Discover and purchase the book,

The Mass Sacrificial Spectacle: The Doors in Poetry and History

 

My very rare, award-winning 158-page book on Jim Morrison's poetry and the history of the musical band The Doors. "Congratulations on winning the Robert Golden Award for your wonderful thesis. . . . I was delighted with the paper . . ." - Frank Lisciandro, Editor of Wilderness and The American Night (books of Jim Morrison's postumously published poetry), on the first edition.

Read rave reviews of the book from readers who purchased it through eBay: view my eBay seller's feedback. Awards: The first edition of this book won Stanford University's Robert M. Golden Medal for Excellence in Humanities. About the Book: Using literature as a key, this seminal book sheds light on both Jim Morrison's poetry and the meaning and events of The Doors' '60's history (especially Jim's Miami trial) as no other book has done before.     Learn More. Purchase the book instantly!  See just below -- it's easy and secure! Shipping and Payment Details: Shipping and handling: US $4.00 (within United States) Buyer pays for all shipping costs. Shipping insurance: Not offered. Will ship worldwide. You must e-mail your shipping address to me at christophermbalz@stanfordalumni.org. Payment Instructions: PayPal recommended: PayPal takes major credit cards and you can use it very easily at the button below. Money order or cashier check okay: send to Christopher Balz / 160 Lincoln Avenue / Palo Alto, CA / 94301-2437 / U.S.A. E-mail me regarding international shipping (price for international shipping may vary). I am a certified with Square Trade. Square Trade builds trust in online transactions. Price: $US 16.95 + $US 4.00 (shipping inside U.S.) = only $U.S. 20.95 total.     Advantages: "You cannot petition the Lord with prayer!" - Jim Morrison. And you cannot understand Jim Morrison's poetry without a detailed understanding of the history of the time and Jim's artistic mission, as explained in this book like nowhere else! Explore Jim Morrison's little-understood, unflinching, dazzling & inspiring poetry to the fullest extent. See The Doors history in true light. Unlock the secrets of The Lords and the New Creatures, Wilderness, and The American Night. Specifications: Soft cover, 158 pages. Author: Christopher M. Balz Date: 3rd Edition, 1998 (improved & expanded by 30 pages from 1st Edition, 1990). Conditon: Mint. Features: Signed by author! Rare, self-published. Sold direct from author. Ask christophermbalz@stanfordalumni.org about quantity. About the Topic: Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Michael McClure called Jim Morrison, poet and lead singer of The Doors, "a great poet". He noted that the poetry of Wilderness and American Night would "bring Jim's legacy into full bloom". The Doors played a pivotal part in the surging social movements of the 1960's that made history. Detailed Information: The author received feedback from one of Jim's best friends, Frank Lisciandro (also editor of the posthumously published books of Jim Morrison's poetry and fellow graduate with Jim of the UCLA Film School), on this book as he wrote it, and even planned a proposed student-initiated course at Stanford with Frank on Jim's poetry.   Frank thought that the book makes some of the most central, hitherto little-recognized points about the reality and true impact of Jim's life, beliefs, and literature. Excerpts The author highly recommends Frank's book Feast of Friends as an alternative to the book No One Here Gets Out Alive

 

Excerpts from the Book

From the award statement for the first edition:   "The School of Humanities and Sciences honors Christopher Balz, Golden Medal Recipient, for The Mass Sacrificial Spectacle: The Doors in Poetry and History.  Christopher Balz has produced a superb essay under the direction of Professor James Winchell of the Department of French and Italian. . . . This essay is outstanding for its intellectually adventurous thrust, its commitment to l'imaginaire social, and its profound sense of responsibility."

From the Introduction:   "I begin this work with a specific focus on the poetry of James Douglas Morrison.  Its literary merit -- its intrinsic meaning as well as its location in history -- makes a perfect introduction to the broader historical, social and anthropological themes which are the core of the mass sacrificial spectacle.  Yet poetry as new to the critical world as Morrison's needs itself an introduction.  The character of this poetry, drawing from the Symbolist tradition as well as the near-contemporaneous Beat poetic, finds its potency in the presentation of fascinating glimpses of an alternate sensory world."

From the Introduction to the Third Edition:   "Jim's published poetry is modeled on the Symbolist poetic and represents, in effect, its contemporary continuation.   Wallace Fowlie, a retired professor at Duke University, has written an indispensable book on the connection between the two poets of different centuries entitled, Rimbaud & Jim Morrison: The Rebel As Poet (Durham: Duke University Press), c1994, 131 pp.  Fowlie is an internationally respected expert on Arthur Rimbaud and his work and is also a very clear and precise writer.  However, he lacks much historical awareness of the events and mileux (cultural environment) of the last forty years, and fails to comprehend Morrison's tremendous importance in this respect.  This lack of sufficient background leads him to undervalue Jim's published poetry."

From the section, 'Morrison's Poetry':   Morrison's Poetry: Themes -- approximately in this order of overall significance:

1. Quantitatively endless and dense variation (Wilderness, anomie, vomit, riot, teeming, endless corridors; also diverse objects connected through alliteration and underlying meaning)
2. L.A.
   1. LA, and cities in general, as anthill-like breeding grounds for what are seen, overall, as unhealthy and morally degenerate elements
   2. "LAMERICA," L.A. seen as a paradigm for the United States and its dominion over the Americas
3. Apocalypse
4. Spectacle, and external control in general
5. Rock 'n Roll, seen as a subterranean, incredibly powerful, perhaps even revolutionary force, a force reaching down into the reptilian undersection of the brain &/or psyche
6. Historical Change
7. War and militancy

Morrison's poetry: Symbols -- Flora & Fauna, Landscape, Personae (listed approximately in order of salience in his opus)

1. the American Night, or The Night
2. reptiles (lizards, snakes)
3. eye(s) (in the singular or plural)
4. lamerica, LAmerica
5. the highway, often spelled "hiway" or even "HWY"
6. shaman, madman
7. use of "w/" in place of "with" and "&" in place of "and," conveying a "closing off" of separations
8. bandit-assassin-cannibal, seen in their fundamental commonality in the sense of the outlawed before "civilization"
9. "pool people," people of mainstream, White America, seen in relation to peoples other than mainstream, White America: African-Americans, Native Americans
10. the outer, natural environment (forest, desert) (as relief from the ant-hill-like city)
11. the casual "fella" (as in, "Hey, fella, how was your day?")

From the section, 'Transition: From Poetry into History':   "In order understand the significance of Morrison as a figure in the history of mass culture, one must understand his central message, and the best cornerstone of such an understanding is a grasp of his poetic works."

From the section, 'Transition: From Poetry into History':   "René Girard describes 'the Dionysiac state of mind' which 'can, and, . . . often does, erase all manner of differences: familial, cultural, biological, and natural.' This state of confusion, 'a hallucinatory state that is not a synthesis of elements, but a formless and grotesque mixture of things that are normally separate,' allows for the apparition of the monstrous double.  The monstrous double, a perceived evil other that is yet simultaneously perceived as inextricably wedded to the self, is the cathartic crux of a group scapegoating dynamic.  . . . Unfortunately, this was to have dire consequences for the band.  After the confusion of the monstrous double, the hallucinatory, Dionysiac state of the concert, had passed, the band (particularly, Morrison) became the monsters.  The effect of this hallucinatory "doubling," whereby the members of the audience perceive the other in themselves and themselves become the monsters, the transgressors (undressing on the concert floor), faded.  Blame shifted to the convenient other, the 'freaks' of the freak show. . . . As Ray Manzarek (Doors keyboardist) has aptly noted, 'I think what happened in Miami was a mass hallucination.  I think the people saw snakes.  I think no snake presented itself, no snake was seen, but they saw it, man, in their minds' eyes, in their hallucination, Jim Morrison did what people alleged that he did.' "

From the section, 'Theoretical Synthesis & Conclusion':   "The trick, which we saw fail so miserably at the Miami concert, was to produce a leap over enlightenment, a concrete attempt to smash the spectacle by bringing the audience and the performers together, if only for moments.  Morrison wanted to 'just keep all that feeling submerged so that when everyone left they'd take that energy out on the streets and back home with them.' "


Table of Contents

• Political Preface
• Introduction to the 3rd Edition
• Introduction
• Morrison's Poetry
  • Introduction to Morrison's Poetry
  • Morrison's Poetics
• Transition: From Poetry into History
• Theoretical Synthesis & Conclusion
  • Coda
• Appendix: Notes and comment on works cited
• Bibliography
  • Videography

    ---