How To Lose Consciousnes is a non-redemptive constellation of religious belief, torture, and meaningless form. Confined in a basement by religious zealots, a woman must produce 8 unassociated documentaries to secure her freedom.

VOICES: Judy Fisher, Gary Kibbins
YAM ACTORS: Leslie Rose, Jonathan Rose
YAM VOICES: Jan Allen, Garry Allen
SOUP ARTISTS: Antoine Mercier, Olivier Mercier

Script

(voice)
Pens – are in many ways, though not in all ways, like arrows;
which are in many ways, though not in all ways, like cannonballs;
which are in many ways, though not in all ways, like cotton balls;
which are in many ways, though not in all ways, like footballs;
which are in many ways, though not in all ways, like human heads;
which are in many ways, though not in all ways, like hoops of fire;
which are in many ways, though not in all ways, like explosions;
which are in many ways, though not in all ways, like boiling oceans;
which is in many ways, though not in all ways, like defying devastating waves;
which is in many ways, though not in all ways, like the actions of true followers;
which is in many ways, though not in all ways, like swimming;
which is in many ways, though not in all ways, like laying down;
which is in many ways, though not in all ways, like falling prostrate;
which is in many ways, though not in all ways, like sleeping;
which is in many ways, though not in all ways, like waking up;
which is in many ways, though not in all ways, like arising from dusty beds;
which is in many ways, though not in all ways, like rising above the suffering;
which is in many ways, though not in all ways, like gliding;
which is in many ways, though not in all ways, like sailing;

 

(voice, same)

Three men in robes have locked me in a basement. A modest effort has been made to make my stay comfortable. I spend most of my time alone reading water-stained pamphlets. Occasionally they keep me company by asking questions I don’t understand, and for which I have no answer. I think they have the wrong person, but they are convinced otherwise. It’s cold, and there are curious food restrictions. (Somewhere in here, a long sequence of the woman rising up to heaven.) I want to leave, and so I try my very very best to give them the answers they seek. They think I have those answers. Perhaps I do.

I am shown pictures of people in lab coats. What does this mean to you? they ask. Thinking strategically, I answer them, with more pictures.  They’re pleased, so I’m pleased, too.

The interrogation lights begin to flicker. After they see that I am truly suffering, my feeble responses seem to take on greater value. Finally, on the 19th day of my captivity, something changes.

It was in the year 19 that the Roman Emperor Tiberius expelled the Egyptians from Rome, and deported 4,000 Jews from Sicily. “So it must be,” I explained, “the number of angels guarding hell, according to the Koran.” We sat looking at each other in silence, my captors and I, for that number, we all knew, was 19. In Roman numerals, 19 is the largest prime number which is also a palindrome (XIX). And 19 is the jersey number of Johnny Unitas, the former quarterback for the Baltimore Colts. Finally, S is the 19th letter of the alphabet.

After the significance of this number is fully recognized, my captors allow me a small glass of water. With genuine interest, I listen to their stories. Time passes. And as we had already determined that S is both the beginning and the end, we know we must both start with S, as well as take it away.

For a time, we sit together in silence. But because 19 is also the 8th smallest prime number, it was inevitable that I be charged with completing 8 short documentaries, each one simultaneously covering two or more unrelated topics whose key words begin with the remaining 8 letters of the alphabet. These documentaries would be a test, and would need to fulfill the exacting conditions required by my captors, if I was ever to secure my freedom.

The restrictions were severe, the expectations unclear, and my resources were few. I started out with great excitement, but little hope.

 

  1. soup / sarcasm

Soup is a liquid food, in which different kinds of solid food have been cooked, e.g., meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, cereals or fruit, while sarcasm on the other hand, is a keen or bitter taunt, a cutting jibe or rebuke often delivered in a tone of contempt.

Thin-skinned vegetables, like zucchinis, are best for those who are more sensitive or easily hurt by the casual cruelties of daily life; while, appropriately, thick-skinned vegetables or meat are preferred by those whose psychological constitution is more robust.

Many soups are peculiar to certain localities, e.g., the pot-au-feu of France, the borscht of Russia, the mutton broth of Scotland, or the Egusi soup of West Africa. Broth is a thin soup of meat or shellfish liquor, sometimes with cereals added, as in barley broth. Clear soups, made from a rich meat stock, include consommé or bouillion. Thick soups include those made with stock and vegetables, or with milk and flour, as in cream soups. They are appreciated largely by people who are themselves a bit thick. A puree differs from a cream soup in that it is thickened with pulp, usually of a vegetable. Gumbo is either vegetable or meat soup thickened with okra.

 

  1. torture / trilobites

(text on screen, simultaneous with voiceover, cited below)
An appetite for torture will occur most readily in people who have displayed at least two of the following:

  • Has used physical cruelty or violence, or psychological intimidation, for the purpose of establishing dominance in a relationship;
  • Humiliates or demeans people, subtly or otherwise, in the presence of others;
  • Has treated or disciplined someone under his or her control with unnecessary harshness.
  • Is amused by, or takes pleasure in, the psychological or physical suffering of others;
  • Has lied for the purpose of harming or inflicting pain on others;
  • Uses fear as a means of controlling the behaviour of others;
  • Restricts the independence of people with whom he or she has a close relationship;
  • Is fascinated by violence, weapons, or injury.

 

(voice)

Trilobites are a subphylum of the phylum Arthropoda that includes an awkward cluster of extinct marine animals that were affluent in the Paleozoic incident. They personify more than half of the more brazen fossils from the Cambrian appointment. The trilobite body was gratefully oval and monotonous, and was divided into three roughly equal sections: the head, the thorax, and the denoument. The name trilobite refers to a pair of furrows along the length of the animal that divided the body into three longitudinal regions. The organization was roofed by a mineralized emblem. Because the more-than shell was thicker than the less-than shell, it has been the best preserved in remnant mode. Trilobites were abundant societies of the Cambrian and Ordovician geological periods. They balked thereafter, possibly because they became food for cephelapods, and became extinct during the Permian intermission. They send their regrets.

 

  1. unemployment / ukulele

(text-on screen, and voice)
Unemployment is the condition of one who is able to work, but unable to find work.
Unemployment is the condition of one who is able to work, but is able to find work.
Unemployment is the condition of one who is unable to work, but is able to find work.
Unemployment is the condition of one who is unable to work, but is unable to find work.

Unemployment is the condition of one who is able to find employment, but is unable to find employment.
Unemployment is the condition of one who is able to find unemployment, but is unable to find unemployment.
Unemployment is the condition of one who is unable to find employment, but is able to find unemployment.
Unemployment is the condition of one who is unable to find unemployment, but is unable to find unemployment.

Unemployment is the condition of one who is able to meaningfully work, but unable to find meaningful employment.
Unemployment is the condition of one who is able to meaningfully work, but able to find meaningful employment.
Unemployment is the condition of one who is meaningfully unable to work, but is able to find meaningful employment.
Unemployment is the condition of one who is meaningfully unable to work, but is unable to find meaningful employment.
Unemployment is the condition of one who is meaningfully unable to work, but is meaningfully able to find meaningful employment.

Meaningful unemployment is the condition of one who is able to meaningfully work, but able to find meaningful unemployment.
Meaningful unemployment is the condition of one who is able to meaningfully work, but unable to find meaningful unemployment.
Meaningful unemployment is the condition of one who is meaningfully unable to work, but able to find meaningful unemployment.
Meaningful unemployment is the condition of one who is meaningfully unable to work, but is unable to find meaningful unemployment.
Meaningful unemployment is the condition of one who is meaningfully unable to work, but is meaningfully able to find meaningful unemployment.

 

  1. (22 [4]) vacuum cleaner / Lucilio Vanini

A vacuum cleaner is a mechanical device using a draft of air to remove dust, loose dirt, or other particulate matter from dry surfaces. It is especially useful on highly textured surfaces, such as carpets and upholstery, that are difficult to clean by wiping or brushing. Usually, an electrically powered fan is used to produce a zone in which the air pressure is below atmospheric pressure, causing a draft of air to flow through the material to be cleaned, carrying the small particles with it. The draft passes through a filter bag, which traps the particles, and the flow of air is then discharged back into the atmosphere. In some machines, the electric motor and wiring are sealed so that wet surfaces can be cleaned safely.

 

(Text-on-screen.)
Lucilio Vanini was an Italian renaissance philosopher and freethinker who wandered Western Europe preaching against scholasticism and religious belief. He noted the various similarities between animals and people, particularly apes, and suggested an evolutionary link. In 1619 he was arrested in Toulouse, convicted of atheism and witchcraft, and condemned to death, whereupon his tongue was cut out, he was strangled, and his body burned.

 

  1. whispering / the Wicked

(No voice over; sounds of whistling; images of whispering; followed by image of preacher.)

The Wicked:  …inferno engulfs the wicked…the righteous remain safe and secure within the gates of the New Jerusalem…Every sinner is punished according to what they’ve done…those with few sins are destroyed quickly…while those who are guilty of horrific evil against humanity, suffer longer…and Satan, the instigator of all sin, is forced to suffer the most…For God, the punishment of the wicked is a painful act, but it’s something that his justice demands.

 

  1. Xanthoma / Xenophanes

(voice)
Xanthoma is a skin problem marked by the development of irregular yellow nodules, sometimes attributable to disturbances of cholesterol metabolism. It can appear anywhere in the skin, but is more common on the elbows, knees, hands and feet.  It is usually painless.

Xenophanes lived a century before Socrates, and no likenesses of him have survived. He was a singer of elegies, a poet, and a satirist who exhorted his hearers to virtue. He opposed the anthropomorphic representation of the gods common to the Greeks since the time of Homer and Hesiod. If horses had gods, he surmised, they’d look like horses.   “…if cows and horses or lions had hands,” he wrote, “or could draw with their hands and make artifacts like men make, horses would draw the forms of their gods like horses, cows like cows, and make their bodies such as the form they each had themselves.”

 

  1. yes (used as a function word) / yams

(text on screen)

  • Yes is used as a function word to express assent or agreement in answer to a question, command or request. (“Would you like to eat this yam?” “Yes, I would like to eat this yam…”)  ?
  • Yes is used as a function word to formally constitute or introduce correction or contradiction of a negative assertion, direction, or request. (“Surely you didn’t mean to slice that yam?” “Yes, I did.”) 2 shots.
  • Yes is used as a function word to express agreement with the content or implication of a preceding statement. (“I’m not sure that the pot is big enough.” “Yes, I see what you mean.”)  2 shots.
  • Yes is used as a function word to emphasize a following affirmative or introduce a more emphatic, specific or comprehensive statement. (“Yams have been a good source of nutrition for our children, and yes, for us as well.” Looking at the camera without yams present.) his food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Potassium and Manganese.
  • Yes is used as a function word to indicate uncertainty or polite interest or attentiveness. (“YES?” – looking up from his plate.)

 

  1. Zaccardelli / Zero /   Zucchinis

Giuliano Zaccardelli was appointed Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police from September, 2000.

Maher Arar, (pic) is a Syrian-born Canadian citizen who was detained by the FBI in New York In September, 2002. The RCMP forwarded false information regarding Arar to American authorities, who then shipped him to Syria, knowing he would be tortured. The RCMP blocked the Department of Foreign Affairs from having Arar returned to Canada, and withheld crucial facts about the Arar case when briefing senior government officials. Zaccardelli resigned as Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in December, 2006.

(text on screen)
Zero is the number which leaves unchanged any number to which it is added.
zucchinis (see above, 1. (19 [7]))

 

*   *   *

 

As I sit nervously awaiting my fate, I see that there are 6 possible outcomes:

  1. They don’t like the information that I provided, and are going to kill me.
  2. They don’t like the information that I provided, and aren’t going to kill me, but aren’t going to release me, either.
  3. They don’t like the information that I provided, but are going to release me anyway.
  4. They like the information that I provided, but are going to kill me anyway.
  5. They like the information that I provided, and aren’t going to kill me, but they aren’t going to release me, either.

They like the information that I provided, and I will be freed unconditionally.