The Emperor’s New Clothes [Archive] - Literature Network Forums

starrwriter

12-19-2005, 02:03 PM

The story that has had the most profound influence on me is a toss up between Hamlet and The Emperor’s New Clothes. So my question is, do we actually think any more? Do we need to? Isn’t everything laid on for us? More importantly, should we shout out, thus spoiling everyone’s day, “The King is in the altogether!” or just shut up and get on with our ersatz reality? Are the villains of the story the stupid people who fall for the con or those who pop the bubble of delusion and leave us with bare reality?
What's wrong with bare reality? It's the bedrock that everything is built on.

I love The Emperor's New Clothes. It's the best allegory for the stupidity and/or cowardice of followers and the corruption of power in the hands of absurd people. The King should be flogged until his naked flesh is bright red.

The Unnamable

12-19-2005, 04:20 PM

What's wrong with bare reality? It's the bedrock that everything is built on.
I didn't say there was anything wrong with it - it's just that,
"Humankind cannot bear very much reality." TS Eliot

“They all want to escape from the pain of being alive. And most of all, from love…It’s no good trying to fool yourself about love. You can’t fall into it like a soft job, without dirtying up your hands…It takes muscle and guts. And if you can’t bear the thought…of messing up your nice, clean, soul, you’d better give up the whole idea of life, and become a saint. Because you’ll never make it as a human being.” Jimmy Porter – Look Back In Anger

starrwriter

12-19-2005, 07:18 PM

I didn't say there was anything wrong with it - it's just that, "Humankind cannot bear very much reality." TS Eliot
Granted, but most of mankind can't bear much sanity, either. That doesn't make me want to join them and believe in ghosts, revealed religion, UFO abductions and so forth.

“They all want to escape from the pain of being alive. And most of all, from love…It’s no good trying to fool yourself about love. You can’t fall into it like a soft job, without dirtying up your hands…It takes muscle and guts. And if you can’t bear the thought…of messing up your nice, clean, soul, you’d better give up the whole idea of life, and become a saint. Because you’ll never make it as a human being.” Jimmy Porter – Look Back In Anger
Many years ago a British friend ridiculed Porter as "an angry young thing" and now I see what he meant. The pain of being alive? Gimme a break. Porter sounds like a raw nerve masquerading as a whole man -- and a melodramatic nerve to boot.

The Unnamable

12-20-2005, 02:19 AM

Perhaps if you try to read without the assumption that the other person is a witless cretin, you will be able to follow what is actually being said. My original post was obviously meant to be provocative (all things being relative – this is only an Internet forum, after all). It doesn’t require great intelligence to notice the tone of my comment. The king might be vain and stupid but it is the vanity and stupidity of the masses that enable stupidity to thrive. You appear to have grasped this with the second part of your first comment. The point I was making, however, is that most people would rather be ignorant and happy than aware and miserable.

Your initial response made little sense to me but I answered anyway in the hope that someone somewhere would share my mild frustration and smile along.

Your second post begins in a similarly irrelevant manner. Who said anything about “ghosts, revealed religion, UFO abductions and so forth”? Are you unable to follow an argument with more than one clause? Perhaps your incorrect assumptions are an indication of the level of debate with which you feel most comfortable.

Your comment on John Osborne (not as well known around here, no doubt, as your eloquent self) is simply ignorant. Authoritative though your cited source of an anonymous friend’s impressively informed opinion is, it doesn’t beat actually knowing the play. Take whatever break you want, for some people simply being alive involves suffering and pain. It might come as a shock to you but your reality isn’t the only one there is on a planet of six billion. This accounts for your tag line and ‘Kicking back in Paradise’, I suppose. To be a genuine Paradise, there has to be a serpent. I can see that the world of Literature isn’t wasted on you.

starrwriter

12-20-2005, 02:43 AM

Perhaps if you try to read without the assumption that the other person is a witless cretin, you will be able to follow what is actually being said. [And then much more self-righteous blathering.]
Feel better now? Sorry if I disturbed your peace of mind by stating my opinion.

The Unnamable

12-20-2005, 04:02 PM

Feel better now? Sorry if I disturbed your peace of mind by stating my opinion.

Your opinion is welcome – but I’d prefer an informed one demonstrating at least a degree of insight, especially when it’s an opinion that derides a work you’ve not read.
Don’t get upset – there are millions like you and there is always safety in numbers. I notice you didn’t actually address what I’d said. It’s much easier to dismiss it as ‘self-righteous blathering’. As Gore Vidal once said, “People hate me because I express myself in complete sentences.”

starrwriter

12-20-2005, 04:07 PM

Your opinion is welcome – but I’d prefer an informed one demonstrating at least a degree of insight, especially when it’s an opinion that derides a work you’ve not read. Don’t get upset – there are millions like you and there is always safety in numbers. I notice you didn’t actually address what I’d said. It’s much easier to dismiss it as ‘self-righteous blathering’. As Gore Vidal once said, “People hate me because I express myself in complete sentences.”
I feel properly chastized.
Yawn

The Unnamable

12-20-2005, 04:11 PM

I feel properly chastized.
Yawn
Do you read a lot of Oscar Wilde?

starrwriter

12-20-2005, 04:43 PM

Do you read a lot of Oscar Wilde?
No, not a lot. I think I've only read his novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and glanced through his play "The Importance of Being Earnest." Why? Did you think I was trying to emulate his sense of humor? I like the wit of Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker as much if not more.

Scheherazade

12-20-2005, 08:17 PM

So my question is, do we actually think any more? Do we need to? Isn’t everything laid on for us? More importantly, should we shout out, thus spoiling everyone’s day, “The King is in the altogether!” or just shut up and get on with our ersatz reality? Are the villains of the story the stupid people who fall for the con or those who pop the bubble of delusion and leave us with bare reality?I am not sure if I wouldn't be duped by what dupes the masses; I won't claim that I do/can think more/better than the average Joe. However, if I notice anything, I am more likely to speak up (unless it is something really harmless). Sometimes the boat does need to be rocked; we cannot say 'it will be good while it lasts'.

I love Look Back in Anger by Osborne. Even though I haven't been lucky enough to see it on stage, I studied it at university. Jimmy is an aching character, desperate to be 'alive' however he doesn't have a clue how to go about it and how to handle it either.

Starr, it is a pretty short book; you might like to give it a try before passing a such strong judgement about it.

The Unnamable

12-21-2005, 04:55 AM

Jimmy is an aching character, desperate to be 'alive' however he doesn't have a clue how to go about it and how to handle it either.

I can see that I am wasting my time on this forum. Too many people have too many easy answers to life’s complex problems. I’m glad the authors represented on here didn’t have the same simplistic, self-satisfied approach to the questions, ‘Who are we are?’, ‘Where do we come from?’, ‘Where are we going?’ and ‘What does it all mean?’. Had they done so, we would have no Literature. Don’t you detect even the slightest lack of humility in your assumption that you know better than Jimmy, Hamlet, Raskolnikov, etc.? Jimmy Porter might be his own worst enemy but to say that he “he doesn't have a clue how to go about it and how to handle it either” shows me that you have little idea of why he is angry. Perhaps he sees more than you do? Some people can live their uncomplicated lives in straight lines but that’s no excuse to assume superiority over those for whom the route is a good deal more circuitous. No doubt, even Hamlet would have been okay had he had you counselling him, telling him where he was going wrong.

starrwriter

12-21-2005, 01:59 PM

I can see that I am wasting my time on this forum.
'Bye. We'll miss you.

The Unnamable

12-21-2005, 02:06 PM

'Bye. We'll miss you.

"Come, leave your tears: a brief farewell: the beast
With many heads butts me away."

Coriolanus Act IV scene i

Schoolmeister

12-21-2005, 02:54 PM

I would encourage you, M. Unnamable, to stay. I for one, and maybe the only one, appreciate your contribution to this site. Please sir, grant your humble servant this request: follow your own signatory rejoinder and go on.

Scheherazade

12-21-2005, 03:04 PM

I can see that I am wasting my time on this forum. Too many people have too many easy answers to life’s complex problems. I’m glad the authors represented on here didn’t have the same simplistic, self-satisfied approach to the questions, ‘Who are we are?’, ‘Where do we come from?’, ‘Where are we going?’ and ‘What does it all mean?’. Had they done so, we would have no Literature. Don’t you detect even the slightest lack of humility in your assumption that you know better than Jimmy, Hamlet, Raskolnikov, etc.? Jimmy Porter might be his own worst enemy but to say that he “he doesn't have a clue how to go about it and how to handle it either” shows me that you have little idea of why he is angry. Perhaps he sees more than you do? Some people can live their uncomplicated lives in straight lines but that’s no excuse to assume superiority over those for whom the route is a good deal more circuitous. No doubt, even Hamlet would have been okay had he had you counselling him, telling him where he was going wrong.The Unnamable,

We all interpret things differently and that is the beauty of literary works; the same piece speaks differently to each and everyone of us. You may not agree with my reaction to Jimmy as a character but that does not make it any less valid than your own interpretation, which we are yet to hear since so far you have merely opted for negating others' views, without offering any specific reasons (apart from the fact that they are not same as yours apparently) or alternatives. Please do feel free to share your opinions as well; you might be pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction you get from our members.

As for me feeling humility... To be honest, I don't and I am not sure why I should. Am I to assume that those characters are somehow superior, know better or wiser than us simply because they are on the written pages, products of some -no doubt- great authors? We all live in our own hell. I think my life offers enough tragedy to me and from your hostile style I can deduce that yours offers to you as well. The reason we feel compelled to read these literary works is that we find a little of ourselves in them; witness our own miseries and the challenges we face. And I think the works which are able to speak to the greatest number of readers become popular and classics.

The Unnamable

12-21-2005, 03:52 PM

Am I to assume that those characters are somehow superior, know better or wiser than us simply because they are on the written pages, products of some -no doubt- great authors?

No, not simply because of this and I don’t know where I suggested that. But will you allow me to continue in my belief that I can learn more from John Osborne’s depiction of Jimmy than I can from your own observations? Is it okay if I consider Shakespeare as more worthy of my attention than Stephen King?
Are all interpretations equally valid? Would you accept or censure a view of ‘Othello’ that says that it promotes racism and that this is a good thing? Is there no such thing as an informed opinion? To whom do you go when you feel ill (assuming superheroes ever fall ill)? I tend to visit a qualified medical practitioner because he or she has studied for many years at university to acquire a knowledge I do not have.

You have given a sense of what Literature is for you, so I’ll tell you what it is for me:

“ The notion of cosmic solitude …to a great majority among us, unbearable. We crave a witness, even fiercely judgemental, to our small dirt. In sickness, in psychological or material terror, when our children lie dead before our eyes, we cry out. That such a cry resounds in nothingness, that it is a perfectly natural, even therapeutic, reflex but nothing more, is almost impossible to endure.”
George Steiner

Literature is one way of having a witness to our small dirt.

As for more positive posts – take a look at [I]all of my contributions so far, not just the ones that challenge criticisms of particular texts.

And as for Jimmy - as Helena says, he "was born out of his time".

The problem of Jimmy’s relationship with his past is evident from the play’s title and central to his character. He born into the working class, but educated out of it. He is displaced, dispossessed of an identity by his education. His education has increased his awareness and left him without certainty. He no longer knows where he belongs in society, caught up in a present that is unbearable, between a past from which he cannot escape and a future he cannot accept.

He feels purposeless, stifled, bored (atmosphere of the play’s opening). The memories of an idealised past and the awareness of the injustices of the present release his energies and he seeks any outlet – hatred, conflict, invective etc. He lashes out at whatever or whoever is near. The present offers him no ideals that can replace his idealised vision of the past.

If, in the restlessness of the present, there is no route for Jimmy back to his past, then one possible alternative is the world of the middle/upper classes represented by Alison’s family and Helena – But there is no refuge to be gained here either – all it can produce is enemies and foils for his incisive and witty invective.

Why no refuge?
-betrayal (of his class and past)
-half-truths (like Helena’s)

Helena (her strength is her hypocrisy – she unquestioningly accepts the moral ideals of her religion). Her values are strongly enough internalised for her to be secure in her affected and self-indulgent belief that she deserves better. She falls back on conventional beliefs. Look at p. 93, 94, 95.

Helena refuses to join Jimmy in his despair and retreats to a diluted world, diminished.

And I think the works which are able to speak to the greatest number of readers become popular and classics.

It might be worth trying the Marxist criticism of Terry Eagleton for an alternative explanation of the process by which texts become endowed with the label ‘classic’.

The Unnamable

12-21-2005, 03:54 PM

RobinHood3000

12-21-2005, 04:06 PM

The Unnamable

12-21-2005, 04:18 PM

Just came into this thread, and found the debate interesting. From this perspective, it appears that the only opinions deemed by The Unnamable to be "informed" are those that concur with his (hers?).

May I ask what is wrong with simplicity in explanation? A handful of ellipses was closer to fact than dozens of circles in describing the orbits of the planets--why cannot complex problems be explained in elegantly simple posits and propositions?

Think whatever you wish - but for a debate to be interesting, it's vital that you do think.

PS Simplicity and simplification are not the same. Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience exude simplicity but not because he is simplifying human experience. Some things can't be simplified without falsifying them. When asked to explain a difficult piece, Schumann sat down and played it again.

Schoolmeister

12-21-2005, 05:10 PM

My indomitable M. Unnamable, bravo sir! I again salute you on your acerbic, although appropriate, rejoinders and your witty reparte. And they can only unsay you if they ascribe to postmodernist leanings, and I can be fairly assured based upon their conduct thus far, that they are far from those shores which might save them in their ignorance. Construct on, sir, your reality!

ho'nehe

12-22-2005, 10:39 PM

Hello there to The Unnamable One, Welcome. I have been away for a while and missed the exciement but must echo Schoolmeister's plea for you to stay; you make excellent reading :)

The Unnamable

12-25-2005, 02:13 PM

Hello there to The Unnamable One, Welcome. I have been away for a while and missed the exciement but must echo Schoolmeister's plea for you to stay; you make excellent reading :)

Thank you. I’ll try my best but it won’t be easy with the level of disapproval aimed in my direction, mainly I believe, for talking sense. 'Excellent reading' is not that popular in some places. ;) I wouldn’t mind but as soon as I respond to comments like the one above by Robin, I'm admonished. The first two lines added nothing to the debate and were simply a criticism of me (isn’t it strange that some personal attacks don’t activate the custodians of moral decency?). Obviously, I don’t feel victimised but I do miss fairness.

To return to the original question with which I began the topic, which seems somehow more pertinent now; is it more laudable to point out the illusions by which we all live, thus making everyone unhappy, or shut up and let our heads be filled with the incessant din of the mundane as we watch everyone else smile inanely?

starrwriter

12-25-2005, 02:21 PM

...is it more laudable to point out the illusions by which we all live, thus making everyone unhappy, or shut up and let our heads be filled with the incessant din of the mundane as we watch everyone else smile inanely?
Someone found a lump of coal in his stocking this Christmas morn.

Don't try to carry the woes of the world on your shoulders. It will only make YOU unhappy. Modern life is absurd. Deal with it or else.

The Unnamable

12-25-2005, 08:09 PM

Modern life is absurd. Deal with it or else.

Is that a threat? ;)

starrwriter

12-25-2005, 08:18 PM

Is that a threat? ;)
Existence is a threat. :brickwall

samercury

12-25-2005, 08:34 PM

To return to the original question with which I began the topic, which seems somehow more pertinent now; is it more laudable to point out the illusions by which we all live, thus making everyone unhappy, or shut up and let our heads be filled with the incessant din of the mundane as we watch everyone else smile inanely?

It takes a lot of courage to be able to go to the "emperor" and tell him that he's not wearing anything especially since he would rather go on living in a dream land in which he's wearing the most beautiful clothes in the universe.
Pointing out the illusions is ...it's like when your parents promise to take you on a vacation- you keep on dreaming about it and being all excited and suddenly your older brother tells you that it's never going to happen because of money trouble....at the time you scream and yell and hide away but afterwards, you can move on...
The problem is not really the telling what's wrong with a dream world, it's the response that you get when everyone's angry and sad and can't believe that their world is turned upside down...because then, there's no telling what might happen...

The Unnamable

12-26-2005, 07:58 AM

samercury,
Yes, I’ve noticed that. But I think it’s more because such people know precisely what might happen.

samercury

12-26-2005, 04:18 PM

:brickwall.....

rachel

12-28-2005, 06:19 PM

I have taken the time to go thru Unnamable's posts. I think he is a very thoughtful complex person with a great gift of observation.He paints his picture's differently than many on this forum, disturbing and dark mingled with peaceful sand colors and I find his words awesome.
I have learned much from what he has 'spoken' and because of him I have begun to think more deeply about things.
Like that young lady I am still a completely committed Messianic Judaic Christian, only more so and more convinced of what and why I believe what I do.
It is people like him that are water troublers, not trouble makers who occasionally rock one's world and cause their eyes to be truly opened and see for the very first time some things of great import.
I would be grieved if you left this forum.
I think even Starr would learn from you. And he has truly been around this world and seen many things I have not been priveleged to see. But you even from the vantage point of your desk have seen just as much, maybe even more.

starrwriter

12-28-2005, 11:03 PM

I think even Starr would learn from you.
You know me better than that. I only learn from my own personal experience.

How was your Christmas?

ho'nehe

12-29-2005, 12:08 AM

Someone found a lump of coal in his stocking this Christmas morn.

Don't try to carry the woes of the world on your shoulders. It will only make YOU unhappy. Modern life is absurd. Deal with it or else.

Starr.... you got a problem!!! Smile sometimes it might help :santasmil kiss (ok now, what gender am I?) haha

Unnamable one. I think life should be a meandering path between fantasy and reality; to dream and live the dream would be ideal, the best of both worlds. Sometimes we need to 'shut out' the drabness, the pains of reality.

How many times have you heard a woman say 'If he's unfaithful I don't want to know' He's here we're happy, If I knew I don't think I could bear it?
Is ignorance bliss or would a true friend have to tell her? On one hand she should know... Not sure what I would do in those circumstances but maybe that's a little extreme for The Unnamable's point? Maybe when you burst a bubble its all in the telling. Difficult one Unnamable, but worth pondering.

starrwriter

12-29-2005, 02:51 AM

Starr.... you got a problem!!! Smile sometimes it might help :santasmil kiss (ok now, what gender am I?)
Metrosexual?

rachel

12-29-2005, 05:17 PM

yes sigh I do know you better than that. Christmas was good, the street ministry quite sad and amusing. family problems at Christmas too right? but otherwise beautiful.
Starr, do you have your picture posted in the photo thing? I want to see you, if I am not being rude without your glasses please.
And if anyone is expert in working a digital camera, please help me. I have a new one, and because I am slightly dyslexic or whatever, don't remember what it was called and don't care, I am having a frightful time figuring it out. I want to get my picture posted too so I feel like fam.
my family are all into electronics(guitars, amps, all the stuff that adds to it and old fashioned photography.)
HELP!!!!

rachel

12-29-2005, 05:18 PM

starrwriter

12-29-2005, 06:26 PM

yes sigh I do know you better than that.
Poor Rachel. I'm putting her through so many changes trying to figure me out.

Starr, do you have your picture posted in the photo thing? I want to see you, if I am not being rude without your glasses please.
The only photo of me I have is posted in my profile. If you're curious about my eyes, they're brown and they glow in the dark like a cat's eyes.

And if anyone is expert in working a digital camera, please help me. I have a new one, and because I am slightly dyslexic or whatever, don't remember what it was called and don't care, I am having a frightful time figuring it out. I want to get my picture posted too so I feel like fam.my family are all into electronics(guitars, amps, all the stuff that adds to it and old fashioned photography.)HELP!!!!
I wish I could, but I've never used a digital camera. All my photography has been strictly optical (old-fashioned, as you call it.) I hope someone else can help you because I don't think I've seen a photo of you yet.

starrwriter

12-29-2005, 06:56 PM

oh Starr, something just struck me (no not a meteor or common sense) if you only learn from the things you have experienced you would have made THE MOST amazing pioneer in the old western frontier. What a story that would have been.
I WAS a pioneer in one of the last American frontiers -- the tropical rainforest of Hawaii. From where I built a house with my own two hands (no power tools), there were maybe 50 other people in the surrounding jungle of 100 square miles. We all roughed it -- no electricity or telephones, flash floods two or three times every year, growing our own food, raided by herds of wild pigs, gunplay between some residents, marijuana farmers, etc. The cops even called it the New Wild West. It was the most fun I ever had.

rachel

12-30-2005, 01:32 PM

so that wasn't just a made up story. i sort of thought you did those things. poor little piggies,but the rest sounds wonderful. I wish I would have known you then, I could have come over perhaps with my guard dog , gun and mace for a cup of tea and literary discussions. Oh yes and brought Robinhood(if he is old enough) andVirgil and of course Scher. What a lot of fun that would have been watching you and she interact and my dog interact and of course tutu would have been there cooking and yelling at us all.
paradise indeed

Virgil

12-30-2005, 01:36 PM

RobinHood3000

12-30-2005, 01:46 PM

Count me in, milady!

starrwriter

12-30-2005, 04:03 PM

Count me in, milady!
You wouldn't have lasted a day in the jungle. As soon as you started the Robin Hood stuff, my bush rat friends would have tied you naked to a tree and left you for the mosquitos to devour. And then held a party to celebrate.

starrwriter

12-30-2005, 04:12 PM

so that wasn't just a made up story. i sort of thought you did those things. poor little piggies, but the rest sounds wonderful.
Poor little piggies? I can tell you have never encountered a wild boar in the bush. They have sharp tusks that can rip arteries when they charge. The instant they see a human they grind their teeth in anger and quill-like black hair stands up on their back. Mean animals with a face so horribly ugly only a mother pig could love them.

RobinHood3000

12-30-2005, 04:31 PM

You wouldn't have lasted a day in the jungle. As soon as you started the Robin Hood stuff, my bush rat friends would have tied you naked to a tree and left you for the mosquitos to devour. And then held a party to celebrate.
I ain't saying I'll survive, just that it'd be a thrill.

Scheherazade

12-30-2005, 05:20 PM

The instant they see a human they grind their teeth in anger and quill-like black hair stands up on their back. Mean animals with a face so horribly ugly only a mother pig could love them.Hmm...

This description sounds familiar... but I can't put my finger on it!

:p

starrwriter

12-30-2005, 05:29 PM

Hmm...This description sounds familiar... but I can't put my finger on it!
Old Chinese saying: If you fight with dragons, the danger is becoming a dragon yourself. Remember that, Scher.

Weeping Willow

12-30-2005, 05:52 PM

Poor little piggies? I can tell you have never encountered a wild boar in the bush. They have sharp tusks that can rip arteries when they charge. The instant they see a human they grind their teeth in anger and quill-like black hair stands up on their back. Mean animals with a face so horribly ugly only a mother pig could love them.

I'll have to agree.. wild boars are a scary thing!
When i served in the army i got to guard in a base that was in the middle of a field.
You don't know how it is to be in a guard tower at night and see shadows of "little tanks" just roaming free at the base of your tower.. brrr...
I'm glad i only stayed ther for a month!.

ho'nehe

12-30-2005, 05:54 PM

Wonder what this thread was all about????

Scheherazade

12-30-2005, 06:33 PM

Old Chinese saying: If you fight with dragons, the danger is becoming a dragon yourself. Remember that, Scher.Oh, I will remember that.

I also remember that you are half a wolf. Now we know what the other half is!

:p

rachel

12-30-2005, 07:35 PM

you are most definitely in M'Lord. What do you mean by bush rats, humans or what? and what is with you and your always talking about being naked. Is there no dignity whatsoever in Hawaii or what? Is everyone like you (please say no to the gross behaviour anyway, yes to your being loveable.)
And yes I have seen a wild boar and yes they have their limitations in the beauty department. But that does not mean that being less than beautiful takes away their right to live unhindered by strange gentlemen. How would you like to be accosted on the street and have a bunch of huge unfriendly Samoans decide you were too ugly to live and tied you to a tree yadayadayada...
Honestly Starr I know you had a mama and I am sure she taught you some manners. You do know how to say that word don't you. wait, perhaps that is a rather big word for you. M a n n e r s , go ahead give it a try.
And as for my not lasting a day in the jungle one never knows. And since you don't know about the types of jungles I have encountered you have no idea what I can do in a pinch.
Starr,,, I still like you. you great big shy dear who won't take off his sunglasses and show us his beautiful eyes that glow in the dark. Beware of Robin STarr, he can wisk those shades off you in one shot. And leave you still alive and unmaimed.

rachel

12-30-2005, 08:35 PM

those particular Chinese that said that were slightly tipsy from too much opium tea.
And besides our dear Scher fears no dragon, they flee from her. Just one look from her makes their armour tremble so there is no worries about her hanging about with them.
When she is in a great mood though or so I hear Scher whispers jokes in their slimey ears about Starr before sending them away and you can feel the earth shake miles away as they roar with laughter.

Scheherazade

12-30-2005, 08:46 PM

And besides our dear Scher fears no dragon, they flee from her. Just one look from her makes their armour tremble so there is no worries about her hanging about with them.
Actually, when they take a look at me, they turn to stone... You know, the Medusa effect...

Virgil

12-30-2005, 09:41 PM

This is beginnig to sound like a Survivor episode.

RobinHood3000

12-31-2005, 07:39 AM

Sure, I could shoot those shades off and leave him unharmed. Whether or not I'd want to leave him unharmed is another matter entirely.

rachel

12-31-2005, 10:46 AM

You are very funny M'Lord for a gentleman of .....now what did you say?
Starr I am becoming impatient with your ug cave man mentality and I am thinking it is time you stepped into Sherwood Forest in the clearing and have a duel, man to man with M'Lord who will whomp you and teach you some lessons about the real world with real people and how to get on in it. Perhaps a week upside down in one of Robin's traps will bring the blood flow back to normal in your oxygen starved brain and we shall see emerge a new and wonderful gentleman. the emphasis on gentle-meaning respectful and clean of mouth and manner.what say you sir sheriff of Honalulu?

starrwriter

12-31-2005, 02:20 PM

This is beginnig to sound like a Survivor episode.
Never wander into a henhouse, Virgil. The female birds will try to peck you to death.

starrwriter

12-31-2005, 02:35 PM

What do you mean by bush rats, humans or what? and what is with you and your always talking about being naked. Is there no dignity whatsoever in Hawaii or what? Is everyone like you (please say no to the gross behaviour anyway...)
Bush rats are people who live in remote rainforests. Brace yourself, Rachel: native Hawaiians WENT NAKED before the islands were Puritanized by missionaries. What you call dignity exists in Hawaii, but not on the same scale as the Mainland. And nobody is like me because I'm unique.

And yes I have seen a wild boar and yes they have their limitations in the beauty department. But that does not mean that being less than beautiful takes away their right to live unhindered by strange gentlemen. How would you like to be accosted on the street and have a bunch of huge unfriendly Samoans decide you were too ugly to live ...
That has already happened, which is why I don't like Samoans. And I didn't hinder wild pigs, they hindered me by destroying my vegetable garden, eating the fruit I was growing and rooting up my property. They were lucky I didn't torture them before I shot them.

Honestly Starr I know you had a mama and I am sure she taught you some manners.
Fortunately, I left home when I was 17 and got out from under her influence. Life has been a par-tay ever since.

RobinHood3000

12-31-2005, 02:43 PM

And nobody is like me because I'm unique.
Thank goodness--we can barely tolerate one of you :lol: :p.

rachel

01-01-2006, 02:02 AM

hahahahahahah. you probably broke your mother's heart. Do you really think you are unique, in what way dear Starr are you unique? You make yourself sound like any guy from any episode of Magnum P.I.
It is true Samoans can be scarey, especially the ladies.

starrwriter

01-01-2006, 04:32 PM

You make yourself sound like any guy from any episode of Magnum P.I.
I WAS Magnum PI for a few years. I lived in the guest house at a Maui estate belonging to a California millionaire who was seldom around. I drove his expensive foreign vehicle. I put up with the grouchy estate manager who didn't want me there. Although I wasn't a private investigator, I was writing investigative journalism articles at the time. My drinking buddy was a former Green Beret colonel who served 3 tours in the Vietnam war. And I once had 3 girlfriends at the same time (I juggled them so they didn't know about each other.) And it all happened a couple years BEFORE Magnum PI first appeared on TV. I wondered if the script writers had spied on my life to come up with the series idea.

rachel

01-01-2006, 11:14 PM

that wouldn't be so far fetched. tv script writers just might have noticed you around and got some ideas. ideas have to come from someone.
I never understood who Higgins really was and what all that was about. I know I am probably showing how stupid I can be but could you tell me if you know please.
thank you.

starrwriter

01-01-2006, 11:32 PM

I never understood who Higgins really was and what all that was about. I know I am probably showing how stupid I can be but could you tell me if you know please.
Higgins was the business/estate manager of the reclusive mystery writer Robin Masters, who was never seen but heard on rare occasions (voiced over by Orson Welles.) Magnum had a sneaking suspicion that Higgins actually was Masters and hid his identity because he was ashamed of making money from potboiler books, but this question was never settled on the show.

The estate manager where I lived was just an old jerk. He once complained that local people used to work on the estate for free, but then he had to start paying them. He was as bad as Sam Pryor, the co-founder of Trans World Airlines, who lived nearby with a pet monkey and nearly had a stroke every time he had to part with a dollar.