#institute benjamenta

[institutebenjamenta]

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1996) dir. Brothers Quay

[chiennefantome]

institute benjamenta (or this dream people call human life), 1995. brothers quay.

[mad-prophet-of-the-airwaves]

Institute Benjamenta (1995, Stephen Quay/Timothy Quay/Weiser Quay, Germany)

[bobbole]

Playing with dolls: the Corinthian and "this dream people call Human Life" - part I

Written for The Sandman Book Club

Since at The Sandman Book Club we are re-reading The Doll's House, and since the first chapter of this story marks the entry of the Corinthian, I would like to dwell on some of the distinctive traits of this character, how he is the embodiment of one of the great symbols of American and Western pop mythology (the serial killer) and how the netflix adaptation, while excellent, has completely deprived him of precisely those elements that made him so distinctive, while enhancing other important aspects.

Murderer vs. Killer, or when killing is a "work of art"

In The Dreaming, the spin-off series immediately following the canonical Sandman, there is a panel that I think is emblematic in defining what the Corinthian is, even before his being nightmare, black mirror, etc

Judging Cain like he's on Dancing with the Stars

There is a passage in which the Corinthian states that Cain is definitely a murderer, but not a very good killer. This because the word murderer here is linked to a primordial concept of homicide. Yes, Cain is the first murderer, but his act is something instinctual, part of his nature. Cain kills because he cannot do anything else and murder for him is an inevitable act, demonstrating his being part of a story from whose narrative he does not escape.

For the Corinthian, on the other hand, killing theoretically is not in his nature: he is after all a nightmare, which must terrify, unsettle, reflect the deepest fears and secrets of the human subconscious. A means to an end, not the end itself. For the Corinthian, killing is a deliberate act by which he tries to carve out a space of his own within a predetermined story.

The serial killer is a planner: in the Corinthian mind, an artist too. Even the fact that he appears on the scene not already in his nightmare function but primarily in that of being ready to kill a young man leaves no doubt about it: the Corinthian, in the way he perceives himself, is first and foremost a serial killer/artist.

This is not Vogue: comics vs show

In the netflix Sandman, episode one, the Corinthian has sensed that Dream is free. He wipes off the blood from his eyes and stands up, sensually stroking the head of his...victim? It would be better to say a model without eyes. Death here is not horror: there is something glamorous about this scene that irritates me deeply, not least because we are watching it from a spectator's pov, comfortable in our chairs. We are in a hotel room but the space is open, and the screen of the devices from which we are watching the episode gives us

1) an escape route

2) a way to dilute the horror of the scene (there is always hope if there is an escape route)

This Corinthian is elegant and sensual. He could disturbs us, if he wants, but definitely he's not scary.

Let's compare the netflix scene with the comic. First, fundamental change: the reader's pov, which coincides exactly with that of the Corinthian. We do not see the Corinthian in the panels, and we will not see him until after a long time. We look at the scene through his eyes, we read the words through his voice. From this perspective, it's as if behind the glasses, together with him, we were there, an active part of this crime.

Paradoxically, this scene should be less scary than the one in the TV show. There is no blood and the boy still has his eyes. But we perceive his terror, we see him tied up and helpless like a doll. We see his pimply face making ugly grimaces of fear (in the netflix episode the victim's face is perfect). There is no hope for this boy and while he begs for mercy in vain we brandish, together with the Corinthian, the knife that will kill him. There is no sensuality, there is no seduction, there is no sex here (better, sex and death are the same thing but I will return to the relationship between death and sexuality in the second part of this little essay). We are in a room with no escape, the scene in front of us is dirty, not at all glamorous, in which we readers are actively participating. This Corinthian is fucking scary.

The waking world: a big doll's house to play in

This title takes on a different meaning depending on the various characters involved in this Sandman story. From my point of view, I believe that the characters who most of all are linked to the concept of a doll's house are Unity and the Corinthian.

Unity appears near an old doll house, and her clothes are also similar to those of an old doll

Unity was literally a doll for most of her life: her condition was caused by an external event and external people decided about her life, including her motherhood.

The Corinthian doll and the surrealist doll of Hans Bellmer: both obscene and disturbing toys

The Corinthian, on the other hand, is a sort of doll maker and the dolls are the human beings he kills and whose physiognomy he transforms with his knife.

This last thing is perhaps one of the elements that most differentiates the netflix Corinthian from the one in the comic. The Boyd Corinthian is almost a romantic character, a bohémien eager to savor human life in every sense, moved by contrasts and ambiguities that make him decidedly more similar to the Second Corinthian of the comic than to the First. He looks at humanity with a curiosity that is sometimes almost paternalistic: ruthless, but not cruel. He embodies a type of socially well-integrated serial killer, the "unsuspected type", who knows how to contain his impulses when necessary. Most important, with him sex is not always synonymous with death.

The Corinthian of comics, on contrary, never escapes this binomial: in him, sex and death are always intrinsically linked because they are the same thing. He is always cruel and brutal, seeing humans as meat to be cut. Humanity is nothing but fresh clay in his artist's hands: shaped dolls to play with in his new dark stories.

[toiich]

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995), dir. Brothers Quay

[hayaomiyazaki]

I couldn't hurt you. It's so nice to talk with you, like we are almost related. The way you speak, your gestures, your mouth, everything. It's delightful to behave in that rather weak sort of way with you. Just think: me, your master, confessing to you, my pathetic little worm whom I could utterly crush if I chose to.

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life — 1995 dir. the Brothers Quay

[cosechadehuellas]

11]

LOS ÁNGELES no son dorados, brillantes ni luminosos; son grises y caminan entre la multitud que arrastra los pies; entre la muchedumbre, sin color y sin rostro, de los domingos, hacia el fútbol, hacia el concierto mañanero, entre la pálida muchedumbre de los días de fiesta vacíos del mundo moderno. Ángeles grises de la pobreza y el anonimato que nadie ve, pero que muchos han sentido: un roce leve, una ligereza, un estremecimiento en el mar de la multitud anónima...El mundo de hoy no permite otros...Los de fuego y luz no vienen hoy. Sólo los otros, los ángeles de polvo y ceniza.

María Zambrano, Poemas. Edición de Javier Sánchez Menéndez. La Isla de Siltolá

Fotograma de Institute Benjamenta, o This Dream People Call Human Life,1996, primer largometraje de Brothers Quay. Se basa en "Jakob von Gunten", novela escrita por Robert Walser.

[pyongyangdreams]

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995)

[hawkelf]

tag people you want to get to know better

I was tagged by @squishmelo

last song: Hijinx - Heart

currently watching: Are You The One, Monster High (2022 series), Critical Role Campaign 3, Dimension 20: Burrow's End, Taskmaster

three ships: non-exclusive Athos/Aramis/Porthos (Musketeers), Silver/Flint/Madi (Black Sails), Wynonna/Doc/Dolls (Wynonna Earp)

favorite color: green or yellow, I have blue fatigue

currently consuming: water bottle (just finished loaded fries + milk)

first ship: I was not an organic shipper, much. I didn't ship for YEARS after joining fandom; ace as the day is long bay-bee. I shipped for the bit. Alternative answer: I had a lot of Theories and Confusion about the A-Team as a kid, but we don't need to get into that---

place of birth: breadbasket of America

current location: bedtime

relationship status: QPR and too ill/busy to socialize much

last movie: Institute Benjamenta

currently working on: uh crap getting rid of a migraine that's over a month old? trying to re-graduate physical therapy? Fall of a Kingdom, by Hilari Bell

Thank you for the tag! I'm shocked I noticed it and responded promptly! Anyone who wants to do this, do it, you're tagged, blame me, go.

[institutebenjamenta]

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1996) dir. Brothers Quay

[wellconstructedsentences]

One learns very little here, there is a shortage of teachers, and none of us boys of the Benjamenta Institute will come to anything, that is to say, we shall all be something very small and subordinate later in life.

Jakob von Gunten by Robert Walser

[bodidarma]

Scene from, ‘Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream That One Calls Human Life’ 1995

[kino-zoo]

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream That One Calls Human Life (1995)

[bobbole]

My dear @windsweptinred this little fairytale is my festive present for you 😸

Thank you for your fabulous gifts and for being the most amazing partner in crime/esteemed and precious corinthiel colleague ever!!!

Hope you will like it 😊

🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚

A Dream people call Human Life

[toiich]

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995), dir. Brothers Quay

[dxcstrange-stuff]

"This Dream People Call Human Life"