Saturday, March 28, 2009
Brown IS a Nightmare
I can't get Vince Cable's remark about Brown - 'Gordon Brown has become his own worst nightmare...' - out of my head. It's that 'nightmare'. We often talk about people being their own worst enemy, but nightmare is quite different. It suggests he's become unreal to himself, a grisly phantasm. Or, I suppose, 'living the nightmare' is just the opposite of that footballers' boast about 'living the dream', but that doesn't capture the full power of 'become'. Brown is not living the nightmare, he is the nightmare. Perhaps it happens to us all in the end. My own extremities have lately begun to seem rather spectral and troubling.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
You may well be right Bryan, our nightmares turning into reality with the onset of old age. Or possibly more accurately, we eventually realise what we are, the penny drops, for some the sheer awfulness of the truth..is that all there is.
ReplyDeleteGordon's awakening simply dawned earlier, he is the medium, suddenly the ectoplasm confronts him, poor chap, best he starts consuming in large doses the beverage sharing his name.
Talking of nightmares, drove past Sir Freds house yesterday, they've made a lovely job of the new windows.
That's a relief, Mystic
ReplyDeleteMalty, taking of nightmares you might be interested in this interview. Not that my German's up to much of it, but "Alles sehen, nichts begreifen" would seem part of the Broon experience.
ReplyDeleteSpot on Mark "everything to see, nothing to understand" often used by Richter, fits very well on Browns table.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, Firefox 3 has an ubersetzer context menu, although the translation is literal and often a hoot, the nub and brouhaha can often be gleaned.
Bryan, the King Jimmy is quite clear: And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off. Thy can always type with thine nose.
ReplyDeleteI am as one who hath look'd the glass and beheld the demon made flesh; I am become mine own worst nightmare, and there is no waking nor flight save to that other dreamless sleep in which all light and terrors too must perish.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare: Gordon Of Govan, A Tragedy Act 3 Scene 2, 33-35.