{"id":9836,"date":"2017-02-03T19:42:32","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T19:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/iandeleonarts-as-this-cover-of-lems-solaris-and\/"},"modified":"2018-12-05T16:25:59","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T23:25:59","slug":"iandeleonarts-as-this-cover-of-lems-solaris-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/iandeleonarts-as-this-cover-of-lems-solaris-and\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-9836 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/iandeleonarts-as-this-cover-of-lems-solaris-and\/attachment\/9837\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_njl152rSaX1qdmbvdo5_500-100x100.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/iandeleonarts-as-this-cover-of-lems-solaris-and\/attachment\/9838\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_njl152rSaX1qdmbvdo1_1280-100x100.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/iandeleonarts-as-this-cover-of-lems-solaris-and\/attachment\/9839\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_njl152rSaX1qdmbvdo2_1280-100x100.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/iandeleonarts-as-this-cover-of-lems-solaris-and\/attachment\/9840\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_njl152rSaX1qdmbvdo3_640-100x100.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/iandeleonarts-as-this-cover-of-lems-solaris-and\/attachment\/9841\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_njl152rSaX1qdmbvdo4_640-100x100.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/iandeleonarts.tumblr.com\/post\/110677523812\/as-this-cover-of-lems-solaris-and-boroviks-the\" class=\"tumblr_blog\">iandeleonarts<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>As this cover of Lem\u2019s <i>Solaris<\/i>\u00a0and Borovik\u2019s (<i>The Hidden War<\/i>) quoted\u00a0analogy of the parallels between that story and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan attest to, these conflicts seem to revolve around complex issues of identification. The faceless figure on the book\u2019s cover, stares into the conscious ocean on the surface of Solaris and sees the image of a human reflected back. It is as if the contact with Solaris gave this figure, this <i>other<\/i>, their subjectivity. Similarly, Borovik and Adam Curtis in the new film <i>Bitter Lake<\/i>,\u00a0hint at the fact that for the Soviet Union, the war in Afghanistan was a last-ditch-effort of sorts, which inevitably resulted in their \u201cexporting stagnation rather than revolution\u201d. The Soviets went looking for identification, searching for a subjectivity that the dune sea of Afghanistan might reflect back, a much needed validation for a dwindling \u201cUnion\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The whole experience backfires, however, and Solaris actually begins reflecting back \u201cghosts\u201d that frighten and confuse the cosmonauts\u2014the protagonist, Kris, even becomes <i>dependent<\/i>\u00a0on his particular phantom. And then, suddenly, one day the phantom does not return. Kris is told that an encephalogram of his brain has been successfully introduced into Solaris, and it has begun to sprout \u201cislands\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As Curtis points out, the Soviets, and later, the U.S. and the rest of the West that invaded Afghanistan again, were likewise chasing \u201cphantoms\u201d produced by this desert-Solaris. In an illuminating segment of <i>Bitter Lake<\/i>, various subjects describe how coalition forces often acted with little to no material knowledge of the situation at hand. Allying themselves with oppressive authorities they assumed were anti-Taliban, and thus \u201cfriendlies\u201d, the occupying Western soldiers would be met with violent opposition by peace-seeking Afghan people. The soldiers, in turn, assumed these folks were Taliban, and thus proceeded to massacre in many cases, the very people they were supposedly there to liberate.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/a2d7f11d2361c35eec9f2cfcecffd059\/tumblr_inline_njl0y6WADx1qds3mg.png\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>The situation was and is an ouroborian quagmire of epic proportions, and leaders of the West have continuously failed to grasp the complexity of forces in this part of the world that they set in motion many, many years ago. Similarly to the film, the Afghanistans of our world, at times, have often responded to foreign \u201cirradiation\u201d by displaying a temporary image\u2014a caricature of the West within their own borders, the reciprocated subjectivity that Imperialist countries long for. As <i>Bitter Lake<\/i>\u00a0shows us, however, these mirror images have been smoke screens for the West, and in many cases, these foreign powers have failed to see how the Islamic world plays the West\u2019s interests against themselves\u2014we are ever fooled by the sand-swept mirage.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/2c3a2896d0aa8025df776ae39da58fcc\/tumblr_inline_njl0woxHXM1qds3mg.png\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>At the end of <i>Solaris<\/i>, Kris returns home, though everything now seems strange, affected by his time away and the experiences he has brought with him. As the image of his world disintegrates before his (and the viewer\u2019s) eyes, the camera begins to \u201czoom out\u201d and eventually reveals an incongruous little island amongst a wide, self-aware body of water\u2014a lake, perhaps\u2014bitter at the imposed outgrowth, this microcosmic humanoid tumor that recreated the haunted mind of the cosmonaut protagonist Kris. It is as an episode of the <i>Twilight Zone<\/i>, or the horrific result of a magician\u2019s \u201cprestige\u201d act.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/664e6127edbd5a58a0b40fbe3e0285e8\/tumblr_inline_njl0zcCudM1qds3mg.png\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>This is what we have done to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>In seeking to find, or inspire an imposed, symmetrical subjectivity onto colonized\/occupied people, Imperial powers in the West and East will continue to encounter only a hostile simulacra. As world leaders begin to realize that the simplified narratives they have used to appease us throughout the globe (good vs evil, us and them, the war on terror, etc.) are not only misleading, but harmful, unproductive and yielding savage consequences\u2014the time comes for people to build new narratives, as Curtis appeals at the end of the film, \u201cand one that we can believe in\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/3a631b1bdebd7d680f4fee9ef7a55dcb\/tumblr_inline_njl0frllgy1qds3mg.png\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>When we look into the surface of a new, vast consciousness, we must not think of it as a mirror, hoping to see ourselves reflected in it\u2014we must yield to that consciousness its own subjectivity, recognizing it for ourselves and ensuring a reciprocal existential exchange. This is why I believe Curtis has devoted significant screen time throughout this newest essay film to the gaze of the \u201c<i>other<\/i>\u201d, the colonized object, not granted subjectivity. The film is strewn with the indifferent or indignant collective stare of a people and a region we have failed to really <i>see. <\/i>Of a people and a region we now garrote from afar, perfectly able to look at ourselves in the mirror the following morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/c69ccf85a914c6ddfe12cf56a41c7941\/tumblr_inline_njl0x4SQ4r1qds3mg.png\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>iandeleonarts: As this cover of Lem\u2019s Solaris\u00a0and Borovik\u2019s (The Hidden War) quoted\u00a0analogy of the parallels between that story and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan attest to, these conflicts seem to revolve around complex issues of identification. The faceless figure on the book\u2019s cover, stares into the conscious ocean on the surface of Solaris and sees [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-words","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-2yE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9842,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9836\/revisions\/9842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}