[audiobook] Ether: The Nothing That Connects Everything by Joe Milutis at Arts-Photography

Review

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Its Not What You ThinkBy John G. DzwonczykI picked up a copy of Joe Milutisrsquo; Ether: The Nothing That Connects Everything based on a recommendation by the selling site. following my pursuit of information on gravity. Clearly. with all the hosts computing might. the undoubtedly prodigious program employed still judges books by their covers. I had expected something of a philosophical/ physical/ metaphysical treatment. comparable to the Carlos Eire tome on the related topic. Eternity. Unfortunately for my interests. Milutis is a cinema enthusiast and for him the physical possibilities inhering in lsquo;the aetherrsquo; are nil. and he is dismissive of it from the outset. professing without analysis. the indisputability of an Einsteinian universe. This is evidence of rote learning from someone who apparently makes a living doting over and exhorting his students to dote over the obscure and often tiresomely clever cinematic efforts (of a mostly non-American manufacture) in the hope. one infers. of broadening their minds to the vast possibilities of the art form.For the purposes of laymen. ether is a concept dating back to Plato at least. that basically makes space a substance. subject to and providing of physical effects. It is familiar in the metaphysical realm principally as that which causes effects at a distance without apparent connection. Thus. telekinesis. telepathy. ESP. remote viewing. travels on the astral plane (as in dreams). lsquo;Zero-Point Energyrsquo; and so forth are not only possible. but real. For Milutis. such are fanciful artifacts of the primitive mind that are employed by his heroic filmmakers and Japanimation nerds to enhance the suspension of disbelief that is contractually inherent in the commerce between the artist and his audience. This is a perfectly reasonable theory. and as far as it goes. serviceable in the study of film. My objection to his book is that it has claimed the name. including the subtitle. of a serious and subtle philosophical and physical debate without illuminating the broad matter in the slightest. I find it ignominiously comparable to the co-option of the word lsquo;gravityrsquo; for service in the film oeuvre of Sandra Bullock. fit and shapely as she might be: it is otherwise useless. plain or up-priced under the brand of Imax. as even the slightest introduction to the transcendence of the subject. itself closely related to that of lsquo;ether.rsquo;Milutis does somewhat redeem himself in the last chapter. entitled lsquo;Conclusion.rsquo; first by his invocation of R. Buckminster Fuller. perhaps the quintessential lsquo;Imagineerrsquo; and then Umberto Eco. the author and semiotician. However. having read both. I would infer that Fuller would fall into the lsquo;realrsquo; ether camp. with his declaration that Universe is lsquo;tensive.rsquo; that gravity occurs in straight lines. while electromagnetism follows great circles. and last by describing the construction of space in Universe as a 3-D assemblage of least-energy volumes and their arrangement. Ecorsquo;s clever assignation of Catholicism to Applersquo;s forgiving products and Protestantism to Microsoftrsquo;s punitive and exclusionary ones is precious. but a little vague in terms of case-making for Milutis. Indeed. Telluric currents. so prominent in Foucaltrsquo;s Pendulum. and the construction of cities as human beehives in Baudolino would seem to be hints at Ecorsquo;s bent towards ether as a reality. rather than as a metaphor for the sum of what we donrsquo;t understand.For fans and students of Milutis. or for those who aspire to more sagely discuss esoteric films. presumably to the exclusion of the uninitiated. this bookrsquo;s for you. For those whose interests run to the contemplation of the physical universe. itrsquo;s frivolous. The universe is unarguably analog in nature. and film. whether made with original or modern technology. is inherently digital. What you are seeing is a series of still frames. separated by dark. dead bars. Onersquo;s analog mind turns a projected reel into a facsimile of reality. but what is sacrificed. as Milutis appears to concede. is the infinitude of gaps. whether at the atomic (pixel) level or in the bars holding it apart from its artistic representation. is reality. itself. I donrsquo;t imagine that the sublime difference between humanity and its mechanical creations. some of which might like to bite the apple of the tree of consciousness. can be overcome by anything as gross as the sum of the digital slices. however fine. Skynet might have become self-aware on August 29. 1997. but it never lived. Itrsquo;s all imitations.16 of 17 people found the following review helpful. Techno-culture criticism at its bestBy Erik Davis_Ether_ is an excellent. informative. and thoroughly yummy mindwaltz through the intermingling fields of cosmology. avant-garde art. media machines. and techno-mysticism. Milutis dives deep into the fertile oceanic void of "the ether:" the magnetic communicating vapor that once was imagined to fill all of space and which continues to influence our sense of spiritual and technological experience. In Milutiss hands. the concept of the ether becomes a kind of theoretical and cultural quantum vacuum (our current version of the ether). spewing out a wide variety of charged particles: Fellini. Mesmer. Poe. Cage. Reich. Blavatsky. Artaud. Philip K. Dick. the psychedelic cinema of Jordan Belson and the Oedipal apocalyptic anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Fun stuff.But dont mistake this for scatter-shot Googlethink. Because the ether is "a mediating substance between technology. science. and spiritualism." its analysis is necessarily interdisciplinary. but also haunted. fluid. and synchronistic. And so Milutis moves comfortably from Shirley Temple movies to the aesthetics of the absolute. from Sprint ads to Tai Chi. But Milutis does more than analyze -- he risks wisdom. Though Milutis is an insightful art critic and scholar. and knows his way around the history of science. he is also one of those rare contemporary intellectuals with a genuine feel for and understanding of modern metaphysical and spiritual currents. Yes. there are references to Derrida and Deleuze. some knotty philosophical passages. and some blind allies. but _Ether_ is by no means theory-damaged or uselessly arcane. In fact. its very well-written. often funny. and. perhaps best of all. no longer than it needs to be.Does the book have a "final point." a sound-byte message to inject into our increasingly claustrophobic tower of virtual babble? No. but it does end with a fascinating and deeply resonant meditation on the relationship between the digital and the ethereal. the latter of which Milutis sees. convincingly. as irrevocably analog. In the end. Milutis makes a refreshing gesture towards the return to the ether as a creative void. a magnetic and meaningful nothingness that trumps conventional materialism and exhuasted modes of cultural analysis.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Ether. surprisingly. has some three hundred years of influenceBy Midwest Book ReviewETHER: THE NOTHING THAT CONNECTS EVERYTHING explores the early history and ideas of ether. moving from Newton and early scientists whose ideas bordered on and sometimes influenced the occult to modern scientists and non-scientists. Here the ideas of electricity are woven with alchemical lore in a presentation that surveys the ether to ideas of space travel. film. and even computers. Ether. surprisingly. has some three hundred years of influence: chapters here consider religious influence. paradigms of belief. and scientific borders alike.