E.E. Cummings Month: Manunkind — there’s a hell of a good universe next door; let’s go

via defacedbooks on the tumblr.

pity this busy monster,manunkind,

not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victim(death and life safely beyond)

plays with the bigness of his littleness

A hardworking Man of Science.

–electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange;lenses extend

unwish through curving wherewhen until unwish
returns on its unself.
                                                          A world of made
is not a world of born-pity poor flesh

12 Monkeys still via the mental shed.

and trees,poor stars and stones,but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical

ultraomnipotence. We doctors know

a hopeless case if-listen:there’s a hell
of a good universe next door;let’s go

(E.E. Cummings, “XIV.” 1944.)

Let’s.

This poem resonates with deeply effective wordplay and metaphor that are still just exactly what. “Man-unkind.” “Electrons deify one razor blade in to a mountain range.” “A world of made is not a world of born.” “Hyper-magical ultra-omnipotence.” Just exactly. I respond strongly to it because for me it’s a true intersection of my sci-fi geek self and my literary interests. But it also rings bigger bells for me.

via nevver on the tumblr.

I think I will put together a Movie Moment soon relating this to the documentary Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1983). “Koyaanisqatsi” means an imbalanced world, or a world and life that call for another way of life. It speaks to straying so far from any possible Creator’s vision for our selves and our planet that we must change everything about all of it, and it’s something I’ve found myself thinking about a lot in the last few years.

* “The Freedom for Animals Association on Second Avenue is the secret headquarters of the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. They’re the ones who are going to do it. Have a merry Christmas!”

Tags: 12 Monkeys, a confession, advice, apocalypse yesterday, art, Bruce Willis, Chris Marker, e.e. cummings, E.E. Cummings Month, Hopi, images, It happens, Koyaaniqatsi, life out of balance, Madeline Stowe, manunkind, movie quotes, movies, photography, Pictures, poem, poems, poet, poetry, posters, quotes, revolution, save the earth, screencaps, Self-audit, stills, Terry Gilliam, third world war, vintage, writing, xiv