Harlan Ray dismissed modern culture as \u201ca lot of gay shit\u201d and longed for everyone to agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou faggots ever heard of Buster Keaton,\u201d he\u2019d scream. \u201cSon of a bitch wasn\u2019t human, he was a refugee from the planet Krypton. Christ, everybody these days thinks they\u2019re a genius when Hollywood should come with a disclaimer: Only Superhumans need apply!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Harlan needed a protege, a successor, somebody who\u2019d swallow his nuggets of wisdom. And the studio\u2019s most promising wunderkind was the sullen and silent Frank Childs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got no love for drawing,\u201d Frank had shrugged, \u201cit pays the bills and I\u2019ve got a knack for it, but it\u2019s not like I\u2019m curing cancer here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harlan however, feeling that Frank needed an education took the lad to what he called the hall of heroes, a derelict music venue which in its day had seen Orson Welles storm upon its stage, along with Charlie Chaplin, and plenty of other greats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou know my philosophy,\u201d Ray had said as he unlocked the front doors to the decaying hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frank surmised it without blinking: \u201cThe first half of the twentieth century was the pinnacle of human accomplishments, if anything comes from that era, assume it\u2019s great unless Harlan Ray says otherwise. If anything is modern, assume it\u2019s crap unless Harlan Ray says otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNah, nah,\u201d Ray snapped back \u201cyou\u2019ve gotta respect the greats kid, and remember, art isn\u2019t a hobby or a job. It\u2019s a vocation, a goddamn religion!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And with that he unlocked the rusty bolts, pushed open the doors to the mausoleum with a groan. Frank though, winced at the stagnant smell of dust and dry rot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The windows were either boarded up or broken, but the rays of the midday sun still poured into the empty hall. This once grand establishment felt like an odd cross between a church and a radio hall. Its\u2019 white walls were stained, and the art deco organ had rusted considerably. As Frank worried if there was asbestos in the air, Harlan Ray fell to his knees and saw Shakespeare, Mozart, Laurence Olivier and a gazillion of his heroes\u2019 ghosts standing upon the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLive through me!\u201d he chanted \u201clive through me!\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frank raised his eyebrow at this display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not regular humans Frank,\u201d Harlan explained \u201cWe\u2019re artists. Art has been stolen by completely ordinary people no different from your local milkman. You have the truly exceptional folk being shoved to the back of the bus!\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frank made a pained expression \u201cMy Dad\u2019s a doctor; he\u2019s saved actual lives. As for us? We\u2019re no \u00dcbermensch, we draw doodles!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harlan ripped open his shirt to reveal his hairy beer bellied chest: \u201cLive through me! Live through me! Keaton, Chaplin, Lloyd, live through me, I am your vessel, I am your ambassador. I shall make art creative again! Live through me goddamnit!\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Frank Childs looked up at the empty stage and shrugged, knowing that nobody gets into heaven on how good their art is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Harlan Ray dismissed modern culture as \u201ca lot of gay shit\u201d and longed for everyone to agree. \u201cYou faggots ever heard of Buster Keaton,\u201d he\u2019d scream. \u201cSon of a bitch wasn\u2019t human, he was a refugee from the planet Krypton. Christ, everybody these days thinks they\u2019re a genius when Hollywood should come with a disclaimer: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1792,1836],"tags":[1333,114,515,680,95,1447,1478,8,1522,158,1764,1852,1477,632,11],"class_list":["post-2654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1792","category-march-2026-art","tag-art","tag-but","tag-frank","tag-got","tag-had","tag-hall","tag-harlan","tag-he","tag-human","tag-its","tag-modern","tag-needed","tag-ray","tag-ve","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-GO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2655,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions\/2655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}