The Assassination
It begins again, the nocturnal pulse. It courses through the cables laid for it. It mounts to the chandeliers and beats there, hotly. We are too close. Too late, we would move back. We are involved with the surge. Now it bursts. Now it has been announced. Now it is being soaked up by newspapers. Now it is running through the streets. The crowd has it. The woman selling carnations And the man in the straw hat stand with it in their shoes. Here is the red marquee it sheltered under. Here is the ballroom, here The sadly various orchestra led By a single gesture. My arms open. It enters. Look, we are dancing. (June 5, 1968)
http://www.palace.net/~llama/poetry/assassination
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Flash Fiction
In the beginning was the word. I discovered this word when I was researching ways of putting people under hypnosis faster. It was part of a PhD paper I was preparing. Anyway, this word really worked.
The special word seemed to act like a sort of login that immediately made the subject susceptible to suggestion and cut out the need for couches and long routines of preparation.
In the origins of humanity, if ever the human mind had been programmed, this would have been the programmers quick access system that gave absolute control for urgent program modifications.
I'll call the special word blabberpop. The word isn't blabberpop but, if I told you the word, believe me, it would be a really bad thing for the world.
Using this special word was as simple as this:
"Blabberpop. You will pick up any rubbish that you drop. Blabberpop."
The first use of the special word hypnotized the subject and enabled the suggestion to be effective. The second use of the special word unhypnotized them and then they would act on the suggestion at a later stage.
Anyway, I got to thinking about the wider possible uses of this and came up with a master plan which I set into action last month.
The idea was that I would use the secret word to tell someone to do a random act of kindness each day but also tell them to use the secret word themselves to require someone else to do a random act of kindness each day too. The special word would then be forgotten by both.
I thought the idea was brilliant. Doing random acts of kindness would seriously make the world a better place for everybody. I must confess the idea of promoting random acts of kindness wasn't original. There were already lots of sites on the Internet promoting the idea. All I was doing was making it, sort of, more efficient and mandatory.
The hypnotized command would effectively program people not only to do an act of random kindness each day but also to pass on the requirement for others to do random acts of kindness too.
So it was self propagating. It was truly a human kindness virus and I was very proud of myself for thinking of it.
That was last month.
I'm not so proud of myself this month because everything has gone horribly wrong.
The drive in front of my house is littered with several unwanted cars and a basket of stray kittens has just arrived.
I dare not go down into town for fear that I will be forcibly helped across the road by lots of strangers, whether I want to cross the road or not.
The Government Tax department has already contacted me three times this week asking me where the large sums of money from mysterious benefactors has come from. The clear suspicion seems to be that I'm involved in some sort of money laundering.
The same sorts of problems are already happening to ordinary people across the whole of the Western world, according to what I read on the Internet.
The human kindness virus has proved so virulent and so disruptive that, yesterday, in desperation, I threw it into reverse and started another viral command to counteract the previous one.
I used the secret word to tell someone not to do a random act of kindness each day and also told them to use the secret word in their turn to require someone else not to do a random act of kindness each day too. The special word was, of course, then to be forgotten by both.
Thankfully, I think it's working. Admittedly, crime statistics are up across the UK and America this morning, according to the News Channels, which could indicate perhaps it's working rather too well.
Hopefully, everything will soon return to normal.
So what is the moral of this story?
Well, personally, I still believe Random Acts of Human Kindness are a good thing but perhaps it's not such a good thing to force people to do them.
Perhaps the most fundamental human act of kindness is to leave people with their own freedom of action to do kindness as they will.
The End
http://www.onlineflashfiction.com/2007/11/human-kindness-virus-virus-short-story.html
The special word seemed to act like a sort of login that immediately made the subject susceptible to suggestion and cut out the need for couches and long routines of preparation.
In the origins of humanity, if ever the human mind had been programmed, this would have been the programmers quick access system that gave absolute control for urgent program modifications.
I'll call the special word blabberpop. The word isn't blabberpop but, if I told you the word, believe me, it would be a really bad thing for the world.
Using this special word was as simple as this:
"Blabberpop. You will pick up any rubbish that you drop. Blabberpop."
The first use of the special word hypnotized the subject and enabled the suggestion to be effective. The second use of the special word unhypnotized them and then they would act on the suggestion at a later stage.
Anyway, I got to thinking about the wider possible uses of this and came up with a master plan which I set into action last month.
The idea was that I would use the secret word to tell someone to do a random act of kindness each day but also tell them to use the secret word themselves to require someone else to do a random act of kindness each day too. The special word would then be forgotten by both.
I thought the idea was brilliant. Doing random acts of kindness would seriously make the world a better place for everybody. I must confess the idea of promoting random acts of kindness wasn't original. There were already lots of sites on the Internet promoting the idea. All I was doing was making it, sort of, more efficient and mandatory.
The hypnotized command would effectively program people not only to do an act of random kindness each day but also to pass on the requirement for others to do random acts of kindness too.
So it was self propagating. It was truly a human kindness virus and I was very proud of myself for thinking of it.
That was last month.
I'm not so proud of myself this month because everything has gone horribly wrong.
The drive in front of my house is littered with several unwanted cars and a basket of stray kittens has just arrived.
I dare not go down into town for fear that I will be forcibly helped across the road by lots of strangers, whether I want to cross the road or not.
The Government Tax department has already contacted me three times this week asking me where the large sums of money from mysterious benefactors has come from. The clear suspicion seems to be that I'm involved in some sort of money laundering.
The same sorts of problems are already happening to ordinary people across the whole of the Western world, according to what I read on the Internet.
The human kindness virus has proved so virulent and so disruptive that, yesterday, in desperation, I threw it into reverse and started another viral command to counteract the previous one.
I used the secret word to tell someone not to do a random act of kindness each day and also told them to use the secret word in their turn to require someone else not to do a random act of kindness each day too. The special word was, of course, then to be forgotten by both.
Thankfully, I think it's working. Admittedly, crime statistics are up across the UK and America this morning, according to the News Channels, which could indicate perhaps it's working rather too well.
Hopefully, everything will soon return to normal.
So what is the moral of this story?
Well, personally, I still believe Random Acts of Human Kindness are a good thing but perhaps it's not such a good thing to force people to do them.
Perhaps the most fundamental human act of kindness is to leave people with their own freedom of action to do kindness as they will.
The End
http://www.onlineflashfiction.com/2007/11/human-kindness-virus-virus-short-story.html
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
The Red Convertible
This story is about two Indian brothers they are part owners of a red convertible. The oldest brother goes off to fight in the a war, and when he comes back he is a changed person and not in a good way. "But he was quiet, so quiet, and never comfortable sitting still anywhere but always up and moving around. I thought back to times we'd sat still for whole afternoons, never moving a muscle, just shifting our weight along the ground, talking to whoever sat with us, watching things." His brother had PTSD and he didn't know how to deal with it, his mother didn't want to take him to a non-Indian doctor because they only give out drugs and don't fix the problem. So the younger brother beats up the car to give his brother something to work on. this shows us the love that he had for his brother.
They take a trip after he fixes the car the oldest brother tells the younger one that he wants him to have the car that it was his. When they get to were they are going, they get into a fight, then they make up. The oldest brother dies i believed he killed himself because he couldn't take the PTSD anymore The little brother drove the car into the river as well, i'm guessing so that the brother can have it.
I think the theme to this story is self-sacrifice. The older brother goes off to war. When he comes back he is a changed man; its like he sacrifice himself while fighting. The car also plays an important role as it stands for freedom, (ie traveling around during the summer.) it shows the connection that the two brothers share.
They take a trip after he fixes the car the oldest brother tells the younger one that he wants him to have the car that it was his. When they get to were they are going, they get into a fight, then they make up. The oldest brother dies i believed he killed himself because he couldn't take the PTSD anymore The little brother drove the car into the river as well, i'm guessing so that the brother can have it.
I think the theme to this story is self-sacrifice. The older brother goes off to war. When he comes back he is a changed man; its like he sacrifice himself while fighting. The car also plays an important role as it stands for freedom, (ie traveling around during the summer.) it shows the connection that the two brothers share.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Feed Part 2
After utopia things return to so what of a normal life Titus in the beginning that is. There seems to be a disconnect between everyone in his family. They are all doing their own thing listening and watching the feed. He starts to date Violet and she takes him to meet her father. He is a very strange man would at times uses an older version of the feed system that has a backpack unit. When reading this book it looks like to me that the world is falling apart all around him and he doesn't notice it at all. Like he is a drone going to School(which the companies now own) then going to buy things that the feed suggest.
Violet shakes up his world to this way of thinking, she'll go into stores and ask for big ticket items and ask all of these questions and then not buy them (to throw off the feed) Titus friends think that she is weird that she is always asking questions and saying dumb things, Titus defends her.Violet finally tells Titus that her feed unit is messed up and that she will die if she doesn't get a new one. The book carries on and she gets worst and worst they break up and the failed attempt to have sex.
Violets father calls Titus when Violet is basically brain dead he tells her that the global alliance had issued more warnings about the possibility of total war if their demands were not met. I think Titus finally got what Violet was trying to say the whole time. "It turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don't know why. It had enough room, but for some reason people didn't think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. It was like i kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and i could never exactly catch up to it" The feed kept selling them things to make them cool, (see the girls and their clothing styles) but the moment the changed the "cool" thing to do was wear something else. I used to feel the same way maybe if i bought this shirt ill be cool, and you still see it in today's TV/Radio Ads.
Violet shakes up his world to this way of thinking, she'll go into stores and ask for big ticket items and ask all of these questions and then not buy them (to throw off the feed) Titus friends think that she is weird that she is always asking questions and saying dumb things, Titus defends her.Violet finally tells Titus that her feed unit is messed up and that she will die if she doesn't get a new one. The book carries on and she gets worst and worst they break up and the failed attempt to have sex.
Violets father calls Titus when Violet is basically brain dead he tells her that the global alliance had issued more warnings about the possibility of total war if their demands were not met. I think Titus finally got what Violet was trying to say the whole time. "It turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don't know why. It had enough room, but for some reason people didn't think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. It was like i kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and i could never exactly catch up to it" The feed kept selling them things to make them cool, (see the girls and their clothing styles) but the moment the changed the "cool" thing to do was wear something else. I used to feel the same way maybe if i bought this shirt ill be cool, and you still see it in today's TV/Radio Ads.
Monday, November 7, 2011
EB White Charlotte's Web
This is an excerpt from Charlotte's Web, its after Wilbur wins the ceremony. Wilbur finds out that Charlotte is dying and that she will not be able to make it back to the farm. So Wilbur comes up with an idea to get Charlotte's eggs and take them with him. He try's to get Templeton to help him with the egg sac but Templeton puts up a fight and doesn't want to help. Templeton brings up all of the times that he has helped Wilbur in the past and never has gotten a thank you. Wilbur makes a deal with him and Templeton helps him, Charlotte dies knowing that her children are safe.
I Think that this story was put here for us to see how Templeton treats Wilbur and Charlotte. Charlotte is about to die Wilbur is trying to help save her babies, and all that Templeton can think about is what is in it for me? He isn't wanting to help because its the right thing to do. This goes along with the theme of the individual and not helping to serve the greater good.
I Think that this story was put here for us to see how Templeton treats Wilbur and Charlotte. Charlotte is about to die Wilbur is trying to help save her babies, and all that Templeton can think about is what is in it for me? He isn't wanting to help because its the right thing to do. This goes along with the theme of the individual and not helping to serve the greater good.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
From Blossoms
Li-Young Lee's poem is a very nice poem i like it a lot. this poem is about buying and eating peaches. i really don't know what else to say about this poem though. maybe we don't worry about death during the summer because "from joy to joy to joy from wing to wing from blossom to blossom to impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom" is my favorite line of this poem. i plan on writing more after class on monday
Thursday, November 3, 2011
The School
This story is told from the teachers point of view, on the first page the teacher is going through the list on class pets they have had. Telling us how each of them i died right after the class was assigned to take care of them. On the second page we start to hear from the children "They asked me, where did they go? The trees, the salamander, the tropical fish, Edgar, the poppas and mommas, Matthew and Tony, where did they go? And I said, I don’t know, I don’t know. And they said, who knows? and I said, nobody knows. And they said, is death that which gives meaning to life? And I said no, life is that which gives meaning to life. Then they said, but isn’t death, considered as a fundamental datum, the means by which the taken-for-granted mundanity of the everyday may be transcended in the direction of –
I said, yes, maybe."
I said, yes, maybe."
I like the part when they say "is death that which gives meaning to life?" i agree with these children death does give meaning to life. We all are headed to the same place we need to enjoy each and very day we have on this planet. They would like to see their teacher and the teacher assistant have sex because they have heard about it, but they would like to see it done before they die. She tells them no, then the new class pet is brought in, they forget about what they were talking about and run to the door.
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