Rebuilding

The Rebel is rebuilding itself to achieve the Great Work.

“Time Bandits” (1981) – a time travelling fantasy movie written by TERRY GILLIAM and MICHAEL PALIN. EVIL (aka ‘the evil one’), a supernatural being created by the SUPREME BEING, wants to steal a magical time travelling map so as to recreate mankind and the Universe in his own image. Terry Gilliam was a fan of sci-fi legend PHILIP K. DICK whose interest in Gnostic literature appeared to have influenced “Time Bandits”, e.g. the Gnostic Demiurge refuses to acknowledge its’ creation by a higher God, as does the evil one.

“Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory” (1971) – film based on the children’s novels of ROALD DAHL. A boy is broken into a million pieces then rebuilt but on a much smaller scale (miniaturised). The fantasy world created by Willy Wonka is described as a world of “…pure imagination…”

“Guardians Of The Galaxy” (2014) – superhero movie. ROCKET RACOON is a racoon who was repeatedly torn apart and rebuilt in order to become more human. Rocket has genetic and cybernetic enhancements.

STAR WARS comic series DAWN OF THE JEDI – set 1000s of years before Star Wars Part IV. In Volume 3 “Force War”, a pre-Jedi warrior tells of his descent to the bottom of a chasm (“I fell forever…”) where a mysterious energy “…ripped me apart then put me back together!” His descent = Hell? The Fall of man? Lucifer’s fall? Orpheus descent to the underworld?

LEGO – in 2019, the toy bricks company LEGO initiated their first global advertising campaign for 30 years, entitled “Rebuild The World”, which was, they said, “…a campaign to help nurture the creative skills of the next generation.” The campaign urged children to make the world a better place. Its’ timing coincided with the youthful rebellion in 2019 that grabbed world headlines, e.g. the teenage environmentalist GRETA THUNBERG.

The Coronavirus ‘pandemic’ propaganda in 2020 involved rebuilding the world, and also involved the theme of a RETURN (See my article on the symbolism of Returning). Numerous adverts (TV and Internet) centred on the notion of staying physically apart (during the lockdown) whilst simultaneously linking up using phones and the internet in order to maintain business and social relationships. Advertising slogans that I saw in 2020 included: “Stay Apart, Stay Together”; “What if we could work together even though we’re apart.” The theme of a RETURN was heard with “We’ll meet again”, the famous wartime song that got renewed interest in Britain and a boost in sales after the Queen’s speech during the lockdown. She said: “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.”

Also during the pandemic lockdown, the British health service (NHS) produced a TV advert that said: “We are apart now. We will be together again.” (May 2020)

More to come…