What does Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, JFK’s Umbrella Man and Lynch’s Straight Story have in common? Could it be that all three are not what they seem?
The Creation of Adam is a famous section of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel fresco. But what accounts for its composition? It’s been noted, in 1990, that “the background figures and shapes portrayed behind the figure of God appeared to be an anatomically accurate picture of the human brain, including the frontal lobe, optic chiasm, brain stem, pituitary gland, and the major sulci of the cerebrum.”
The Umbrella Man is well known to JFK assasination conspiracists… many a tale has been built around him. It’s seen as sinister that he’s standing near where JFK was shot while holding an opened umbrella, on a sunny day. But in 1978 Louie Steven Witt did come forward and did testify. He said that his open umbrella was symbolic, he was protesting about the appeasement policies of JFK’s father. There was no need for conspiracy.
The Straight Story is a famous film by David Lynch. It’s a Walt Disney production, commonly seen as a: “simple movie with a big heart”. But it’s directed by David Lynch. Can it really be so simple? Tim Kreider’s analysis of the film could be closer to the truth. That one story is masking another.
“The real story of The Straight Story turns out not to be very straightforward at all, but involuted and hidden – buried, as in Lost Highway, within the ostensible narrative like a repressed memory… There is darkness here beneath the bright autumn colors, and evil concealed in Alvin’s heart. There is the history of a family destroyed by alcoholism and abuse. There is fire and death.”
