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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 11 of 11. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Atticus on September 22, 2004, at 9:50:42
Hello Kitty is God
“Hello Kitty is God”
Purrs hot-pink hipster
Subway-wall scripture,
A spray-painted rosy and cozy hosanna
To the plastic fantastic deity
Written by pathless PATH tube
Underground Christopher Street prophets
Toting photographic cell phone rosaries
That capture the souls of passers-by
In digital pixel beads
As offerings to their
Divine feline’s omnipresent essence.And who the fu** am I
To argue with Her acolytes
About her preternatural pre-fab perfection
When Her iconic
And ironic
And embryonic tabula rasa facial features,
A white oval topped by
Twin white triangles
And adorned
By two black dots
And six black lines,
Appear in crop circles in England
As wheat genuflects in adoration.And Her ever-enigmatic gaze
Sparks brightly flaming claims
Of miraculous cures
Of acne and bad-hair days,
And She floats in flat-screen plasma visions
Of burning-bush benedictions
As feverish pilgrims sprout polyvinyl stigmata
Honoring a gloriously porous amorphous
Supreme being
Who reveals nothing
Who says nothing
Who means anything
To anyone anywhere
And therein, of course,
Lies Her colossus-bestriding-the-Earth
Almighty appeal.
-- Atticus
Posted by malthus on September 22, 2004, at 18:15:52
In reply to poem ... Hello Kitty is God, posted by Atticus on September 22, 2004, at 9:50:42
Atticus:This configuration of rhyming hallucinations about rampant urban capitalism coupled with all the religious symbols create a sort of abstract expression of materialism and religion beyond their literal and explicit sense. Blind capitalism in my opinion eventually creates alienation. Does the antidote to this lie in one creating a more personally forged spiritual vision than what organized religion (materialism) can provide?
malthus (:
Posted by Atticus on September 22, 2004, at 19:59:06
In reply to Re: poem ... Hello Kitty is God » Atticus, posted by malthus on September 22, 2004, at 18:15:52
Hi Malthus,
This poem really boils down to a relatively simple theme: consumerism taught to children as the dominant religion of the 21st century. The worship of the acquisition of junk. Pop icons that take on a kind of spiritual significance to those enamored of them. I've got a feeling that whoever wrote the graffiti was playing a facetious riff on the "Clapton is God" graffiti that sprouted about London in the 1960s. On one level the "Hello Kitty is God" statement and the poem that the Hello Kitty graffiti inspired is a parody of the materialistic aspects so rampant in many (but not all, I think) organized religions. Certainly I was drawing on my own Irish Catholic past in the description of Hello Kitty's fever-dream manifestation on flat-screen plasma televisions, evoking the famous vision of the children who claimed to see the Virgin Mary in the early 20th century. I think the answer lies simply in fostering critical thinking skills among the young and impressionable. I take those ideas and moral concepts that I think are of value from a given religion and ignore the rest. If others find group worship more comforting, more power to them -- it's just not my cup of tea. But this isn't a blanket critique of all religion per se. It's more of a parody of what I feel so much of it has morphed into: form without content. ;) Atticus, who prefers Zippy the Pinhead to Hello Kitty himself
Posted by Jai Narayan on September 22, 2004, at 22:07:57
In reply to poem ... Hello Kitty is God, posted by Atticus on September 22, 2004, at 9:50:42
Dear Atticus:
>
> “Hello Kitty is God”
> Purrs hot-pink hipster
> Subway-wall scripture,
> A spray-painted rosy and cozy hosanna**rosy cozy hosanna....nice!
> Appear in crop circles in England
> As wheat genuflects in adoration.** good line wheat genuflects....great!
> Of burning-bush benedictions
> As feverish pilgrims sprout polyvinyl stigmata** love the mention of the stigmata
gosh religion was not wasted on you. Love your morph of this great religion.
as always
Jai, the banished
Posted by Atticus on September 23, 2004, at 10:59:57
In reply to Re: poem ... Hello Kitty is God, posted by Jai Narayan on September 22, 2004, at 22:07:57
Hi Jai,
Glad you like it. I got involved in a discussion over on PB Faith and that intersected in my mind with a snarky bit of graffiti I encountered in a subway station. By the way, the bit about the Hello Kitty crop circles, set up by pranksters in England, is true. Product as God. God as product. I'm not a fan of either concept, but I see both everywhere I look. (And you're not banished. I just think it's better for us to communicate in this more structured environment rather than via e-mail. We can still jaw about anything and everything on Social.) ;) Atticus
Posted by Jai Narayan on September 23, 2004, at 13:46:32
In reply to Re: poem ... Hello Kitty is God » Jai Narayan, posted by Atticus on September 23, 2004, at 10:59:57
Posted by tabitha on September 24, 2004, at 0:56:34
In reply to poem ... Hello Kitty is God, posted by Atticus on September 22, 2004, at 9:50:42
Most serene Kitty
Others may scoff
Our love is untarnished
Posted by tabitha on September 24, 2004, at 2:37:02
In reply to Re: poem ... Hello Kitty is God, posted by tabitha on September 24, 2004, at 0:56:34
Your face emerges
Work of space aliens?
No, clever humans
Posted by Jai Narayan on September 24, 2004, at 7:29:56
In reply to Re: Kitty crops, posted by tabitha on September 24, 2004, at 2:37:02
Posted by Atticus on September 24, 2004, at 18:19:47
In reply to Re: poem ... Hello Kitty is God, posted by tabitha on September 24, 2004, at 0:56:34
Posted by Atticus on September 24, 2004, at 18:25:02
In reply to Re: Kitty crops, posted by tabitha on September 24, 2004, at 2:37:02
"Harmonyland?" Amazing. Well, keep the faith, Tabitha! I have a big collection of kaiju myself, centered around Godzilla. ;) Atticus
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