Bogden Irkuk - The Distant Message
remix by Arken
pressed in 2007
It is Christmas holiday time at Camelot, and the youthful, "even sometimes boyish," King Arthur has vowed not to eat dinner until he hears of, or sees, something exciting and marvelous. Suddenly an enormous stranger gallops into the hall on a large horse, which, like the man himself, is "entirely green." He issues a challenge for anyone to strike him one blow with a huge axe he carries, on condition that he will return the stroke one year later. When no Knight of the Round Table speaks up, he derides them as cowards, infuriating Arthur who is about to do it himself, when Sir Gawain, ever the model courtier, steps forward to take on the task. Arthur hands him the axe and Gawain neatly lops off the Green Knight's head. To everyone's appalled astonishment, the bleeding trunk picks up its head by the long green hair, holds it out on one palm facing King Arthur and Queen Guenevere, and the decapitated head reminds Sir Gawain that he'll be seeing him next New Year's Day at the Green Chapel. Horse and headless rider, the head swinging by its long hair, charge out of the hall, leaving Arthur and Gawain doing their best to make light of it. At least, says Arthur, now he can eat his dinner because he has seen something truly marvelous. - John Ridland & Mary Veazey (translated, cut)
Rule Two carries the implicit assumption that time is irreversible. It is not necessary to prove anything, simply to state. This is a biologic revolution, fought with new species and new ways of thinking and feeling, a war where the bullet may take a millennia to hit. Like the old joke about the executioner makes a swipe with the samurai sword...well, missed me that time. But just try and shake your head three hundred years from now.
- William S. Burroughs (cut)
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