Author Topic: To Be or Not to Be  (Read 22742 times)

Offline Bons

  • Global Moderator
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 1237
  • Gender: Female
  • Glad Corvis Isn't Dead Club
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #50 on: September 05, 2005, 11:13:13 PM »
I was hunting through my documents for some Surayah stuff and I stumbled across a poetry-related thing from back in the day when Bridget Jones's Diary was the best thing since pashminas. In the second book, Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" plays a significant part. It's a lovely poem:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!


The thing is, at the time, my girlfriends and I were prickly and sensitive and indignant about the last line. Here are all these lyrics about wonderful Homo sapiens sapiens achievments, and the punchline is, "Woohoo!, you'll be a man!" (We weren't really sure about the running business, either, even just sixty seconds' worth, but we decided the "unforgiving minute" was highly applicable to any woman who's ever had to dash for a cab, bus, date, after a child or pet, or out of the rain in non-sensible shoes, and how.) As I had commenced several hundred pages of absurd, self-indulgent fanfic parodizing Helen Fielding's books (and a Disney movie in the bargain), we wanted to go in another direction and ended up doing our own, not so impressive, version of "If," which is what I stumbled across when looking for some Surayah banters. Here it is:

If you can keep your spirit when all about you
   Blame you for their shortfalls or their rotten luck;
If you can trust your reason when men may doubt you,
   But make allowance that your judgment may suck;
If you run late, or fill time with fickle patience,
   Or lie, but only to make the truth appear,
Or spout hate, when frustrated by loving cadence,
   And yet not be too brave, nor harbor great fear;

If you can dream - and fall in love with wistful hope;
   If you can plan - and not make plans your prison;
If you can meet disaster and find how to cope
   And shed tears, but retain a sense of vision;
If you can confront your failures with hard frankness,
   But not call your soft faults your definition;
And accept the world carries evil and goodness,
   Wishing ease for the weak with no protection;

If you can know yourself, and register no qualm
   When words like gullible and idiot are thrown,
If your brain stays sharp and you remain poised and calm,
   Having the depth to perceive your wits your own;
If you can force your heart to meet your mind and soul
   To balance what is right and worthy and true;
Then hold your self-esteem when others bring you low
Finding strength to see ambitions through;

If you can be a tramp yet maintain your virtue,
   And feel cynicism yet not become cruel,
If you can ignore the yaks who would demean you
   For a chance fate of birth, and keep your cool,
If you can fill any extra October hour
   With sixty minutes’ worth of heaven and hell,
You’ll understand your limits and your power,
   And - what is more - you’ll be an Omnifemale!


Yes, I know. What the hell is an Omnifemale?! I figured I would have to explain that part.

In the months preceding our reunion with Mr. Kipling's poetry, my girlfriends and I had tackled an archetype, that of the Renaissance Man. It was all well and good Leonardo DaVinci could draw and engineer and play checkers and cook a souffle, but what about the girls? We were scientists, artists and businesswomen, and we wanted some non-Oprah validation!

We'd also consumed one too many martinis, so we decided to invent a new institution: the Omnifemale. The briefest description I have is, an Omnifemale operates"in the fashion of dazzling Emma Peel: literate + aware + whiz at calculus + karate + sculpture + belly dancing + office organization + making world safe for friends of Britain, but also smashing in leather catsuit!!!" The mention of any extra October hour is a reference to Daylight Savings Time ending, when those locations that participate have a 25-hour day. We deemed it our favorite, most Omnifemale day. A Yak is a flexible term for referring to a former love or spouse one is not on good terms with, a bad date, a lunkhead, or a generic disappointing person, not necessarily, but usually, male in context.

In summation, I went temporarily insane when I turned thirty. Yes, temporarily.
Newt had always suspected that people who regularly used the word "community" were using it in a very specific sense that excluded him and everyone he knew.

             --Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"

Offline Eral

  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 1281
  • Gender: Female
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #51 on: September 07, 2005, 01:25:09 AM »
No ripostes? Has life affirmation triumphed?

Or just a hiatus?
If you see anything mysterious or unusual, just enjoy it while you can.  - Michael Leunig.

Offline Jyzabyl

  • A Blather Sister
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 115
  • Gender: Female
  • I'm smarter than I type.
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #52 on: September 07, 2005, 03:11:04 AM »
I'm still in awe of Bons Female affirmation. I have however dug out my Walt Whitman just in case we have to bring out the big guns.

@Bons. Omnifemale. lol I love it!!! Way back when we all had our government sponsored 'Girls can do Anything' Stickers plastered to everything we called ourselves Equalitarians. We had a fabulous, fabulous credo but I think now looking back we just wanted to be feminists who shaved our armpits.
But I have a left shoulder-blade that is a miracle of loveliness.  People come miles to see it.

Offline Eral

  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 1281
  • Gender: Female
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #53 on: September 07, 2005, 06:48:22 AM »
I'm impressed that Bons and her cohorts managed to produce a credo. My friends and I possessed the same sentiments, but never managed a comprehensive document. (We tended to anarchic acts that were not readily explainable. But we were having fun, and we thought that was the main thing.)

Walt is good. I have some love poems by women poets that will do very well. I am greatly concerned to find that I am no longer in possession of my Collected Works of W.B.Yeats - not only will it take me a while to replace it, but it's absence makes a serious dent in my ability to come up with hopeful stuff. So many of my favourite poets are in the Plath and Lowell strain.
If you see anything mysterious or unusual, just enjoy it while you can.  - Michael Leunig.

Offline Silk

  • Lurker First Class
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 401
  • Gender: Female
  • A cat of many colours
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #54 on: September 07, 2005, 05:25:03 PM »
O Death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?

(1 Corinthians 15:55)
"Some say that our destinies may be read in the stars, that the plans of the gods are revealed to those who but know where to look.  They speak it true but their location is false, for I have seen my destiny shining in your eyes" (Anomen, PPG NPC Flirt Pack)

"You know you're tired when you get up from the desk and the headset's still around your neck"

Offline CORVIS TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN GOD

  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 374
  • Things Fall Apart
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #55 on: September 07, 2005, 06:05:48 PM »
I


We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar


Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;


Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.


II


Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.


Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer --


Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom


III


This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.


Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.


IV


The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms


In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river


Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.


V


Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.


Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow


For Thine is the Kingdom


Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow


Life is very long


Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom


For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the


This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

Offline discharger12

  • Truth?
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 625
  • Gender: Male
  • k
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #56 on: September 07, 2005, 07:01:59 PM »
Man was Made to Mourn - A Dirge

When chill November's surly blast
Made fields and forests bare,
One ev'ning, as I wander'd forth
Along the banks of Ayr,
I spied a man, whose aged step
Seem'd weary, worn with care;
His face furrow'd o'er with years,
And hoary was his hair.

"Young stranger, whither wand'rest thou?"
Began the rev'rend sage;
"Does thirst of wealth thy step constrain,
Or youthful pleasure's rage?
Or haply, prest with cares and woes,
Too soon thou hast began
To wander forth, with me to mourn
The miseries of man.

"The sun that overhangs yon moors,
Out-spreading far and wide,
Where hundreds labour to support
A haughty lordling's pride;-
I've seen yon weary winter-sun
Twice forty times return;
And ev'ry time has added proofs,
That man was made to mourn.

"O man! while in thy early years,
How prodigal of time!
Mis-spending all thy precious hours-
Thy glorious, youthful prime!
Alternate follies take the sway;
Licentious passions burn;
Which tenfold force gives Nature's law.
That man was made to mourn.

"Look not alone on youthful prime,
Or manhood's active might;
Man then is useful to his kind,
Supported in his right:
But see him on the edge of life,
With cares and sorrows worn;
Then Age and Want-oh! ill-match'd pair-
Show man was made to mourn.

"A few seem favourites of fate,
In pleasure's lap carest;
Yet, think not all the rich and great
Are likewise truly blest:
But oh! what crowds in ev'ry land,
All wretched and forlorn,
Thro' weary life this lesson learn,
That man was made to mourn.

"Many and sharp the num'rous ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves,
Regret, remorse, and shame!
And man, whose heav'n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn, -
Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!

"See yonder poor, overlabour'd wight,
So abject, mean, and vile,
Who begs a brother of the earth
To give him leave to toil;
And see his lordly fellow-worm
The poor petition spurn,
Unmindful, tho' a weeping wife
And helpless offspring mourn.

"If I'm design'd yon lordling's slave,
By Nature's law design'd,
Why was an independent wish
E'er planted in my mind?
If not, why am I subject to
His cruelty, or scorn?
Or why has man the will and pow'r
To make his fellows mourn?

"Yet, let not this too much, my son,
Disturb thy youthful breast:
This partial view of human-kind
Is surely not the last!
The poor, oppressed, honest man
Had never, sure, been born,
Had there not been some recompense
To comfort those that mourn!

"O Death! the poor man's dearest friend,
The kindest and the best!
Welcome the hour my aged limbs
Are laid with thee at rest!
The great, the wealthy fear thy blow
From pomp and pleasure torn;
But, oh! a blest relief for those
That weary-laden mourn!"

Offline Regullus

  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 526
  • Gender: Female
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #57 on: September 07, 2005, 07:33:45 PM »
The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Issac, the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, the fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets and trenches there.
And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not a hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught  in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not do so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

    -- Wilfred Owen


1. Renascence
 
 
ALL I could see from where I stood 
Was three long mountains and a wood; 
I turned and looked the other way, 
And saw three islands in a bay. 
So with my eyes I traced the line         
Of the horizon, thin and fine, 
Straight around till I was come 
Back to where I’d started from; 
And all I saw from where I stood 
Was three long mountains and a wood.       
Over these things I could not see: 
These were the things that bounded me; 
And I could touch them with my hand, 
Almost, I thought, from where I stand. 
And all at once things seemed so small         
My breath came short, and scarce at all. 
But, sure, the sky is big, I said; 
Miles and miles above my head; 
So here upon my back I’ll lie 
And look my fill into the sky.         
And so I looked, and, after all, 
The sky was not so very tall. 
The sky, I said, must somewhere stop, 
And—sure enough!—I see the top! 
The sky, I thought, is not so grand;       
I ’most could touch it with my hand! 
And reaching up my hand to try, 
I screamed to feel it touch the sky. 
I screamed, and—lo!—Infinity 
Came down and settled over me;         
Forced back my scream into my chest, 
Bent back my arm upon my breast, 
And, pressing of the Undefined 
The definition on my mind, 
Held up before my eyes a glass         
Through which my shrinking sight did pass 
Until it seemed I must behold 
Immensity made manifold; 
Whispered to me a word whose sound 
Deafened the air for worlds around,         
And brought unmuffled to my ears 
The gossiping of friendly spheres, 
The creaking of the tented sky, 
The ticking of Eternity. 
I saw and heard and knew at last         
The How and Why of all things, past, 
And present, and forevermore. 
The Universe, cleft to the core, 
Lay open to my probing sense 
That, sick’ning, I would fain pluck thence     
But could not,—nay! But needs must suck 
At the great wound, and could not pluck 
My lips away till I had drawn 
All venom out.—Ah, fearful pawn! 
For my omniscience paid I toll         
In infinite remorse of soul. 
All sin was of my sinning, all 
Atoning mine, and mine the gall 
Of all regret. Mine was the weight 
Of every brooded wrong, the hate         
That stood behind each envious thrust, 
Mine every greed, mine every lust. 
And all the while for every grief, 
Each suffering, I craved relief 
With individual desire,—         
Craved all in vain! And felt fierce fire 
About a thousand people crawl; 
Perished with each,—then mourned for all! 
A man was starving in Capri; 
He moved his eyes and looked at me;       
I felt his gaze, I heard his moan, 
And knew his hunger as my own. 
I saw at sea a great fog bank 
Between two ships that struck and sank; 
A thousand screams the heavens smote;         
And every scream tore through my throat. 
No hurt I did not feel, no death 
That was not mine; mine each last breath 
That, crying, met an answering cry 
From the compassion that was I.         
All suffering mine, and mine its rod; 
Mine, pity like the pity of God. 
Ah, awful weight! Infinity 
Pressed down upon the finite Me! 
My anguished spirit, like a bird,         
Beating against my lips I heard; 
Yet lay the weight so close about 
There was no room for it without. 
And so beneath the weight lay I 
And suffered death, but could not die.         
 
Long had I lain thus, craving death, 
When quietly the earth beneath 
Gave way, and inch by inch, so great 
At last had grown the crushing weight, 
Into the earth I sank till I         
Full six feet under ground did lie, 
And sank no more,—there is no weight 
Can follow here, however great. 
From off my breast I felt it roll, 
And as it went my tortured soul         
Burst forth and fled in such a gust 
That all about me swirled the dust. 
 
Deep in the earth I rested now; 
Cool is its hand upon the brow 
And soft its breast beneath the head         
Of one who is so gladly dead. 
And all at once, and over all 
The pitying rain began to fall; 
I lay and heard each pattering hoof 
Upon my lowly, thatchèd roof,         
And seemed to love the sound far more 
Than ever I had done before. 
For rain it hath a friendly sound 
To one who’s six feet under ground; 
And scarce the friendly voice or face:         
A grave is such a quiet place. 
 
The rain, I said, is kind to come 
And speak to me in my new home. 
I would I were alive again 
To kiss the fingers of the rain,         
To drink into my eyes the shine 
Of every slanting silver line, 
To catch the freshened, fragrant breeze 
From drenched and dripping apple-trees. 
For soon the shower will be done,         
And then the broad face of the sun 
Will laugh above the rain-soaked earth 
Until the world with answering mirth 
Shakes joyously, and each round drop 
Rolls, twinkling, from its grass-blade top.         
How can I bear it; buried here, 
While overhead the sky grows clear 
And blue again after the storm? 
O, multi-colored, multiform, 
Beloved beauty over me,         
That I shall never, never see 
Again! Spring-silver, autumn-gold, 
That I shall never more behold! 
Sleeping your myriad magics through, 
Close-sepulchred away from you!         
O God, I cried, give me new birth, 
And put me back upon the earth! 
Upset each cloud’s gigantic gourd 
And let the heavy rain, down-poured 
In one big torrent, set me free,         
Washing my grave away from me! 
 
I ceased; and through the breathless hush 
That answered me, the far-off rush 
Of herald wings came whispering 
Like music down the vibrant string         
Of my ascending prayer, and—crash! 
Before the wild wind’s whistling lash 
The startled storm-clouds reared on high 
And plunged in terror down the sky, 
And the big rain in one black wave         
Fell from the sky and struck my grave. 
I know not how such things can be; 
I only know there came to me 
A fragrance such as never clings 
To aught save happy living things;         
A sound as of some joyous elf 
Singing sweet songs to please himself, 
And, through and over everything, 
A sense of glad awakening. 
The grass, a-tiptoe at my ear,         
Whispering to me I could hear; 
I felt the rain’s cool finger-tips 
Brushed tenderly across my lips, 
Laid gently on my sealèd sight, 
And all at once the heavy night         
Fell from my eyes and I could see,— 
A drenched and dripping apple-tree, 
A last long line of silver rain, 
A sky grown clear and blue again. 
And as I looked a quickening gust         
Of wind blew up to me and thrust 
Into my face a miracle 
Of orchard-breath, and with the smell,— 
I know not how such things can be!— 
I breathed my soul back into me.         
Ah! Up then from the ground sprang I 
And hailed the earth with such a cry 
As is not heard save from a man 
Who has been dead, and lives again. 
About the trees my arms I wound;         
Like one gone mad I hugged the ground; 
I raised my quivering arms on high; 
I laughed and laughed into the sky, 
Till at my throat a strangling sob 
Caught fiercely, and a great heart-throb         
Sent instant tears into my eyes; 
O God, I cried, no dark disguise 
Can e’er hereafter hide from me 
Thy radiant identity! 
Thou canst not move across the grass         
But my quick eyes will see Thee pass, 
Nor speak, however silently, 
But my hushed voice will answer Thee. 
I know the path that tells Thy way 
Through the cool eve of every day;         
God, I can push the grass apart 
And lay my finger on Thy heart! 
 
The world stands out on either side 
No wider than the heart is wide; 
Above the world is stretched the sky,—         
No higher than the soul is high. 
The heart can push the sea and land 
Farther away on either hand; 
The soul can split the sky in two, 
And let the face of God shine through.         
But East and West will pinch the heart 
That can not keep them pushed apart; 
And he whose soul is flat—the sky 
Will cave in on him by and by. 
 
 
It's not true that life is one damn thing after another; it is one damn thing over and over.
- Edna St. Vincent Milay


Offline Bons

  • Global Moderator
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 1237
  • Gender: Female
  • Glad Corvis Isn't Dead Club
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #58 on: September 07, 2005, 08:09:07 PM »
Give us any chance, we'll take it
Read us any rule, we'll break it
We're gonna to make our dreams come true
Doing it our way.

Nothing's gonna turn us back now
Straight ahead and on the track now
We're gonna to make our dreams come true
Doing it our way.

There is nothing we won't try
Never heard the word impossible
This time, there's no stopping us
We're gonna do it.

On your mark, get set, and go now
Gotta dream and we just know now
We're gonna make our dream come true
And we'll do it our way
Yes, our way
Make all our dreams come true.
And we'll do it our way
Yes, our way
Make all our dreams come true
For me and you.


-- Theme to "Laverne & Shirley"
Newt had always suspected that people who regularly used the word "community" were using it in a very specific sense that excluded him and everyone he knew.

             --Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"

Offline Dark Raven

  • Bloody Cynical
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 1194
  • Gender: Female
  • Flesh is the law
    • Chosen of Mystra
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #59 on: September 07, 2005, 08:19:12 PM »
Life it seems will fade away
Drifting further everyday
Getting lost within myself
Nothing matters no one else
I have lost the will to live Simply nothing more to give
There is nothing more for me
Need the end to set me free

Things not what they used to be Missing one inside of me
Deadly loss this cant be real
Cannot stand this hell i feel
Emptiness is filling me To the point of agony
Growing darkness taking dawn
I was me but now, hes gone

No one but me can save myself, but its too late
Now i cant think, think why i should even try

Yesterday seems as though it never existed
Death greets me warm, now i will just say goodbye
Goodbye

Metallica > Fade To Black

 
Per me si va nella citta dolente.
Per me si va nell eterno dolore.
Per me si va tra la perduta gente...
Lasciate ogni speranza perduta che'entrate!

Chosen of Mystra home to many mods.

Offline Jyzabyl

  • A Blather Sister
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 115
  • Gender: Female
  • I'm smarter than I type.
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #60 on: September 07, 2005, 08:30:21 PM »
Bons, you are truly a Blather Sister of note!

But I have a left shoulder-blade that is a miracle of loveliness.  People come miles to see it.

Offline Eral

  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 1281
  • Gender: Female
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #61 on: September 08, 2005, 01:49:05 AM »
What more desires for thee remain,
Save but to love, and love again,
And all on flame with love within,
Love on, and turn to love again?

-St. Teresa of Avila.
If you see anything mysterious or unusual, just enjoy it while you can.  - Michael Leunig.

Offline CORVIS TERRIBLE MOUNTAIN GOD

  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 374
  • Things Fall Apart
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #62 on: September 08, 2005, 02:04:23 AM »
Life's gonna suck when you grow up,
When you grow up, when you grow up
Life's gonna suck when you grow up,
It sucks pretty bad right now.

Hey! If you know the words, Sing along!

You're gonna have to mow the lawn,
Do the dishes, make your bed.
You're gonna have to go to school until you're seven-teen.
(It's gonna seem about three times as long as that)

You might have to go to war, shoot a gun, kill a nun.
You might have to go to war, when you get out of school.
Hey cheer up kids, it gets a lot worse.

You're gonna have to deal with stress
Deal with stress, deal with stress.
You're gonna be a giant mess
When you get back from the war.

Santa Clause does not exist, and there's no Easter Bunny,
You'll find out when you grow up, that Big Bird isn't funny.
(funny, funny, hahahahaha!)

You're gonna end up smoking crack, on your back, face the fact.
You're gonna end up hooked on smack, and then you're gonna die.

And then you're gonna die-ie-ie-ie-ie.

Offline Aurora

  • commissioner of sprinkles
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 92
  • I am following my fish.
    • Fafblog!
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #63 on: September 08, 2005, 10:22:14 PM »
I'm still in awe of Bons Female affirmation. I have however dug out my Walt Whitman just in case we have to bring out the big guns.

@Bons. Omnifemale. lol I love it!!! Way back when we all had our government sponsored 'Girls can do Anything' Stickers plastered to everything we called ourselves Equalitarians. We had a fabulous, fabulous credo but I think now looking back we just wanted to be feminists who shaved our armpits.

*checks armpits*

Ah, hell.
Well, there was this doggy. He was a very clever doggy. He said things like...like... "I would feel infinitely more comfortable in your presence if you would agree to treat gravity as a law, rather than one of a number of suggested options."

Offline Bons

  • Global Moderator
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 1237
  • Gender: Female
  • Glad Corvis Isn't Dead Club
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #64 on: September 09, 2005, 12:02:24 AM »
So live, that when thy summons comes to join   
The innumerable caravan which moves   
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take    
His chamber in the silent halls of death,   
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,   
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed   
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave   
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch    
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.


-William Cullen Bryant
(Though the whole of "Thanatopsis" is about death, it never struck me as depressing because of the naturalistic bent. I also found a copy of it in an old book of verse from the 1910s that my great-grandmother had to study in school with her scribbled notes in the margins. It brought home a message from the poem: you are not the first, you are not the last, and you are not alone.)
Newt had always suspected that people who regularly used the word "community" were using it in a very specific sense that excluded him and everyone he knew.

             --Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"

Offline Jyzabyl

  • A Blather Sister
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 115
  • Gender: Female
  • I'm smarter than I type.
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #65 on: September 09, 2005, 09:38:29 AM »
You're alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.
    Barbara Hall
But I have a left shoulder-blade that is a miracle of loveliness.  People come miles to see it.

Offline Dark Raven

  • Bloody Cynical
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 1194
  • Gender: Female
  • Flesh is the law
    • Chosen of Mystra
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #66 on: September 09, 2005, 06:29:09 PM »
Death is just the beginning.
Per me si va nella citta dolente.
Per me si va nell eterno dolore.
Per me si va tra la perduta gente...
Lasciate ogni speranza perduta che'entrate!

Chosen of Mystra home to many mods.

Offline Eral

  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 1281
  • Gender: Female
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #67 on: September 10, 2005, 02:26:43 AM »
What ever dyes, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one,or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die.

John Donne
If you see anything mysterious or unusual, just enjoy it while you can.  - Michael Leunig.

Offline cliffette

  • Timmins Tragic
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 547
  • Gender: Female
  • I still like Neighbours
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #68 on: September 10, 2005, 05:57:30 AM »
I think I might be a handicap for the pro-life team. ;D


Ooh, Yeah
Oh yeah
Oh Life
Oh Life

I'm afraid of the dark
Especially when I'm in a park
When there's no one else around
Oh I get the shivers
I don't wanna see a ghost
It's the sight that I fear most
I'd rather have a piece of toast
Watch the evening news

Life, oh life
Oh life, oh life
Life, oh life
Oh life, oh life


- Des'ree

Offline Jyzabyl

  • A Blather Sister
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 115
  • Gender: Female
  • I'm smarter than I type.
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #69 on: September 10, 2005, 07:16:00 AM »
Life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all.
    William Goldman, "The Princess Bride"
But I have a left shoulder-blade that is a miracle of loveliness.  People come miles to see it.

Offline Ghreyfain

  • PPG
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 4705
  • Gender: Male
    • Pocket Plane Group
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #70 on: September 10, 2005, 02:15:58 PM »
Was that one from the book?  It's distinctly inferior to the (changed? entirely different?) one from the movie, but then, that book is pretty wretched to begin with.  Couldn't even finish it.

I'm thinking of "Life is pain.  Anyone who says differently is selling something."  The delivery is fantastic.
Earn Money Sleeping.

Offline cliffette

  • Timmins Tragic
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 547
  • Gender: Female
  • I still like Neighbours
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #71 on: September 10, 2005, 06:27:31 PM »
GHREY, NO!!! The book is wickedly funny after you get used to the style (ie on the second reading). You don't get Yeste and Domingo Montoya's banter in the movie. You don't get Fezzick or Inigo's stories in the movie..

That line is in the book - it's just in a different place, and Westley doesn't say it, I think Buttercup's parents do. Or actually, maybe Domingo does. Or maybe even William Goldman. Hmm... must go read it again.
« Last Edit: September 10, 2005, 06:39:04 PM by cliffette »

Offline Ghreyfain

  • PPG
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 4705
  • Gender: Male
    • Pocket Plane Group
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #72 on: September 10, 2005, 07:06:42 PM »
It's probably an ironic twist of me not understanding someone's obscure sense of humour, but I just didn't find the book funny.  Maybe it'd be funny if I knew a few things about Goldman's wife and son, so I could laugh at the bits where he's harping on about them constantly.
Earn Money Sleeping.

Offline cliffette

  • Timmins Tragic
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 547
  • Gender: Female
  • I still like Neighbours
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #73 on: September 10, 2005, 08:56:50 PM »
The wife and son are fictional. 'Tis a story within a story within a story. :)


Oh, maybe I should mention that I had much the same response as you when I first read it, but it was a present so I had to go through with it.
« Last Edit: September 10, 2005, 09:01:21 PM by cliffette »

Offline Ghreyfain

  • PPG
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 4705
  • Gender: Male
    • Pocket Plane Group
Re: To Be or Not to Be
« Reply #74 on: September 11, 2005, 05:09:56 PM »
Ah, kind of like how the grandpa was reading it to his kid in the movie.

I still don't want to read it again.
Earn Money Sleeping.