You won't get what you want until horses, dogs, and cats like you, until babies smile at you. The force moves darkly on somebody about to kill. If you are paranoid every bird in the vicinity, every schizophrenic homeless person is going to pick up on that and give it right back to you. A persecution complex begins with the self, and it's interesting how mythical this idea of taming animals is. Of not scaring the birds, which even has a modern connotation. Don't scare the host, as they might say. But you see this animal-taming motif especially with the bull. This is the Taurini. From Taurinos, bull killing. This is the Mithraic initiation. Mithras plunges a dagger into the bull. Gilgamesh slays the bull of heaven. Jason fights the flaming bulls for the golden fleece, ending the age of Taurus beginning the age of Aries, from bull to ram. This is why Abraham shifts the paradigm from bull child sacrifice to sacrifice the lamb and why Moses destroys the golden calf. Theseus slays the Minotaur. Hercules and the Cretan bull. White Goodman, Dodgeball. The bull jumpers found in Minoan art, which survives even today as the Matadors of modern Spain. The ritual of the Matador is 4,000 years old. The bull is a symbol of life force of vitality, untamed, powerful. But it's also the source of fear and uncontrollability, so a man has to learn how to control it. I think one of the best examples of this is Alexander taming Bucephalus, Bucephalus meaning ox-headed bull-headed. The uncontrollable stallion, none of King Philip's men can contain Bucephalus, but then Alexander notices that the horse only runs away when it sees its own shadow. And so to tame Bucephalus, Alexander turns the horse into the sun and is able to ride it and tame it and break it and harness its power. The bull force, the shadow. The shadow fears always in the shape of you, bled in the sun. If you face the sun, shadows will always fall behind you. Fear comes from not facing the sun, and it will come in the shape of you. I was enter knows this, and because of this, Philip tells his son that Macedon is too small for the best to undoubtedly conquer the world. He conquers and conquers himself. Before conquering Persia, Alexander conquered Bucephalus. So yes, to have style and not scare the birds away, you have to conquer your fears. If I am afraid, then the aesthetic homeless man's runaway pigeons has something I don't, and that's why you see the motif of saints being surrounded by animals. Because this is the return of Edenic man, man who is at peace with all of nature. If you want to be cool, you have to learn how to talk to animals. This is obvious in the stories like Sharkboy and Lava Girl, How to Train Your Dragon, Jurassic Park, coolness is based on taming animals. Controlling animals begins with controlling yourself, but it can't be done from a distance. A bullfighter without a real bull that can kill him is just a man in a silly costume. You can snipe a bull from a mile away, but that's not style. A scarf looks sick on a fighter pilot, but stupid on a hipster. Style means hugging peril, smelling death's breath, and smiling at it. Hemingway pointed this out about the matadors who didn't have to pretend they were close to the bull, but who just stayed close to it. The man with style is he who wears chaos like a belt. He plays with what kills others. He is the grace under pressure. He subdues the wild beast. Bull jumpers and the matadors turned fear into a game. Slow, but not lethargic, quick, but not jittery. Agile, but not agitating, effective, but effortless. Whenever I'm about to do something that scares me, I like to imagine myself having to walk through a flock of pigeons, and I can't encourage a single one to fly off the ground. I've got to be so smooth, so calm, so chill, but I just phase through the birds. And when I act like that, people pick up on that and the situation's cool. Just like babies are waiting to see your reaction to know what to do, the entire universe is doing that. People will never win anything until you conquer your own shadow.
Miller's style lecture reframes coolness as animal-taming — not scaring birds, horses, dogs, cats, or babies. Starting from the paranoid force that "every bird will pick up on you and give it back," he traces a 4,000-year bull lineage: Tarhunza/Mithras plunging the dagger, Gilgamesh slaying the Bull of Heaven, Jason's flaming bulls (Taurus→Aries), Abraham's shift from bull-child to lamb, Moses' golden calf, Theseus/Minotaur, Hercules/Cretan bull, Minoan bull-jumpers to modern matadors. The bull is life-force, vitality, and fear — untamed. Alexander taming Bucephalus ("ox-head") becomes the master image: Philip's men fail because Bucephalus flees his own shadow; Alexander turns him into the sun so shadows fall behind, harnesses the shadow-shaped fear that was always in the shape of you. Face the sun and shadows fall behind; don't, and fear comes as you. Philip then says Macedon is too small — Alexander conquered himself before Persia. From there Miller links Edenic saints surrounded by animals, and pop culture (Sharkboy, How to Train Your Dragon, Jurassic Park) to argue controlling animals begins with controlling self, and style can't be sniped from distance — a matador without a real bull is a costume, a scarf on a hipster is stupid but on a pilot is sick because one hugs peril. Hemingway's matadors didn't pretend to be close, they were close; the man of style wears chaos like a belt, plays with what kills others, is grace under pressure — slow not lethargic, quick not jittery. The practice image: walk through pigeons without making one fly — so smooth you phase through — and like babies/the universe, people read your calm and the situation becomes cool. Thesis: you won't get what you want until you conquer your own shadow.
Miller's bull-taming aesthetic risks romanticizing proximity to danger as always stylish — but not every bull should be hugged; some should be left in the field. The matador's 4,000-year ritual is also a history of goring, and modern cool that "wears chaos like a belt" can become a macho performance that confuses self-conquest with self-exposure theater — the hipster who does hug peril without competence is just a matador in a silly costume with a real bull. The missing discernment is which bull is yours to tame (your shadow) vs. which chaos is not yours to wear (someone else's trauma, a market's volatility, a bull that's actually a bear). Grace under pressure without wisdom is just slow-motion recklessness.