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Beanhead
IS IRONIC PARADOX
Registered: 10/11/08
Posts: 17,257
Loc: Geospatial inversion.
Last seen: 3 years, 7 months
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Children & Hallucinogens, The Future of Discipline & How to Wash a Child's Brain, 1970s. 1
#21872183 - 06/29/15 07:13 AM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Scarfolk, population unknown. Precise location: open to interpretation. Somewhere in the north-west of England, a town stuck in a hellish vision of the 1970s. Thought detector vans called "think tanks" roll through the streets and those who dare to speak to outsiders are handed black spot cards that require a human sacrifice. It's a place of pagan rituals where the water is electrified and the fear of grisly death stalks every corner.
A tour of the town is in turns horrific and hilarious. It's also, thankfully, a ride not around a real place but the brilliantly warped imagination of Scarfolk's self-appointed mayor.
Richard Littler is a graphic designer and screenwriter fascinated by the darker side of the decade and place in which he grew up: 1970s suburban Manchester. His blog, which has gained a cult following since it launched in February, is a repository for items retrieved from Scarfolk Council's newly opened archives. All fake, they include public-information posters, tourist literature and adverts that create a dystopic vision of an England that would have given Orwell the heebie-jeebies.
"I was always scared as a kid, always frightened of what I was faced with," Littler says. "You'd walk into WH Smith and see horror books with people's faces melting. Kids' TV included things like Children of the Stones, a very odd series you just wouldn't get today. I remember a public information film made by some train organisation in which a children's sports day was held on train tracks and, one by one, they were killed. It was insane."
Littler, who was born in 1971, is thinking about The Finishing Line, a 20-minute film made in 1977 by British Transport Films. It's as horrific as he suggests (watch it at ind.pn/railfilm) and the product of an era in which the stick of fear was used to whack children into behaving, to hell with their nightmares. Littler also recalls an obsession with the occult and medical procedures such as appendix removals and circumcision. "I'm just taking it to the next logical step," he explains. "What if people learned that it was a good idea to have your legs removed, or wash your children's brains? I'm pushing reality into absurd horror but, because life was already absurd and terrifying, it only takes a nudge."
The dark humour often comes in the way Littler posts his images. An "extract" from the guide to literal brain-washing reads: "Always wear woollen gloves (or mittens) [...] After the child's brain has been removed with the two brain spoons, rinse it in a solution of vinegar, ammonia and curry powder, then rest the brain on a soft cloth or tea towel for a few minutes, or for as long as is convenient."
In another post, Littler creates the cover of a pop-up book, Factory Related Injuries & Deaths, by Bill Chunt ("Includes limited edition authentic 'severed fingers' playset"). "Unintentionally or otherwise, public information warnings tended to psychologically 'scar folk', especially children," Littler says, explaining the name of his town.
Littler began his project in his own time, mining the internet for inspiration along with his own, genuine archives of documents and materials. He uses Photoshop and other software to create his images, often taking hours to get the right look. "It's hard to make them look imperfect in that 1970s way," he says. "But I'm also lucky in the sense that everyone was working with the same five or six fonts and used the same printers."
Scarfolk.
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LuSiD enthusiast
Stranger
Registered: 03/14/13
Posts: 4,325
Last seen: 4 years, 11 months
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Re: Children & Hallucinogens, The Future of Discipline & How to Wash a Child's Brain, 1970s. [Re: Beanhead]
#21872288 - 06/29/15 07:55 AM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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I feel lile my brain could use a good washing. God onpy knows what kind of dirt and grime has built up in it.
-------------------- I'm addicted to coke, weed, booze, ludes and speed. Not LSD, you can't get addicted to LSD, it was built by scientists. I ain't got no demons that gonna get woke. In erowid we trust. Just take your damn pills and don't ask any questions, you'll be fine.
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lavod
Seal Whisperer
Registered: 06/23/06
Posts: 5,454
Loc: Over the rainbow
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Re: Children & Hallucinogens, The Future of Discipline & How to Wash a Child's Brain, 1970s. [Re: LuSiD enthusiast]
#21872330 - 06/29/15 08:14 AM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Wow, i just watched the finishing line linked below. Ridiculous on a reefer madness level ov silliness but sopping wet with 70s English black humour.
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