Because I do not learn from past mistakes, even the most recent ones, I have a recent one to oops on. The admonition to trust but verify is valid. Something I have known and mostly applied. The times I don’t apply I pay the price. So do you in this instance. The last post contained ranting about The Odyssey. The ranting maintained that the essentials were omitted from the film. They were not.
Odysseus does indeed spend time on an island. Eight years in fact which does extend the trip a bit. With a real babe. And the Cyclops monster does appear. He does have a single eye which is indeed poked out by our hero. (This is to remind us never to run with sharp pokey objects.) The only rant that was correct is the part where the monster is told that Odysseus’ name is No-man.
Maybe this is enough about Greeks and Myths and Time for now.
*****
As for the Precious
Last night as I lay sleeping, I was awakened by a soft, light, unusual pressure in my stretched-out hand. It was that it was unusual which awakened me I’m sure. Coming out of the depths I realized it was the precious paw of my sleeping partner, the littlest cat, Lizzy Fig. One sweet paw placed ever so gently in my palm. Next the other front paw. I wrapped my hand lightly over hers. We lay like that then, until we each fell asleep in our time, safely. And that is the name of Joy. Beyond all words.
Much ado has been made of The Odyssey and I fully intended to see it. Then I read some of the reviews. This is not something I normally do. In fact my intention is to never read them but as I seldom pay attention to my intentions, I did. So. The most interesting to me was that two essential parts of the Odyssey were left out. (My essentials as I’m only speaking for myself here.) The essentials were the Siren Song and the time spent on the island with the lotus eaters and singers of love and lust and pleasures consumed and consummated. But to me the very most important part that I dearly loved was the escape from the cave and the monster because Odysseus told him his name was “no man.” Therefore the allies of the blinded one-eyed giant monster could not help him against Odysseus because when they called out to him asking who he needed help with, the horror responded with “no man.” Ha!
How clever. How enjoyable were both of those sections in their entirety. I don’t know or care who the editor(s) or screenwriters were, but they should be gone with the wind. And whoever else went along with the script as it is, (e.g. the whole production crew including director). I no longer have any desire to see the movie.
This is a photograph published by globalperspectives.info. It is showing when Odysseus blinds the Cyclops making him into a no-eye instead of a one-eye. You will not see this in the movie so I thought I would show you here.
How’s that for a movie review of a film I haven’t seen? I’m sure I could make a living at this.
*****
I am quite tired of the word “literally” being used, even when it is used correctly.
I am also quite tired of the text on facebook being a block long and mostly because the author is using the gimmick of one paragraph per sentence or word. Please. The emphasis is lost due to its very repetition. The same with exclamation points. Only one at the end of sentences, please. And certainly do not pepper every other word or sentence with them. *sigh* Of course it loses its power that way.
*****
Wired has published an article about the sun being blocked due to the effects of el nino. That is to say, the powers that be are considering the blocking. Because the sun has such a powerful impact on el nino and makes it exponentially worse than it would be on its own. This is not news. This proposal has been offered up for a few years now. Perhaps it is currently becoming more serious. That would not surprise me. What surprises me is how we do not learn from our past mistakes. Let me go on record here as saying What the Hell are you Thinking! There are always, always consequences unforeseen when we mess with nature. Just because we cannot see the repercussions does not mean there aren’t any. The Earth always wins. Mother nature is not cuddly.
Remember the culling of the herd of elephants? Culling is a nice word for destroying, killing, murdering. We killed these bull elephants in front of their babies, the baby bulls. They watched as their fathers were killed and lay dying in front of them. Okay, so there were fewer elephants to overrun the surrounding small villages. There were in turn fewer new babies to overrun the villages.
What they got instead was a herd of new bulls that overran the villages and destroyed everything in their path. They acted out in outrages patterns of destruction and terrorised anyone whom they encountered. Afterall, they had no elders to raise and teach them their role within the herd. They saw their parents killed, shot by humans. They learned fury. They learned rage. Some say they even learned revenge. Well, at least there were fewer of them.
And right now the Earth seems pretty pissed off at us. Let’s please not add to the chaos. Leave the sun alone.
Writers Ink—Writing and Stuff 