So I was looking more at what would be Part 2 of the Jan to Feb 2022 words (spanning from Feb 1 to Feb 19 or 20), and it seemed too tiring to try and pull some sense out of them. I just don't know what they mean well enough to pretend to write about them here, other than teasing a few things out that seem to support the story. Thus, I am going to pause on them, also.
I opened up one of my notebooks to a spot from April 2021, and came to one of the word plays that I had forgotten about. On that morning, while in the process of waking up, the name/ phrase "True-man v. Mad-son" came very clearly to my mind.
Many in Mormon circles would know the name Truman G. Madsen. He died in 2009 but was a pretty well known and popular professor at Brigham Young University, as well as being a popular lecturer and public speaker. He gave quite a few lectures on Joseph Smith, and was viewed as an expert on his life.
Anyway, back then I had recognized True-man V. Mad-son as a modification of the name Truman G. Madsen, but also as the phrase 'true man vs. mad son'. Both ways of seeing it were pretty clear when the phrase came into my mind. I hadn't yet, though, at that time fully developed my views on the identity of the two Beings who asked to be sent, with the first chosen by God and the other becoming quite angry or mad (my view is given in the post "Here am I, send me": Revisiting the individuals in Abraham's vision). However, I view this name/ phrase as probably one of the little clues or interesting statements given along the way in helping me develop that perspective.
For a reminder, here is that interaction in the Book of Abraham that mentions these two Beings:
And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first.
And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him.
My view is contrary to standard Mormon interpretation of this encounter, who have the two beings here as Jesus and Satan. In my story, I have the first Being here as the 'True-Man' in this case being Eonwe-Faramir, and opposite of him you have the 'Mad-Son' of Omar-Brigham, who was not chosen and drew away a whole host of Beings to follow him and oppose his perceived rival. As I have written of before, that conflict has played out in various lives and stories, and likely exists today. At least from the perspective of Omar-Brigham who still desires and covets a life that is not his, including being the one chosen to be sent.
The other implication that I did not spell out in that other post was that those that followed Omar-Brigham would have been born here on this Earth just as he was. This is again very different from standard Mormon teaching, which states that this angry-mad Being and his followers missed out on the opportunity to be born, remaining as spirits and devils. On the contrary, my story holds that they were and are born, and that they are among us here on Earth as fellow Men, as well as among other people on other worlds and lands. They may be devils, in fact, but they are clad in the form of Men just as we are.
Anyway, one of the responsibilities of Eonwe-Faramir in being 'sent' seems to be in helping to set captives free that include both himself and his family. There is a void or darkness that we find ourselves in (and exists within us) - something not-true - and some type of light is needed to set us free (light that things like the Sawtooth Stone seem to be able to bring).
Coming upon this True-man V. Mad-son phrase today was interesting because just yesterday I was thinking about the Truman Show. I think it must have popped up on my movie choices on the plane, and this brought it to mind.
The Truman Show stars Jim Carrey, and is about a man living, unknowingly, in a reality TV show. The entire thing is fake, and he is the only one that doesn't know it. He was born into that situation, and it is all he has ever known. The movie is about his journey to break out of this false world that certain people are committed to keep him in (and which is a source of entertainment for the general population).
So, we have another Truman/ True-Man from this story. Which is why it was strange to come across that phrase today after having thought about True-Man from the movie yesterday.
There are some interesting elements from Movie-Truman that have some parallels to some things that I have been writing about and that have been on my mind. A man crosses the ocean in order to find reality, literally leaving through the sky or horizon, in order to see for himself what truth lies outside of the 'prison' that has been created for him. Beings (paid actors in Truman's case, but something like evil Beings in our own, perhaps even the followers of that Mad-Son) are intent on keeping him from recognizing the truth, all in on this false-reality.
I haven't watched it for a couple decades, so only remember those broad story elements. No stone, though, that I can remember...
I always did like The Truman Show, despite only seeing it in full once or twice. After my initial read of this post on Tuesday, I went to the movie's Wikipedia page for a refresh on the details. One of the external links there is a copy of the screenplay, so I ended up reading it through (something I've done with a few other films instead of finding some way to watch them); it looks like an early draft, much darker in tone than the end result. Yesterday I took pains to stream the actual film for sake of comparison, which proved an interesting exercise.
ReplyDeleteI'll only describe two of the things I noticed. Firstly, the movie seems to use a lot of round/circular elements and objects, including many of the hidden-camera perspective shots themselves. One scene also has Truman fiddling with a globe-shaped radio: https://files.catbox.moe/r40lic.jpg
For the other thing, a very early scene sees Truman spooked by a light fixture suddenly falling from the sky. In the movie it's obviously some kind of spotlight, labelled with the words "Sirius (9 Canis [word obscured, probably Major])", suggesting that every star in the TV-show-world's sky is replicated by similar lights. In the screenplay, the light is only described as "a spherical glass object". Much later, where the movie finishes with Truman stepping through the door in the sky, the screenplay continues -- he moves behind the scenes of the world-set, and one of the first things he notices is a massive array of artificial stars above him. Soon afterwards, he finds his way outside and sees the true night sky.
WG:
ReplyDeleteI have only seen the Truman Show once, I believe, when it first came out in theaters, so only remembered some of the high level plot points. It would be interesting to watch it and see if I see what you see.