Showing posts with label The Evil Eye. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Evil Eye. Show all posts

Wednesday 28 September 2022

Quantum




"The Governor paused and looked reflectively over at Bond. He said : ‘You’re not married, but I think it’s the same with all relationships between A Man and A Woman. 

They can survive anything so long as some kind of basic Humanity exists between the two people. 

When all Kindness has gone, when one person obviously and sincerely doesn’t care if the other is Alive or Dead, then it’s just no good. That particular insult to The Ego – worse, to The Instinct of Self-Preservation – can never be forgiven. I’ve noticed this in hundreds of marriages. I’ve seen flagrant infidelities patched up, I’ve seen crimes and even murder forgiven by the other party, let alone bankruptcy and every other form of social crime. Incurable disease, blindness, disasterall these can be overcome. 

But never The Death of Common Humanity in one of the partners. I’ve thought about this and I’ve invented a rather high-sounding title for this basic factor in Human Relations. 

I have called it 
‘The Law of The Quantum of Solace.’

Bond said: ‘That’s a splendid name for it. It’s certainly impressive enough. 

And of course I see what you mean, I should say you’re absolutely right. Quantum of Solace – the amount of comfort. 

Yes, I suppose you could say that all Love and Friendship is based in The End on that. Human beings are very insecure. When the other person not only makes you feel insecure but actually seems to want to destroy you, it’s obviously The End. The Quantum of Solace stands at zero. You’ve got to get away to Save Yourself.’



The Governor paused. ‘Pretty extraordinary, really. A Man like Masters, kindly, sensitive, who wouldn’t normally hurt a fly. And here he was performing one of the cruellest actions I can recall in all my experience. It was My Law operating.’ 

The Governor smiled thinly. ‘Whatever her sins, if she had given him that Quantum of Solace he could never have behaved to her as he did. As it was, she had awakened in him a bestial Cruelty – a Cruelty that perhaps lies deeply hidden in all of us and that only a threat to our existence can bring to The Surface. Masters wanted to make the girl suffer, not as much as he had suffered because that was impossible, but as much as he could possibly contrive. And that false gesture with the motor-car and the radio-gramophone was a fiendishly brilliant bit of delayed action to remind her, even when he was gone, how much he hated her, how much he wanted still to hurt her.’ 

Bond said: ‘It must have been a shattering experience. 

It’s extraordinary how much people can hurt each other. 

I’m beginning to feel rather sorry for The Girl. [ You would. I feel sorry for Masters. ]

What happened to her in The End – and to him, for the matter of that?’ 

The Governor got to his feet and looked at his watch. ‘Good heavens, it’s nearly midnight. And I’ve been keeping the staff up all this time,’ he smiled, ‘as well as you.’ 

He walked across to the fireplace and rang a bell. 

A Negro butler appeared. The Governor apologised for keeping him up and told him to lock up and turn the light out. 

Bond was on his feet. 

The Governor turned to him. ‘Come along and I’ll tell you the rest. I’ll walk through the garden with you and see that the sentry lets you out.’ 

They walked slowly through the long rooms and down the broad steps to the garden. It was a beautiful night under a full moon that raced over their heads through the thin high clouds. 

The Governor said: ‘Masters went on in The Service, but somehow he never lived up to his good start. After the Bermuda business something seemed to go out of him. 

Part of him had been killed by the experience. He was a maimed man. Mostly her fault, of course, but I guess that what he did to her lived on with him and perhaps haunted him. 

He was good at his work, but he had somehow lost the human touch and he gradually dried up. Of course he never married again and in the end he got shunted off into the ground nuts scheme, and when that was a failure he retired and went to live in Nigeria – back to the only people in the world who had shown him any kindness – back to where it had all started from. 

Bit tragic, really, when I remember what he was like when we were young.’

Saturday 24 September 2022

O My Brothers and Only Friends


Alright, I know How Things are Now. 
I've suffered and I've suffered and I've suffered
And everybody wants me to go on suffering.

Rubenstein
The newspapers mentioned that, in addition to your being conditioned against acts of Sex and Violence, you've inadvertently been conditioned against Music.

Alexander The Great
Well, I think that was something that 
They didn't plan for. You see, 
missus, I'm very fond of Music
Especially Beethoven...Ludwig 
Van...Beethoven...B...E...

Rubenstein
It's all right, thank you.

Alexander The Great
And it just so happened that while They were 
showing me a particularly bad film 
of, like, a concentration camp
the background music 
was playing Beethoven.

Rubenstein
So now you have the same reaction to music as you do to sex and violence?

Alexander The Great
No, missus. You see, 
it's not all music, 
it's just The Ninth.

Rubenstein:  
You mean, Beethoven's 
Ninth Symphony?

Alexander The Great
That's right. I can't listen to 
The Ninth anymore at all
When I hear The Ninth, I get like 
this funny feeling and then... 
ALL I can think about 
is like trying to snuff it.

Rubenstein
I beg your pardon?

Alexander The Great
Snuff it, sir...um...Death, I mean, misses. 
I just want to die peacefully
like, with no pain.

Dolin
Do you feel that way now?

Alexander The Great
Oh no, sir, not exactly
I still feel very miserable
very much down in spirits.

Rubenstein
Do you still feel suicidal?

Alexander The Great
Well, put it this way :
I feel very low in me self. 
I can't see much in The Future, 
and I feel that any second 
Something Terrible 
is going to Happen to Me
•THUNK•


Dolin
Well done, Frank. 
Julian, get the car, 
would you please?

Alexander The Great
I woke up...The Pain and Sickness 
all over me like an animal
Then I realised What it WAS
The Music coming up from the floor 
was our old friend, Ludwig Van, 
and The dreaded 
Ninth symphony.

Let me out!! Open the door! Come on! Open the door! Turn it off!!! Turn it off!!! Turn it off!!! Turn it off!!! Turn it off!!! Stop it.! Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off!!! Please!!! Turn it off!!!


Suddenly, I viddied 
What I Had to Do, 
and what I Had Wanted to Do
and that was to Do Myself In
to snuff it, to blast off forever out 
of this wicked cruel world. 

One moment of pain perhaps 
and then sleep forever and ever

I jumped, O My Brothers, 
and I fell HARD
but I did not snuff it. 

If I had snuffed it
I would not be here to tell 
what I have told

I came Back to Life, 
after a long black, black gap 
of what might have been 
a million years.