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Critical Analysis #2
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Aurelian
Member
since 2007-03-20
Posts 109
TX, USA

0 posted 2007-04-03 12:34 PM


Note: This one's supposed to go along with "The Valley of Mirrors" which I posted on the "Insights" forum by mistake. If someone could move it here, that would be greatly appreciated.

The liberator slides along the rotting arm
Freeing toe from foot and finger from hand
The egalitarian levels all pretense
Into a plebeian compost

The oppressed man before the Worm is dissolved down
And freed from the tyranny of fixed form
The patriot of the lowly shall make all one
One equal mound of rotted dust

Behold! The Worm – The lowly - The champion of
Total liberation

© Copyright 2007 Joshua R. Tindell - All Rights Reserved
Brad
Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705
Jejudo, South Korea
1 posted 2007-04-04 08:00 PM


Two points:

This idea of 'egalitarianism' has always hit me as a misreading of the nineteenth century socialists. They may have been misguided, but they weren't talking about that (the precise opposite as far as I can tell.)

At the same time, I think you rely too much on the 'worm' as a 'lowly' metaphor. I think this would be much more interesting if you showcased the positive aspects at the same time.


Aurelian
Member
since 2007-03-20
Posts 109
TX, USA
2 posted 2007-04-04 11:37 PM


Wasn't really meant to be just a critique of  socialism - I meant it as a critique of radical materialism - the idea that everything's value is only that of the lowest common denominator - humans are "merely" naked apes, apes are "merely" hooting cabbages, and cabbages are "merely" photosynthesizing rocks and so on. I feel that this radical "egalitarianism" of dust and ashes is the same sort of mindset that led the world's most educated and cultured nation into converting about six million of their fellow "naked apes" into ash. The last line "The Champion of Total Liberation" is  an actual transcript of a headline written in the New York Times many years ago referring to none other than the Marquis de Sade. I thought that if they could consider him a "champion" for his twisted philosophy of sade -ism - because it supposedly "freed" humankind from any restraint of humanity - then the ultimate liberator would be the worm who went even further and freed humans from the "constraints" of an intact body. My point being that such freedom is only the freedom of decay - what happens when a finger is "freed" from the body which nourishes it.
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