Sometimes It Gets Like This 09/12/2004 I have nothing immediately ready to write in the Journal today so I'm wandering around, pondering, reading blogs and comments, and generally annoying myself by getting in my way. There aren't even any good blog subjects lying about the place at the moment. Just silly thoughts that don't go anywhere.For example, these two lines from the Saga keep occuring to me:You offer Quetzalcoatl* to the morningAnd I, a screaming Munch**Why the heck those lines should be relevant today, is beyond me. I suppose I could just leave them there, allowing you to decide whether to go check up on the two names in them, but my need to be understood won't let me. I've put notes at the bottom of this to explain.The Saga was a very long poem I wrote between the years of oh, about 1970 and 1972, I guess. It was about my thoughts and friends at the time and was, now I think about it, rather intense. I was a very intense young man. Actually, I guess I still am intense, I have learned how to hide it better, that's all. And the Saga sits over there in England with the rest of our stuff, waiting to be transported over here. So there's no way I can put it in here as a cheap way of adding to the blog. Which is a very fortunate escape for you, dear friends.What is not so fortunate is that ugly word "Munch" in there. Any English-speaking reader is going to read it as "munch", whereas it is actually pronounced "Moonk". And that sounds better but would look ridiculous if I were to put it in the poem. So why put it in at all? I felt I had to; it was the only way to express how I felt at the time...* Quetzalcoatl - Aztec serpent god; you have probably seen carvings of him on Aztec ruins. He was the god who the Aztecs believed would return to them, disguised as a white man with a beard. Being mistaken for Quetzalcoatl, the Spanish conquistador, Hernando Cortez, was able to stroll in and destroy their civilization.** Munch - Edvard Munch, Norwegian expressionist painter of the 20th century, most famous for his painting entitled "The Scream" (which you've all seen, even if you don't know it - it is constantly ripped off by the advertising industry). His other paintings were just as expressive as The Scream but are not so immediately accessible. He did entertaining subjects like deathbeds and disease, perfect fodder for adolescent angst to identify with.
Clive
Hannah Some days.... I guess a writer must write, even when he has no subject :P I'm a big fan of Aztec mythology. Even now, there is (supposedly) a jaguar cult operating in the U.S., although my knowledge of it is based only on hearsay. Seen the picture, never heard of the artist. Thanks. Date Added: 09/12/2004
Harry I agree, Hanna. Practise makse prefect, does it not? Besides, were it not for things like adolescent Mookiness to both endure and measure by, where would any of us be without Sir Clive of the Munch? Zyanya! Date Added: 09/12/2004
Gone Away .oO(Zyanya?) Date Added: 09/12/2004
Harry ZYANYA: Aztec; A declaration of one's undying love and respect for another. (copped from the pages of "Aztec", penned by Gary Jennings) Date Added: 09/12/2004
Gone Away Far out. And I thought it was Swahili or something... Date Added: 09/12/2004
Mad uh-oh he's started giving foot-notes, how long until there's a weekly mail out of references and bibliography? ;) Date Added: 10/12/2004
Gone Away Funny you should say that, Mad. I was wondering if you could...... Date Added: 10/12/2004
josh Moonk, you say. Well, being anAmerican (by this I mean a subconcious belief in linguistic manifest destiny), I would be tempted to add an umlaut in there somewheres - just sos I can be sure it is not a verb. :> Date Added: 10/12/2004
josh Oh yeah. I forgot to add this tit-bit, which was the original impetus for comment ;) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3588282.stm Date Added: 10/12/2004
Gone Away Fascinating, Josh, I had no idea that the painting had been stolen. Thank you. As regards Moonk, this as close as I can get to the Norwegian pronunciation. Whether they choose to play with umlauts or not is beyond my control, unfortunately ;). I have noted the unwillingness of my English compatriots to attempt correct pronunciation of foreign terms (growing up alongside Afrikaaners taught me that there is more than one way to pronounce most words) but I try to do my small part where I can. :)
A Swedish friend of mine told me that the name of his country (Sverige) is not pronounced Sverigah, as I had been doing for some time, but Sveriyah. Naturally, I assumed that the Norwegians would adhere to this strange abhorrence for the hard G and for a while said Noryah for Norge (Norway). This time it was a Norwegian friend who put me right - they do pronounce it as I had always done before, Norgah.
Incidentally, I too believe in manifest linguistic destiny - that the rest of the world should face the inevitable and just speak English. And, since you Americans outnumber everyone on the net, I admit that it will be American English that achieves final conquest. :D Date Added: 10/12/2004
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