Showing posts with label Ruin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ruin. Show all posts

Friday 20 December 2019

GENDER : There are Two Borg in Each Slot

There are slots along the wall, kind of like compartments. 

There are two Borg in each.



VII. THE PRINCIPLE OF GENDER.

"Gender is in everything; 
everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; 
Gender manifests on all planes."

-The Kybalion. 

This Principle embodies the truth that there is GENDER manifested in everything-the Masculine and Feminine Principles ever at work. This is true not only of the Physical Plane, but of the Mental and even the Spiritual Planes. On the Physical Plane, the Principle manifests as SEX, on the higher planes it takes higher forms, but the Principle is ever the same. No creation, physical, mental or spiritual, is possible without this Principle. An understanding of its laws will throw light on many a subject that has perplexed the minds of men. The Principle of Gender works ever in the direction of generation, regeneration, and creation. Everything, and every person, contains the two Elements or Principles, or this great Principle, within it, him or her. 

Every Male thing has the Female Element also; every Female contains also the Male Principle. 

If you would understand the philosophy of Mental and Spiritual Creation, Generation, and Re-generation, you must understand and study this Hermetic Principle. It contains the solution of many mysteries of Life. 

We caution you that this Principle has no reference to the many base, pernicious and degrading lustful theories, teachings and practices, which are taught under fanciful titles, and which are a prostitution of the great natural principle of Gender. 

Such base revivals of the ancient infamous forms of Phallicism tend to ruin mind, body and soul, and the Hermetic Philosophy has ever sounded the warning note against these degraded teachings which tend toward lust, licentiousness, and perversion of Nature's principles. if you seek such teachings, you must go elsewhere for them - Hermeticism contains nothing for you along these lines. To the pure, all things are pure; to the base, all things are base.

Wednesday 27 November 2019

KING MOB



Third Citizen
Your name, sir, truly.

CINNA THE POET
Truly, my name is Cinna.

First Citizen
Tear him to pieces; he's a conspirator.

CINNA THE POET
I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet.

Fourth Citizen
Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses.












“ All these people that you read and people read in schools and universities and all those people that were writing at the same time, in just about that period: in those twenty or thirty years, all these people were infected with enthusiasm for the French Revolution, and wrote about the revolutionary upsurge. Even Wordsworth in his youth used to write about the menace of gold and the power of reason. People used to talk about how reason could be used to undermine superstition; how individual working people are as good as the people who dominate them and so on and so on. And those things happened because of the French Revolution. And the French Revolution, of course, terrified people in England, particularly as it went on and developed, and as the left in the French Revolution began to seize power and consolidate it.

           And what happened in the British ruling class was a great terror took them, seized them with terror. They were terrified that the Jacobin ideas, the revolutionary ideas, the ideas of reason as opposed to superstition would start to grip people in Britain. And therefore, they moved troops into the cities, and they unleashed the most terrible repression right across the whole country. All different kinds of spies were put into the cities; put into workplaces in order to detect whether or not there was any evidence of any Jacobin or revolutionary ideas of one kind or another.
Commemoration to the 1819 Peterloo Massacre in Manchester.
Commemoration to the 1819 Peterloo Massacre in Manchester.

           And Shelley developed in that atmosphere. 







This is the point even at Eton where he refused to take part in the fagging[38]operation. Even at Oxford where he challenged the rights of people to tell him whether he should believe in God or not. Those ideas developed in his mind because of the French Revolution. And what comes out of all his poetry? 

The first thing that comes out of all his poetry is a deep, intense hatred and contempt for authority. For people who put themselves in authority without any responsibility for the people over whom they put themselves in authority. A contempt for those who have become masters of other people, not because the people have chosen them but as a result either of some superstition or most of all because of their wealth. All of his poetry is about that. 





Queen Mab, which is the poem that he wrote when he was eighteen, bursts with rage and fury at all the drones, the sycophants, the parasites and the people who were in charge. I can’t read these poems out to you in full. I might one day have to have a meeting about eight or nine hours long, and then all these poems can be read out in full. 


But the whole purpose of this meeting is to get you to go back and get hold of Queen Mab and read it—particularly the central cantos. It’s a story of a young woman asleep and a faerie coming from above, a great spirit coming and taking her so that she can look upon the world. He takes her right out into the stratosphere so that she can look down upon the world and see all the things that go on: all the kings and priests and statesmen and parasites that operate there.



The whole of his poetry bursts out in rage. All the way through his life, he couldn’t stand the idea of illegitimate authority.





           And then there is his greatest poem of all: The Mask of Anarchy, the poem that he wrote about the massacre at Peterloo in 1819 when the trade unionists who were meeting in the fields outside Manchester were mowed down by the yeomanry on the orders of the local magistrate.

           Shelley wrote in this poem about the Tory government that was in power at that time; about Castlereagh, the Foreign Secretary; about Sidmouth the Home Secretary; about Eldon, the Lord Chancellor.[39] He wrote about these people in language which is so furious and so simple that it has come down to us all the way through the ages. Quoting Mask of Anarchy:

"And the little children, who

Round his feet played to and fro,

Thinking every tear a gem,

 Had their brains knocked out by them.

 Clothed with the Bible, as with light,

 And the shadows of the night,

 Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy

 On a crocodile rode by.

 And many more Destructions played

 In this ghastly masquerade,

 All disguised, even to the eyes,

 Like Bishops, lawyers, peers, or spies.”[40]

 
“I met Murder on the way—

He had a mask like Castlereagh—

Very smooth he looked, yet grim;

Seven blood-hounds followed him:

All were fat; and well they might

Be in admirable plight,

For one by one, and two by two,

He tossed them human hearts to chew

Which from his wide cloak he drew.

Next came Fraud, and he had on,

Like Eldon, an ermined gown;

His big tears, for he wept well,

Turned to mill-stones as they fell.

           He hated the whole damn lot of them. Every single one of them that fell into any one of those categories or any other category which are parasitical, in one way or another, upon the working people. He loathed and hated them. The whole of his poetry reeks with that hatred. But the other point is this: that it wasn’t just a simple hatred of authority. He understood the reasons for that authority—he understood the central cause of that authority.”


“And I should say this, just in case anyone thinks at any stage that I think Shelley was a saint or a marvelous creature that was blameless in his own life or in his writings. Nothing could be further from the truth. For example, that little bit of drivel and doggerel that I quoted earlier about the kisses and the seductions. That type of thing runs through not only his poetry but also through a lot of his life. I think from time to time, and the fellow was prepared to “help himself,” he wasn’t prepared to assume responsibility. It was easy enough for him to say: “the answer is separation,”[59] but the problem is, do both parties want to be separated?—that often is the problem. And he didn’t always apply his mind to that, in the terms of the equality of people. And therefore, I think that when you look at his life, and the way he lived his life, there is none of the perfection and the stringency of the ideals that appear in his poetry.[60] And although there is some of it in his life, he certainly doesn’t live up to it.

          But the point really is this, that the poetry and the writings and the things that he believed in, were there. There is a guide and a marker as to how people should determine their lives and how people could determine their lives if society wasn’t founded on constraint right the way through—all those economic restraints and domestic constraints that exist. And then people say, and they say it often with a lot of justifications, that there is a lot of talk about Shelley as a great revolutionary poet that doesn’t fit the facts; it doesn’t fit a lot of the things that Shelley wrote about. There were many, many aspects of Shelley’s writing, which appear to us to be quite crudely reformist, revisionist, if you want to use that kind of language, or even elitist if you want to use that kind of language. But there’s a whole number of things that he wrote, which indicate a rather different kind of approach when compared to the one that I have been talking about. Can I find it?
An early printing of Shelley's  Prometheus Unbound.
An early printing of Shelley's Prometheus Unbound.

          What he wrote in the Preface was that he was interested in reform and change in society. And he said he wanted to write only for an educated and intelligent group of people so that they can understand his intentions.[61] There’s a whole lot of his writing which talks about the dangers of the mob and dangers of doing things too fast. For example: the pamphlet that I mentioned earlier, A Philosophical View of Reform, and another one very similar to it which he wrote in 1817 called A Proposal for Putting Reform to the Vote. As a matter fact in these writings, Shelley comes out against universal suffrage, against the thing which many other reformers were advocating; reformers who were much less revolutionary in my opinion than Shelley. He comes out against universal suffrage on the ground that no one wants to move too fast, that you can’t be quite sure about what the mob will do because they are not educated people and they’re not intelligent or sensitive people and they might make nonsense of universal suffrage and therefore, we ought to be careful about it.

          And it is no good talking about Shelley in an idealistic or utopian matter—hagiography, writing about the man as though everything that he said fitted into the proper Socialist Workers Party line. In fact a lot of things go right against the kinds of things that I’ve been supporting. How can such clearly contradictory ideas such as those he espouses in the Preface to Prometheus Unbound, for example opposing universal suffrage, how can they be reconciled with the rest of his radical philosophy. Let me put it this way: a number of people, and particularly people who come to the revolutionary cause out of the ruling classes—a species, with which I have some familiarity[62]—people such as this are like Shelley, who was all his life, or most of his life, very much isolated from the working people about whom he wrote and for whom he wanted to change the world. Such people, according to the degree to which they’re isolated from the working class, can have a “fear of the mob.”[63]

          Now, I don’t know, but there may be one or two people here that have not read a novel by George Eliot[64] called Felix Holt. Now, some people have boils and some people have piles, and that’s very unfortunate. And some people haven’t read Felix Holt and that is also unfortunate [laughter]. The good news is that you can put that right. You can read it; but you don’t have to tell anyone that you haven’t read it before, and you can read it and pretend you read it ten years ago [laughter]. I know that’s what most you should have done because it’s a marvelous novel, a wonderful radical novel. 

          Felix Holt is about a man who is perhaps the nicest man ever written about in the whole of literature. You can’t help reading Felix Holt without feeling a fantastic affection for him. He was lovely. Everybody loved him. He wanted to change the world. He wanted to be with the workers, and he didn’t like all the hypocrisy of the society, and he was wonderful. There was one thing about him and there is also one thing about George Eliot, and that was they both had this “fear of the mob”; uncertainty about unleashing the mob. The same uncertainty Shelley expresses in A Philosophical View Reform.  Shelley was uncertain about universal suffrage and had debates with Willian Godwin about universal suffrage. Godwin being a Methodist minister was in favour of universal suffrage. Like Felix Holt, Shelley was afraid of the mob. And if there is one nightmare, the traditional nightmare of the bourgeois novelist or poet, or for that matter the average Labour Member of Parliament [laughter], it is the nightmare of the mob in action. There is a passage in Felix Holt I want to point out. It is a Saturday, and he’s sitting there thinking about his ideas, and he realizes there is an election underway and that there is a riot[65] [laughter]!  He thinks, “Oh my God, there’s a riot!,” and he leaves home to keep the people in check, and he talks to them about what they should do. But a lot of people are stampeding, demanding and picketing, and kicking Clive Jenkins in the balls[66] [laughter] and all that kind of thing. Shouting down Albert Booth.[67] All these things are happening and he’s telling the people, “For god’s sake, watch it, don’t do it. You can’t do this! It’s the mob!” And he’s standing there and here come the yeomanry, and they shoot him because they think he’s the leader [laughter]!
An early edition of Eliot’s  Felix Holt: The Radical , first published in 1866.
An early edition of Eliot’s Felix Holt: The Radical, first published in 1866.

            That’s the terror of every bourgeois radical. That's the nightmare that they have: they wake up sweating in the night [laughter]. All the Labour MPs, all the reformers, they wake up and think, “My god, have we unleashed the mob by what we’re doing? [Laughter.] Shelley! You’re preparing the sea of blood! Remember what Godwin said? Perhaps that’s what’s gonna happen. The mob! We’ve got to watch out for the mob! The mob aren’t intelligent!” And all these prejudices sank in to the ruling class mind, that sensitive, intelligent and ruling class mind, the one that doesn’t go along with his class’ ideology. But then that sort of person comes to some other ideology, some reforming or radical ideology, and then he finds he’s worried about what he unleashes. Just like the people who 40 years later read Felix Holt. Nice, radical bourgeois people read George Eliot, read Felix Holt and thought oh it’s the nightmare! The mob, the election riot and Holt who is shot through the shoulder and then put in prison, by the way, for leading the riot in the first place[68] [laughter].

          And that sort of idea is in some of Shelley. People aren’t—they aren’t perfect. And they don’t have ideas which are pure. And there’s some part of Shelley all the time forging its way out, here and there, in some of his poems. You know, there’s a passage in The Mask of Anarchy where he says the answer to violent oppression is to fold your arms when the yeomanry come next time.[69] He’s talking about the people that had been mowed down at Peterloo, women and children, murdered at Peterloo. And he says, “next time, fold your arms resolutely, thinking about the laws of England, the good old laws of England. Stand there and talk about the law of England, and stand there and let them mow you down and then maybe everything will be all right but whatever you do, don’t unleash yourself.”

          And that was one part of him. Of course, there was another side of him, the side that I talked about already, the side of him that says, “Yes. You’ve got to get them [laughter]. You’ve got to move and get them.[70]” There are two sides to his personality, constantly coming out. 

          Shelley wrote a whole series of letters to a woman called Elizabeth Hitchener when he was a young man. He had a long correspondence with her. And I’ll just read out one section of it but this is typical of his other side, a side that was different from the reformist side, the side that was worried about the mob. There was another side to him as well. Shelley wrote: “They may seethe and they may riot, and they may sin at the last moment. The groans of the wretched may pass unheeded till the latest moment of this infamous revelry (of the rich), till the storm burst upon them and the oppressed take ruinous vengeance on their oppressors.”[71] “Ruinous vengeance”? What the hell is that? That’s Felix Holt saying exactly what you shouldn’t do! [laughter]. In Shelley’s poem Swellfoot the Tyrant, which is a wonderful poem, which has been sneered at by a lot of people who think it isn’t funny,[72] what he has, is a lot of pigs. [laughter]. The pigs are snorting away and doing everything they are told and then suddenly the pigs turn into people and all the oppressors, all the priests and the parasites and speculators and industrialists and people of that kind and commercialists, they turn into pigs. And the pigs turn into people. And then you have a fantastic scene at the end of the poem in which he has the pigs driven out and killed. What happened to all this talk that you must never take people’s lives, that you mustn’t be a retributionist and you mustn’t seek revenge?[73] And then he goes completely out of school, and now he’s ultra-left in his attitude to what they should do to the pigs[74]: get them out, drive them out, pin them down and stick them in the back! Anything! Just get them! When Shelley is aroused to fury by what he sees going on around him, you see a very different attitude to violence.

          And really it comes to a climax, this division, this contrast between the way in which he thought about revolutions and oppressions and the mob: all these things come to a climax when he writes Prometheus Unbound. Now that’s a very difficult poem to read. I have lots of people who’ve come up to me since we had the meeting at Skegness[75] last year and they say, “Well, I tried to read this thing, this Prometheus Unbound, but it is very difficult to read.” And so it is. It is very difficult to read. But the most important thing about it in my view, is that it brings that contradiction—between his fear of the mob and the need for revolution—to a head and forces it through to some kind of conclusion.




          And this is the story of Prometheus. I was a Greek scholar. I’ll admit it [laughter]. I was a Greek scholar at school. I was very, very good at Greek; we didn’t have to be good at anything else. And, well, I’m not actually all that good at it [laughter]. But anyways, I was a Greek scholar, and we were taught this about Prometheus[76]: we were taught that it was a Greek legend. And it was simply this: that there was a man, Prometheus, who dared to say that Jupiter was not god of the Earth. We were taught this was an absolute scandal, and that Prometheus was a really revolting, subversive figure. And he was treated in a way in which subversive figures ought to be treated. He defied Jupiter, he dared to invent fire, and he had the idea that the science of this invention might advance the cause of mankind instead of advancing the cause of Jupiter. Jupiter’s view was that the science was really a radical idea in the first place, that we would be better off without science of any kind in order that his rule could be more secure. But Prometheus disobeyed Jupiter, invented fire and gave science to humanity and he was treated in a way in which all naughty school boys ought to be treated, which is to be chained to a rock for seven million years [laughter]. And every evening a vulture came and gnawed out his liver which would grow again by the following morning and then the vulture would come again and gnaw it out again. And it was extremely painful. I understand the Turkish authorities in Cyprus are looking into this form of dealing with recalitrants of one kind or another [laughter].




          And the whole thing was taught to us in that way. The original story was written, as a matter of fact, by a man called Aeschylus and it was called Prometheus Bound and Prometheus Unbound.[77] And he did have an idea about how people should rebel against authority. But we were not taught that. I read the whole bloody thing in Greek.[78] I never came to that conclusion; I never even started to come to that conclusion. But anyways, there we are. Here is a man in revolt against authority and he’s chained to a rock.





          Shelley writes a poem about this man chained to the rock and how his lover Asia seeks to get him off the rock. He represents oppressed mankind. Now Asia loved militants. Richard Holmes, whose book is the only one worth reading on the subject,[79] describes her love as militant. She is trying to get him out of there. That’s the point: how the hell do you get him out of there? What do you do to get him out of that situation?[80]





It’s very interesting the way in which critics write about Prometheus Unbound. Because there is another character in this play; in this play/poem.[81] Prometheus Unbound contains some of the most beautiful poetry ever written in the whole history of English literature. But you have here another character called Demogorgon.[82] But what is Demogorgon? You can read all the books you want. You can try looking him up in the index. Everybody discusses it. Who is this Demogorgon? They tell you it is a spirit, some kind of weird thing that Asia goes to and appeals to, to help her save Prometheus. You see her man is in trouble [laughter]. And in the same way you would go to an altar or to some deity and say: “now who can help me save my man” [laughter].

          But actually the original Greek actually assists us here. Because the word “Demogorgon,” as I understand it and as Richard Holmes understands it and as no one else has yet understood it [laughter], comes from two words in Greek: demos, that means “the people” and gorgon, which means “the monster.” He is the “people monster” [laughter].

          Now where does Asia go to save Prometheus? She goes to the “people monster.” She goes down to his cave in Act 2, Scene 4 of Prometheus Unbound which is one of the most fantastic passages in the whole of literature. I am going to find this even if it takes me half an hour to find it. I bloody well got to find this. Act 1 is extremely difficult to read and I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t read it and if I were you I would go straight to Act 2, Scene 4 [laughter]. Quoting Prometheus Unbound:[83]

“Act 2, Scene 4—The Cave of Demogorgon. Asia and Panthea.

            Panthea: What veiléd form sits on that ebon throne?

            Asia: The veil has fallen.

            Panthea:         I see a mighty darkness

              Filling the seat of power, and rays of gloom

              Dart round, as light from the meridian sun.

              — Ungazed upon and shapeless; neither limb,

              Nor form, nor outline; yet we feel it is

              A living Spirit.

            Demogorgon: Ask what thou wouldst know.

            Asia: What canst thou tell?

            Demogorgon:              All things thou dar’st demand.

             Asia: Who made the living world?

             Demogorgon:              God.

             Asia:                                        Who made all

              That it contains? thought, passion, reason, will,

              Imagination?

            Demogorgon:              God: Almighty God.

 Asia: Who made that sense which, when the winds of Spring

              In rarest visitation, or the voice

              Of one belovéd heard in youth alone,

              Fills the faint eyes with falling tears which dim

              The radiant looks of unbewailing flowers,

              And leaves this peopled earth a solitude

              When it returns no more?

            Demogorgon:              Merciful God.

            Asia: And who made terror, madness, crime, remorse,

              Which from the links of the great chain of things,

              To every thought within the mind of man

              Sway and drag heavily, and each one reels

              Under the load towards the pit of death;

              Abandoned hope, and love that turns to hate;

              And self-contempt, bitterer to drink than blood;

              Pain, whose unheeded and familiar speech

              Is howling, and keen shrieks, day after day;

              And Hell, or the sharp fear of Hell?

            Demogorgon:              He reigns.

            Asia: Utter his name: a world pining in pain

              Asks but his name: curses shall drag him down.”

And Asia whips him with agitation, whips him with it. She asks a simple question first: “Is it God who done it? Well, then, what about all the dirty things that are going on? What are you gonna do about that?” All the way through this passage she is whipping him and agitating him.

“Asia: Whom calledst thou God?

          Demogorgon: I spoke but as ye speak,

            For Jove is the supreme of living things.

           Asia: Who is the master of the slave?”

Asking the question, “who is the master of the slave?” And on and on and on until she says:

            “Prometheus shall arise

            Henceforth the sun of this rejoicing world:

            When shall the destined hour arrive?”
Richard Holmes, author of  Shelley: The Pursuit.
Richard Holmes, author of Shelley: The Pursuit.

          And what happens after all of her agitation, her constant agitation?  What happens after Asia demands that Demogorgon bring new ideas to her that he come out of his old religious superstitions and backward ideas, his old racist ideas? What happens? What happens is that two cars emerge out of the cave. Two cars representing change, representing the powers that are going to go after Jupiter and who? deal with him. In one way or another, they’re going to deal with him. I’m not gonna read that out to you. I’ll leave that for you to read. But what I will read is Richard Holmes’ description of what those two cars mean, what they represent. And here is the synthesis, if you like, the coming to grips with the problems that he had all his life about the masses. Would the masses respond and what would happen if they did? What was the problem of the mob? All these things. [Quoting Holmes]:

“There are two chariots mentioned: the one that brings Demogorgon to Jupiter is undoubtedly terrible and violent: Jupiter, authoritarian government, is to be overwhelmed by massive force, and the process in society is to be like a volcanic eruption and an earthquake which “ruins” cities. The etymological reading is surely relevant here. It is the eruption of ‘Demogorgon,’ the ‘people monster.’

         Yet there is also the second chariot with its “delicate strange tracery,” and its gentle charioteer with “dove-like eyes of hope.” This is the chariot which carries Asia and Panthea back to Prometheus, and it seems to indicate that political freedom transforms man’s own nature and substitutes an ethic of love for the ideology of revenge and destruction represented by Prometheus’s curse. The end of Act II leaves both those possibilities open historically. Revolution will come, but how it will come depends on man himself. There are always two chariots. In either case it is inevitable, and it is to be celebrated.”[84]
From the 1813  Queen Mab  edition published by Shelley himself. Foot no doubt has a beautifully bound copy from a later time.
From the 1813 Queen Mab edition published by Shelley himself. Foot no doubt has a beautifully bound copy from a later time.

         Now we don’t say that it is inevitable. But the point is this: that in either case the synthesis there, the dialectic if you like, of the argument about the mob—that the mob might go and supersede itself—is really met in that great passage there. Everyone says that it is the greatest passage ever, but nobody understands what it’s about! They don’t understand what’s going on in his head because they have separated Shelley from his ideas. They don’t understand what the imagery is about. They say: “this is a very beautiful passage; learn it off by heart and shut up.” If you ask any questions they’ll tell you: “Demogorgon, yes that’s all very interesting, Demogorgon’s rather like Mary, the mother of Jesus, that’s the sort of creature Demogorgon is.” They unleash all kinds of fanciful ideas about what Demogorgon stands for.[85] But the fact of the matter is, that you do have a synthesis there coming out of the dialectic of the argument. The fact of the matter is that when you rise up, you can have civil war, bloody revolution and all kinds of violence on the one hand. On the other hand, if you’re strong enough, powerful and forceful enough, you can do it by cutting down on the amount of violence and do it with that gentle “dove-eyed charioteer.”[86] Either way, probably, if the truth be known, it will be a mixture of both. But either way it is to be celebrated. Either way it has to be supported. And the point about Shelley is this: that although there is his statement about writing for elites that aren’t gonna do the job,[87] there is no conclusive proof that whenever he came to test the two ideas.[88] that he came out on that side.[89] There is no evidence at all for this. You read for instance Stephen Spender. Oh, Stephen Spender [laughter]. Stephen Spender, you know, that old Stalinist hack from the thirties who couldn’t even bear to be a Stalinist and who gave that up and then just sort of driveled on in the Times Literary Supplement. And he writes that there’s lots of proof that Shelley at the end of his life gave up his revolutionary ideals.That’s not what happened at all. Prometheus Unbound was written right at the end of his life. There are also all the great poems of 1819 including The Mask of Anarchy and other shorter poems including one that starts off, “An old mad, blind, despised and dying king.”[90] That’s not the line of a man who’s giving up the struggle. His attacks on the Castlereagh administration comes right at the end of his life. Those things happened. And the people that understand Shelley, understand that he would have gone on to develop these themes. The tragedy is that he did die when he did, otherwise he would have gone on to develop his ideas among the rising working-class movement that was taking place.

Sunday 10 November 2019

DELUGE

















Spike:
I want to Save The World.
 
Buffy:
You do remember that you're a vampire, right?
 
Spike:
We like to talk big — Vampires do. 
"I'm going to Destroy The World." 
That's just tough guy talk. 
Strutting around with your friends over a pint of blood. 
 
The Truth is, I like This World. 
You've got... dog racing,
Manchester United. 
 
And then you've got People.
 
Billions of people, walking around
like Happy Meals with legs. 
 
It's alright Here
 
But then, someone comes along with a vision,
with a real... passion for Destruction. 
 
Angel could pull it off.
 
Goodbye, Piccadilly.
Farewell, Leicester bloody Square. 
You know what I'm saying?









 
Older Than Television:
In the 1933 film Deluge, New York City is flooded.
The Empire State Building is knocked down by the wall of water,
but the Statue of Liberty remains standing.
 
Played straight in The Day After Tomorrow, where pretty much every New York City landmark survives the flooding of the city and the subsequent hard freeze.
 
Roland Emmerich confided that the Statue of Liberty would be turned over by the force of the massive amount of water flowing around it but said he wanted to create
a symbol of American values that stood up to the forces.
 
 
In the movie version of Logan's Run,
when Logan 5 and Jessica 6 reach the ruined city, we know its Washington DC
because the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and National Archives are still standing.
Vine-covered and weathered, but still standing.
 
In Resident Evil: Extinction,
Las Vegas is buried in sand, but the monuments of the strip are still there and 
 
Downplayed example in 1983's The Day After.
Towards the end, Dr. Oakes is wandering the ruins of what was Kansas City,
and finds the stump of the Liberty Memorial tower;
some of words on the monument are still visible even though the tower itself is gone.
 
Independence Day creates a "Funny Aneurysm" Moment at one point in a shot of a devastated New York City.
The World Trade Center is still standing, with only a few large chunks ripped out of it here and there.
 
Also, most everything in Los Angeles is reduced to rubble except the scorched and battered but still recognisable palm trees.
Note: Less silly than it sounds: They evolved to stand up to regular hurricanes, after all.
To let you know that yes, that was Los Angeles.
 





Sunday 27 October 2019

Don’t Be Awful





Family (n.)
Every Time I Get Out, They Pull Me Back In



VITO CORLEONE 
(sitting behind his desk, petting a cat)
Why did you go to The Police? 
Why didn't you come to me first? 


BONASERA
What do you want of me? 
Tell me anything. 
But do what I beg you to do. 


VITO CORLEONE
What is that? 

[Bonasera gets up to whisper his request into Don Corleone's ear

That I cannot do. 


BONASERA
I'll give you anything you ask. 


VITO CORLEONE
We've known each other many years, but this is the first time you came to me for counsel, for help. 
I can't remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, 
even though my wife is godmother to your only child. 

But let's be frank here: you never wanted my friendship. 
And uh, you were afraid to be in my debt. 


BONASERA
I didn't want to get into trouble. 


VITO CORLEONE
I understand. You found paradise in America, had a good trade, made a good living. 
The Police protected you; and there were courts of law. 
And you didn't need a friend of me. 

But uh, now you come to me and you say -- 

"Don Corleone give me justice." 

-- But you don't ask with respect. 
You don't offer friendship. 
You don't even think to call me ‘Godfather’! 

Instead, you come into my house 
on the day my daughter is to be married, 
and you uh ask me to do murder, 
for money.


BONASERA
I ask you for Justice. 


VITO CORLEONE
That is Not Justice; 
Your daughter is still alive. 


BONASERA
Then they can suffer then, as she suffers.
(then)
How much shall I pay you? 


VITO CORLEONE 
(stands, turning his back toward Bonasera)
Bonasera... Bonasera... 
What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? 

Had you come to me in friendship, then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. 


And that by chance if an honest man such as yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. 

And then they would fear you.


BONASERA
Be my friend --

(then, after bowing and the Don shrugs)

-- Godfather? 


VITO CORLEONE 
(after Bonasera kisses his hand)

Good.

(then)

Some day, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. 

But uh, until that day -- 
accept this justice as a gift on my daughter's wedding day. 


BONASERA 
(as he leaves the room)
Grazie, Godfather. 


VITO CORLEONE
Prego.

(then, to Tom Hagen, after Bonasera leaves the room)

Ah, give this to ah, Clemenza. 
I want reliable people; people that aren't gonna be carried away. 

I'm mean, we're not murderers, despite of what this undertaker says. 


Sunday 13 October 2019

World X-Files Day




SKINNER: 
I can't represent you.

MULDER: 
You know all the facts, the details the whole government conspiracy. 
(MULDER looks at SKINNER.) 
More than that, 

I TRUST YOU.

(SKINNER is stunned silent by the weight of MULDER'S complete faith in him ... of MULDER'S willingness to put his life in SKINNER'S hands.)

SCULLY: 
Mulder ...

MULDER: 
They can't try me without exposing themselves. I know what I'm doing.



SCENE 23 
TEXAS-NEW MEXICO BORDER 
5:07 AM
(The SUV driven by MULDER makes it was down the road. It pulls off to the side.)

(MULDER cuts the engine, leans toward SCULLY who is sleeping and gently kisses her cheek. He gets out of the car.)

(MULDER unzips his pants and relieves himself, when ...)

FROHIKE: Hey, hot shot! You might have the common courtesy of doing your business there downwind.

MULDER: Oh, boy.

LANGLY: Why don't you just finish draining the little lizard and then we'll talk?

BYERS: We're very worried about you.

FROHIKE: It's craziness, man. Turn around.

LANGLEY: Just hang a big U-ie and never look back.

MULDER: I can't.

BYERS: Why risk perfect happiness, Mulder? Why risk your lives?

MULDER: Because I need to know the truth.

BYERS: You already know the truth.

(MULDER thinks about that one for a moment. When he responds, its with complete honesty at what he's really doing there.)

MULDER: I need to know if I can change it.

LANGLY: Change it?

FROHIKE: For crying out loud. All you're going to do is get yourself killed.

(From behind him, SCULLY got out of the car to look for MULDER.)

SCULLY: Mulder! What are you doing?

MULDER: I'll be right with you, Scully.

(They both get back into the car.)

CUT TO:

(Day. The road they're driving on will soon end at a hidden pueblo carved into the side of a mountain.)

(MULDER stops the car. They both get out. SCULLY looks around.)

SCULLY: What are they?

MULDER: Pueblos. Anasazi Indian. Abandoned 2,000 years ago. Nobody knows why.

SCULLY: Yeah, Mulder, but what are we doing here?

(MULDER points high to the window of a ruin along the way. There's smoking coming out from the window. Someone is there.)

(MULDER heads off in that direction. SCULLY follows. They both begin to climb up to meet the Keeper of the Truth.)

CUT TO:

(Inside on of the pueblos. An old Indian woman tends to the fire. MULDER and SCULLY enter the area where she lives.)

MULDER: Hello. My name is Fox Mulder. Do you understand me?

(The old woman looks at MULDER. Without a word, she rises from her chair and pushes the cloth curtain back and disappears behind it.

(SCULLY moves up from behind MULDER and passes him bringing her closer to the curtain. She turns around to look at MULDER.)

SCULLY: Mulder, what is it?

MULDER: I was sent a message and a key to the government facility at Mount Weather. The Indians said it was from a wise man who lived in the ruins: A Keeper of the Truth.

CUT TO:

(REYES and DOGGETT are traveling by helicopter above, doing a visual search for MULDER and SCULLY based upon the information given to them by GIBSON PRAISE.)

REYES: Do you see anything at all?

(DOGGETT shakes his head and continues to scan the grounds below.)

CUT TO:




SCENE 24
(Cave entrance. MULDER and SCULLY make their way through the narrow passageway at the mouth of the cave. They're led there by the old Indian Woman. At the end where it opens up into a living space, an old white-haired man sits there waiting for them.)

(MULDER enters first followed by SCULLY.)

CSM: What's the matter, Agent Mulder?

(CSM / C.G.B. SPENDER takes a drag of the cigarette through the hole in his trachea.)

CSM: You come to see the wise man but you look as if you've seen a ghost.

MULDER: You're no wise man. You're a dead man. Just like Krycek and X.

CSM: You see a dead man, Agent Scully?

SCULLY: I hoped and prayed you were dead you chain-smoking, son of a bitch.

(MULDER looks more than a little shocked to see CSM still alive.)

CSM: You waste your time. Ask Mulder. He knows the futility of hopes and prayers. He knows the truth now.

(SCULLY looks confused at what CSM'S saying. CSM zeroes in on this immediately and begins to exploit it as he's done so many times before.)

CSM: You have told her the truth haven't you, Fox? I helped you find it.

MULDER: You didn't help me. You sent me to that government facility knowing exactly what I'd find.

CSM: And now you refuse to speak it. Not to Scully, not to anyone. You've even refused to testify what you learned ... even though it would have saved your life. You damned me for my secrets ... but you're afraid to speak the truth.

(CSM takes another drag from his cigarette.)

MULDER: You call me afraid? Look at you sitting here alone in the dark like a fossil.

(CSM exhales a puff of smoke around him.)

CSM: It's the final refuge. The last place to hide from those who are insidiously taking power now.

SCULLY: Who?

CSM: The aliens. They fear this place ... its geology. Magnetite. Like that which brought down the original UFO in Roswell. Indian wise men realized this over 2,000 years ago. They hid here and watched their own culture die. The Original Shadow Government.

CUT TO:




SCENE 25
(Outside the pueblos. The helicopter (#N218SS) carrying DOGGETT and REYES land outside the Anasazi Pueblos. They've found MULDER and SCULLY'S SUV. They both get out of the helicopter and it takes off leaving them there.)

(REYES sees an ominous-looking black SUV make its way toward them. There's a lone driver in it.)

REYES: Agent Doggett!

DOGGETT: Who the hell's that?

(It's KNOWLE ROHRER. DOGGETT and REYES both look worried as the dead man lives once again.)

CUT TO:




SCENE 26
(Back inside the pueblo, CSM takes a drag from his cigarette.)

CSM: It leaves me to tell you what Mulder's afraid to, Agent Scully.

MULDER: Come on, let's go.

(SCULLY doesn't budge,)

CSM: It's a scary story. You want to come sit on my lap?

SCULLY: You don't scare me.

CSM: My story's scared every president since Truman in '47.

MULDER: You don't have to hear this.

SCULLY: No, I want to hear it, Mulder.

CSM: Ten centuries ago the Mayans were so afraid that their calendar stopped on the exact date that my story begins. December 22, the year 2012. The date of the final alien invasion. Mulder can confirm the date. He saw it at Mount Weather ... ...where our own "Secret Government" will be hiding when it all comes down.

(SCULLY looks at MULDER. He doesn't take his eyes off of CSM. CSM has a wild glint in his eye - almost a crazed look.)

MULDER: Yeah, you smile ... feeling drunk with power. The power to do nothing.

CSM: My power comes from telling you. Seeing your powerlessness hearing it. They wanted to kill you, Fox. I protected you all these years ... waiting for this moment ... to see you broken. Afraid.

(MULDER lifts his head and schools his features to reveal nothing.)

CSM: Now you can die.

CUT TO:




SCENE 27
(Two heavily armed black ops helicopters are flying low along the roadway head to the Anasazi Pueblos.)

CUT BACK TO:




SCENE 28
(Outside the pueblos, KNOWLE ROHRER advances on DOGGETT and REYES who continue to back up slowly. Soon they won't have any room to back up anymore. DOGGETT reaches for his gun. REYES reaches for hers. They both hold it on ROHRER knowing full well that it'll be useless.)

DOGGETT: Run, Monica. Get out of here.

REYES : No.

(DOGGETT glances at REYES, accepting her decision to stand next to him.)

DOGGETT (to ROHRER): Knowle Rohrer. That's far enough.

(ROHRER continues to advance. An arrogant smugness about him.)

ROHRER: Shoot me, Agent Doggett, if you think it'll make a difference this time.

(DOGGETT fires. The bullet harmlessly hits ROHRER in the chest. He continues to stand there with the smugness about him.)

(DOGGETT and REYES both continue to back up as KNOWLE ROHRER continues to advance toward them.)

(They've run out of room behind them. ROHRER, on the other hand, has also stopped advancing. In fact, he seems to be struggling to move forward. A confused look on his face.)

(DOGGETT lowers his weapon. Something is happening to ROHRER. He's starting to spasm, He lifts his arms, unable to control their shaking. Black metallic oxidation appears on the skin under his arms and rapidly spreads.)

(DOGGETT and REYES watch as the metal within ROHRER becomes the metal without. ROHRER looks afraid. When the metal completely covers his exterior, ROHRER is sucked into the rocks. DOGGETT pushes REYES out of ROHRER'S path.)

(ROHRER smashes into the rock. REYES looks completely shocked at what she just witnessed.)

MULDER: Agent Doggett!

(Both MULDER and SCULLY appear outside the second level doorway.)

DOGGETT: Mulder, get out of there!

REYES: They know where you are!

CUT TO:

(The two black helicopters continue their path to the ruins. We see they are both very heavily armed.)

CUT BACK TO:

(DOGGETT and REYES climb into MULDER and SCULLY'S vehicle and drive it closer to MULDER and SCULLY as they make their way down the ruins.)

(MULDER runs alongside their vehicle as they approach. DOGGETT stops the car.)

MULDER: Get out of here!

DOGGETT: Get in the car.

MULDER: No!

(DOGGETT looks a little confused. They don't have much time. MULDER tells them again to leave.)

MULDER: (insistent) Go! Go!

(MULDER and SCULLY both run to the other vehicle at the site. The vehicle left behind by KNOWLE ROHRER. DOGGETT takes off.)

CUT TO:

(The helicopters are rapidly approaching the site. They're still not in view of the ruins.)

CUT BACK TO:

(MULDER and SCULLY get in the abandoned vehicle and take off in a different direction from DOGGETT and REYES. They disappear from their view around the hill.)

CUT TO:

(The helicopters round the mountain side. MULDER and SCULLY barely escape detection. The helicopters position themselves across the ruins.)

CUT TO:

(The old Indian Woman inside the pueblo panics as her pots and pans rattle at the disturbance. The helicopters hover just outside her window.)

(They fire missile after missile aimed at the ruins, destroying them whole sections at a time in fiery explosions.)

(The old Indian Woman screams.)

CUT TO:

(CSM sits inside his final "refuge", a cigarette in his hand.)

(The pueblos explode with each missile fired. The ancient stones crumble to the ground. Fire burns what little there is to burn.)

(The black helicopters swing around and hover just outside the old Indian Woman's windows. A dreamcatcher hangs from the window with the black helicopter in its sites.)

(Another missile is fired and another portion of the ruins destroyed.)

(Inside, CSM takes a last drag from his cigarette. He throws the remainder on the ground.)

(Outside, in perfect positions, the black helicopter hovers. A final missile is fired finding its intended target. The corridor and the cave fill with fire consuming the once-powerful man within.)

(The pueblos explode. Missiles upon missiles are fired until the entire mountainside is decimated. Their mission complete, the helicopters turn around and fly off into the horizon.)

CUT TO:




SCENE 29 
ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO
(Night. Outside a motel room, it's raining. Thunder rumbles. )

(Inside, MULDER is sitting on the floor, leaning back against the bed and his head resting back.)

SCULLY (o.s.): What are you thinking?

(MULDER is silent. Thoughtful.)

SCULLY: Mulder?

MULDER: I'm thinking ... I'm a guilty man. I've failed in every respect. I deserve the harshest punishment for my crimes.

SCULLY: (softly) You don't believe that.

(Mulder sighs.)

MULDER: I believe that I sat in a motel room like this with you when we first met and I tried to convince you of the truth. And in that respect, I succeeded, but ... in every other way ...

(MULDER turns to look at SCULLY)

MULDER: ... I've failed.

SCULLY: You don't believe that, either.

MULDER: Mmmm.

MULDER: I've been chasing after monsters with a butterfly net. You heard the man - the date's set. I can't change that.

SCULLY: You wouldn't tell me. Not because you were afraid or broken .... but because you didn't want to accept defeat.

MULDER: Well, I was afraid of what knowing would do to you.

(MULDER turns to look at SCULLY and confesses one of his greatest fears.)

MULDER: I was afraid that it would crush your spirit.

SCULLY: Why would I accept defeat? Why would I accept it, if you won't? Mulder, you say that you've failed but you only fail if you give up. And I know you -- you can't give up. It's what I saw in you when we first met. It's what made me follow you ... why I'd do it all over again.

MULDER: And look what it's gotten you.

SCULLY: And what has it gotten you? Not your sister. Nothing that you've set out for. But you won't give up, even now.

(SCULLY reaches out and takes hold of MULDER'S hand in a firm grip.)

SCULLY: You've always said that you want to believe. But believe in what Mulder? If this is the truth that you've been looking for then what is left to believe in?

MULDER: I want to believe that the dead are not lost to us. That they speak to us as part of something greater than us - greater than any alien force. And if you and I are powerless now, I want to believe that if we listen to what's speaking, it can give us the power to save ourselves.

SCULLY: Then we believe the same thing.

(SCULLY watches MULDER intently . MULDER looks like he Believes. SCULLY smiles at MULDER. MULDER reaches over and lightly picks up SCULLY'S cross. He reaches up and caresses her lips.)

(MULDER gets off of the floor and settles himself in bed next to SCULLY. He wraps himself around her, so that they are now holding each other closely.)

MULDER: (whispers) Maybe there's hope.

[Fade to black]

[THE *END*]







Thursday 26 September 2019

The Most Dangerous Breed of Creatures in The Universe

“My 5-Year Old, the other day, one of her toys broke
and she demanded  that I break one of her sister's toys, too – 
to make it fair....

and I did....

That's How Much Shit She Gave Me...!!
I broke the little toy, and I felt awful, and I'm, like, cryin', and I look over to her, and she's got this creepy smile on her face –
That's The Difference Between Boys and Girls –
and it Becomes 
The Difference Between Men and Women, 
really....

Because, a Man will, like,
Steal Your Car
or
Burn Your House Down
or
Beat The Shit Outta Ya –


But a Woman will Ruin Your Fucking Life...

D'ya See The Difference...?

Because a Man will Cut Your Arm Off 
(Maybe, because he can.)
and
Throw it in a River
(Perhaps. I don't know...).

But he'll leave You, as a Human Being, intact –
He won't fuck with Who You Are

Women are Non-Violent, but They will shit inside of Your Heart....