King Lear

[poliphilo]

Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O! I have ta'en
Too little care of this.

(Act III, scene iv)

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's so like a Hollywood movie it's unreal.

I keep thinking of Escape from New York- where the post-apocalyptic city has been fenced round and abandoned to rival gangs.

Lee Marvin? That's either totally inspired or totally inappropriate- I can't decide which.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is a real event and that there are thousands of people out there suffering and dying.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Snake Plissken! Yes. I remember it well.

I may have told you about my dream about being a part of a great stream of refugees fleeing down a highway, how we were finally taken in at a set of buildings, and I was given a room with just a couple of pieces of unmatched furniture--a table, I think, for one--

That dream haunted me, and I'd revisit it from time to time and play with it--it's the theme of my life, somehow.

I also dreamed about a post-nuclear world in which the scenery was blasted and unfamiliar.

All this news is bringing back my dreams. When I was going through my difficult end-of-marriage, then later raising my children alone, I found myself fascinated with survivor stories from Nazi Germany. I would read book after book and pretend that I would somehow make a place for myself, a home, even there.

Now I see how that can't be done, really. One just sits on one's plastic bag and hopes for water, and finally ignores the sun.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

When I was a very small boy I had a fantasy about being the survivor- along with my best friend- of a monstrous tidal wave.

We would live on an island, surrounded by a shining sea. No corpses, no wreckage, no shortage of food and water. Everything would be wonderful forever and ever.