“The machine (now a motorcycle) is totemized into a tool for power: the “charioteer” is Death (the ultimate “dream lover” by Romantic standards). Violence replaces the poetic extension of personality and violent eroticism is combined with the tragic death of the highway hero (“the last cowboys”).”

Carel Rowe in her essay “Myth and Symbolism: Blue Velvet.” Moonchild: The Films of Kenneth Anger” comparing Kenneth Anger’s film Scorpio Rising to a new paradigm of myths