Like Sewage and Smartphones and Donald Trump —some things are just Inevitable.
People get the Cybermen wrong.
There's no evil plan, no evil genius.
Just parallel evolution :
(People + Technology) — Humanity =
The Internet = Cyberspace = Cybermen.
Always read The Comments....
Because one day, They'll be An Army.
The Architect:
The function of The One is now to return to the Source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program. After which, you will be required to select from the Matrix 23 individuals – 16 female, 7 male – to rebuild Zion. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash, killing everyone connected to the Matrix, which, coupled with the extermination of Zion, will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race.
Neo:
You won’t let it happen.
You can’t.
You need human beings to survive.
The Architect :
There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept.
And it comes to one great statement, which for me is a key statement of the understanding of myth and symbols. He says. “I saw myself on The Central Mountain of The World, the highest place. And I had a vision, because I was seeing in a sacred manner, of the world.” And the sacred central mountain was Harney Peak in South Dakota.
And then he says,
“But the central mountain is everywhere.”
That is a real mythological realization.
BILL MOYERS:
Why?
JOSEPH CAMPBELL:
It distinguishes between the local cult image, Harney Peak, and its connotation, the center of the world.
The center of the world is the hub of the universe, axis mundi, do you know, the central point, the pole star around which all revolves. The central point of the world is the point where stillness and movement are together. Movement is time, stillness is eternity, realizing the relationship of the temporal moment to the eternal not moment, but forever -is the sense of life. Realizing how this moment in your life is actually a moment of eternity, and the experience of the eternal aspect of what you’re doing in the temporal experience is the mythological experience, and he had it. So is the central mountain of the world Jerusalem, Rome, Banaras. Lhasa, Mexico City, you know? Mexico City, Jerusalem, is symbolic of a spiritual principle as the center of the world.
BILL MOYERS:
So this little Indian was saying, there is a shining point where all lines intersect?
JOSEPH CAMPBELL:
That’s exactly what he said.
BILL MOYERS:
He was saying God has no circumference.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL:
God is an intelligible sphere, let’s say a sphere known to the mind, not to the senses, whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere. And the center, Bill, is right where you’re sitting, and the other one is right where I’m sitting. And each of us is a manifestation of that mystery.
“I’d become fascinated by the power and the existence of the evil-has-won narrative and resolved to explore it further in a major DC universe crossover event. I was asked to complete what Dan DiDio was now calling his Crisis trilogy with a wrap-up book to be called Final Crisis.
Dan wanted to use this series as a showcase for Kirby’s New Gods characters, and if I was excited by the idea of having to improvise on that theme, I was even more overjoyed to know that I had access to Darkseid himself, the ultimate supertyrant with his Anti-Life Equation.
As far as I was concerned, the Anti-Life Equation was being rammed down my gullet every day in the papers and on TV, and I was sick of it; sick of being told the world was dying, and it was all because I’d forgot to turn off the bathroom light; sick of Fina(ncia)l Crisis, the War, and the teenage suicide bombers willing to die for the promise of a cheesy afterlife that sounded like a night out with the lap dance girls at Spearmint Rhino.
With J. G. Jones and later Doug Mahnke on art, we set about dramatizing the breakdown of the rational enlightenment story of progress and development as it succumbed to a horror tale of failure, guilt, and submission to blind authority.
I brushed up on the cheerful literature of apocalypse and doomsday, refamiliarizing myself with the various revelations, Ragnaroks, and myths of the end times to construct a thoroughly modern Armageddon in which half the human race was possessed by an evil god who announced his arrival in the form of Anti-Life Equation e-mails and small acts of cruelty that grow to consume the world.
What would it look like if a comic-book universe died, and what could it tell us about what we were doing to ourselves?
The “final crisis,” as I saw it for a paper universe like DC’s, would be the terminal war between is and isn’t, between the story and the blank page.
What would happen if the void of the page took issue with the quality of material imposed upon it and decided to fight back by spontaneously generating a living concept capable of devouring narrative itself?
A nihilistic cosmic vampire whose only dream was to drain the multiverse dry of story material, then lie bloated beneath a dead sun, dying.
I tried to show the DC universe breaking down into signature gestures, last-gasp strategies that were tried and tested but would this time fail, until finally even the characterizations would fade and the plot become rambling, meaningless, disconnected.
Although I lost my nerve a little, I must confess, and it never became disconnected enough.
This, I was trying to say, is what happens when you let bad stories eat good ones. This is what it looked like when you allow the Anti-Life Equation to turn all your dreams to nightmares. In the end, there was nothing left but darkness and the first superhero, Superman, with a crude wishing machine, the deus ex machina itself, and a single wish powered by the last of his own life force.
He wished for a happy ending, of course.
Final Crisis was a bestseller, but it divided the Internet crowd like Alexander’s sword. One outraged reader even confidently predicted that I would, someday soon, be brought to account for the “evil” I had done. For a comics fan scorned, it seemed, the measure of evil lay not in genocide or child abuse but in continuity details deliberately overlooked by self-important writers, of plot points insufficiently telegraphed, and themes made opaque or ambiguous.
If only one-tenth of the righteous, sputtering wrath of these anonymous zealots could be mustered against the horrors of bigotry or poverty, we might find ourselves overnight in a finer world.
Well. No matter, Otis. You'll hear of them again. Those Alpha Waves Will Lead Me North - to his Secret. And when I have that secret - I'll have Superman.
ARCHER:
The Admiral thinks that they're humanoids enhanced with technology.
He believes they abducted the research team.
REED:
We're a long way from the Arctic. What can we do?
ARCHER:
Earth tracking stations spotted the transport leaving orbit at warp three point nine.
TUCKER:
That's impossible.
Those transports can't exceed one point four.
And it comes to one great statement, which for me is a key statement of the understanding of myth and symbols. He says.
“I saw myself on The Central Mountain of The World, the highest place.
And I had a vision, because I was seeing in a sacred manner, of the world.”
And the sacred central mountain was Harney Peak in South Dakota.
And then he says,
“But the central mountain is everywhere.”
That is a real mythological realization.
BILL MOYERS:
Why?
JOSEPH CAMPBELL:
It distinguishes between the local cult image, Harney Peak, and its connotation, the center of the world.
The center of the world is the hub of the universe, axis mundi, do you know, the central point, the pole star around which all revolves.
The central point of the world is the point where stillness and movement are together.
Movement is time, stillness is eternity, realizing the relationship of the temporal moment to the eternal not moment, but forever -is the sense of life.
Realising how this moment in your life is actually a moment of eternity, and the experience of the eternal aspect of what you’re doing in the temporal experience is the mythological experience, and he had it.
So is the central mountain of the world Jerusalem, Rome, Banaras.
Lhasa, Mexico City, you know?
Mexico City, Jerusalem, is symbolic of a spiritual principle as the center of the world.
BILL MOYERS:
So this little Indian was saying, there is a shining point where all lines intersect?
JOSEPH CAMPBELL:
That’s exactly what he said.
BILL MOYERS:
He was saying God has no circumference.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL:
God is an intelligible sphere, let’s say a sphere known to the mind, not to the senses, whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
And the center, Bill, is right where you’re sitting, and the other one is right where I’m sitting.
And each of us is a manifestation of that mystery.
CLOSE ON LUTHOR AND OTIS
LUTHOR stands in front of a large tub of water, transfers wet clothes from a vat, rinses them, hands them to OTIS who rings them out, runs them through an old-fashioned roller-type dryer, stacks them neatly in a hamper. LUTHOR,
clearly depressed, sighs deeply.
LUTHOR
So this is how it ends for the greatest criminal mind of our time. Not with a whimper, mind you. Not with a bang.
(examines hands)
With washwoman's thumb...
LUTHOR sighs again, continues rinsing. OTIS squeezes a garment in the rollers. looks over sympathetically.
OTIS
I know, Mr. Luthor. I know...
LUTHOR
What could you know? You've only got a twenty-year sentence. A sissy sentence.
But how do they choose to reward Lex Luthor, the world's one true genius? Do they give me treasure? Do they give me glory? What, in fact, do they give me?
OTIS
Life plus twenty-five years.
(cheerfully)
It almost worked out, Mr. Luthor. The West
Coast was almost destroyed. Millions of people were alomost killed.
LUTHOR
Almost. Almost, Otis. But as it turned out, thanks to Superman, not one drop of blood was shed.
LUTHOR grits his teeth, hands OTIS some wet clothes.
LUTHOR
All I want now is to get out of here and destroy that miserable, glad-handing showboat.
OTIS
How? You've tried everything. Nothing seems to stop him.
LUTHOR
Every man has a vulnerable point. Some like you, Otis, have several. I just didn't find his in time. But now - finally - thanks to my invention, patience, and skill - my black box is nearly ready.
OTIS
That black box in your cell?
LUTHOR
(frantic)
Ssssshh.....!
OTIS
(whisper)
That black box in your cell? What's it
for?
LUTHOR looks at OTIS secretively, hands him a wet garment.
OTIS
It's only one sock.....
LUTHOR
Pegleg Horvath only needs one sock.....
(back to rinsing)
All attempts to track Superman with conventional means have failed, including radar, correct? Correct. He flies at super-speed. And yet we know that every so often, when he isn't all tied up with "doing good" and taking bows and kissing babies... he goes North. North. Where? We don't know. The tracking device always loses him.... now why would he go North?
OTIS
To ski?
LUTHOR
It's incredible, Otis. Your brain defies all known scientific laws....
OTIS
Thanks, Mr. Luthor....
LUTHOR
In its infinite capacity to deteriorate.....
(rinsing)
That black box, Otis - that innocent looking piece of devilish genius - goes beyond all means of conventional radar.
(leans in)
It tracks Alpha Waves.
OTIS
(impressed)
Alpha Waves!
LUTHOR
I could have said linguini, couldn't I.
Well. No matter, Otis. You'll hear of them again. Those Alpha Waves Will Lead Me North - to his Secret. And when I have that secret - I'll have Superman.
LUTHOR picks up a wet garment, looks at it with extreme
distaste.
LUTHOR
Slasher Fogelstein is a bedwetter.
Pass it
on.
OTIS nods, turns to no one.
SEVEN:
What are the other options?
EMH:
They could be returned to the Borg.
If they were reassimilated into the Collective, they would regain consciousness, and then live out a normal life span.
SEVEN:
As drones.
EMH:
As drones.
But they'd be alive, Seven.
JANEWAY:
Let me ask you something.
Do you think of these people as family?
SEVEN:
Is it relevant?
JANEWAY:
There's an old saying.
Blood is thicker than water.
It means that the ties of family run deeper than any other kind of relationship.
We'll often do things for members of our family we'd never dream of doing for anyone else.
[Corridor]
NAOMI:
Seven. Seven.
SEVEN:
Naomi Wildman.
NAOMI:
I heard about the drones.
Did they hurt you?
SEVEN:
I am not damaged.
NAOMI:
What do they want?
SEVEN:
They are seeking information from me, but I am uncertain whether I can help them.
NAOMI:
Oh. Be careful.
SEVEN:
Naomi Wildman, do you consider me to be family?
NAOMI:
I, I don't, I mean.
Yes. Is that okay?
SEVEN:
I have no objection.
NAOMI:
Do you think of •me• as family?
SEVEN:
Yes.
CHAKOTAY:
A month as an individual, or a lifetime as a drone.
Which option would you choose?
[Doctor's office]
SEVEN:
Survival is insufficient.
EMH:
I beg your pardon?
SEVEN:
Eight years ago, I forced them to return to the Collective.
I won't make the same mistake again.
They deserve to exist as individuals.
We must terminate the link between them.
EMH:
I understand that you feel a certain responsibility for these patients, but as their physician, so do I.
It's my duty to preserve their lives for as long as possible, even if that means -
SEVEN:
I will not return them to the Borg.
EMH:
Are you thinking of what's best for them, or for you?
SEVEN:
Clarify.
EMH:
You said it yourself.
You made a mistake.
And Seven of Nine doesn't like to make mistakes.
She strives for perfection.
I want you to think about the motivation behind your decision.
Are you doing what's right for those three people, or are you trying to alleviate the guilt you feel over what happened eight years ago?
SEVEN:
The damage I did can never be repaired, and my guilt is irrelevant.
I simply want them to experience individuality, as I have. As you have.
At one time, you were confined to this Sickbay.
Your programme was limited to emergency medical protocols.
In some ways, you were not unlike a drone.
But you were granted the opportunity to explore your individuality.
You were allowed to expand your programme.
Your mobile emitter gives you freedom of movement.
Your thoughts are your own.
If you were told you had to become a drone again, I believe you would resist.
EMH:
Yes. I suppose I would.
SEVEN:
They would resist as well.
They would choose freedom, no matter how fleeting.
And in the Old Testament story, God gives the one forbidden thing, and he knows very well, now I’m interpreting God --
He knows very wellthat Man’s going to eat
The Forbidden Fruit.
But it’s by doing that
that Man becomes
The Initiator of His Own Life.
Life really begins with that.
BILL MOYERS:
I also find in some of these early stories, the human tendency to Find someone to BLAME.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL:
Yeah.
BILL MOYERS:
Let me read Genesis 1, then I’ll ask you to read one
from the Bassari legend.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL:
All right.
BILL MOYERS:
Genesis 1:
“And God said,
‘Have you eaten from The Tree which I commanded you that you should not eat?’
Then the man said,
‘The Woman whom you gave to be with me, She gave me of The Tree and I ate.’
And the Lord God said to The Woman,
What is this you’ve done?’
And The Woman said,
‘The Serpent deceived me, and I ate.’
Now, I mean, you talk about buck-passing,
it starts very early.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL :
That’s right.
BILL MOYERS:
And then there’s the Bassari legend.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL:
It’s been tough on serpents, too.
“One day Snake said,
‘We too should eat these fruits. Why must we go hungry?’
Antelope said, ‘But we don’t know anything about this fruit.’
Then Man and His Wife took some of the fruit and ate it.
Unumbotte came down from the sky and asked, ‘Who ate the fruit?’
They answered, ‘We did.’
Unumbotte asked, ‘Who told you that you could eat that fruit?’
They replied, ‘Snake did.’
It’s the same story.
BILL MOYERS: Poor Snake.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL: It’s the same story.
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 baptized 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 great!” Just 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 anywhere, and 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 realize 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 a personal act, of another kind of act, that’s not what he had come to do.
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said,
"My Son,
the battle is between two wolves inside us all.
One is "Evil" --
It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is "Good" --
It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
"Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied,
"The one you feed."
BILL MOYERS:
Poor Snake.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL:
It’s the same story.
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 baptized or circumcised, in this tradition that we’ve inherited.
For heaven’s sakes!
2 :
Society...
6 :
Yes, sir?
2 :
Society is a place where people exist together.
6 :
Yes, sir.
2 :
That is Civilisation.
The Lone Wolf belongs to The Wilderness.
6 :
Yes, sir.
2 :
You must not be a Lone Wolf!
6 :
No, sir.
2 :
You must conform!
6 :
Yes, sir.
2 :
It is my duty to see that you do!
6 :
Yes, sir.
OLIVER :
We were always finding things. Pens. Poetry. Socks. The Astral Plane was like a magnet for lost dreams.
Minds.
That was the other thing we found.
In The Real World, when people lost their minds, they ended up here.
[COOING.] And who are we, then?
[BABY BABBLING.] Hmm.
THE WOLF : What you got today?
OLIVER :
A baby.
THE WOLF :
A baby? Wow. Look at that. [SNIFFS.] Can I have him?
OLIVER : It's a her, I think, and no.
If you want a baby, you can scavenge one yourself.
THE WOLF :
[SCOFFS.] "Scavenge." That's – I'm a wolf.
Wolves don't scavenge. We hunt.
You're lucky I don't hunt you.
OLIVER : Well, you live just next door. Wouldn't be hard.
THE WOLF : Have you told her about the Holocaust yet?
OLIVER : The? What?
THE WOLF :
Got to tell her. Prepare her, Oliver.
You can't grow up too fast. That's my motto.
Also, herpes. Make sure you tell her about herpes, like, right away.
MELANIE : [SIGHS.] Get away! Go on!
[GROWLS.] Shoo! Get away! Get away!
THE WOLF :
Don't forget chlamydia. [HOWLS.]
OLIVER : Wife.
MELANIE: Husband. What did we scavenge today?
OLIVER : Well, half a sandwich, a very nice sock and, uh, this baby.
MELANIE: Oh, baby. Well, look at that. [GASPS.] Oh. Oh, aren't you adorable. Let's get you inside.
[BABY COOING.] [THE WOLF HOWLING.] [HOWLING CONTINUES.] [SIREN WAILING.]
[PANTING.] Oh, hey. [CHUCKLES.] I was just, uh [EXHALES.] This is Cynthia. I found her wandering alone in the woods. She's lost her innocence, which is a win for this guy. Plus, hey, she brought all these dirty needles with her, so I was thinking, party? Huh?
[SNIFFS.] Is that Soup?
MELANIE:
No.
[GROWLS.] Hello, Melanie.
This is Cynthia.
CYNTHIA: Hi. She's given up all Hope. [CHUCKLES.] Isn't
that great?
OLIVER : Look, we're trying to have a nice life here and raise this
baby with Wonder and Magic, so we need to keep The Real World out.
You guys like magic? 'Cause I can do magic. [CHUCKLES.] It was in my sleeve.
OLIVER : Go away.
[GROWLING.]
MELANIE: Not you, hon. Come in. Have some soup. Sorry. [ROARING.]
OLIVER : Listen, don't be mad. [SIGHS.] We should move. [THE WOLF HOWLING IN DISTANCE.] [INDISTINCT WHISPERING.] [INSECTS TRILLING.]
OLIVER : There we go. That's perfect. Oh, yes, that's perfect for [CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY.]
SYD : Why does some music make you happy but other music make you sad?
OLIVER :
That's a good question. Well, uh, do you know the difference between a major and a minor chord?
SYD :
I'm five.
OLIVER : No excuse. I'll show you when we get home.
SYD : Why do people use umbrellas in the rain but not the snow?
OLIVER:
Quiet now.
SYD : Whose stuff is this?
OLIVER : [SIGHS.]
People in The Real World. When they forget about something, when it stops being important, it comes here.
SYD : Oh.
OLIVER : Oh.
SYD : I'm gonna call her Heady.
OLIVER : Little bird. Not that way.
SYD : Why not? [MACHINERY WHIRRING.]
SYD : What is it?
OLIVER : It-it's called The Ostrich. Oh, wait, that's not right. It's the big bird, isn't it? No, The City. It's called The City. Also known as The Real World.
SYD : What makes it Real?
OLIVER : I'll explain when you're older.
SYD : No, now.
OLIVER : That's not the way it works, little bird. I'm The Daddy, and you're The Baby, and I'll tell you about The Real World when you're older. Now, come on. Mommy's making stuffed animal pie. Mmm. We don't want to be late.
SYD : [FLIES BUZZING.] People think Death is scary.
It's pretty scary, huh? I mean, look at it. All oozy, and what are those, maggots?
SYD : That's just Nature.
Mm, kids die, too, you know. Everybody. Your parents. Ooh. That's got to be scary, knowing that, huh? Mm.
SYD : My mom told me that Death is just part of Life.
[GROANS.] She did, huh?
OLIVER:
Sydney!
[THE WOLF GROWLS.]
SYD : Got to go. Bye. Wait, wait, wait. Did she tell you about chlamydia?
Tell me a bedtime story.
MELANIE:
Hmm. Oh. Once upon a time, There was a girl who had the most extraordinary ability. She could feel everything the animals felt.
When a donkey stubbed its toe, her toe hurt. Every time a monkey got sad, she got sad. It was her special power.
And she called her special power "Empathy."
And Empathy was her friend. They did everything together.
But it's a hard thing for a little girl to share the feelings of others. And she started to wonder,
"Where do they end and I begin?"
No. No. No. [DISTANT HOWLING.] [GASPS.]
Cynthia. Hey. Do you ever miss your parents?
Your Real Parents. Back in The Real World. Wasn't your mom a lush? I love that word. "Lush."
It sounds so positive. Which, uh Remember how she used to tuck you in at night with flecks of vomit in her hair?
I live here now.
With the rivers and trees.
Mm And Kenny?
Do you ever miss Kenny?
Kenny beat me.
Kenny's real sorry, baby. He wants you to come home real bad. He love-love-loves you. I have to go inside.
Hey. - [GASPS.] Look what I found. Hmm? [CHUCKLES.] I don't do that anymore. Aw come on. Sure, you do. Don't be scared, gorgeous. You think the light bulb is afraid of the dark?
The light bulb loves the dark. 'Cause in the dark it can shine. - [SIGHS SOFTLY.] - Shine for me, baby. [BIRDS CHIRPING.]
MELANIE:
So, that's where babies come from. And in a couple years, your body will start to change to be more like Mommy's. It's the most natural thing in the world. Any questions?
SYD :
What's chlamydia?
MELANIE:
Where'd you hear that word?
SYD : From The Wolf.
MELANIE: Uh,
well um, you know how, when someone sneezes on you, you catch a cold?
Well, that's because the cold is a virus, and the sneeze transfers the
virus to you. And chlamydia is kind of like a cold, except for your vagina. And, uh, you get it by having unprotected sex with someone who has that virus. Does that make sense?
SYD :
Bodies are weird.
- [MELANIE CHUCKLES.]
"Well, a Director is just someone who has a fetish about making The World the way he wants it - Sort of Narcissistic."
That's you....?
"All Directors....
They're vaugely like Emperors."
- George Lucas
Always Two There are,
No More, No Less —
A Master and an Apprentice.
— The Rule of Two
"Curious.
I have brought The Sith to their ultimate victory. Through study, I
will soon learn how to defeat death. While I may choose apprentices, I
will never choose a successor."
— Darth Sidious, marginalia in The Book of The Sith, in the section titled "Selecting an Apprentice"
"The Sith Order is now a lineage....
It must not end with you!
I will not allow my new Sith Order to expire because you were unworthy or too protective to bequeath your power.
Know this : Your apprentice will kill you.
If this fact frightens you, then the Sith Order has already suffered a fatal infection.
Or do you believe that you will live forever?
You are not wrong to covet the secret, for I have sought to prolong my own life.
But in the extreme, this leads to narcissism and a lack of focus on The Rule of Two.
To be a Sith Lord is to outthink your enemies and to plan for every eventuality.
A proper apprentice will ensure that The Sith endure, no matter what fate may come upon your head."
— The Book of The Sith
An
interval of thirty years elapsed between the foundation of Lavinium and
the colonisation of Alba Longa. Such had been the growth of the Latin
power, mainly through the defeat of the Etruscans, that neither at the
death of Aeneas, nor during the regency of Lavinia, nor during the
immature years of the reign of Ascanius, did either Mezentius and the
Etruscans or any other of their neighbours venture to attack them. When
terms of peace were being arranged, the river Albula, now called the
Tiber, had been fixed as the boundary between the Etruscans and the
Latins.
Ascanius
was succeeded by his son Silvius, who by some chance had been born in
the forest. He became the father of Aeneas Silvius, who in his turn had a
son, Latinus Silvius. He planted a number of colonies: the colonists
were called Prisci Latini. The cognomen of Silvius was common to all the
remaining kings of Alba, each of whom succeeded his father. Their names
are Alba, Atys, Capys, Capetus, Tiberinus, who was drowned in crossing
the Albula, and his name transferred to the river, which became
henceforth the famous Tiber. Then came his son Agrippa, after him his
son Romulus Silvius. He was struck by lightning and left the crown to
his son Aventinus, whose shrine was on the hill which bears his name
and is now a part of the city of Rome.
He
was succeeded by Proca, who had two sons, Numitor and Amulius. To
Numitor, the elder, he bequeathed the ancient throne of the Silvian
house. Violence, however, proved stronger than either the father's will
or the respect due to the brother's seniority; for Amulius expelled his
brother and seized the crown. Adding crime to crime, he murdered his
brother's sons and made the daughter, Rhea Silvia, a Vestal virgin;
thus, under the presence of honouring her, depriving her of all hopes of
issue.
But
the Fates had, I believe, already decreed the origin of this Great City
and the foundation of the mightiest empire under heaven. The Vestal was
forcibly violated and gave birth to twins.
She
named Mars as their father, either because she really believed it, or
because the fault might appear less heinous if a deity were the cause of
it. But neither gods nor men sheltered her or her babes from the king's cruelty;
the priestess was thrown into prison, the boys were ordered to be
thrown into the river. By a heaven-sent chance it happened that the
Tiber was then overflowing its banks, and stretches of standing water
prevented any approach to the main channel. Those who were carrying the
children expected that this stagnant water would be sufficient to drown
them, so under the impression that they were carrying out the king's
orders they exposed the boys at the nearest point of the overflow, where
the Ficus Ruminalis (said to have been formerly called Romularis) now stands. The locality was then a wild solitude.
The
tradition goes on to say that after the floating cradle in which the
boys had been exposed had been left by the retreating water on dry land,
a thirsty she-wolf from the surrounding hills, attracted by the crying
of the children, came to them, gave them her teats to suck and was so
gentle towards them that the king's flock-master found her licking the
boys with her tongue.
According to the story, his name was Faustulus. He took the children to his hut and gave them to his wife Larentia to bring up. Some writers think that Larentia,
from her unchaste life, had got the nickname of "She-wolf" amongst the
shepherds, and that this was the origin of the marvellous story. As
soon as the boys, thus born and thus brought up, grew to be young men
they did not neglect their pastoral duties, but their special delight
was roaming through the woods on hunting expeditions.
As
their strength and courage were thus developed, they used not only to
lie in wait for fierce beasts of prey, but they even attacked brigands
when loaded with plunder. They distributed what they took amongst the
shepherds, with whom, surrounded by a continually increasing body of
young men, they associated themselves in their serious undertakings and
in their sports and pastimes.
Remus accordingly was handed over to Numitor for punishment. Faustulus had from the beginning suspected that it was royal offspring that he was bringing up —
—
for he was aware that the boys had been exposed at the king's command
and the time at which he had taken them away exactly corresponded with
that of their exposure. He had, however, refused to divulge the
matter prematurely, until either a fitting opportunity occurred or
necessity demanded its disclosure. The necessity came first. Alarmed for
the safety of Remus he revealed the state of the case to Romulus.
It
so happened that Numitor also, who had Remus in his custody, on hearing
that he and his brother were twins and comparing their ages and the
character and bearing so unlike that of one in a servile condition,
began to recall the memory of his grandchildren, and further inquiries
brought him to the same conclusion as Faustulus; nothing was wanting to the recognition of Remus.
So the king Amulius was being enmeshed on all sides by hostile purposes.
Romulus shrunk from a direct attack with his body of shepherds, for he was no match for the king in open fight.
They
were instructed to approach the palace by different routes and meet
there at a given time, whilst from Numitor's house Remus lent his
assistance with a second band he had collected. The attack succeeded and
the king was killed.
