People really hate liberty.
From Firing the Cathedral in The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius. Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003.
Almost his old self, [Jerry] lit a triumphant Sherman's. He was back on home territory. This was the real thing. The big finish. He was enjoying it no end. "I'm getting myself a little place in the Lakes after this. I've had enough of international tourism. It's my last Smoke Opera." At [Mitzi's] look of discomfort he added: "Well, naturally I'll come home to die. To become one with the concrete from which I was conceived. From concrete we come and to concrete we return. The only place you're allowed to grow old and die without a lot of fuss being made about it is a proper city. And, when all's said and done, there is no more proper city than London."
She was used to his self-pity. "Well, at least you haven't changed much. You back in the seminary?" She tasted her own lips with her tongue, staring a little critically at his shaven scalp. "It doesn't make you any younger, you know. Have you seen those sculptures of Bedlam loonies at the V&A, is it? You look like an 18th century murderer."
Jerry accepted the criticism. "That's where it started for me," he said. "One crap, half-baked revolution after another, then seventeen seventy-six and every sodding thing went pear-shaped. Revolutions are about people either trying to keep things the same or restore a golden age. The Americans were successful in holding back the march of time for over two hundred years. They're a bigger version of late 18th century Britain-hangings, harsh prisons, and disgustingly rich autocrats above the law."
"They can't help it," Mitzi relaxed into a reminiscent smile. "They're a very unvolatile people. They're mostly krauts, aren't they?"
"Well, they all blew their bloody revolutions. Trust Cromwell to fuck everything up. All this stuff could have been thrashed out over a table in ten minutes. But they got too scared. People really hate liberty. First sniff they get of it and they dive back into their familiar captivity. They fight to the death to keep those chains."
Mitzi snorted. Various essences clouded the air around her head. "Tom Paine, eh? And Common Sense. If you ask me the Canadians are the ones who had the common sense."
Jerry looked up at the clock. "Is that the right time?"
[Originally posted at http://una-persson.dreamwidth.org/99280.html - comments go there.]
Almost his old self, [Jerry] lit a triumphant Sherman's. He was back on home territory. This was the real thing. The big finish. He was enjoying it no end. "I'm getting myself a little place in the Lakes after this. I've had enough of international tourism. It's my last Smoke Opera." At [Mitzi's] look of discomfort he added: "Well, naturally I'll come home to die. To become one with the concrete from which I was conceived. From concrete we come and to concrete we return. The only place you're allowed to grow old and die without a lot of fuss being made about it is a proper city. And, when all's said and done, there is no more proper city than London."
She was used to his self-pity. "Well, at least you haven't changed much. You back in the seminary?" She tasted her own lips with her tongue, staring a little critically at his shaven scalp. "It doesn't make you any younger, you know. Have you seen those sculptures of Bedlam loonies at the V&A, is it? You look like an 18th century murderer."
Jerry accepted the criticism. "That's where it started for me," he said. "One crap, half-baked revolution after another, then seventeen seventy-six and every sodding thing went pear-shaped. Revolutions are about people either trying to keep things the same or restore a golden age. The Americans were successful in holding back the march of time for over two hundred years. They're a bigger version of late 18th century Britain-hangings, harsh prisons, and disgustingly rich autocrats above the law."
"They can't help it," Mitzi relaxed into a reminiscent smile. "They're a very unvolatile people. They're mostly krauts, aren't they?"
"Well, they all blew their bloody revolutions. Trust Cromwell to fuck everything up. All this stuff could have been thrashed out over a table in ten minutes. But they got too scared. People really hate liberty. First sniff they get of it and they dive back into their familiar captivity. They fight to the death to keep those chains."
Mitzi snorted. Various essences clouded the air around her head. "Tom Paine, eh? And Common Sense. If you ask me the Canadians are the ones who had the common sense."
Jerry looked up at the clock. "Is that the right time?"
[Originally posted at http://una-persson.dreamwidth.org/99280.html - comments go there.]