friend of the blog Ken shared a curated list of art objects he recommends, which gave me the idea to craft syllabi for my various areas of aesthetic interest, so here’s the first one
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
If anyone asks who told you about this stuff, it wasn’t me. I don’t need the puppet-masters hunting me down.
BOOKS
Nonfiction
- The 70 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time: History’s Biggest Mysteries, Coverups, and Cabals, Jonathan Vankin & John Whalen
- There are updated editions of this book, but this is the one I have. A surprisingly good starter kit on a variety of so-called “conspiracy theories,” with even handed analysis on the basics of each, presented in easy-to-digest articles that open a doorway for the curious.
- The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly P. Hall
- The best entry-level primer on all things occultist. Find a chapter that piques your interest and follow the thread wherever it takes you; just don’t let avowed Freemason Manly P. Hall be the final word on any of these subjects.
- Fingerprints of the Gods, Graham Hancock
- Do you know how precisely the faces of the Pyramids at Giza point in the cardinal directions? Why? How’d they do that? What if at some point Antarctica was way further north than it is now and suddenly it shifted into position at the South Pole, causing a world-wide, civilization-ending cataclysm that’s been documented in many world mythologies in the form of Deluge stories? If it’s not that exactly, then why are there so many Deluge stories in the world’s mythologies?
Fiction
- Mumbo Jumbo, Ishmael Reed
- Templars, hoodoo, Moses-as-sellout, secret societies, an international conspiracy, a black Woodrow Wilson—rarely is paranoia this much fun.
- VALIS, Philip K. Dick
- Because usually paranoia is as debilitating as Horselover Fat’s nervous breakdown. Remember: the Empire never ended.
- “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” Jorge Luis Borges
- The ur-text on what it feels like to overdose on information. Beware the machinations of Orbis Tertius.
- The Soft Machine, William S. Burroughs
- A brilliant meditation on the nature of control and the weaponization of desire that also serves as a valiant rebellion against the Powers that Be.
- Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
- I was gonna not include this but that would be disingenuous of me. Almost everything on this list so far can be found in some form here.
VISUAL ART
Film (Narrative)
- The Matrix
- Based and Neo-pilled. No, that doesn’t seem right. Based and Matrix-pilled? Hmm. There’s something about a pill from this movie.
- Eyes Wide Shut
- You think it’s just a coincidence that Kubrick died before he could finish this movie and they released a version he didn’t give final approval of?
- Mulholland Dr.
- Because the deeper into the mystery you go, the weirder things get. As a bonus, lesbian doppelgängers!
- They Live
- You may not be so fortunate to find a pair of sunglasses that immediately reveal the true nature of Reality, but this list will get you close.
Film (Documentary)
- The New Pearl Harbor
- Guaranteed to make you an insufferable dinner party guest.
- Evidence of Revision
- The best introduction to the JFK assassination, almost entirely made up of actual news broadcasts. Pretty remarkable They never thought someone would be able compile all this archival footage and collate the inconsistencies. Or did They foresee that….
Drawing/Painting
- “Oliver North, Lake Resources of Panama, and the Iran-Contra Operation, ca. 1984–86 (fourth version), 1999″ Mark Lombardi
- Lombardi managed to make the conspiracy theorist’s corkboard into high art. An information virtuoso.
- “Untitled (Caballero and Pattern), 1952,” Martín Ramírez
- Wheeeeee! Down he goes. Ramírez captures better than anyone the feeling of being overwhelmed by barely comprehensible power structures.
- “Pyramid Mysteries,” Daniel Martin Diaz
- Ascend with me, amigo.
