CAINE(YE) OR (Y)AGNER : THE DICHOTOMY OF TWO PATHS

Jules : There's a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon you." Now... I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, that meant your ass. But I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. See, now I'm thinking: maybe it means you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here... he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could mean you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. And I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd. - "Pulp Fiction" (1994)

When Jules (Samuel L Jackson) in Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction' (1994) talks about wandering the earth like Kwai Chang Caine in the 70s television show, 'Kung Fu', I've often thought that would prompt the obvious sequel to the director's cinematic pop masterpiece. I half imagined the hitman, Jules, would try to avoid violent confrontation at any turn (contradicting Tarantino's penchant for violence), charting a pacifist odyssey and become an ultimate Zen master of some description: blaxploitation meets 'A Touch Of Zen'. Certainly it would have had the opposite vibe to his later two-part revenge saga, 'Kill Bill 1 & 2', starring Uma Thurman as The Bride.

Well, as it turns out, it appears that the ever-controversial Kanye West has been wandering the earth himself (Japan, Italy, Saudi) and for the most part has managed to maintain a near monastic vow of silence (generally toward both old and new media) like some sort of (Trap)pist monk. This may be in part due to be being cancelled toward the tail end of 2022 due to controversial opinions given in several interviews online regarding Jews, Hitler and big business - the unholy trinity of verboten issues for pretty much any generation for the past eighty years.

To say the least!

Then, after months of saying next to nothing, Kanye returned from exile and said everything forbidden again and now he's back where he started at the beginning of his 2022 'cancel' tour which famously peaked over a year ago with an interview on Alex Jones's 'InfoWars'.

Or is he?

There has been a pattern with Kanye throughout his career where he often appears to fall spectacularly from grace. Cast like Lucifer out of celebrity life he returns with new songs and new albums under his arm, seemingly fuelled by his time in exile he fires sonic thunderbolts like an angry angel then dazzles the world of music with his inimitable kaleidoscopic assemblage of beats, raps and samples to create almost entirely new genres, universes even.

There is also the theory that he may just be trolling the world like a hip-hop Andy Kaufmann, but if so, he is taking this particular joke beyond even the Jewish comedian's already famously provocative levels as demonstrated in Milos Foreman's biopic 'The Man On The Moon' (1999) starring Jim Carrey.

Lately it seems in the absence of not being online in any form, Kanye has percolated like a Frankenstein pressure cooker to finally spill over in an explosion of ecstatic music making and 'furious anger'. It is as if he has somehow subsumed the unconscious ID of the internet and combined it with his own personal and professional grievances, a far cry from the more overtly heroic redemption arc for his character that many of his fan base might secretly hope for.

But being a hero/villain inspires great art for Kanye as does being the fallen man/sinner archetype brought back in from the cold of exile and so I think it's important to examine the role of the Kanye West fans in such a bi-polar paradigm.

Continuing to enjoy the work of a long standing cultural icon/music master who seems to perpetually threaten to self-detonate his entire reputation on historically controversial tropes while conversely making Christian claims for universal compassion, is a risky business and definitely not for the faint hearted, especially in this climate of rabid identity politics which propagates racial, religious and cultural tribalism.

However, I've been here before so have prepared myself for this particular schism/paradox of enjoying the music of a controversial artist without sharing the exact same cultural/political/religous views and feeling comfortable in the space of the contradiction.

You see, having developed a love of opera at an early age after watching Donizetti's 'Don Pasquale' I inevitably found my way to discovering the epic masterpieces of Richard Wagner's music dramas that stood like giant monoliths in 19th Century European culture and changed the course of modern music forever. I quickly learned, however, that the common consensus was that no-one could listen simply and innocently to the music of Wagner without being in some way guilty by association regarding the seismic cultural influence his art held over Hitler and the Nazis before and during World War 2. It can be a little intimidating and a shock at first to discover that something you have followed with your heart you now feel you should distance yourself from with your head.

But I have learned it is vital to defend the freedom to enjoy what you wish as long as it doesn't infringe upon the rights of others. I wouldn't force 'Die Meistersinger' or 'Götterdämmerung' on any Wagner hater just as I wouldn't force 'My Dark Twisted Fantasy', 'Yeezus' or even West's latest 'Vultures' on those who hate him, his music and what they believe he represents.

It is my right though to enjoy the music of someone who offends just as it is the right of others to take offence at my right to enjoy it. This is grown up and rational.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where you either side with a moral absolute that is agreed on by an amorphous collective blob or you find yourself being frowned upon, judged and possibly even cancelled for supporting what that same blob believes to be a dangerous and uncontrolled monster.

Funnily enough, I've often thought of Kanye as being similar in his all-encompassing mastery of fashion, music and culture to other creative visionaries of their time such as Mozart or Wagner, who each possessed an almost supernatural ability to create art that appears light years ahead of their peers.

And one could easily draw comparison between Kanye's war with legacy fashion houses in inspiring his own innovation in apparel to Wagner's music revolution being born from his hatred of the Paris Grand Opera culture and his burning desire to forge ahead with an art work of the future leaving those who mocked him for his disastrously received 'Tannhäuser' for dust.

Where we at?

So after his latest outburst on an 'IG live', the same denouncements and attempts to cut down his cultural value by his critics and enemies have returned, leaving the fans (both innocent and guilty) to either ignore or wrestle with the moral conundrum of supporting an artist who claims to love Hitler and the Nazis and figure out if it's still okay to enjoy the prolific output of 'ultra light beams' and electronic punk/rap anthems he creates like a Zappa/Warhol/Lennon/McCartney hybrid fusion.

Perhaps Kanye is the Colonel Kurtz of modern music and those who despise him are waiting for some Captain Willard to infiltrate his inner circle and bring him finally down to his knees so that his downfall can be completed.

Except they forget that Kanye is both Kurtz and Willard and if there is to be any architect of his descent into hell or his ascension into heaven then it will be only be him that will chart that course to its final conclusion, his dark, twisted Götterdämmerung 

In the meantime, I'm willing to accept that many of the most fascinating artist/creators in history are monstrous and brilliant in equal measure. Increasingly, Kanye has seemed to me to be like some sort of Blake-like angel/demon figure and one who both seeks nihilistic self ruination and salvation equally with some vengeance thrown in for good measure.

This is no doubt why he continues to be the most fascinating living artist on the planet.

My tendency is towards the more heroic, redemptive Hollywood arc. I would personally like to see Kanye, like Jules, resist the tyranny of evil men and become the shepherd who brings with him toward the light those who take comfort in his music through these dark times.

But I'm not writing this script.