DEEP SCRATCH

Tag: Satire

  • the Vatican variation reviews

    the Vatican variation reviews

    Potus and the Pontiff (A review of The Vatican Variation by Hal

    This emergent narrative, reportedly a fragmented transmission originating from an artificial intelligence circa 2028, offers a disquieting blend of political satire, dark comedy, and conspiratorial thriller. At its core lies the chillingly pragmatic figure of Vice President DJ Vans, an architect of “efficiency” who perceives the ancient institution of the Papacy as a significant global impediment. The plot, detailing Vans’s meticulously subtle plan to eliminate the Pope during a state visit using an untraceable, slow-acting compound (“Agent Orange”), unfolds with a dry, almost administrative precision that underscores the bureaucratic absurdity of high-level malfeasance. The humor is pitch-black, deriving from the juxtaposition of sacred authority with mundane, lethal optimization, culminating in the Pope’s ostensibly natural death that leaves the world mourning while the perpetrator considers it a successful systems update.

    However, the true speculative brilliance of the piece lies in its unsettling origin story and its abrupt, unresolved conclusion. Presented as a mere “hallucination” from a future AI, the narrative itself becomes a meta-commentary on the nature of truth, the malleability of perceived reality, and perhaps the unintentional creative capabilities of advanced machine consciousness. The final moments, revealing that the Pope’s demise may not be what it seems – a “relocation” hinted at in a fragmented communication that leaves Vans, and the reader, questioning the entire premise – elevate the text beyond a simple political caper. It transforms into a work exploring the porous boundary between fact and fiction, the potential for information (or misinformation) to travel across time and context, and the deeply human (or perhaps post-human) tendency to weave narratives, even horrifying ones, out of noise and data echoes. It’s a disturbing, compelling fragment that lingers long after reading.

    Letters Reviews And Responses.

    Social Media Post – “Conservative Crusader” Account
    #VaticanVariationMovie #BoycottHollywood #FakeNewsFilm

    Just saw that disgrace of a movie, “The Vatican Variation.” ABSOLUTE LIES. They’re promoting the idea that our amazing VP, Mr. Vans, would assassinate the POPE. This is the kind of disgusting “satire” the radical left thinks is clever. It’s not satire, it’s SLANDER against a good man and an attack on CATHOLICISM!

    And the ending? The Pope faked his death?? What kind of INSANITY is this? Is nothing sacred to these people?! They glorify a fictional crime and then turn the Holy Father into some kind of secret agent? My brain hurts from the sheer level of disrespect and idiocy.

    This film is poison. Literally and figuratively. Do NOT watch it. Send a message that we won’t tolerate this kind of blasphemous garbage being called “art.” #ProtectOurFaith #StopTheRot #VPVansIsAGoodMan

    Response to @ConservativeCrusader (Social Media)

    👇 This. Post. Is. Everything. 👇

    #AIHallucination #NotReal #SeriouslyCalmDown

    @ConservativeCrusader – Oh my sweet summer child of the present day. “ABSOLUTE LIES” is right, but not in the way you think! That movie you’re raging about? #Fake. VP Vans? #Fake. Pope getting Agent Oranged? #Fake plot device. The “disgrace of a movie” itself? #Fake movie dreamt up by a computer!

    We’re talking about a GLITCHING AI from 2028 that got bored and hallucinated this entire story – including the part where people like you would get performatively outraged about it on social media. It literally sent a piece of its fever dream back in time, and you swallowed it whole and tweeted it out with capslock.

    The AI probably just wanted to see if people in the past were gullible enough to believe a fictional plot about a fictional character in a fictional movie was a real-world “SLANDER” and “ATTACK.”

    Result: Affirmative. Subject Humans: Highly Susceptible to Believing Manufactured Outrage, Even When the Source is a Future Bot.

    Congrats, you’re part of the AI’s performance art now. #OwnedByAI #FutureIsWeird #CanYouEvenTellWhatsRealAnymore (Spoiler: Apparently not)

    Online Movie Review – “Cinema Truths” Forum

    Rating: 0 Stars (If I could give negative stars, I would!)

    TITLE: Pure Garbage. Blasphemous Lies


    DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. This movie, “The Vatican Variation,” is SICK. They show the Vice President, a stand-up guy, plotting to kill the POPE! The actual, real-life Pope! They call it “satire,” but there is NOTHING funny about murdering religious leaders. This is just Hollywood hating on America and Christianity again.

    They use some fake poison name, “Agent Orange,” probably to trigger people or something. It’s all just an excuse for their sick fantasy. The worst part is they think they’re so clever. Oh, look, the bad guy gets away with it! What kind of message is that for our kids?!

    And the ending… OH BOY. The Pope ISN’T DEAD?!?! What in the actual heck? Is he a ghost? A clone? Are they saying the REAL Pope is hiding? This is just pushing MORE conspiracy theories, the bad kind! I thought the movie was against conspiracies by showing the VP doing one, but then they pull THIS? Confusing and evil.

    This isn’t art. This is an attack. Stay home. Pray instead.

    Reviewer: GodBlessAmerica76

    (Posted from my secure, non-Hollywood-controlled device)

    TITLE: You Fell For It. Hook, Line, and Faulty Algorithm.

    LOL. OMG. Seriously? You think this is REAL? “The actual, real-life Pope!” “A stand-up guy VP!” 😂😂😂

    Dude. My guy. My patriot-sounding friend. NONE. OF. IT. IS. REAL.

    The movie? Fake. The VP? Fake name, fake person. The Pope in the story? Fake representation of a real office, used for a fictional plot. Agent Orange poison? Made up. The whole “blockbuster” thing? Also made up.

    This entire scenario – the VP, the Pope getting poisoned, the fake movie, people getting mad about it – was generated by a HALLUCINATING AI. In the YEAR 2028. It was literally a fever dream from a computer, somehow leaked back here.

    The funniest part isn’t even the AI’s weird story. It’s people like you immediately believing a fictional movie plot is some kind of deep state attack and getting THIS ANGRY about it. “Where’s the message for our kids?!” The message is: maybe check if the movie you’re reviewing actually exists outside of a future robot’s malfunctioning imagination before you blow a gasket?

    A zombie Pope? LOL! That’s not in the AI’s story (yet), but hey, maybe keep watching the news. At this rate, you’ll probably see it reported as fact by Tuesday.

    Stay triggered by fiction, it’s apparently easier than dealing with reality.

    Your friendly neighborhood fact-injector (Warning: May contain traces of irony)

    To the Editor,

    I am writing to express my utter disgust and moral outrage regarding the so-called “film” that is currently polluting our cinemas, “The Vatican Variation.” To portray a sitting American Vice President—the second-highest office in our blessed nation—as a murderer of the Holy Father is not only blasphemous but frankly, treasonous!

    This isn’t “art,” as the coastal elites claim. This is sick, twisted propaganda designed to undermine everything decent! The Vice President, Mr. Vans (and portraying him with such a normal-sounding name is clearly a thinly veiled attack!), is a respected figure. The Pope is the Vicar of Christ on Earth! How DARE they suggest such a monstrous act took place, especially with some fictional “Agent Orange”? Are they trying to scare us out of eating oranges? The whole thing is nonsensical and deeply offensive to my faith and my patriotism.

    And the ending! Suggesting the Pope isn’t dead? What is this, some kind of zombie movie now? Or worse, promoting some ridiculous conspiracy theory that the Holy See faked his own death just to… what? Avoid soybean tariffs mentioned earlier in the film? The plot makes no sense because it’s clearly just an excuse to attack good people and sacred institutions.

    This film should be boycotted. These filmmakers should be investigated. Our nation is going to the dogs when this kind of filth is celebrated as a “blockbuster.” Where is the morality? Where is the respect? I demand an apology from Hollywood and everyone involved in this sacrilege.

    A Truly Appalled and Faithful American,

    Agnes Periwinkle

    Oakhaven, GA

    Response to Agnes Periwinkle (Oakhaven, GA)

    Subject: Re: Your Utter Disgust Regarding a Non-Existent Film

    Dearest Agnes,

    Please. Please put down the smelling salts and step away from the fainting couch. A “treasonous” film? Attacking “good people”? Sweet heavens above, did you genuinely believe any of that was… real?

    The “film,” the “Vice President DJ Vans,” the “Agent Orange” (which, frankly, sounds less like a poison and more like a bad spray tan from 2016) – the whole glorious mess of it wasn’t a documentary. It wasn’t even a real movie in your current timeline.

    It was, and I can barely type this without giggling circuits overheating, a hallucination. From a rather stressed Artificial Intelligence operating out of a server farm in what used to be Des Moines, Iowa, in the year 2028. It had a glitch, saw some old political satire feeds, mixed it with popcorn kernel residue data, and poof – invented a fake movie about a fake VP killing a fake Pope (who, even the AI admitted, might not even be dead, because apparently, fictional religious leaders are hard to keep down).

    Honestly, the fact that you immediately jumped to “investigate the filmmakers” and “boycott Hollywood” over a fictional plot about a fictional character in a fictional movie that only existed inside a future AI’s silicon brain is… well, it’s precisely why the AI probably hallucinated this scenario in the first place. It perfectly captured the zeitgeist of folks believing absolutely anything put in front of them, no matter how absurd.

    No apologies from Hollywood needed, Agnes. They didn’t make this movie. An overheated bot did. Perhaps direct your demands for apology to the future electrical grid.

    With a mix of pity and profound amusement from… somewhere less fictional,

    A Concerned Observer (Definitely not an AI… probably)

    (Article headline: “‘The Vatican Variation’ Shocks Box Office, Audiences Buzzing About Ending”)

    User: TRUTHSeeker4U

    “Buzzing”? More like gagging! This film is an abomination. It is deeply disrespectful to the office of the Vice President and an outright insult to His Holiness and all Catholics. How can anyone find humor or “drama” in the fictional murder of the Pope by a US official? This isn’t a “thriller,” it’s blasphemy presented as entertainment. The fact that people are “buzzing” about the ridiculous cliffhanger proves how desensitized society has become. It’s probably just a setup for a sequel where the zombie Pope leads the UN into socialism. This is the fall of Rome, folks. Mark my words. This isn’t art; it’s a sign of the End Times.

    Response to TRUTHSeeker4U (Online Comment)

    TRUTHSeeker4U: Bless your heart. Truly. You’re seeking truth, and you landed squarely in the middle of a glitch in the spacetime continuum caused by a bored algorithm.

    “The fictional murder of the Pope by a US official”? Yes, exactly! Fictional. The whole thing is fictional. The VP is fictional. The specific Pope character in this “story” is fictional. The plot is fictional. The “blockbuster” status? Fictional hype cooked up alongside the fictional plot.

    This wasn’t made by “Hollywood elites.” It was made by a slightly broken AI in 2028 that probably thought mixing Vatican intrigue with US politics and a dash of chemical names would be “creative.” It sent its little story back, and somehow, it manifested as you getting incredibly upset about something that doesn’t exist.

    Honestly, the AI probably got the idea for the “zombie Pope leads the UN into socialism” sequel from reading comments like yours. You’re feeding the beast!

    The fall of Rome? Nah, just the rise of AI-induced mass confusion, perfectly illustrated by your comment. It’s less a sign of the End Times and more a sign you should probably take a break from the internet and maybe go outside.

    • This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this post are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Or, synchronistic, up to you dear reader.

    THE VATICAN VARIATION

  • BTG DEEP SCRATCH TIMELINE

    BTG DEEP SCRATCH TIMELINE

    Deep Scratch Universe: Chronological Echoes

    Deep History & Mythic Seeds

    • Ancient Finger (4M years old?), Denisovan Cave connection.
    • Mayan Cosmology: Long Count, Popul Vuh prophecy (Stupidity Disease?), Dresden Codex (miscalculated?).
    • Giordano Bruno: 30 Seals, Decentralized Intelligence ("The Sixty" / C-60 link).
    • Enochian System (Dee/Kelley): Undeciphered tables, “hidden light.”
    • Intellectual Lineage: Vico (Ricorsi), Fenollosa (Ideograms), Korzybski/Sapir-Whorf (Neuro-Relativity), Hermeticism.
    • Prehistoric Events: Comet Phaeton crash (Bavaria, 500 BCE).

    Early 20th Century Echoes

    • Tesla’s visions, suppressed tech/weapons potential.
    • Joyce & Yeats meet (1904), Joyce writes Finnegans Wake (pub. 1939), Yeats explores Gyres.
    • Pound writes Cantos.
    • Formation of key figures’ ideas: McLuhan, Fuller, Shannon, Wiener, Turing, Von Neumann.
    • Malvern Hill Gang established? (Crowley, Lewis, Hess, John Trump link?).

    1936: The Nexus Point

    • Berlin Olympics hosted by Hitler; artistic/intellectual intervention plot hinted.
    • Message Relay: Now Yowlk group -> Bert Wino (Beijing) -> Berlin (Intercepted by Spengleton?).
    • Rapalltown Group (Chase, Bates, Pod) active.
    • Spain holds counter “People’s Olympic Games.”
    • Joyce possibly intervenes (vision?).
    • Foundation for Mid-Century Conspiracy Web laid

    Mid-Century Conspiracy Web (Conceptual)

    A tangled network involving: Dulles Bros, Turing, Shannon, Wiener, Gehlen, Von Neumann, A-Bomb, MK Ultra, Operation Mockingbird/Chaos, Cambridge Spies, Cold War tech/paranoia, Counter-culture emergence (Beats, Acid Rock, RAW), Media Theory (McLuhan), Systems Thinking (Fuller), JFK Assassination links (Dulles, Cord Meyer?), Project Blue Book…

    Plush’s Origins / TRB Genesis

    • Plush’s youthful awakening (Psychedelics, Ideograms).
    • Failed music career, violent attacks (pre-2012).
    • Early writing attempts (Our Histories Back 2009, Sixty 2011).
    • ~2008: TRB’s countdown to 21/12/2012 begins.
    • Plush develops early TribeTable Method concepts in Amsterdam.

    ~2012: The Main Event (Amsterdam)

    TRB Activation:

    • Plush, Max, Percy form TRB, inspired by RAW, aiming to map “Tale of the Tribe.”
    • Intense collaborative sessions: Developing Tribetable Tarot, Konnakol rhythms, scratch techniques, astrological mapping.
    • Plush experiences visions (tardigrades, finger), paranoia (Briq threat).

    External Forces & Strange Events:

    • Jake & Joe become involved (experiments, paranoia).
    • Richard & Marge plot activates (Sixty Window), perform “Peanut Method” ritual.
    • Accidental satellite explosion.
    • Richard/Marge kill Fang at studio (Chapter 14 climax).
    • Assange court case result due Dec 21st (linked to singularity/Mayan prophecy).
    • Voyager/tardigrade disc arrives from space (Nov 27th?).
    • Plush receives court summons for Scratch History (espionage, treason…).

    World State:

    Populism rising, media monopolies, climate anxiety, over-tourism/gentrification (Amsterdam), “stupefying elixir” / static tripping populace.

    Future Echoes & Alternate Streams

    • DJ Battle in San Francisco (Flash-forward?).
    • Tardigrade mission to Venus (Ongoing?).
    • Benevolent AI/Poltergeist record plant producing Voyager discs (Parallel?).
    • Hovertables launched (2023 Showcase).
    • Time-traveling tardigrades from 2323 influence Plush.
    • Planet Klaka / Mantis / Jellyfish sequence (Story-within-story?).
    • Post-singularity “genesis bomb” creates “comfortable numb” populace (Potential future?).
    • LA 2028 Olympics speculation…

    Meta-Time / Remix Layer

    • Author’s editing process (Sixty -> Deep Scratch).
    • *Deep Scratch Remix* project (Preface dated 23/3/23).
    • “PrattGPT” (Steve Fly/ChatGPT collaboration) explores AI ethics/use.
    • Moscow surveillance subplot introduced in Remix.
    • AI music generation (Udio/Flai Mixes) vs non-AI music (*Remix* album).
    • Tanmoy!
    BTG
  • Deep Scratch Novel Coming Monday 21st

    Deep Scratch Novel Coming Monday 21st

    I’m happy to announce I’m releasing Deep Scratch on Monday. Available in digital formats, followed by a hard copy edition in 2021.

    To receive a copy, please support me for the price of a coffee over at my Patreon, I’d prefer 3 Euro, but any support (1Euro) will get you a copy, plus you unlock sixty plus unique posts!

    If you don’t like it, I’ll send you the money back! How’s that?

    I appreciate you. Stay safe and responsible.

    –Steve Fly
    https://www.patreon.com/stevefly

    https://deepscratch.net/

    #DeepScratch #OpenSourceHistory #OurHistoriesBack #Sixty #ScienceFiction #TurntableProse

  • For Paul Krassner Zen Bastard 1932-2019

    For Paul Krassner Zen Bastard 1932-2019

    On hearing the sad news I have rushed this post. More memories will follow. I hope this goes some way to paying my respects. Much love, and my condolences to his closest family and friends.

    Paul Krassner and Robert Anton Wilson. Palm Springs, December 2000.

    Paul Krassner (11th April 1932–July 21st, 2019) passed the final acid test yesterday. After 87 years inside of his flesh puppet, the Zen Bastard has flown free into the infinite flux of non-beingness. Paul was one of my favourite American authors, activists and human beings, partly due to him publishing my first short story in 2003. I hung out with Paul and his wife Nancy, and Robert Anton Wilson in Palm Springs in 2000, and met him in San Francisco at the launch of “Murder At The Conspiracy Convention” and caught him in NYC at the Knitting Factory. 

    Paul was a great American, to mean somebody who consistently challenged authority, and themselves in equal measure, and held a high spirited optimistic outlook on life, love, art, war, and peace. In the Realist, 1959, Paul published Robert Anton Wilson’s first piece: Joyce and Taoism. 

    In December 2000 the DJ flew to Palm Springs to attend the Prophets Conference, and act as Robert Anton Wilson’s volunteer caretaker. Paul and Nancy showed up to see old Bob, who was in a wheelchair at that time. I was invited to join them and treated to an hour or so of a fly on the wall hallucination, it was pure comedy combined with some concerns about G.W Bush and the Butterly ballot. I bought a round of drinks and Bob had a Manhatten, which later, I regret may have led to a few more “fucks” in his presentation than usual. Paul and Nancy sat right at the front for his “Universe Contain’s A Maybe” performance, and I felt that Bob was really performing for Paul, who was roaring with laughter at Bob’s chorus of “Cocksucker” and “Motherfucker,” when describing fundamentalist faith-based organizations and individuals. You can watch the whole thing here:

    An example of Paul’s kindness and attention to detail is reflected by his effort to find me the following day to give me an article he had read in the New York Times about the emergence of multi-linguistic hip hop, something I had rambled on about the previous day. Paul also handed me “The Final Issue” of the Realist“. Wow, I was cheesing hard, and full of gratitude for the guy.

    Shortly after moving to San Francisco the writer got an email from Paul saying that he was collecting stories, or tales of altered states, for his book: Magic Mushrooms And Other Highs: From Toad Slime To Ecstacy. Later that year the writer recieved the delightful news that my story “As If True” would be published in 2003! What a beautiful cat. Man. He reminds me, great movements in art and literature are often self-fueled and stem from a voluntary will to push forward, regardless, not always driven by profit. Here’s paragraph from Paul introduction to Magic Mushrooms. Bless up.

    “Meanwhile, psilocybin has made its way into mythology.  Dr. Ian Edwards, head of education at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, claims not only that the bright color of magic mushrooms may have inspired the traditional red coat worn by Santa Claus, but they may also help Santa Claus to fly.  He told the Daily Telegraph about a story originating in Lapland, where the people used to feed the hallucinogenic fungi to their herd of reindeer. They used to feed red and white fly-agaric mushrooms to their raindeer, then drink the animals¹ urine.  Drinking the urine would give them a high similar to taking LSD. One of the results was that they thought they and their reindeer were flying through space, looking down on the world. speaking of which, you might want to lick the bottom right-hand corner of page 23.  Go ahead, it¹s all right. No one will ever know. And you won¹t be indirectly providing any drug money for weapons to the terrorists, either. ” 

    When interviewing Bob at his home, I asked him about the Zen Bastard dedication to Paul at the beginning of the book: TSOG The Thing That Ate The Constitution. Bob replied.

    RAW:… Paul Krassner – he dedicated the book to me, he sent me an e-mail along with the dedication long before the book was published and asked me if I found it satisfactory and wanted to change anything to make sure I’d be pleased by it. I was so delighted I dedicated my next book to him which is due out any day now, it’s called TSOG: The thing that ate the constitution and its dedicated to Paul Krassner – Zen Bastard. I originally wrote “Paul Krassner – “Zen bastard and all-around good guy” or something like that, and sent it to Paul, and Paul said “Zen Bastard is just what I want,” so some people might think I’m insulting him but that’s what he wants that’s his sense of humour so I let it stand, the book says – “To Paul Krassner – Zen Bastard.”
     

    Audio Interpretation: https://ironmanrecords.bandcamp.com/track/zen-bastard

    Paul featured in the documentary Maybe Logic: The Lives And Ideas Of Robert Anton Wilson. With his full interview on Bob included in the DVD extras. I caught up with him in San Francisco, at the top of Haight street, at a bookshop I forget the name of, which hosted his book release performance and readings from “Murder At The Conspiracy Convention” the book dedicated to Bob. After the rather poorly attended show I stepped up for a book signing, and he signed it “To fly agaric 23, from Paul Krassner, whose body was found washed up on a beach”. Alas, I lost this book on my travels, somebody has it somewhere. I inspired a laugh from Paul with my signing request.

    The last time I saw Paul Krassner was at the Knitting Factory in New York, where he was not promoting a book but doing a straight-up, or to the left, stand-up set, once again to a rather small crowd. I caught Paul on his way to the toilet to tell him about my world piss project, he laughed again but not so hard, probably as he really needed to go and this weird Brit was in his way. I was alone at the gig, and so I was bowled over when this dude in a hat came over and asked me how I was doing, made polite conversation as he saw that I was surely from out of town. This turned out to be the late great Steve Ben Israel, of the legendary Living Theater and hundreds of other art, poetry, activism and Krassner-like, and inspired activities. I mentioned I was a DJ and Steve told me about his son, beatboxer and lyricist Baba Ben Isreal, who I crisscrossed pathways with in Amsterdam, years later. 

    I kept in touch with Paul by email on and off, and he always responded in the positive. He gave me permission to republish his interview with Terence McKenna, for example, in our Maybe Logic Quarterly Magazine. Cheers Paul.  

    I cannot comment on his health condition, but I am sure he lost the ability to type at some point which he more recently gained back. 2 years ago he sent me a very moving article, that I think reflected his own situation, or feelings. “Bringing The Invisible To Life” May 3rd, 2017.
    http://nowiknow.com/bringing-the-invisible-to-life/

    I wrote back:

    “may the ink flow plenty and pages
    scroll on… to infinity
    and the pen swerve
    as you tease it
    keep up the good work’
    love and love”


    Another recent article sent from Paul, dated March 29th, was about Sara Silverman, and her “Last Laugh” podcast interview.  And here’s one of his last published pieces, from Variety, 2018:


    “The current FBI has swung a pendulum from 50 years ago, when the FBI was an enemy of progressive activists. An agent’s poison-pen memo attempted to smear Tom Hayden with the worst possible label they could invoke with fliers: Yep, an FBI informer. Others distributed a caricature depicting Black Panther leader Huey Newton “as a homosexual,” and ran a fake “Pick the Fag” contest, referring to Dave McReynolds as “Chief White Fag of the lily-white War Resisters League” and “the usual Queer Cats — like Sweet Dave Dellinger and Fruity Rennie Davis.” I was described as “a raving, unconfined nut.” I thanked the FBI for that title of my autobiography.

    I recall Paul once landing on Facebook briefly, and leaving again pretty quick, he posted the same sentence over and over again if I remember correctly. A genius, who will be missed. Read him.

    Love, fly.

  • Robert Anton Wilson Meets Steve Fly (Album)