Tuesday 30 November 2021

Ghost Traps




Hey, it never occurred to me to ask you back then —

What Happens to Them 

in Those Boxes…?

Do They Die in There?


Do You Care...?


That's why you didn't kill Beverly.

'Cause she wasn't afraid.


And we aren't either.

Not anymore.


Now you're the one who's afraid.

Because you're gonna starve.


"He thrusts his fists 

against the posts

and still insists 

he sees the ghosts

He thrusts his fists 

against the posts"


IT :

Fear...




Danny :
Pictures in A Book. 
You said they were just 
Pictures in A Book  
and They couldn't Hurt Me.

HALLORAN :
Some things, Dark Things
The Shining's like food.
They're mosquitoes landing for blood.

The Overlook, it was  always just pictures to me.
But I didn't shine like you.
Nobody shines like you.

So, you in that damn hotel,  you was like 
a million-watt battery all plugged in.
And it ate it up.

You made it real.
Started soon as you  walked through The Door.

Can't do nothing about that, 
I'm sorry to tell you, but 
You're Not a Child.
You're older now.
Much older, in a way.

You gotta hear this.

World's a hungry place.
And The Darkest Things 
are The Hungriest
and They'll eat what shines.

Swarm it like mosquitoes or leeches.
Can't do nothing about that.

What you can do... 
is turn what they come for  against 'em.

My Grandfather, He was 
mean Son of a Bitch.
Dark inside.

Same Type of Dark as Your Dad.
Beat me senseless, and My Grandma, too, 
and when he died, I danced.

But he kept on coming back.
Standing in my room.

Suit all gray and stinkin' from whatever mold 
was growin' on him in That Box.
One day, he grabbed me, and He was Real.

His nails were long from growing in The Grave, a
and they cut me, Doc.
Cut me deep.

So, Grandma, she taught me 
A Trick :
Gave me A Present.

I want you to know this box... inside and out.
Don't just look at it. Touch it.
Stick your nose inside and see if there's a smell.
Know every corner, every single thing.

Danny :
Why?

HALLORAN :
Because you're gonna build one 
just like it in Your Mind.

One even more special.

So next time that bitch 
comes around, you'll be ready.






BUGS BUNNY:
Eh, what's up, Doc?
What's the bit?
What's cookin'?

WILE E. COYOTE
What's cooking, little friend? 
Why, you are.

BUGS BUNNY
Me?

WILE E. COYOTE
Why, yes. 

(LAUGHING)

BUGS BUNNY: 
Ouch! You're killing me!
Ouch!
Agony! Agony!

(OLD WOMAN SCREAMING)
(SCREAMING STOPS) 
(DOOR LOCK CLICKS)

WILE E. COYOTE: 
Let me see now.
It is obvious that this is no ordinary rabbit.
Therefore, I must dream up 
a brilliant master strategy, ingenious...

Wendy, Darling :
You okay, Doc?

WILE E. COYOTE
Now, uh, what if I lured him...

Danny :
Yeah, Mom. I'm okay. 

...into a rock crusher?


BUGS BUNNY
Nah, nah, nah, too complicated.

WILE E. COYOTE
Yeah, yeah, too complicated. 
But what if I...

BUGS BUNNY
Uh-uh, too much detail.

WILE E. COYOTE
Right. Too much detail.

(WENDY KISSES)
(SIREN WAILING ON STREET)
(GROANS SOFTLY)
("GOOD GODLY WOMAN" BY THE RED CLAY STRAYS PLAYING)





Danny :

Hey, Azzie.

You got your wires crossed tonight.

(DOOR CREAKS)

That room's empty, Az.

There's no one in that room.


HALLORAN :

Whoa! Hang on, Doc.



Danny :

Dick!

Oh, I'm so sorry.

I... I... I thought it was...


HALLORAN :

Thought I was from The Overlook.

[ Well, he is... ]

Almost locked me up.

Still getting visits 

from them old ghosts?


Danny :

No, not for years.

Horace Derwent was the last one, confetti on his suit.

Said, "Great party, isn't it?"

Shit-eating grin on his face 

‘til I pulled out A Box for him.

That grin went fast. 

(CHUCKLES)


Hey, it never occurred to me to ask you back then.

What Happens to Them 

in those boxes?

Do They Die in There?


HALLORAN :

Do you care?


Danny :

I missed you.


HALLORAN :

Has it been a long time?

Can't Tell.

This World is A Dream 

of A Dream to Me now.


Danny :

Eight years. Little more.


HALLORAN :

Last time I saw You, 

You was at The Bottom.

You look better now.


Danny :

Why are you here?


HALLORAN :

I'm here because it all comes 'round.

Ka's A Wheel, Doc.

You Listen, Son.

It Hurts to be here, 

so I'll only say it once.


These empty devils ever 

found you when you was a tyke, 

if they'd even sniffed you, 

you'd be long dead.


They're on the land like 

a cancer on the skin.


Once, they rode camels in the desert.

Once, they drove caravans across Eastern Europe.


They Eat Screams

and Drink Pain

and They've noticed 

that little girl.


They might kill her

might turn her, 

or might keep her 

till she's all used up

and that'd be worst of all.


You can't let 'em.


Danny :

Why me?


HALLORAN :

Because she found you.

Because she showed up

Hell, Doc, why me?


You just walked on in

to My Kitchen one day, 

and I'm still on the hook. 

(CHUCKLES)


Danny :

What the hell am I supposed to do?


HALLORAN :

Get her what she asked for.


You won't see me again, Doc.

This is My Last Dream.

It seems to Me,

You Grew up Fine, Son —

but You still owe A Debt.


Pay it.

Jack is Not Working






The throwing around of the tennis ball inside the Overlook Hotel was Jack Nicholson's idea. 

The script originally only specified that
"Jack is Not Working."




Dan, alcoholic.

ALL: Hi, Dan.

DAN: 
I'm not much of a speech guy.

I just thought I'd hold the chip and talk about whatever popped up.

So, here I am.

And I'm thinkin' about my dad.

I saw a chip like this in his hand once.

A couple months before he died.

Five month chip, I'm pretty sure.

He hurt me once when he was drunk.

Broke my arm.

Then he dried right out.

He died when I was five, so the only way I got to know him, really got to know him, was when I went dark.

When I... When I drank to dull the... or, uh... whenever I wanted to break someone's face, 'cause the drinking and the temper and the anger, those things in me were his.

And they were all I could know of him.

But now, well, now I get to know him a little different...

'cause he also stood in a room like this once... wanting to get well for me and my mom.

And he held the chip in his hand and the chip said five months, and on that day, he...

Before it all...

Well, on that day, all he wanted in the world was to stand where I'm standing now.

And here I am, so thank you for us both, I guess.

This is for Jack Torrance.

(APPLAUSE)





WENDY, Darling 
Hey. It's okay, Doc.
It's okay. 
(PANTING)
There.
All dry.

WENDY, Darling 
Phew. What happened?

You have to talk to me, Danny.
You haven't talked since we left...

Please, Doc.
Please.

(RAIN CONTINUES PATTERING)
(WENDY SIGHS)

HALLORAN :
So... you ain't Talking, huh, Doc?
Weren't Talking much first time I met you neither.
Little boy... set to spend a long winter at that rotten old place.

Just him and his mommy and daddy.
Daddy as dark as that boy is bright.

And, boy, is he bright.
He's shining like fire... 
in the one place... 
the worst place for someone who shines.

You remember the first time we really talked?
When I spoke up inside your head?
Made you feel good, right?
Knowing you weren't alone.

Danny :
Daddy tried to kill me.

HALLORAN :
It wasn't all him, you gotta know.
That place fed His Dark,  like it fed on Your Light.
And he had some Light in him, too.
Just like you got some Dark.
We all got both.

Danny :
It's not done with me.

HALLORAN :
It ever strike you funny 
how I showed up when I did?
When you needed me.

Someone did that for me, too.

My Grandma taught me
and I taught you.

And some day, Danny Torrance, 
you'll teach someone else.

Danny :
I won't.

HALLORAN :
Oh, you won't, huh?

Danny :
I won't shine, I mean.
No more. It's dangerous.

HALLORAN :
Reckon it is sometimes.


Danny :
She found me.
She'll come back and come back 
until she gets me.



HALLORAN :
You're right.

The Overlook's condemned. 
Boarded up.
They're starvin' old ghosts, 
and they're reachin' out for you.
Won't stop with her, either.

Danny :
Pictures in a book. You said they were 
just pictures in a book  and they couldn't hurt me.

HALLORAN :
Some things, Dark Things
The Shining's like food.
They're mosquitoes landing for blood.

The Overlook, it was  always just pictures to me.
But I didn't shine like you.
Nobody shines like you.

So, you in that damn hotel,  you was like 
a million-watt battery all plugged in.
And it ate it up.

You made it real.
Started soon as you  walked through The Door.

Can't do nothing about that, 
I'm sorry to tell you, but 
You're Not a Child.
You're older now.
Much older, in a way.

You gotta hear this.

World's a hungry place.
And The Darkest Things 
are The Hungriest
and They'll eat what shines.

Swarm it like mosquitoes or leeches.
Can't do nothing about that.

What you can do... 
is turn what they come for  against 'em.

My Grandfather, He was 
a mean Son of a Bitch.
Dark inside.

Same Type of Dark 
as Your Dad.
Beat me senseless, 
and My Grandma, too, 
and when he died, I danced.

But he kept on coming back.
Standing in my room.

Suit all gray and stinkin' from whatever mold 
was growin' on him in That Box.
One day, he grabbed me, and He was Real.

His nails were long from growing in The Grave, a
and they cut me, Doc.
Cut me deep.

So, Grandma, she taught me A Trick :
Gave me A Present.

I want you to know this box... inside and out.
Don't just look at it. Touch it.
Stick your nose inside and see if there's a smell.
Know every corner, every single thing.


Danny :
Why?

HALLORAN :
Because you're gonna build one 
just like it in Your Mind.

One even more special.

So next time that bitch 
comes around, you'll be ready.


Let's get you back to Mama.
Wendy'll worry, and she shouldn't 
have to worry another day in her life.

That woman's paid her debt.


WENDY, Darling 
Danny!
Danny!
Danny!

(PANTING) 

There you are.
Where did you go, huh?

You Scared Me Half to Death.
Don't You Do That to Me. You hear?

Don't you ever do that to me.
Don't ever do that to me.


(METAL SCRAPING ON TV)
(BUGS BUNNY ON TV) 
Eh, what's up, Doc?
(LAUGHS) 
What's the bit?
(YOUNG DAN BREATHES DEEPLY) 

What's cookin'?

WILE E. COYOTE
What's cooking, little friend? 
Why, you are.

BUGS BUNNY
Me?

WILE E. COYOTE
Why, yes. 

(LAUGHING)

BUGS BUNNY
Ouch! You're killing me!
Ouch!
Agony! Agony!

(OLD WOMAN SCREAMING)
(SCREAMING STOPS) (DOOR LOCK CLICKS)

WILE E. COYOTE: 
Let me see now.
It is obvious that this is no ordinary rabbit.
Therefore, I must dream up 
a brilliant master strategy, ingenious...

WENDY, Darling 
You okay, Doc?

WILE E. COYOTE
Now, uh, what if I lured him...


Danny :
Yeah, Mom. I'm okay. 

...into a rock crusher?


BUGS BUNNY
Nah, nah, nah, too complicated.

WILE E. COYOTE
Yeah, yeah, too complicated. 
But what if I...

BUGS BUNNY
Uh-uh, too much detail.

WILE E. COYOTE
Right. Too much detail.

(WENDY KISSES)
(SIREN WAILING ON STREET)
(GROANS SOFTLY)
("GOOD GODLY WOMAN" BY THE RED CLAY STRAYS PLAYING)

Night has Fallen Here













The Real Ghostbusters Commune w. MARDUK — I AM THE CITY

Monday 29 November 2021

Whatever You Do is Evil for Somebody.





Whatever You Do 
is Evil for somebody.

— Joseph Campbell





















BILL MOYERS

What do you make of this, that in all of these stories the principal actors are pointing to Someone Else as the initiator of the fall?


JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yeah, but it turns out to be Snake. And Snake in both of these stories is the symbol of Life throwing off the past and continuing to live.


BILL MOYERS: 

Why?



JOSEPH CAMPBELL

The Power of Life

because the snake sheds its skin, just as the moon sheds its shadow. 

The snake in most cultures is positive

Even the most poisonous thing, in India, the cobra, is a sacred animal. 

And the serpent, Naga, The Serpent King, Nagaraga, is the next thing to the Buddha, because the serpent represents the power of life in the field of time to throw off death, and the Buddha represents the power of life in the field of eternity to be eternally alive.


Now, I saw a fantastic thing of a Burmese priestess, a snake priestess, who had to bring rain to her people by calling A King Cobra from his den and kissing him three times on the nose. There was the cobra, the giver of life, the giver of rain, which is of life, as the divine positive, not negative, figure.


BILL MOYERS

The Christian stories turn it around, because the serpent was the seducer.


JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Well, what that amounts to 

is a refusal to affirm life. 

Life is evil in this view. 

Every natural impulse is sinful 

unless you’ve been 

baptised or circumcised, 

in this tradition that 

we’ve inherited. 

For Heaven’s sakes!


BILL MOYERS

By having been The Tempter, 

women have paid a great price, 

because in mythology, some of this mythology, they are the ones who led to the downfall.


JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Of course they did. 

I mean, they represent Life

Man doesn’t enter life 

except by woman, 

and so it is woman 

who brings us into the world of polarities and pair of opposites and suffering and all. But I think it’s a really childish attitude, to say “no” to life with all its pain, you know, to say this is something that should not have been.


Schopenhauer, in one of his marvelous chapters, I think it’s in The World as Will and Idea, says: “Life is something that should not have been. It is in its very essence and character, a terrible thing to consider, this business of living by killing and eating.” I mean, it’s in sin in terms of all ethical judgments all the time.


BILL MOYERS

As Zorba says, you know, “Trouble? Life is Trouble. 

Only death is no trouble.”


JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

That’s it. And when people 

say to me, you know, 

“Do you have optimism 

about The World?

You know, how terrible it is, 

I said, yes, just say, 

It’s greatJust 

the way it is.”


BILL MOYERS: 

But doesn’t that lead to a rather passive attitude in the face of evil, in the face of Wrong?


JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

You participate in it. 

Whatever you do is evil for somebody.


BILL MOYERS: But explain that for the audience.


JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, when I was in India, there was a man whose name was Sri Krishnamenon and his mystical name was Atmananda and he was in Trivandrum, and I went to Trivandrum, and I had the wonderful privilege of sitting face to face with him as I’m sitting here with you. And the first question, first thing he said to me is, “Do you have a question?” Because the teacher there always answers questions, he doesn’t tell you what anything, he answers. And I said, “Yes, I have a question.” I said, “Since in Hindu thinking all the universe is divine, is a manifestation of divinity itself, how can we say ‘no’ to anything in the world, how can we say ‘no’ to brutality, to stupidity, to vulgarity, to thoughtlessness?” And he said, “For you and me, we must say yes.”


Well, I had learned from my friends who were students of his, that that happened to have been the first question he asked his guru, and we had a wonderful talk for about an hour there on this theme, of the affirmation of the world. And it confirmed me in a feeling that I have had, that who are we to judge? And it seems to me that this is one of the great teachings of Jesus.


BILL MOYERS: 

Well, I see now what you mean in one respect; 

in some classic Christian doctrine The World is to be despised, 

Life is to be redeemed in The Hereafter, 

it is Heaven where our rewards come, 

and if you affirm 

That Which You Deplore, 

as you say, you’re affirming The World, 

which is our 

Eternity of The Moment.


JOSEPH CAMPBELL

That’s what I would say. 

Eternity isn’t some later time; 

Eternity isn’t a long time; 

Eternity has nothing to do with Time. 


Eternity is that dimension 

of Here and Now which 

thinking in Time cuts out.


BILL MOYERS

This is it.


JOSEPH CAMPBELL

This is it.


BILL MOYERS

This is my …


JOSEPH CAMPBELL

If you don’t get it here

you won’t get it anywhereand 

The Experience of Eternity 

right here and now 

is The Function of Life.


There’s a wonderful formula that the Buddhists have for the Boddhisattva. The Bodhisattva, the one whose being, satra, is illumination, bodhi, who realizes his identity with eternity, and at the same time his participation in time. 


And the attitude is not 

to withdraw from The World 

when you realize how horrible it is, 

but to realise that this horror is simply the foreground of a wonder

and come back and 

participate in it. 

All life is sorrowful,” is the first Buddhist saying, and it is


It wouldn’t be Life if there were not temporality involved

which is sorrow, loss, loss, loss.


BILL MOYERS

That’s a pessimistic note.


JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Well, I mean, you got to 

say “Yes.” to it and say 

It’s great this way.

I mean, this is 

The Way God intended it.


BILL MOYERS

You don’t really believe that?


JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Well, this is the way it is, and I don’t believe anybody intended it, but this is the way it is. 

And Joyce’s wonderful line, you know, 

“History is a nightmare from which I’m trying to awake.” 

And the way to awake from it is not to be afraid and to recognize, as I did in my conversation with that Hindu guru or teacher that I told you of, that all of this as it is, is as it has to be, and it is a manifestation of the eternal presence in the world. The end of things always is painful; pain is part of there being a world at all.


BILL MOYERS

But if one accepted that isn’t the ultimate conclusion, to say, well, 

I won’t try to reform any laws or fight any battles.


JOSEPH CAMPBELL

I didn’t say that.


BILL MOYERS

Isn’t that the logical conclusion one could draw, though, 

the philosophy of nihilism?


JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Well, that’s not the necessary thing to draw :

You could say, “I will participate in this row, 

and I will join the army, 

and I will go to war.


BILL MOYERS

I’ll do The Best I can on Earth.


JOSEPH CAMPBELL

I will participate in The Game. It’s a wonderful, wonderful opera, except that it hurts. 

And that wonderful Irish saying, you know, 

Is this a private fight, 

or can anybody get into it?” 


This is the way Life is, 

and The Hero is the one who can participate in it decently

in The Way of Nature

not in the way of personal rancor,

 revenge or anything of the kind.


Let me tell you one story here, of a samurai warrior, a Japanese warrior, 

who had the duty to avenge the murder of his overlord. 

And he actually, after some time, 

found and cornered the man 

who had murdered his overlord. 

And he was about to deal with him with his samurai sword, 

when this man in the corner, 

in the passion of terror, 

spat in his face. 


And The Samurai 

Sheathed The Sword and Walked Away. 

Why did he do that?


BILL MOYERS

Why?


JOSEPH CAMPBELL

Because he was made angry, and if he had killed that man then, it would have been a personal act, of another kind of act, and that’s not what he had come to do.