that film:
The Iron Curtain Comes Down
1989, also known as the Autumn of Nations, is generally credited as the year Communism fell across Eastern and Central Europe. That’s when Reagan’s famous 1987 challenge — “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” — echoed in people’s minds, and the Berlin Wall finally fell in November 1989. In Czechoslovakia, the Velvet Revolution took place in November–December 1989, leading to the end of Communist rule. The fear and uncertainty of what would come next would be a complete impedance to any feeling of relief, I would imagine. "Darkness, Light, Darkness" was the film Svanmajer made that year.
Svankmajer is still playful for the most part; it's a really fun film. But in my opinion, the moral of the story is still pretty cryptic. You emerge from the void, spend your time in the light building yourself into the person you become, only to realize that you did so within a cage that you weren't even aware of... just in time to return to the void. As much fun as this film is, it speaks to a helplessness and hopelessness that is inherent in the human condition. In the context of the time, I can't imagine that this statement was not also significant.
Here is "Flora," a very short film Svankmajer made that year as well. It's an image of a rotting vegetable person chained to a bed with a glass of water just out of reach. That's it.
The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia
Made in 1990, as the USSR was dismantling and Czechoslovakia was entering a new, uncertain phase without Communism. A new world order was being put in place. This was the statement (or warning) that Svankmajer had to make in that year. When you destroy your oppressor, the pride in that act becomes nationalism, which is the seed that gives birth to the new oppressor.
In a 2012 interview with Eoin Koepfinger for Sampsonia Way, Svankmajer responded to this inquiry as follows:
The final birth scene in The Death of Stalinism seems similar to the dark ending of Lunacy. Both depict a cycle of revolt followed by renewed oppression. This theme seems applicable to the revolutions and pro-democracy movements of the past year.
“The film Lunacy, but also The Garden and Conspirators of Pleasure, is mainly about freedom. It seems to me that the way civilization is evolving, the theme of freedom is becoming the only theme for which it still makes sense to sit down and create art. Though, I prefer the word “freeing” to the word “freedom” because it is a never-ending process.
We have to bear in mind that man is not only determined by genes, stars, childhood, relations, and instilled morals, but also by his indolence and anger and, of course, by the political and cultural state of civilization. Thus, it is impossible to decide: From now on I am free. It requires intensive work. It is a difficult process. It is a journey (like everything that is worth something), at the end of which Absolute Freedom shines like a morning star. But you know that you will never reach the end, neither must you, because it would mean a lack of freedom for others. Despite that, you must not abandon your goal. There is a conflict in it, but dialectic one. Hence the Marquis de Sade in Lunacy.”
I didn't talk about "Lunacy" because that's a topic for another day and deserves a day to itself, and I suggest you check out "Conspirators of Pleasure" and "Food." But the lesson from all of this is that it makes no sense to stay home and mope, even if it's scary. Take it from a guy that made subversive works by any means necessary for 30 years under a tyrannical, terrifying, oppressive government, questioning the very fabric of society, at times with a pretty dismal opinion of it. The First Amendment is a right and a responsibility, and at times of peril should be a priority. Our founding fathers were poetic in their choice of policy on many occasions, and they chose to make our First Amendment first and our Second Amendment second - I will never see that as insignificant. The one thing that no violent dictator or angry mob has ever been able to figure out how to do successfully in all of human history is shut people up. Your opinion only ceases to matter when you refrain from stating it.
If it's not too corny, I'm gonna end where I started: Punk Rock. With an absolutely perfect quote from one of my favorite bands, Propagandhi from their aptly named song "Resisting Tyrannical Government (it's a dirty job - but somebody's gotta do it)"
“Yes, I recognize the irony
That the very system I oppose
Affords me the luxury
Of biting the hand that feeds.
But that’s exactly why
Privileged fucks like me
Should feel obliged to whine and kick and scream
Until everyone has everything they need. ”
Talk hard.
