2012
Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
www.gunjones.com
2017 (and later.)
Since I read Jean Stein/Plimpton's book in the mid 80s, I have been extremely fascinated by Edie Sedgwick and her story. But in recent decades I have been largely away from it in my thoughts, when just of late I thought I would go back and take another look. As is customary for me at this website, I'll provide a general point by point run down of my thoughts on the subject. Since it is either that or nothing. Given that I get virtually no response to just about anything I write, it isn't worth my time to write a book or essay on whatever (at least not just yet anyway.)
The two things that make the Edie Sedgwick story most interesting are A) Edie herself and the cast of persons associated with her, and what an intriguing and moving drama her life played out to be, and B) her story is much like a whodunit murder mystery. We are amazed by what took place, and are left asking why. But at every turn, no one as yet has arrived at anything like a clear solution. The following then are some points I would make in regard to this conundrum (take and lead us where they may.)
* Many have blamed Warhol for Edie's downfall, and that Warhol was a villain. My own take would be to say that for whatever Warhol and his circle can be characterized as, they in my opinion were ultimately pawns of more powerful "others." "The factory," when you think about it was a lot like a religious sect, and that had its good points and its bad points. The good thing about it was the idea that anyone was or could be a superstar. (This idea in corrupted form survives today only you must go through the big money, monopolistic oligarchs to receive validation, rather than through say an actual artist or person of actual intelligence and some taste like Warhol.) The bad part was that at the same time they encouraged or harbored all kinds of immorality and depravity; both good and bad being sanctioned under the umbrella of art. As Jim Morrison sang "we need something, something new, something else, to get us through..." And the Andy Warhol thing was a kind of such. The ordinary folk among them were sincere, kind in their way and meant well, sometimes brilliantly creative (if on spiritual steroids perhaps), but not intelligent or strong enough to withstand destructive forces using and patiently and craftily manipulating them (the devil if anything is patient.)
* Edie herself as much as states in various recordings of her speaking that what turned out to be her death was a kind of creative suicide. She had all kinds of troubles before going to Warhol, and these set the stage for her graphic demise. Quite what those troubles were really all about, no one in the general public is quite in a position to say. Some for example have blamed an abusive father, yet I myself find this explanation rather insufficient to account for what ended up happening. At the same time, frequent mention is made of mental illness, but again it is hard to see how this tells us much of anything. On the other hand, if we posit the possibility of criminal spirit people machinations, this personally (and given what I know on the subject) strikes me as far more plausible a catalyst for tragedy (think, for example, Iago.)
* Although scoffed at by David Weisman in his commentary for "Ciao Manhattan," there are all kinds of suggestions of the other worldly in that film, e.g. references to space aliens; though transference; the character of all seeing Del Vecchio; the wild claim and idea that mother and the "establishment" are to blame, and other.
Lastly here and worth checking out is this well made tribute put together by Weisman in 2010, and which in the latter part brings out Edie's talent as a performer at it best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ncizrSojkU
["Edie Girl On Fire Video"]
["The Devil Commands (1941) - Trailer"]
[ch. 92]
In my opinion, however, it is certain wicked demons, and, so to speak, of the race of Titans or Giants, who have been guilty of impiety towards the true God, and towards the angels in heaven, and who have fallen from it, and who haunt the denser parts of bodies, and frequent unclean places upon earth, and who, possessing some power of distinguishing future events, because they are without bodies of earthly material, engage in an employment of this kind, and desiring to lead the human race away from the true God, secretly enter the bodies of the more rapacious and savage and wicked of animals, and stir them up to do whatever they choose, and at whatever time they choose: either turning the fancies of these animals to make flights and movements of various kinds, in order that men may be caught by the divining power that is in the irrational animals, and neglect to seek after the God who contains all things; or to search after the pure worship of God, but allow their reasoning powers to grovel on the earth, and among birds and serpents, and even foxes and wolves. For it has been observed by those who are skilled in such matters, that the clearest prognostications are obtained from animals of this kind; because the demons cannot act so effectively in the milder sort of animals as they can in these, in consequence of the similarity between them in point of wickedness; and yet it is not wickedness, but something like wickedness, which exist in these animals.
~ Origen (c. 184-c. 253), Contra Celsus, Book IV
[ch. 29]
... And if any one were to maintain what is asserted by some (either by those who possess intelligence or who do not, but have misconceived sound reason), that “God exists, and we are next to Him,” I would interpret the word “we,” by using in its stead, “We who act according to reason,” or rather, “We virtuous, who act according to reason.” For, in our opinion, the same virtue belongs to all the blessed, so that the virtue of man and of God is identical. And therefore we are taught to become “perfect,” as our Father in heaven is perfect. No good and virtuous man, then, is a “worm rolling in filth,” nor is a pious man an “ant,” nor a righteous man a “frog;” nor could one whose soul is enlightened with the bright light of truth be reasonably likened to a “bird of the night.”
~ Origen (c. 184-c. 253), Contra Celsus, Book IV
[Posted earlier at the Lee's Legion page on Face Book] Note. Some will perhaps see the analogy between the Essex and our country (i.e., in say the last 20 years.)
THE LOSS OF THE U.S. FRIGATE ESSEX,
as recounted by David Glasgow Farragut
Though familiar as a victorious Union admiral during the American Civil War, rather less known is that David Farragut as a 13+ year old midshipman served with Captain David Porter on the famous cruise of the U.S. Frigate Essex during the War of 1812. Among other recollections passed along by his son in The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, First Admiral of the United States Navy, Embodying his Journals and letters. By his son Loyall Farragut (1879) is this most interesting account of the final taking of the Essex by the HMS Phoebe and Cherub, 28 March 1814. Below is from some of the same in .pdf:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ExkQ4UMBQntJVrtMkaue_vzIz3MhwsqD
[For more, see also Porter's own Journal of a Cruise, etc. (1815 and 1822 editions.)]
[ch. 24]
...But no sensible person would maintain that these irrational creatures are
superior to rational beings, merely on account of their bodies: for the
possession of reason raises a rational being to a vast superiority over all
irrational creatures. Even the race of virtuous and blessed beings would admit
this, whether they are, as you say, good demons, or, as we are accustomed to
call them, the angels of God, or any other natures whatever superior to that of
man, since the rational faculty within them has been made perfect, and endowed
with all virtuous qualities.
~ Origen (c. 184-c. 253), Contra
Celsus, Book IV
