"The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or perchance a palace or temple on the earth, and at length the middle-aged man concludes to build a wood-shed with them."
--Thoreau
I'm still dreaming of passageways to the moon and neglecting the wood-shed--and other things. I blame my parents, or my wife, or my kids; someone or something somewhere has had a bad influence on me. I would hate to think that I'm responsible for my own lack of success. Most people rant about wanting what they deserve. That's the last thing I want; I'd rather have something good.
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Fishing this week--not with the musketeer, but with a couple of the musketeers. The fishing wasn't great--I only caught one good-sized bass--but it beat a day at the office.
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On the other hand (as if that fishing thing only took one hand), the fishing and other matters, including but not limited to the weekly tour of duty on the Craftsman warmachine, a day spent in waging chemical warfare against a number of undesirables lurking within and without the curtilage of the demesne, and the actual job that provides sustenance for the family, all combined to distract me from writing on Power to Hurt. Oh, I did write; the sum total of the words written fell short of my goal. The current word count is at 22K and change--so still in the 25% complete region.
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During my workouts on the M5 (or Daystrom's Delight as I think I shall call it from now on), I usually watch something on vidangel to beguile away the passage of those sweaty minutes. Over the course of a week or so, I watched The Hateful Eight. The film is a western. The high points of the movie are Kurt Russell and Bruce Dern. That's it. There's nothing else to say. Of course I will say more. If not for vidangel, the movie would have been unwatchable in my opinion. There is one other good thing that I could say about it: It reminded me of two better stories. I did see shadows of
The smoldering resentment between those who fought on opposite sides in the Civil War has long seasoned American westerns with a strong, smooth flavor like that of smoked chili peppers. Bounty hunters and badmen upon not so distant points of the spectrum of justice have often provided the meat for the western meal. H8ful 8 uses that meat and seasons it heavily, unpalatably so. If you're not familiar with Titus Andronicus, you should read it--at least find the summary online and read that. I think it's Shakespeare's most violent, bloodiest, and gruesome play. H8ful 8 falls into the same category but lacks the charm (and the survivors) of either of the two works that it brought to mind.
Here are a couple quotes from Titus Andronicus from goodreads that give an idea of its general bent -- and yet fail to capture the awful, horrrible, acts of the play.
“Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand, Blood and revenge are hammering in my head”
“LUCIUS. Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?
AARON. Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.
Even now I curse the day- and yet, I think,
Few come within the compass of my curse-
Wherein I did not some notorious ill;
As kill a man, or else devise his death;
Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it;
Accuse some innocent, and forswear myself;
Set deadly enmity between two friends;
Make poor men's cattle break their necks;
Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,
And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves,
And set them upright at their dear friends' door
Even when their sorrows almost was forgot,
And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
Have with my knife carved in Roman letters
'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.'
Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things
As willingly as one would kill a fly;
And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
But that I cannot do ten thousand more.”
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