[lit-ideas] Re: The Pyrrhic Dance
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 11:46:14 -0600
Pyrrhic. Pyrrhus. A pier? A disappointed bridge. Thank you, James.
So are we all, all disappointed bridges. I don't know how we are just yet,
give me time, let me wallow in words, it'll come to me. Pyrrhic: "a dance in
armour, invented by Pyrrikhos. A war dance in which the motions of actual
warfare were gone through, in armour, to a musical (drumming) accompaniment."
Well, I'm disappointed, I can tell you that, very disappointed. Pyrrhic is
nothing more than close-order drilling. Close-order drills were useful in the
days of musketry to train in the synchronization, formations and battle tactics
of the times. Now it's just a ritual dance supposedly to enhance bearing,
leadership and fellowship. Well, good luck with that. Pyrrhic doesn't
interest me as most things militaire fail to interest me. So what does that
leave us in this post to discuss? Myth and Ritual, I suppose. M&R as
initiation, as education, as exercises in solidarity, as outward signs of
spiritual values, as entertainment, as the ghosts of dead beliefs. But none of
that interests me. Like the cyst of Miss Ephus, you cut it off, it just comes
right back, just like the military. The military is a boil, is a cyst, is a
tumor on the mythical body of Christ. All our dreams of lions and lambs end
in lamb chops. Very disappointing. I yearn to be pierless.
That's all I have to say.
Mike Geary
Memphis
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