tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post1967032118824693015..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Ben Jonson: On some-thing, that walkes some-where ("It comes to life!")Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-62560084564424975552012-09-07T23:36:07.436-07:002012-09-07T23:36:07.436-07:00Oh Frankenstein oh Invisible Man
and then there...Oh Frankenstein oh Invisible Man<br />and then there's <br />The Mummy refusing<br />to be just any old freak.<br /><br />Buried alive for thousands of years<br />only to save up for the right time<br />to exact revenge <br />on innocent, unsuspecting<br />modern people<br /><br />emerging from the earth<br />is the earth so innocent so unsuspecting<br /><br />in slow motion<br />turning into a person<br />different yet the same.<br /><br />Mummy, sing me to sleep<br />wear your big ring <br />keep up with the times<br />help me win Publisher's Clearinghouse<br />or free Reader's Digests<br />just for fun. Just for kicks.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-85931361275685368902012-09-07T15:45:23.433-07:002012-09-07T15:45:23.433-07:00Brought back to life
to Live, Love, and Kill
after...Brought back to life<br />to Live, Love, and Kill<br />after 3700 years<br />at least there is a purpose<br />so ancient<br />all the rest so bland<br />like bandages, so cumbersome<br />my eyes do the work.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-56104994458747151152012-09-07T05:40:20.276-07:002012-09-07T05:40:20.276-07:00Is it deflating to suggest a personal experience a...Is it deflating to suggest a personal experience as derivation of the impulse to post something almost entirely unrelated here in the exalted sanctum of the Great Cyber Sarcophagus?<br /><br />Preparing the two posts preceding this one became the occasion for many curious memories of their author. One that continues to engage involves RC stalking across the windswept Bolinas mesa late one night and arriving at our door with head self-mummified in strips of aluminum foil. Clearly there is an Archetype at work in all this. In any case, that reminiscence led by the usual association pinball to thoughts of Ben's great self-impersonating bluffer's measurement of the stuffed-shirt lord at St James's. Sometimes the walking dead become more alive in one's aberrant cerebrum than the living dead awake and walking all about one.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-73896001718743345822012-09-06T23:16:10.167-07:002012-09-06T23:16:10.167-07:00I'm not gonna keep quiet on this one:
from &q...I'm not gonna keep quiet on this one:<br /><br />from "The Phrase Finder"-<br /><br />'Mum's the word' has become a popular name for baby product shops and nursery services, but the 'mum' in this phrase isn't mother. Nor has 'mum' anything to do with Egyptian mummies, despite their prolonged taciturn disposition. That 'mummy' derives from 'mum' being the name of the bitumen used for embalming. <br />The 'mum' of 'mum's the word' is 'mmm' - the humming sound made with a closed mouth, indicating an unwillingness or inability to speak. The word is of long standing in the language and first appeared in print in William Langland's Middle English narrative poem Piers Plowman, circa 1376:<br />Thou mightest beter meten the myst on Malverne hulles<br />Then geten a mom of heore mouth til moneye weore schewed!<br />That loosely translates as 'You may as well try to measure the mist on the Malvern Hills as to try and get her to speak without first offering payment'<br /><br />Hmmm.....<br />vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-32432889837550764732012-09-06T16:48:59.034-07:002012-09-06T16:48:59.034-07:00At work I met it, in clothes not enough,
To be a r...At work I met it, in clothes not enough,<br />To be a reader, and looks scruffy enough,<br />To seeme a reader: as neere it sang sputtering, swearing,<br />It made a long face, I knew the name.<br />A poet, it cryed, polished, true.<br />And such from which none return untouched,<br />For I knew some: and as many since,<br />For I promoted some. Wild Freak, please come alive.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-29710582502116149132012-09-06T15:56:57.623-07:002012-09-06T15:56:57.623-07:00I thought I saw a mummy
leave just now
trailing so...I thought I saw a mummy<br />leave just now<br />trailing some bandages<br />going some-where<br />it was <br />some-thing uncanny.<br />The mummy had a goal<br />it was to rule<br />its own coffin<br />without disturbance.<br />Material items<br />cast aside<br />as mummies tend<br />to do. Freedom<br />a sleepy idea<br />mumbling and groaning<br />for home but where Mummy?<br />Or you, playing a mummy<br />all wrapped up<br />sorting your<br />petrified poems<br />in the tomb<br />of the forgotten<br />place you remembered<br />before being all wrapped up.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-950286410948142722012-09-06T15:15:40.756-07:002012-09-06T15:15:40.756-07:00I unwrapped some-poems
and found
they had mummifie...I unwrapped some-poems<br />and found<br />they had mummified<br />before they walked <br />down the page<br />of the sacred blog<br />I mean bog<br /><br />where it was uncanny<br />how close to death<br />they actually were<br />up in front of the jury.<br /><br />They exhibited their royal<br />letters and meager punctuation<br />upon waking <br />looking for others<br /> victims<br /><br />who would usher them<br />back to the tomb<br />where they are at home<br />with their friends<br />at home amongst<br />ancient inscriptions<br />dusky light<br />golden offerings<br />all set out<br />for the afterlife.<br /><br />Do we shake hands<br />or just pose<br />for the photos?Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-89831767881073257152012-09-06T12:54:19.198-07:002012-09-06T12:54:19.198-07:00Well it was not always a rose garden down in old K...Well it was not always a rose garden down in old Karnak. Pharaoh one day, Rag bag the next, seems to have been the rule.<br /><br />"Thanks to the discovery of papyrus trial transcripts (dated to Ramesses III), it is now known that there was a plot against his life as a result of a royal harem conspiracy during a celebration at Medinet Habu. The conspiracy was instigated by Tiye, one of his two known wives (the other being Iset Ta-Hemdjert), over whose son would inherit the throne. Iset's son, Ramesses (the future Ramesses IV), was the eldest and the successor chosen by Ramesses III in preference to Tiy's son Pentaweret.<br /><br />"The trial documents show that many individuals were implicated in the plot. Chief among them were Queen Tey and her son Pentaweret, Ramesses' chief of the chamber, Pebekkamen, seven royal butlers (a respectable state office), two Treasury overseers, two Army standard bearers, two royal scribes and a herald. There is little doubt that all of the main conspirators were executed: some of the condemned were given the option of committing suicide (possibly by poison) rather than being put to death. According to the surviving trials transcripts, 3 separate trials were started in total while 38 people were sentenced to death. The tombs of Tiy and her son Pentaweret were robbed and their names erased to prevent them from enjoying an afterlife. The Egyptians did such a thorough job of this that the only references to them are the trial documents and what remains of their tombs.<br /><br />"Some of the accused harem women tried to seduce the members of the judiciary who tried them but were caught in the act. Judges who took part in the carousing were severely punished.<br /><br />"Susan Redford speculates that Pentawere, being a noble, was given the option to commit suicide by taking poison and so be spared the humiliating fate of some of the other conspirators who would have been burned alive with their ashes strewn in the streets. Such punishment served to make a strong example since it emphasized the gravity of their treason for ancient Egyptians who believed that one could only attain an afterlife if one's body was mummified and preserved -- rather than being destroyed by fire. In other words, not only were the criminals killed in the physical world; they did not attain an afterlife. They would have no chance of living on into the next world, and thus suffered a complete personal annihilation. By committing suicide, Pentawere could avoid the harsher punishment of a second death. This could have permitted him to be mummified and move on to the afterlife.<br /><br />"It is not known if the assassination plot succeeded. However, Ramesses III died in his 32nd year before the summaries of the sentences were composed but the same year that the trial documents record the trial and execution of the conspirators.<br /><br />"Although it was long believed that Ramesses III's body showed no obvious wounds, a recent examination of the mummy by a German forensic team, televised in the documentary Rameses on the Science Channel in 2011, showed excess bandages around the neck. A subsequent CT Scan revealed that beneath the bandages was a deep knife wound across the throat, a wound deep enough to reach the vertebrae. According to the documentary narrator, 'It was a wound no one could have survived.'<br /><br />"Prior to this discovery, it had been speculated that Ramesses III may have been killed by means that would not have left a mark on the body. Among the conspirators were practitioners of magic, who might well have used poison. Some have put forth a hypothesis that a snakebite from a viper was the cause of the king's death but this proposal has not been proven. His mummy includes an amulet to protect Ramesses III in the afterlife from snakes. The servant in charge of his food and drink were also among the listed conspirators, but there were also other conspirators who were called the snake and the lord of snakes."TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-19891562617263092972012-09-06T12:43:54.091-07:002012-09-06T12:43:54.091-07:00Seti I, Ramses II, Ramses III.
Dead, deader, dead...Seti I, Ramses II, Ramses III. <br />Dead, deader, deadest.Hazenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13417573435195561519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-62848305188896534502012-09-06T12:42:43.364-07:002012-09-06T12:42:43.364-07:00The original script for the Mummy, commissioned by...The original script for the Mummy, commissioned by Carl Laemmle, Jr. relocates a story about a 3000 year old magician (who survives by injecting nitrates) from San Francisco to Egypt, and makes the hero into Im-ho-tep, an ancient Egyptian priest brought back to life by an archaeologist. Two days before the beginning of filming, the brilliant German expressionist cinematographer Karl Freund (who had shot Murnau's The Last Laugh, Lang's Metropolis, and the original Dracula) was brought on as director, with Charles Sturnar as cameraman. Jack Pierce was hired as make-up artist. Pierce had done make-up for Universal's earlier Frankenstein. To construct a "look" for the Karloff Mummy, he studied photos of the mummy of Pharaoh Seti I (see the German Egyptologist Emil Brugsch's photo of his unwrapped noggin). In the course of production, however, the "look" of the mummy was changed, Karloff shedding the resemblance to Seti I and taking on the appearance of the mummy of Ramesses III. On the set, Karloff's first day featured the emergence of the mummy from his sarcophagus. Pierce started the day at 11 am, applying cotton, collodion and spirit gum to Karloff's face, and clay to his hair, and wrapping him in linen bandages treated with acid and burnt in an oven. This ordeal went on until 7 pm. Karloff finished his scenes at 2 am. Two more hours were spent removing the make-up. The removal of gum from his face was agony for Karloff. He found the day 'the most trying ordeal I [had] ever endured".<br /><br />Still it remains the case that...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jtwQTt8914&feature=fvwrel" rel="nofollow">"There's nothing on earth like... the Mummy"</a>.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-2060820303394754592012-09-06T11:06:34.543-07:002012-09-06T11:06:34.543-07:00Personifying the rich and powerful as The Undead w...Personifying the rich and powerful as The Undead was a device that went back beyond Hollywood and the Tampa Pharaohs, as Ben Jonson (and Stephen) knew, to the Greeks. He employs it here: prosopopoeia, the representing in human form of an absurd or imaginary person or inanimate entity, giving it the capacity to walk, speak, and otherwise simulate actual persons.<br /><br />In this epigram Jonson's double prosopopoeia personifies as the walking dead whichever member of the ruling classes had snubbed him most recently, and also proposes a credible self-impersonation, a playing of the role of "a Ben Jonson": that is, a brusque, discerning, authoritative observer whose words carry the felt weight of a known public personality. Ben performing "Ben".TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-48493415011704164712012-09-06T10:44:14.430-07:002012-09-06T10:44:14.430-07:00Tom,
Such great photos to go with Jonson's po...Tom,<br /><br />Such great photos to go with Jonson's poem -- scary! ("At Tampa I met it. . ." he might have writ last week.)<br /><br />9.6<br /><br />light coming into sky above black plane<br />of ridge, first bird chirping on branch <br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> as such, makes it appear as<br /> action following that<br /><br /> form of first term, form of<br /> last term, immaterial<br /><br />grey white of fog reflected in channel,<br />cormorant flapping across toward point<br />STEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-51829396294567811122012-09-06T10:23:21.209-07:002012-09-06T10:23:21.209-07:00I fell in love
with my Mummy
although
he did not s...I fell in love<br />with my Mummy<br />although<br />he did not say much<br />nor give me exact answers<br />to questions <br />numerous, unwinding.<br /><br />Why was he so handsome<br />when I finally unwrapped him?<br />Skin so smooth, expression determined <br />on the little pillow.<br /><br />Our marriage was one of convenience<br />me in long dresses waiting by the window<br />sick about the moonlight<br />moss dripping from the oaks<br />out Nonpareil the foggy road<br />with its deer <br />their antlers <br />catching his bandages.Susan Kay Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16277139119869470939noreply@blogger.com