The Dog-People

What will they say of our view of the world in 700 years' time?  
Here is an extract from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, published in 1360.

After that isle men go by the sea ocean, by many isles, unto an isle that is called Nacumera, that is a great isle and good and fair. And it is in compass about more than a thousand mile.  And all the men and women of that isle have hounds’ heads, and they be called Cynoceptales.  And they be full reasonable and of good understanding, save that they worship an ox for their God.  And also every one of them beareth an ox of gold or of silver in his forehead, in token that they love well their God.  And they go all naked save a little clout.  They be great folk and well-fighting.  And they have a great targe [shield] that covereth all the body, and a spear in their hand to fight with.  And if they take any man in battle, anon they eat him. 

Source
Quotation and image from
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, edd. Denny and Filmer-Sankey.  Collins, London. 1973. 

John Lennon

John Lennon (1940-1980) produced two books which, as I remember, were largely jottings he had done as a teenager.  One was "In his own write" and the other "Spaniard in the works".  

Here is an extract from the introduction of one of the books: 

About The Awful
I was bored on the 9th of Octover 1940 when, I believe, the Nasties were still booming us led by Madolf Heatlump (who only had one). Anyway they didn't get me. I attended to varicous schools in Liddypol. And still didn't pass -- much to my Aunties supplies. As a member of the most publified Beatles my (P, G, and R's) records might seem funnier to some of you than this book, but as far as I'm conceived this correction of short writty is the most wonderfoul larf I've every ready.
God help and breed you all.  

I remember too, the moment in the Beatles' first movie Hard Day's Night when, in a train compartment with the four of them messing around, a rather pompous old, bowler-hatted man expresses his indignation for their apparent lack of respect for him.

"I fought the war for the likes of you," the old one says, haughtily.

Lennon answers, "Aren't you sorry you won?"  

Source
John Lennon, Spaniard in the Works. Penguin. 
Image -  johnlennon.com

P a r a d o x e s

The Thing

This song from the early 1950s remains cryptic, tantalising and absurd.  I sometimes wonder whether it wasn't an anti-nuke protest.  It might also refer to the subversive nature of self-knowledge.  It was written by Charles Randolph Grean and sung by Phil Harris, among others. 

The boom-boom-boom was done with three strikes on a deep drum...  

While I was walking down the beach one bright and sunny day

I saw a great big wooden box a-floatin’ in the bay

I pulled it in and opened it up and much to my surprise

Ooh, I discovered a boom-boom-boom, right before my eyes

Oh, I discovered a boom-boom-boom, right before my eyes

I picked it up and ran to town as happy as a king

I took it to a guy I knew who’d buy most any thing

But this is what he hollered at me as I walked in his shop

Oh, get outta here with that boom-boom-boom, before I call a cop

Oh, get outta here with that boom-boom-boom before I call a cop

I turned around and got right out, a-runnin’ for my life

And than I took it home with me to give it to my wife

But this is what she hollered at me as I walked in the door

Oh, get outta here with that boom-boom-boom, and don’t come back no more

Oh, get outta here with that boom-boom-boom, and don’t come back no more

I wandered all around the town until I chanced to meet

A hobo who was looking for a hand-out on the street

He said he’d take most any old thing, he was a desperate man

But when I showed him the boom-boom-boom, he turned around and ran

Oh, when I showed him the boom-boom-boom, he turned around and ran

I wandered on for many years, a victim of my fate

Until one day I came upon St. Peter at the gate

And when I tried to take it inside, he told me where to go

Get outta here with that boom-boom-boom and take it down below

Oh, get outta here with that boom-boom-boom and take it down below

The moral of this story is if you’re out on the beach

And you should see a great big box and it’s within your reach

Don’t ever stop and open it up, that’s my advice to you

‘Cause you’ll never get rid of the boom-boom-boom, no matter what you do

Oh, you’ll never get rid of the boom-boom-boom, no matter what you do

Source
artists.letssingit.com/phil-harris-the-thing 

Judgement Day

Cape Town airport shuttle ...  

Source
Photo by will 

Sisyphus {again}

Sisyphus defines the blues as much as it defines the absurd.  Here are two lyrics in Afrikaans (okay, I'll translate, if you're desperate to know) that continue the theme ...

SISIPHUS 1

My skouer is seer.  Die berg is steil.

My liggaam beur.  Die lug is yl.

Maar ek rol my rots

Ja, ek rol my rots

Dan rol dit weer af

Af, soos 'n straf

Partykeer voel die lewe

     'n bietjie laf

SISIPHUS 2

Ek rol aan my rots
Ek swoeg en ek wroeg
Ek rol aan my rots
Ek swoeg en ek wroeg
My skouer die pyn
soos 'n baken wat skyn
soos 'n lokkende sein
Klou ek aan die rots
    van my pyn. 

(c)  W.v.d.Walt
Drawing:  bluewill7 

K n o t s

R.D.  Laing (1927 - 1989) was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote much on mental illness - often controversially -  specialising in psychosis.  
His collection of Knots appeared in 1969. 
In the Introduction he writes :

The patterns delineated here have not yet been classified by a Linnaeus of human bondage.

They are all, perhaps, strangely, familiar.   I have confined myself to laying out only some of those I actually have seen. Words that come to mind to name them are: knots, tangles, fankles, impasses, disjunctions, whirligogs, binds. I could have remained closer to the ‘raw’ data in which these patterns appear. I could have distilled them further towards an abstract logico-mathematical calculus. I hope they are not so schematized that one may not refer back to the very specific experiences from which they derive; yet that they are sufficiently independent of ‘content’, for one to divine the final formal elegance in these webs of maya.

April 1969

R.D.L.

Knot 1
They are playing a game. 
They are playing at not playing a game. 
If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me.
I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game.

Knot  2
There must be something the matter with him
because he would not be acting as he does
unless there was;
therefore he is acting as he is
because there is something the matter with him
He does not think there is anything the matter with him
because one of the things that is
the matter with him
is that he does not think that there is anything
the matter with him
therefore,
we have to help him realize that,
the fact that he does not think there is anything
the matter with him
is one of the things that is
the matter with him
there is something the matter with him
because he thinks
there must be something the matter with us
for trying to help him to see
that there must be something the matter with him
to think that there is something the matter with us
for trying to help him to see that
we are helping him
to see that
we are not persecuting him
by helping him
to see we are not persecuting him
by helping him
to see that
he is refusing to see
that there is something the matter with
him
for not seing there is something the matter
with him
for not being grateful to us
for at least trying to help him
to see that there is something the matter with him
for not seeing that must be something the
matter with him
for not seeing that there must be something the
matter with him
for not seeing that there is something the matter with him
for not seeing that there is something the
matter with him
for not being grateful
that we never tried to make him  
feel grateful 


                                         


Sources
Quotation - www.oikos.org/knotsen1.htm
Image -  en.wikipedia.org