Funmurphys: the Blog

Dark Watchman Vs. The Architect of Fear

Is this the day? Is this the beginning of the end? There is no time to wonder. No time to ask why is it happening, why is it finally happening. There is time only for fear, for the piercing pain of panic. Do we pray? Or do we merely run now and pray later? Will there be a later? Or is this the day?

This is the opening narration for the original Outer Limits episode "The Architects of Fear" where a group of scientists fake an alien invasion in an attempt to forestall escalating international tensions and a potential nuclear holocaust. We took in the Dark Knight over the weekend and this quote could have opened the third act of the film where the Joker is threatening the Gotham City with widespread destruction.

The Dark Knight is a dark film about a city fighting a terrorist. it's one of the grimmest movies I have seen in a while. It's not as downbeat as "Seconds" but certainly the "Empire Strikes Back" may be the last mass market film to end on so low a note. It's very well done but definitely a movie with adult themes.

Heath Ledger's performance is chilling. His Joker reminded me of Lewis Black on a rant (who they should consider now that this will be Ledger's last role). It becomes clear that the Joker is truly an agent of chaos, his real goal is for the citizens of Gotham City to lose their faith in orderly society ("the hidden conspiracy of goodwill") and descend into anomie. I viewed It as a cautionary tale for any free society fighting terrorism.

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
Freidrich Nietzsche Aphorism 146

Batman is challenged to drop his own code of ethics and use whatever means necessary. But in spite of horrific provocation is able to follow his internal compass.

"Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Juvenal

Which is normally translated as "But who will guard the guardians?" and Alan Moore interpreted as "Who Watches the Watchmen?" (more on that in a moment). To locate the Joker Batman engages in a massive invasion of privacy, but does so in a way that he has no personal control over the information gathered or the mechanism he created, allowing it to be destroyed when it's no longer needed. This is in the face of a villain who is killing any government official who tries to stand against him, and for good measure follows through on his threat to blow up a hospital.

Although I said it was a dark film about adult themes the boys both enjoyed it and we had a long discussion about civil liberty, and the difference between the police, the National Guard, and the Army. And the difference between the way that a free society fights criminals, affording them protection under the law, and enemy combatants who are committed to the destruction of a society.

"The mature man lives quietly, does good privately, takes responsibility for his actions, treats others with friendliness and courtesy, finds mischief boring and avoids it. Without the hidden conspiracy of goodwill, society would not endure an hour."
Kenneth Rexroth in the "Introduction to Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You"

Ultimately, when confronted with the challenge to kill complete strangers or be killed themselves, Gotham's citizens--even its criminals--refrain.

The previews included the new Watchmen movie, which looked outstanding. If you haven't read the comic graphic novel, it's an extremely dense and intricately plotted exploration justice, vigilantism, and what it means to be a hero. My personal preference would have been for a 12 episode miniseries, with each episode an hour to 90 minutes long to do Watchmen justice, but that's probably harder to fund and monetize and it's taken more than two decades to bring it to the screen as is. It will probably get redone in 30 years as a hypertext movie to do it justice.

Alan Moore was apparently not aware of the Outer Limits episode "Architects of Fear" when he wrote Watchmen, but became aware of it as he and Dave Gibbons were collaborating on it, inserting a reference to it in the last issue.

We watched the the "Architects of Fear" again tonight, and I was surprised and how scary it was and how poignant the concluding narration remains:

Scarecrows and magic and other fatal fears do not bring people closer together. There is no magic substitute for soft caring and hard work, for self-respect and mutual love. If we can learn this from the mistake these frightened men made, then their mistake will not have been merely grotesque, it would at least have been a lesson. A lesson, at last, to be learned.

Some Days I Miss St. Louis

Or perhaps it's just my childhood.

"If we hadn't our bewitching autumn foliage, we should still have to credit the weather with one feature which compensates for all its bullying vagaries - the ice-storm: when a leafless tree is clothed with ice from the bottom to the top - ice that is as bright and clear as crystal; when every bough and twig is strung with ice-beads, frozen dew-drops, and the whole tree sparkles cold and white, like the Shah of Persia's diamond plume. Then the wind waves the branches and the sun comes out and turns all those myriads of beads and drops to prisms that glow and burn and flash with all manner of colored fires, which change and change again with inconceivable rapidity from blue to red, from red to green, and green to gold-the tree becomes a spraying fountain, a very explosion of dazzling jewels; and it stands there the acme, the climax, the supremest possibility in art or nature, of bewildering, intoxicating, intolerable magnificence. One cannot make the words too strong." Mark Twain

I miss the change of seasons, not just the alternation of hot and wet but four seasons. I miss ice storms and the power going out. Now of course I would be responsible. But as a boy it was my parents' problem and changes in routine--no school!--were welcome.

"The true object of all human life is play. Life is a task garden, heaven is a playground." G. K. Chesterton

Potpourri for $100

When did 'nuts' become an unprintable and unspeakable word? Gen. Anthony McAuliffe used the word to great effect during the Battle of the Bulge and nobody bats an eye at it. Jesse Jackson uses the word and all those bastions of anti-censorship and forward thinking like the NYT all of a sudden can't bring themselves to print the word. And if you haven't seen the film - it's great theatre as Jesse leans in and whispers to his co-panelist and even includes the hand gestures of sawing the coconuts off (apparently they take some effort to remove).

Mark Wadsorth on the difference between left and right wing dictatorships: the recovery from them. Via My buddy in hell, Tom McMahon.

What explains the difference in reaction to the deaths of Tim Russert and Tony Snow? Both were caring people at the top of their profession. Both were involved in politics as well as journalism. Yes, that was a hint.

So Democratic politicians assure me on the one hand it takes a minimum of 10 years to drill a hole in the ground and get oil out of it, and on the other keep bitching about what is taking so long in Iraq. Last time I checked, removing a dictator, and then fighting against a terrorist organization (al Qaida), 2 groups of militias (Sunni and Shia), and a country (Iran) while trying to rebuild a country and create a civil society in country that has never known one is several orders of mangitude harder than drilling a hole.

By the Waters of Babylon

Thanks to Netflix we worked our way through the first season of "Mad Men" last week. I heartily recommend the series: it's well photographed and well acted and takes you back to the early 60's. Watching adults drink and (drink and drink and) drive--without seatbelts no less--or children playing "spaceman" with the (these are not a toy!) clear plastic dry cleaning bags reminds you of how much has changed in the last four decades or so.

One episode, entitled "Babylon" ends with a cover of Don Mclean's Babylon (but get the original) with it's moving lyrics from Psalm 137:

By the waters, the waters of Babylon.
We lay down and wept, and wept, for thee Zion.
We remember thee, remember thee, remember thee Zion.

YouTube has the segment here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4aAgvQelGI

As I was searching for more information on the song I came across Stephen Vincent Benet's mesmerizing short story "By The Waters of Babylon" that details a young man's journey to a ruined New York City, known to his people as "The Place of the Gods" (and the title of the story when originally published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1937). I had read it as a boy and was moved again re-reading this scene:

He was sitting in his chair, by the window, in a room I had not entered before and, for the first moment, I thought that he was alive. Then I saw the skin on the back of his hand--it was like dry leather. The room was shut, hot and dry--no doubt that had kept him as he was. At first I was afraid to approach him--then the fear left me. He was sitting looking out over the city--he was dressed in the clothes of the gods. His age was neither young nor old--I could not tell his age. But there was wisdom in his face and great sadness. You could see that he would have not run away. He had sat at his window, watching his city die--then he himself had died. But it is better to lose one's life than one's spirit--and you could see from the face that his spirit had not been lost. I knew, that, if I touched him, he would fall into dust--and yet, there was something unconquered in the face.

I'm A Mad Scientist - The Bulletin Says So

You may have noticed (and probably not cared) but I've been busy lately. Most recently I was asked to provide a science demonstration for the VBS wrap-up party at church (yes, we did Power Lab this year). I think it was because I was free. I mean, doesn't everyone have their own homebuilt trebuchet and hovercraft? I left my acetone behind which disappointed my son since we ran long (the kids loved the vortex generator) and didn't get to set anything on fire. He was forced to use denatured alcohol instead. Ah, the sacrifices we are forced to endure.

I got off to a rocky start when I was asked to announce seconds were available just as I was about to begin. I had gone over everything in my head but somehow making an announcement wasn't something I foresaw and it just put me off my opening patter. And then when the paper wouldn't stay lit in the bottle that I was trying to suck an egg into, the wheels really came off the wagon. When I did get the egg in, there was so much wet paper (note - don't let the wife wash out the bottle before sucking an egg into it) paper wrapped around it that it wouldn't come out by blowing back into the bottle - it wouldn't seal. I am glad I tried crushing soda cans at home before hand since all I was able to do was suck water up into them so I was spared the embarrassment of a demonstration that didn't work at all. Oh well, once I moved on from the egg everything else worked really well except my time management so people actually thanked me for a great show. If only they knew how well it had gone in my head before hand!

Note to anyone else asked to put on science experiments for kids under 10 - don't talk, just play the theme from Mission Impossible while performing the experiments. Children of that age don't listen to the explanations and you wind up not doing some things when you run long.

Is That Much Straw A Fire Hazard?

Tom Maguire is a joy to read, not just for his insight, but for his language as well. When I came across another instant classic of his I just had to check, and sure enough, he's the only one who shows up for the quip "Is that much straw a fire hazard?" - at least until this post does. And yes, the whole post is as good as the quip.

I think I'll start pushing the Liberal:Conservative as Woman:Man analogy after Tom documented how a liberal woman reading a conservative man's writing simply didn't understand him. At all. And neither Tom or I had any trouble understanding him.