Posted on 11/05/2013 9:17:23 PM PST by ctdonath2
"We're under siege here. The whole city's gone mad." "This is exactly what he wants." "What?" "Anarchy ... Chaos. The problem is that he knows us better than we know ourselves. ... With so much chaos, someone will do something stupid. And when they do, things will turn nasty. And then Sutler will be forced to do the only thing he knows how to do. At which point, all V needs to do is keep his word. And then..."
(Ok, the sixth here now, but still the fifth in most of the USA at the moment.)
Pancake bunny! It’s been so long!
Did you drink the fifth?
I find this fascinating. Do you have a newsletter to which I might subscribe?
I’d rather have the bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy.
Tom Waits on Fernwood Tonight.
Classic.
OK, so I'm obtuse sometimes. This was intended for fans of V for Vendetta, who would have gotten most of the reference(s). Being a dystopian-future take on the historical Guy Fawks incident, which famously recounts in rhyme
Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
the gunpowder, treason and plot!
I know of no reason the gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot!
some of us make a point of reading/watching V on November 5 each year.
So I dutifully re-watched it last night, and this time noticed the quote I posted above. For a long time I've noted that in all the high-tension high-stakes sociopolitical posturing going on to the point that lots of people predict martial law / civil war in our country, most people talking about it do only that: talk, in what passes for rational to them, and never quite making the mental transition out of their moral boundaries into actual initiation of combat. Historically, most such conflicts (as we predict our looming CWII) actually start with the crux of the quote I posted:
With so much chaos, someone will do something stupid. And when they do, things will turn nasty. And then [the tacit tyrant] will be forced to do the only thing he knows how to do[, unleash oppressive violence upon the populace].
So when the story's investigator muttered "someone will do something stupid, and when they do things will turn nasty" it struck me hard enough to post on FR. Maybe it's just a you-had-to-see-it moment, maybe it's just 'cuz I'm a fan of the book, maybe it's just seeing dramatic declaration of something I've quietly thought for a long time. And doing so late at night on a mobile device results in obscure commentary. Sorry for the confusion, hope you get the point.
“but the Belgian ale didn’t help”
I guilty of that at times!
Here at work there is a used bookstore next door that puts 3 carts of discount books out on the sidewalk offering older texts for $0.50 or $1.00. 2 days ago, I noted that there was a reprint of the V for Vendetta graphic novel... I leafed through it, and noted the original publish date was 1995, IIRC... and this one was not that original pressing. I found it odd that this was new on the rack the day before November 5.
I seriously doubt that anyone in this town could ever, EVER, in a thousand million years, “get” the significance.
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