Synaptic Combustion

Everyone needs some.

In my essay ”Mondo Transcripto” (published in my book Source Magic, as well as online here. ) I mention the concept of Spontaneous Synaptic Combustion (SSC). It’s a key to understanding great art beyond any academic or intellectual constructions. Yes, it’s personal and highly subjective of course. However, the SSC function and dynamic can work for anyone. One way of describing it would be ”that which surprises or transcends the expected to the extent of creating a real WOW! impression.”

If you go to an exhibition of the work of an artist it can create a Yay or Nay or lukewarm impression. It sort of is what it is. The same goes for watching a film, listening to a piece of music, reading a book, etc. You probably picked it because you know/feel that it will provide a dose of something you like and would like to replenish. A mood enhancer of sorts, often approved by self-appointed experts and authorities. But how often are you really surprised when partaking of art in general – whether positively or negatively?

When we’re young we usually seek the extreme to find out where and what our own taste limits are, and this is of course very healthy. I fondly and vividly remember all-nighters with splatter & gore films, extreme horror, intense and laughable B-movies, exploitation classics, pornography, etc. The same with art and literature. There’s a reason why Burroughs’s Naked Lunch is better than Proust when you’re eighteen (or even sixty, actually): you need to feel that transcendental or perhaps even transgressive voice in order to understand the world in a more open-minded way. It makes you go WOW!, because it shocks and tilts you, and this teaches you something substantial about yourself that mere acceptance of others’ gospels and canons simply cannot.

I sincerely hope you know what I’m talking about. But if you don’t, here are five suggestions from cinema history that will hopefully shock and guide you right in this important SSC context.