(Chapters 1-2) of the Multi-Media/Experimental Film cycle Adapted from the book by Philip Jose Farmer, by Jason Robert Bell, was performed in 30 minute segments of the book with pre-recorded audio and a video projection of thousands of original drawings illustrating the story.With permission from the Author.
Farmer deconstructed his two all time favorite characters from his childhood, Tarzan and Doc Savage (called under different names), and has them doing their best to kill each other. There is one problem though; they are being manipulated by a secret group of immortals called The Nine that rule the world and every act of violence results in an erection and to kill results in an orgasm. A Feast Unknown: Volume IX of the Memoirs of Lord Grandrith (1969), is a brilliant exploration of the sado-masochistic fantasies latent in much heroic fiction, and succeeds as satire, as sf and as a tribute to the creations of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Lester Dent. The entire book is an insane parody of action adventure. Where everything that lies in the subtext of "super-hero" fiction is exposed. The "heroes" are unstoppable, un-ageing; millionaire ubermensches super geniuses that have finally found their match in each other. The imagery is so brutal and over the top and presented without a spark of internal irony, making the entire enterprise as shocking to read as it must have been when the book was published in 1969.
Farmer's work pushes suspension of disbelief beyond the threshold of comprehension to an endgame where all other power fantasy and high adventure pales in comparison. A cornerstone of most popular adventure fiction (pulps, comic books, films) is that the tales really are happening right here under our noses and cover of darkness in clandestine warfare in a world where there actually are identifiable super-powered forces of Good and Evil. Most fans of "super-fiction" secretly carry a mustard seed of hope within their minds that it is all-true and all a matter of time before they themselves are initiated and suitably augmented into that far-better world. Farmer's work merely deals with the bald truth of what a real superhuman being would be like, beyond all common understanding physically, mentally, morally, and sexually.
Was performed in 30 minute segments of the book from start to finish with each reading starting with a wrap up of the last segment and ending with a cliffhanger, with added pre-recorded audio and video projections of hundreds of original drawings illustrating the story.
at The Brick
575 Metropolitan Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211