Pleasure Domes

I watched Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome by Kenneth Anger last night. If you like artsy proto-MTV cinema, you have to see it. Nutty folks in strange costumes. Then more nutty folks in strange costumes. Then they get overlayed in evocative ways; the multiple exposures never get muddy. I bet Peter Greenaway watched it a few times.

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I was thinking about the scripture passage we discussed in Sunday School last weekend; I don't remember chapter and verse (it's from Revelation, though) but it's about heaven as an eventual reward for suffering believers. The notion of heaven that's presented to suicide bombers is the fast-food version of that; an option that's available now at the low low price of murderous martyrdom, instead of something to come in the distant future after a natural lifetime of service. Like all suicide there's an element of cheating out of life; it compounds the promise of "no more pain" with the promise of "eternal pleasure." Talk about instant gratification! Talk about false promises and inflated claims.