The Handless Maiden

 

"You will produce a 

Handless Maiden,

every day of Your Life --

You set aside some 

Feeling-Function,

in favour of better 

Productivity of Your Mill.

And to clinch it off -- if you trace back 

The Origin of The Word 'Mechanical',

to it's Greek origin, 'machinae',

'To Trick" --

Now, there's nothing wrong with 

The Mechanics of Life --

There's nothing wrong with 

The Mechanical Thing --

But there is everything wrong 

with The Mechanical Attitude."

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, I think that Star Wars is a valid mythological perspective. 

It shows The State 

as A Machine and asks: 

Is The Machine going 

to crush Humanity, 

or Serve humanity? 

And Humanity comes 

not from The Machine, 

but from The Heart.

(Clip from Star Wars)

VADER: 

Luke. Help Me to 

Take This Mask Off.

LUKE SKYWALKER: 

But You’ll Die.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

I think it was 

in The Return of the Jedi when 

Skywalker unmasks His Father. 

The father had been playing one of these Machine roles, a state role. He was the uniform, you know? And the removal of that mask, there was an undeveloped man there, there was a kind of a worm. By being executive of a system, one is not developing one’s humanity. I think that George Lucas really, really did a beautiful thing there.

BILL MOYERS: 

The idea of machine is the idea that we want the world to be made in our image, and what we think the world ought to be.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, the first time anybody made a tool, I mean, taking a stone and chipping it so that you can handle it, that’s the beginning of a machine. It’s turning outer nature into your service. But then there comes a time when it begins to dictate to you. I’m having a bit of struggle with my computer, actually.

BILL MOYERS: 

Your computer?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

I just bought one a couple of months ago, and I can’t help thinking of it as having a personality there, because it talks back, and it behaves in a whimsical way, and all of that. So I’m personifying that machine. To me, that machine is almost alive. I could mythologize that damn thing.

BILL MOYERS: 

There was a wonderful story about, I think, President Eisenhower, when the computer was first being built. You remember that story?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Eisenhower went into a room full of computers, and he puts a question to these machines, “Is there a God?” And they all start up and there’s all those lights flashing and wheels turning and things like that, and after about 10 minutes of that kind of thing, a voice comes forth, and the voice says, “Now there is.”

Well, I bought this wonderful machine, IBM machine, and it’s there. 

And I’m rather an authority on gods, 

so I identified The God, 

and it seems to me to be

An Old Testament God 

with a lot of rules, 

and no mercy.

BILL MOYERS: 

It’s unforgiving, isn’t it.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Catch you picking up sticks 

on Saturday and you’re out,

that’s all….

BILL MOYERS: 

But isn’t it possible to develop toward the computer, the computer you’re wrestling with at this very moment, isn’t it possible to develop the same kind of attitude of the Pawnee chieftain who said that in the legends of his people, all things speak of Tirawa, all things of speak of God. 

It wasn’t a special privileged revelation, 

God is everywhere 

in His Works, including 

The Computer.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, indeed so. I mean, the miracle of what happens on that screen, you know, have you ever looked inside one of those things?

BILL MOYERS: 

No.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

You can’t believe it. It’s a whole hierarchy of angels, all on slats, and those little tubes, those are miracles, those are miracles, they are.

BILL MOYERS: 

One can feel a sense of awe.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, I’ve had a revelation from my computer about mythology, though. 

You buy a certain software, and there’s a whole set of signals that lead to the achievement of your aim, you know. And once you’ve set it for, let’s say, DW3, enter, if you begin fooling around with signals that belong to another system, they just won’t work, that’s all. You have a system there, a code, a determined code that requires you to use certain terms.

Now, similarly in mythology, each religion is a kind of software that has its own set of signals and will work. It’ll work. But suppose you’ve chosen this one. Now, if a person is really involved in a religion and really building his life on it, he’d better stay with the software that he’s got. 

But a chap like myself, 

who likes to play with —

BILL MOYERS: 

Cross the wires?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

The various softwares, I can run around, but I probably will never have an experience comparable to that of a saint.

BILL MOYERS: 

But do you think that The Machine is inventing new myths for us,

 or that we with The Machine are inventing new myths?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

No. The myth has to incorporate 

the machine.

BILL MOYERS: 

A pagan deity?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Just as the old myths incorporated the tools that people used, the forms of the tools and so forth are associated with power systems that are involved in the culture. We have not a mythology that incorporates these. The new powers are being, so to say, surprisingly announced to us by what the machines can do. We can’t have a mythology for a long, long time to come; things are changing too fast. The environment in which we’re living is changing too fast for it become mythologized.

BILL MOYERS: 

How do we live without myths, then?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Well, we’re doing it.

The individual has to find the aspect of myth that has to do with the conduct of his life.

 There are a number of services that myths serve. 

The basic one is opening the world to the dimension of mystery. If you lose that, you don’t have a mythology, to realize the mystery that underlies all forms. 

But then there comes the cosmological aspect of myth, seeing that mystery as manifest through all things, so that the universe becomes as it were a holy picture, you are always addressed to the transcendent mystery through that. 

But then there’s another function, and that’s the sociological one, of validating or maintaining a certain society. That is the side of the thing that has taken over in our world.

BILL MOYERS: 

What do you mean?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: 

Ethical laws, the laws of life in the society, all of Yahweh’s pages and pages and pages of what kind of clothes to wear, how to behave to each other, and all that, do you see, in terms of the values of this particular society. But then there’s a fourth function of myth, and this is the one that I think today everyone must try to relate to, and that’s the pedagogical function. 

How to live a human lifetime under any circumstances. 

Myth can tell you that.

Uncle Walter

An Interview with My Father -- Walter Peterson

Sebastian Shaw

He has The Eyebrows 

of a Good Man —

….they’ll have to go.

 

BILL MOYERS: 

Essentially, isn’t Star Wars about transformation?

GEORGE LUCAS: 

Well, it is about transformation. 

And — and ultimately it’ll be about transformation of how young Anakin Skywalker became evil and then was redeemed by His Son.

 

But it’s also about transformation of how his son came to — 

To Find The Call. 

Luke works intuitively through most of the movie until he gets to the very end.

Everything up to that point is very intuitive. 

He goes back and forth with his emotions about 

Fighting His Father 

or 

Not Fighting His Father.

Finally he comes to that decision to say, 

‘No, this is — this is what I have to do. 

I have to simply throw my weapon down.’ 

And it’s only that way that he’s able to redeem His Father, which ultimately is the issue. 

It’s not as apparent in the first three movies, but when you see the movies I haven’t made yet, that — 

The issue of how do we get Darth Vader back is really the central issue. 

How do we get him back to that little boy that he was in the first movie? 

That good person who loved and was generous and kind?

BILL MOYERS: 

Ultimately …

GEORGE LUCAS: 

And had a 

Good Heart.

BILL MOYERS: 

Had a Good Heart. 

Ultimately, doesn’t it take, particularly in religion, a — a leap of faith? 

What — Kierkegaard’s leap of faith?

GEORGE LUCAS: 

Yes. Yes. Definitely. 

And that’s — that’s — you’ll notice Luke uses that quite a bit through the films. 

Not to rely on his senses, 

not to rely on — on the computers, 

but to rely on Faith. 

That is what ‘Use The Force’ is, 

is a Leap of Faith. 

That there are mysteries and powers 

larger than we are, 

and that you have to Trust Your Feelings 

in order to access these things.

BILL MOYERS: 

Your friend Joseph Campbell called it 

‘the perfect eye to see with.’

GEORGE LUCAS: 

Mm-hmm.

BILL MOYERS: 

How do you develop that eye?

GEORGE LUCAS: 

Well, I don’t know. 

I mean, I don’t know whether I have that eye. 

But…

BILL MOYERS: 

Oh, you do.

People — your colleagues tell me you’re always making 

quick decisions, 

good or bad. 

You’re making intuitive decisions 

very quickly.

TRY NOT.

DO.

OR DO NOT.

THERE IS NO "Try".

GEORGE LUCAS: 

I’m making intuitive decisions because I — I’m — I — I can see the picture in my head even though it’s foggy …

… and I know instantly whether this fits in there or doesn’t.

BILL MOYERS: 

Do you have to work to keep nurturing your imagination, to keep feeding that interior pool from which these ideas and images …

GEORGE LUCAS: 

I’ve — I’ve never had a problem with that. I mean, my imagination runs wild. It’s — it’s — you know, people say, ‘Well, you’re gonna run out of stories, you gonna … ‘ I — I don’t think I’ll ever run — I have more stories than I can possibly do in my lifetime. And more — and I’m interested in more things to do than I can possibly do in my lifetime. And I’m now beginning to confront the fact that the — the amount of time I’ve got is less and less, that I — more and more things are going to have to go by the wayside, and I’m going to have to focus more on the things that really are meaningful to me, you know, ’cause even if I have 30 or 40 years left, it’s not enough.

Dr. R. Fletcher M.D.

When you get two sides fighting a battle 

and you don't agree with EITHER, 

Life DOES get a bit complicated.

“How do you mean?”

I mean I don't agree 

with their methods.

Either of them.

But their AIMS are different.

That's what's important.

“Well, the partisans hate the fascists, just as the fascists hate the Jews — There's nothing to choose between them.”

…..The appalling thing about Fascism is that 

you've got to use 

Fascist methods

to get RID of it.

We've all got a bit of it in us.

And it doesn't take much to bring it to the surface.

It stays with us.

Probably always will.

“Well, hadn't we better make the most of it now that we're stuck with it?”

Good God, no, you don't get The Point :

We're stuck with DISEASE —

We don't sit back and accept it, we fight it.

We've got to fight Fascism

because it's a Disease of The Mind.

And when you fight a disease,

you often use its own germ for inoculation.

Do you see?

“Right, stand at ease, Murray.

I've called you up here because of the report we've received...

Certain standards are required of you

when you join the Immediate Action Organisation.

The most important of these is Loyalty.

Loyalty to The Organisation.

Loyalty to The State.

Loyalty to The English People.

It is The English people whose welfare you are responsible for.

It is in this respect that you have failed.

You failed me, 

You failed The Organisation, 

You failed The State.

Merely because of your misguided sentimentality.

These... political undesirables were your friends,

and you put your friends before the state.

The Fletchers are being dealt with,

but you, however, are a nurse.

That is now your only value to the state.

It is for this reason and this reason alone

that we are transferring you to 

Lidington rehabilitation centre

as a replacement staff nurse.

That's all.”

Sir James Bond, 007 (Emeritus.)

M. :

They used to say, 

A Good Spy is A Pure Spy, 

Inside and Out. 

Roses, Tanagra figurines 

and Debussy —

He plays Debussy every afternoon 

from sunset until it's too dark 

to read the music. 

Stands on his head a lot, 

eats Royal Jelly. 

Lets his intestines down 

and washes them by hand…. 

Something he learned during 

his sojourn in Tibet. 

Ransome, CIA :

M, what gives? 

M. :

I forgot to mention 

The Lions.

Ransome, CIA :

Lions and more lions.

We're surrounded by Lions!

Smernov, KGB :

I did not come all the way here 

to be devoured by 

Symbols of Monarchy! 

Ransome, CIA :

I warn you, M, if 

This is A Trap... 

M. :

Calm yourselves, gentlemen. 

It's no Trap, I assure you. 

The Lions are only curious —

He has few visitors. 

Ransome, CIA :

That I can believe….

M. :

A veritable Eden, 

is it not, gentlemen? 

Ransome, CIA :

Eden without an Eve 

is an absurdity. 

Smernov, KGB :

A Good Spy is a Pure Spy. 

M. :

Not Good. Great. 

The Greatest Spy in History, gentlemen. 

The True, One and Only, 

Original James Bond.

LOYAL RETAINER :

The Gentlemen are here, 

Sir James.

Sir James Bond :

Thank you.

M. :

My Dear Bond.

Sir James Bond :

My Dear M. 

Ransome, CIA :

Ransome, CIA, Sir James —

Sir James Bond :

J-Junior cipher c-clerk 

in m-my day, weren't you, 

Ransome? 

Ransome, CIA :

Yes, sir. JCC, class G, 

SIC to SCCT. 

CIA, Washington DC. 

Smernov, KGB :

Smernov, KGB, 

Sir James. 

Sir James Bond :

Ah, yes. L-Labour camp inspector. 

Ikon GPU, Siberian sector. 

I remember Your ch-Chap Lenin very well :

First-class organiser,

Second-class mind. 

Le Grand, 

Deuxième-Bureau :

Le Grand, Sir James. 

Deuxième-Bureau. 

Sir James Bond :

Promoted at last from 

The Vice Detail? 

M. :

How incredibly well you look, James. 

Sir James Bond :

Time, My Dear M, 

Does Not Exist 

within These Walls.

Ransome, CIA :

…..they ain't for Real.

M. :

Yes, a far cry from 

our embattled world. 

Sir James Bond :

In My Day, Spying was 

an alternative to War. 

The Spy was a member of a select and immaculate priesthood, vocationally d-devoted, sublimely disinterested. 

Hardly a description of that sexual acrobat who leaves a t-trail of beautiful dead women like blown roses behind him.

M. :

You mean...

Sir James Bond :

You know very well who I mean.

 That b-bounder to whom 

you gave My Name 

and Number —

M. :

My Dear James, 

when you left us 

we were a small service, 

under-financed, 

ludicrously ill-equipped. 

It was essential that 

Your Legend be maintained —

Without a James Bond : 007, 

No-one would have respected us. 

Sir James Bond :

Him and his wretched g-gadgets. 

M. :

We must make use of the 

weapons of our time. 

Sir James Bond :

So I observe. 

You, Ransome, with your 

trick carnation that 

s-spits cyanide. 

You ought to be ashamed. 

Ransome, CIA :

…..The Russians started it. 

Sir James Bond :

And you, Smernov, 

with an armoury concealed 

in your grotesque boots. 

Listen to them tinkle. 

And you, Le Grand, with 

a different deadly poison 

in each of your fly buttons. 

And you, M, with your 

flame-throwing 

fountain pens —

Y-Y-You're joke-shop 

spies, gentlemen. 

M. :

We are in the last half of 

the 20th century, Sir James —

Even you have to face it. 

Sir James Bond :

Why should I, when I can 

face that? Look, at My Garden :

Out There, there is A Black Rose —

Not Dark Red, but Black. 

As a Raven's Wing at Midnight. 

I would not exchange one single petal 

for anything Your World has to offer, including 

an Aston M-Martin 

with lethal accessories. 

Smernov, KGB :

You have only contempt for 

the proletariat, Sir James. 

This we know. 

Ransome, CIA :

If I didn't know better, 

I'd say you'd lost your 

Faith in Democracy. 

Sir James Bond :

You can Break The Glass, 

but you can't hold back 

The Weather. 

M. :

Things are Bad. 

I've lost agents in the last fortnight - 

seven killed, four missing.

Sir James Bond :

Is My Namesake among them? 

M. :

He may well be tomorrow. 

Eight of ours were given The Works — 

Two in The Pentagon.

Smernov, KGB :

KGB is depleted. 

….I cannot disclose exact figures. 

M. :

The Enemy has penetrated our most secret inner circles.

He reads Our Very Mind.

For all we know, 

He has his eye on us right now. 

Sir James Bond :

Are you quite sure he is not 

one or m-more of you? 

Ransome, CIA :

No, no.

Le Grand, 

Deuxième-Bureau :

Absolutely sure. 

Smernov, KGB :

Until This Danger is passed, 

we must stand united 

in the defence of all spies, 

great or small, 

regardless of nationality. 

Sir James Bond :

Calamity makes strange b-bedfellows, 

but why, in the strength 

of Your Unity, do you disturb 

A Gentleman in his Retirement? 

M. :

We need 

Your Inspirational Leadership. 

Le Grand, 

Deuxième-Bureau :

Please give us 

The Benefit of 

Your Incomparable 

Powers of Deduction.

Ransome, CIA :

For all Freedom-Loving Peoples —

For the glorious Socialist Revolution. 

(Date T.B.C,)

Sir James Bond :

If I may interrupt 

this flow of clichés, 

it is now that time of day 

I have set apart for Debussy…

Can this be The Man Who Won 

a Victoria Cross at Mafeking? 

The Hero of the Ashanti Uprising? 

Smernov, KGB :

What genius to be wasted 

in The Service of 

a crumbling Empire….

Ransome, CIA :

Why, at the height of his powers, 

did Bond decide to retire? 

M. :

Mata Hari, My Dear Friend.

Ransome, CIA :

What's the connection?

M. :

The Woman in His Life.

Ransome, CIA :

I don't get it.

M. :

It was his painful duty 

to lure her across 

the Spanish frontier into France, 

where we stood her 

in front of a firing squad. 

He really loved 

that woman. 

Well, James? 

Sir James Bond :

I'm sorry, old man, 

but what you ask is 

quite impossible. 

M. :

Perhaps this will change 

Your Decision. 

( M. hands over a Warrant bound with The Royal Seal. )

Sir James Bond :

My Record speaks My Loyalty. 

But no, not even 

for her, McTarry. 

M. :

Sorry, James. 

( M. lights his cigar. )

There's McTarry's signal. 

Stand by. 

Zero. 

On. 

Fire! 

Fire! Up !

The Authority —

A MAN IN BLACK :

Authority to Control.

Control —

PUSSY :

Go ahead. 

The Authority —

The MAN in BLACK :

Proceed with Smersh Plan B —

Sir James Bond is back, 

with his morals, his vows, 

and his celibate image. 

We must destroy that image. 

Riverbank to Control.

Control —

PUSSY :

Go ahead.

The Target has just entered Scotland.

M's Castle to Control.

Control — PUSSY 

M's name is ‘McTarry’. Use it. 

Plan B in operation :

McTarry Castle completely occupied, with only one change —

Agent Mimi is now M's Widow. 

Control — PUSSY :

Agent Mimi impersonating 

Lady Fiona? 

Well, she has the best Scots accent.