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By patterjack
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16 February 2008 |
Against good advice I am posting this .
Poetry it is NOT .
A true script it is NOT. However it is perhaps closest to a script.
Pinter? not quite, except for the long silences .
Think Ionesco The Lesson and a psychiatric interview I once read back in 1946 where the subject of the interview repeated incessantly the words keysandlocks
I hope that there is a poem that will come out of the title -- but it has not matured as yet
Nostalgie de la Boue
Jottings from a notebook
Asked. Are you contented?
Answer. NO !
Asked. You speak emphatically .
Do you feel you can dismiss
All that surrounds you , status , family , wealth ?
Shrugs ; looks away; stares at the painting on the wall.
Pause
6 minutes later
Shakes head and says (softer)
No.
Asked. Can you say why you feel this discontent ?
Looks at floor.
Begins to hum .
2 minutes later
Changes to mumbled words. Unintelligible.
Louder.
Whitewhitewhite white white white whitewhitewhite white.
Asked Does the colour white upset you?
Continues Bloodandmud bloodandmud
Pause
Wallowswallow wallowswallow
Pause
white bloodmud white bloodmud
Pause
must trust must trust must trust
Pause
must trust thrust
Screams
THRUST
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Written by Fledermaus (3160 comments posted) 16th February 2008 | | Wow, those guys that built the first Eliza program must have had a good idea of what psychiatrists talk like. It seems yours asks exactly the sort of questions she/it does. Unfortunately the patient isn't cooperating... |
Written by Bottleblondesurfer (3185 comments posted) 18th February 2008 | Reading this again I changed my mind about the time; I, first assumed about 1800s but now I think it is more current. This raises so many more possibilities and areas of relevance. In fact, thinking about it, there are a few contemporary references to the theme of the envy of the primitive. Your exchange reminded me of a film I once saw called’ the Shout’ - where a psychiatrist was questioning a patient in an asylum. The patient was a genius but had chosen to live with the aborigines, as I remember [it was over 20 years ago] and claimed to have learnt the art of killing by shouting.. He continued to live the native life in England and was considered mad. His answers varied between the clever and wild incoherent frustration.
I don’t know the references that you mentioned, so I thought I’d mention mine. I think the theme was touched upon in Equus, too. I think it is an idea that lurks in the mind of people, especially as we are becoming less and less connected with nature and the real world., preferring the “virtual” one.
I like the idea that he can only explain himself in repetitive chants, in a way in makes perfect sense.
I, without the benefit of your given references, see it as the clash of the cerebral world of psychiatry, seeking order and reason; and the primitive, wild unfettered world of the Steppenwolf that lurks in the back of all our minds which is why we have that nostalgia for the mud.
Anyway a very thought provoking piece [even if the thoughts haven’t been very coherent, for which I apologise
| Well done BBS
Written by patterjack (1096 comments posted) 19th February 2008 | I have seen The Shout and i must admit , I gave it a mixed reception. Maybe the aborigine references put me off.
I had not thought of Equus but certainly Forty-three beans in every cup strikes a relevant note.
Pinter's silences are notorious , especially in his short sketches .
Thanks for a thoughtful , and for me a thought provoking , review
patterjack | Absurd
Written by coosh (822 comments posted) 20th February 2008 | I had wondered from your intro as to whether one of them would become increasingly irate and simply murder the other - the only way to provide the seemingly ultimate answer, before, of course, an identical interviewee is wheeled in... ad infinitum, since the expression of one character lies almost beyond words.
This captures that Ionesco-ish distrust of communication and conformity very succinctly, and the sense perhaps that each perceives the other to be equally ignorant - about the only thing they could find in common. "Mud" certainly suggests "basic" and "lack of clarity" - although if your were a French sanitary engineer, it would be "Sludge Nostalgia" - an album title Zappa never used.
Your piece brought back memories of student days, patterjack. An interesting nostalgia trip. | Keeps my faith ...
Written by patterjack (1096 comments posted) 20th February 2008 | | ...high in the perceptivity of some GW writers . I mke no clims or the quality of this piece as I seriously don't like it myself | Damn
Written by patterjack (1096 comments posted) 20th February 2008 | I wrote the above at 3.49 a.m. and hit a wrong button !
I am also wearing the wrong glasses !
Hence typos and a lack of individual acknowledgement to you Coosh,
The reviews , here and in emails , have told me more about what I meant than I had realised for myself
That has to be a good thing
patterjack |
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