At this moment in time we’d like to inviteFirst Class passengers only to board the aircraft. Thank you for waiting. We now extend our invitation to Exclusive, Superior, Privilege and Excelsior members, followed by triple, double and single Platinum members, followed by Gold and Silver Card members, followed by Pearl and Coral Club members. Military personnel in uniform may also board at this time. Thank you for waiting. We now invite Bronze Alliance Members and passengers enrolled in our Rare Earth Metals Points and Reward Scheme to come forward, and thank you for waiting. Thank you for waiting. Accredited Beautiful People may now board, plus any gentleman carrying a copy of this month’s Cigar Aficionado magazine, plus subscribers to our Red Diamond, Black Opal or Blue Garnet promotion. We also welcome Sapphire, Ruby and Emerald members at this time, followed by Amethyst, Onyx, Obsidian, Jet, Topaz and Quartz members. Priority Lane customers, Fast Track customers, Chosen Elite customers, Preferred Access customers and First Among Equals customers may also now board. On production of a valid receipt travellers of elegance and style wearing designer and/or hand-tailored clothing to a minimum value of ten thousand US dollars may now board; passengers in possession of items of jewellery (including wristwatches) with a retail purchase price greater than the average annual salary of a mid-career high school teacher are also welcome to board. Also welcome at this time are passengers talking loudly into cellphone headsets about recently completed share deals property acquisitions and aggressive takeovers, plus hedge fund managers with proven track records in the undermining of small-to-medium-sized ambitions. Passengers in classes Loam, Chalk, Marl and Clay may also board. Customers who have purchased our Dignity or Morning Orchid packages may now collect their sanitised shell suits prior to boarding. Thank you for waiting. Mediocre passengers are now invited to board, followed by passengers lacking business acumen or genuine leadership potential, followed by people of little or no consequence, followed by people operating at a net fiscal loss as people. Those holding tickets for zones Rust, Mulch, Cardboard, Puddle and Sand might now want to begin gathering their tissues and crumbs prior to embarkation. Passengers either partially or wholly dependent on welfare or kindness, please have your travel coupons validated at the Quarantine Desk. Sweat, Dust, Shoddy, Scurf, Faeces, Chaff, Remnant, Ash, Pus, Sludge, Clinker, Splinter and Soot; all you people are now free to board.
Simon Armitage/Thank You for Waiting
At this moment in time we’d like to inviteFirst Class passengers only to board the aircraft. Thank you for waiting. We now extend our invitation to Exclusive, Superior, Privilege and Excelsior members, followed by triple, double and single Platinum members, followed by Gold and Silver Card members, followed by Pearl and Coral Club members. Military personnel in uniform may also board at this time. Thank you for waiting. We now invite Bronze Alliance Members and passengers enrolled in our Rare Earth Metals Points and Reward Scheme to come forward, and thank you for waiting. Thank you for waiting. Accredited Beautiful People may now board, plus any gentleman carrying a copy of this month’s Cigar Aficionado magazine, plus subscribers to our Red Diamond, Black Opal or Blue Garnet promotion. We also welcome Sapphire, Ruby and Emerald members at this time, followed by Amethyst, Onyx, Obsidian, Jet, Topaz and Quartz members. Priority Lane customers, Fast Track customers, Chosen Elite customers, Preferred Access customers and First Among Equals customers may also now board. On production of a valid receipt travellers of elegance and style wearing designer and/or hand-tailored clothing to a minimum value of ten thousand US dollars may now board; passengers in possession of items of jewellery (including wristwatches) with a retail purchase price greater than the average annual salary of a mid-career high school teacher are also welcome to board. Also welcome at this time are passengers talking loudly into cellphone headsets about recently completed share deals property acquisitions and aggressive takeovers, plus hedge fund managers with proven track records in the undermining of small-to-medium-sized ambitions. Passengers in classes Loam, Chalk, Marl and Clay may also board. Customers who have purchased our Dignity or Morning Orchid packages may now collect their sanitised shell suits prior to boarding. Thank you for waiting. Mediocre passengers are now invited to board, followed by passengers lacking business acumen or genuine leadership potential, followed by people of little or no consequence, followed by people operating at a net fiscal loss as people. Those holding tickets for zones Rust, Mulch, Cardboard, Puddle and Sand might now want to begin gathering their tissues and crumbs prior to embarkation. Passengers either partially or wholly dependent on welfare or kindness, please have your travel coupons validated at the Quarantine Desk. Sweat, Dust, Shoddy, Scurf, Faeces, Chaff, Remnant, Ash, Pus, Sludge, Clinker, Splinter and Soot; all you people are now free to board.
Arthur Schopenhauer/Varoluşun Boşluğu
Hayatımızdaki her olay için sadece bir anlığına “oluyor” diyebiliriz; ardından sonsuza dek “oldu” demek zorundayız. Her akşam bir günümüz eksiliyor hayatımızdan. Eğer varlığımızın en derinliklerinde sonsuzluk pınarının bize ait olduğunun ve böylece hayatı her zaman tazeleyebileceğimizin gizlice bilincinde olmasaydık, bu kısa zaman diliminin elimizden böyle kayıp gitmesine muhtemelen öfkelenirdik.Bu bahsedilenler anın tadını çıkarmak ve bunu hayatın amacı kılmanın en büyük bilgelik olduğu inancına sürükleyebilir; çünkü sadece "şimdi" gerçektir ve diğer her şey düşünce oyunlarından ibarettir. Ancak böyle bir hayat amacı delilik olarak da görülebilir; çünkü bir sonraki anda varolmayı bırakan ve bir rüya gibi kaybolan şey asla ciddi bir çabaya değmez.
Varoluşumuzun dayandığı tek şey, sürekli yok olan "şimdi"dir. Bu yüzden, bulmak için durmaksızın çabaladığımız huzuru, asla bulma olasılığımız olmadan, sürekli bir hareket biçimini almalıdır varoluşumuz. Yokuş aşağı koşan ve durmaya kalkarsa yere çakılacak birine, parmak ucunda dengede tutulmaya çalışılan bir sırığa benzer bu. Demek ki huzursuzluk, varoluşun bir türüdür.
Arthur Schopenhauer/The Emptiness of Existence
A man to his astonishment all at once becomes conscious of existing after having been in a state of non-existence for many thousands of years, when, presently again, he returns to a state of non-existence for an equally long time. This cannot possibly be true, says the heart; and even the crude mind, after giving the matter its consideration, must have some sort of presentiment of the ideality of time. This ideality of time, together with that of space, is the key to every true system of metaphysics, because it finds room for quite another order of things than is to be found in nature. This is why Kant is so great.
Of every event in our life it is only for a moment that we can say that it is; after that we must say for ever that it was. Every evening makes us poorer by a day. It would probably make us angry to see this short space of time slipping away, if we were not secretly conscious in the furthest depths of our being that the spring of eternity belongs to us, and that in it we are always able to have life renewed.
Reflections of the nature of those above may, indeed, establish the belief that to enjoy the present, and to make this the purpose of one's life, is the greatest wisdom; since it is the present alone that is real, everything else being only the play of thought. But such a purpose might just as well be called the greatest folly, for that which in the next moment exists no more, and vanishes as completely as a dream, can never be worth a serious effort.
Our existence is based solely on the ever-fleeting present. Essentially, therefore, it has to take the form of continual motion without there ever being any possibility of our finding the rest after which we are always striving. It is the same as a man running downhill, who falls if he tries to stop, and it is only by his continuing to run on that he keeps on his legs; it is like a pole balanced on one's finger-tips, or like a planet that would fall into its sun as soon as it stopped hurrying onwards. Hence unrest is the type of existence.
In a world like this, where there is no kind of stability, no possibility of anything lasting, but where everything is thrown into a restless whirlpool of change, where everything hurries on, flies, and is maintained in the balance by a continual advancing and moving, it is impossible to imagine happiness. It cannot dwell where, as Plato says, continual Becoming and never Being is all that takes place. First of all, no man is happy; he strives his whole life long after imaginary happiness, which he seldom attains, and if he does, then it is only to be disillusioned; and as a rule he is shipwrecked in the end and enters the harbour dismasted. Then it is all the same whether he has been happy or unhappy in a life which was made up of a merely ever-changing present and is now at an end.
Nietzsche/On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense
"And when it is all over with the human intellect, nothing will have happened. For this intellect has no additional mission which would lead it beyond human life. Rather, it is human, and only its possessor and begetter takes it so solemnly-as though the world's axis turned within it. But if we could communicate with the gnat, we would learn that he likewise flies through the air with the same solemnity, that he feels the flying center of the universe within himself. There is nothing so reprehensible and unimportant in nature that it would not immediately swell up like a balloon at the slightest puff of this power of knowing. And just as every porter wants to have an admirer, so even the proudest of men, the philosopher, supposes that he sees on all sides the eyes of the universe telescopically focused upon his action and thought."
---
"Just as it is certain that one leaf is never totally the same as another, so it is certain that the concept "leaf" is formed by arbitrarily discarding these individual differences and by forgetting the distinguishing aspects. This awakens the idea that, in addition to the leaves, there exists in nature the "leaf": the original model according to which all the leaves were perhaps woven, sketched, measured, colored, curled, and painted--but by incompetent hands, so that no specimen has turned out to be a correct, trustworthy, and faithful likeness of the original model."
---
"Pascal is right in maintaining that if the same dream came to us every night we would be just as occupied with it as we are with the things that we see every day. "If a workman were sure to dream for twelve straight hours every night that he was king," said Pascal, "I believe that he would be just as happy as a king who dreamt for twelve hours every night that he was a workman. In fact, because of the way that myth takes it for granted that miracles are always happening, the waking life of a mythically inspired people -- the ancient Greeks, for instance -- more closely resembles a dream than it does the waking world of a scientifically disenchanted thinker. When every tree can suddenly speak as a nymph, when a god in the shape of a bull can drag away maidens, when even the goddess Athena herself is suddenly seen in the company of Peisastratus driving through the market place of Athens with a beautiful team of horses -- and this is what the honest Athenian believed -- then, as in a dream, anything is possible at each moment, and all of nature swarms around man as if it were nothing but a masquerade of the gods, who were merely amusing themselves by deceiving men in all these shapes."
---
"It seems as if they were all intended to express an exalted happiness, an Olympian cloudlessness, and, as it were, a playing with seriousness. The man who is guided by concepts and abstractions only succeeds by such means in warding off misfortune, without ever gaining any happiness for himself from these abstractions. And while he aims for the greatest possible freedom from pain, the intuitive man, standing in the midst of a culture, already reaps from his intuition a harvest of continually inflowing illumination, cheer, and redemption-in addition to obtaining a defense against misfortune. To be sure, he suffers more intensely, when he suffers; he even suffers more frequently, since he does not understand how to learn from experience and keeps falling over and over again into the same ditch. He is then just as irrational in sorrow as he is in happiness: he cries aloud and will not be consoled. How differently the stoical man who learns from experience and governs himself by concepts is affected by the same misfortunes!"
Teşekkürler Işılay.
Depresyon
Hiçbir sorun küçük bir sorun değil artık, her sorun dünyanın sonu gibi görünüyor, en azından dünyanın sonu olmalı. Dağınık odaya, yerdeki kıyafetlere bakıp boğuluyormuş gibi hissettiğinizde odayı toparlamak yerine aklınıza ilk gelen çözüm intihar oluyor. (Gerçi onun için de gayret gerekir ya.) O büyük ve derin sıkıntılarınızdan çok yağ lekeli bulaşıklar bıktırıyor sizi her şeyden.
Sizi öyle bir ele geçiriyor ki başka türlü hissetmeyi tahayyül edemiyorsunuz. Yalnızken geçirdiğiniz gribe benziyor depresyon. Hareket etmek istemiyorsunuz, uzanırken bile rahatsızsınız ve burnunuzdan nefes alamıyorsunuz. Bir süre sonra normal olanın ağızdan nefes almak olduğuna ikna oluyorsunuz. Depresyondayken de neşe, huzur, mutluluk gibi hisler böyle yok oluyor gri dünyanızda.
Depresyon mantıksız ve bazen böyle komik dışarıdan bakmaya çalışınca.
Doç. Dr. Ayhan Aydın/İnsanca Varolma Sanatı
“... nefret ve öfke gibi, bir anlamda olumsuz ve yıkıcı duyguların bile, benliği koruyucu ve geliştirici özellikler taşıdığı söylenebilir. Başka bir anlatımla nefret etme ve öfke duyma, bazen bireyin ruhsal intiharını önlemenin tek yoludur.”
Sinek Evcilleştirimi
Öncelikle cam bir kavanoz hazırlayın sineğiniz için. Kavanoza birkaç kuru yaprak, iki veya üç su kapağı koyun. Su kapakları şeker ve su için beslenme kapları olarak kullanılacak. Yapraklar da yatak. Kapağında ufak delikler açın. Bu delikler sinekten küçük pipet ucundan büyük olmalı. Farklı eşyalar da kullanabilirsiniz ama cam olması daha iyi olur gözlemleme açısından.
Sineği yakalayın. ancak dikkat etmeniz gereken bazı şeyler var burada. Kesinlikle yapışkan şeyleri yem olarak kullanma gafletine düşmeyin, direkt üstlerine konuyor bu geri zekalılar, yapışıyorlar, en iyi ihtimalle bacaklarını kaybederler. Vücut bütünlüğüne zarar vermeden, bir şeye hapsederek yakalayın.
Eğitim kampınızı sıcak bir yere koyun. Soğuktan pek hoşlanmaz sinekler. Besin olarak her şeyi kullanabilirsiniz. Her şeyi yiyor bu hayvanlar ama şekere bayılırlar. Bal filan koymayın da toz şeker kullanabilirsiniz. Kapaklara pipet aracılığıyla şeker ve su bırakın. Her gün kontrol edin. Aç ve susuz bırakmayın. İnsan olun.Geceleri uyuyor sinekler. Gece vakti tanrıcılık oynamayın üzerlerinde. Yapmayın.
Askeri ve politik eğitime hiç girişmeyin derim. Bir ay olmadan ölüyor alçaklar.
Plato/The Laws
"And what shall he suffer who slays him who of all men, as they say, is his own best friend? I mean the suicide, who deprives himself by violence of his appointed share of life, not because the law of the state requires him, nor yet under the compulsion of some painful and inevitable misfortune which has come upon him, nor because he has had to suffer from irremediable and intolerable shame, but who from sloth or want of manliness imposes upon himself an unjust penalty. For him, what ceremonies there are to be of purification and burial god knows, and about these the next of kin should enquire of the interpreters and of the laws thereto relating, and do according to their injunctions. They who meet their death in this way shall be buried alone, and none shall be laid by their side; they shall be buried ingloriously in the borders of the twelve portions of the land, in such places as are uncultivated and nameless, and no column or inscription shall mark the place of their interment."
Platon, sen alçak bir adamsın. Diyeceklerim bu kadar.
Aristotle/Nicomachean Ethics
"Whether a man can treat himself unjustly or not, is evident from what has been said. for (a) one class of just acts are those acts in accordance with any virtue which are prescribed by the law; e.g., the law does not expressly permit suicide, and what it does not expressly permit it forbids. Again, when a man in violation of the law harms another (otherwise than in retaliation) voluntarily, he acts unjustly, and a voluntary agent is one who knows both the person he is affecting by his action and the instrument he is using; and he who through anger voluntarily stabs himself does this contrary to the right rule of life, and this the law does not allow; therefore he is acting unjustly. But towards whom? Surely towards the state, not towards himself. For he suffers voluntarily, but no one is voluntarily treated unjustly. This is also the reason why the state punishes; a certain loss of civil rights attaches to the man who destroys himself, on the ground that he is treating the state unjustly."
İntihara toplum açısından bakarak karşı çıkmış. Kurduğu mantık bana tutarlı geldi. Tabii yani sen kimsin Aristoteles? Hadi yüz Eğriboz'a.
Leonard Cohen/This Isn't China
Hold me close
and tell me what the world is like
I don’t want to look outside
I want to depend on your eyes
and your lips
I don’t want to feel anything
but your hand
on the old raw bumper
I don’t want to feel anything else
If you love the dead rocks
and the huge rough pine trees
Ok I like them too
Tell me if the wind
makes a pretty sound
in the billion billion needles
I’ll close my eyes and smile
Tell me if it’s a good morning
or a clear morning
Tell me what the fuck kind of morning
it is
and I’ll buy it
And get the dog
to stop whining and barking
This isn’t China
nobody’s going to eat it
It’s just going to get fed and petted
Ok where were we?
Ok go if you must.
I’ll create the cosmos
by myself
I’ll let it all stick to me
every fucking pine needle
And I’ll broadcast my affection
from this shaven dome
360 degrees
to all the dramatic vistas
to all the mists and snows
that moves across
the shining mountains
to the women bathing
in the stream
and combing their hair
on the roofs
to the voiceless ones
who have petitioned me
from their surprising silence
to the poor in the heart
(oh more and more to them)
to all the thought-forms
and leaking mental objects
that you get up here
at the end of your ghostly life
Federico Garcia Lorca/Tatlı Yakınma Sonesi
kaybetmekten korkuyorum
Devamını Oku Canım »
mucizesini heykelsi gözlerinin,
aldığım hissi yalnız gülden nefesin
yüzüme değdiğinde geceleri
üzgünüm bu kıyıda olmaktan dalsız bir kütük gibi
ama en çok üzen beni
ıstırabımın kurtçuğunu besleyecek bir
çiçeğimin, bir meyvem veya balçığımın olmaması
saklı hazinemsen benim
eğer çarmıhımsan, ağrımsan ıslak
eğer ki bir köpeksem ben senin emrinde
bırakma kaybedeyim kazandıklarımı
ve nehrinin kollarını beze
yabancılaşmış sonbaharımın yapraklarıyla
Georges Minois/İntiharın Tarihi
"Ölümün bilinmeyenine doğru çekip gitmeyi tercih eden kişi, kuramlara, ideolojilere, inançlara, tasarılara, yöneticilerin vaatlerine hiç inanmadığını gösterir. Yöneticilere de ona deli süsü vermekten başka çare kalmaz, çünkü bu her tür sorumluluğu ortadan kaldırır: İntihar edenlerin, ama aynı zamanda ve belki de yaşayanların sorumluluğunu. En liberal sistemler bile intiharı kabul etmek ve bu konuda konuşma özgürlüğünü hoş görmek istemez. İntihar insanlığın belki de son büyük tabusudur."
Devamını Oku Canım »
"Yaşamın cehennemden daha kötü olduğunu düşünen biri için cehennem tehditleri ne işe yarayabilir? Nedenler ortadan kalktığında, yani dünya bir cennet olduğunda ve her yerde mutluluk egemen olduğunda intihar da ortadan kalkacaktır. O zamana kadar kanıtların ve yasaların umutsuz kişiler üzerinde herhangi bir etkisi olabileceğine inanmak anlamsızdır. Yok olmanın daha iyi olacağına karar vermiş birini hangi kanıtlarla aksine ikna edebilirsiniz?"
"İntihar kuraldışıdır. Yasaların ve kınamaların zayıf silahları, gerçeklik üzerine etkisi olmayan, kendi ekseni üzerinde boşa dönen bir makine, suya indirilen bir kılıç darbesi ve hayaleti hedef alan bir top atışı gibidir."
Arthur Schopenhauer/On Suicide
To have a right or claim to something means simply to be able to do it, take it, or use it without thereby injuring anyone else. Simplex sigillum veri. It is clear from this how meaningless are many questions, for example whether we have the right to take our own life. But as regards the claims that others may have on us personally, these rest on the condition of our being alive and fall to the ground when that condition no longer applies. It is an extravagant demand that a man who no longer cares to live for himself, should still go on living as a mere machine for the benefit of others.
Devamını Oku Canım »
David Hume/On Suicide
8.
What is the meaning then of that principle that a man who, tired
of life and hunted by pain and misery, bravely overcomes all the natural terrors of death and makes his escape from this cruel scene; that
such a man I say, has incurred the indignation of his Creator by
encroaching on the office of divine providence, and disturbing the
order of the universe? Shall we assert that the Almighty has reserved
to himself in any peculiar manner the disposal of the lives of men,
and has not submitted that event, in common with others, to the general laws by which the universe is governed? This is plainly false. The
lives of men depend upon the same laws as the lives of all other animals, and these are subjected to the general laws of matter and
motion. The fall of a tower, or the infusion of a poison, will destroy
a man equally with the meanest creature. An inundation sweeps
away every thing without distinction that comes within the reach of
its fury. Since therefore the lives of men are forever dependent on the
general laws of matter and motion, is a man’s disposing of his life
criminal, because in every case it is criminal to encroach upon these laws, or disturb their operation? But this seems absurd. All animals
are entrusted to their own prudence and skill for their conduct in the
world, and have full authority as far as their power extends, to alter
all the operations of nature. Without the exercise of this authority
they could not subsist a moment. Every action, every motion of a
man, innovates on the order of some parts of matter, and diverts
from their ordinary course the general laws of motion. Putting
together, therefore, these conclusions, we find that human life
depends upon the general laws of matter and motion, and that it is
no encroachment on the office of providence to disturb or alter these
general laws. Has not every one, of consequence, the free disposal of
his own life? And may he not lawfully employ that power with
which nature has endowed him?18.
that suicide may often be consistent with interest and with our duty to ourselves, no one can question, who allows that age, sickness, or misfortune, may render life a burden, and make it worse even than annihilation. i believe that no man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.
Simon Armitage/I Am Very Bothered
I am very bothered when I think
of the bad things I have done in my life.
Not least that time in the chemistry lab
when I held a pair of scissors by the blades
and played the handles
in the naked lilac flame of the Bunsen burner;
then called your name, and handed them over.
O the unrivalled stench of branded skin
as you slipped your thumb and middle finger in,
then couldn't shake off the two burning rings. Marked,
the doctor said, for eternity.
Don't believe me, please, if I say
that was just my butterfingered way, at thirteen,
of asking you if you would marry me.
Devamını Oku Canım »
of the bad things I have done in my life.
Not least that time in the chemistry lab
when I held a pair of scissors by the blades
and played the handles
in the naked lilac flame of the Bunsen burner;
then called your name, and handed them over.
O the unrivalled stench of branded skin
as you slipped your thumb and middle finger in,
then couldn't shake off the two burning rings. Marked,
the doctor said, for eternity.
Don't believe me, please, if I say
that was just my butterfingered way, at thirteen,
of asking you if you would marry me.
Simon Armitage/To Do List
- Sharpen all pencils.
- Check off-side rear tyre pressure.
- Defrag hard-drive.
- Consider life and times of Donald Campbell, CBE.
- Shampoo billiard-room carpet.
- Learn one new word per day.
- Make circumnavigation of Coniston Water by foot, visit Coniston Cemetery to pay respects.
- Achieve Grade 5 Piano by Easter.
- Go to fancy dress party as Donald Campbell complete with crash helmet and life jacket.
- Draft pro-forma apology letter during meditation session.
- Check world-ranking.
- Skim duckweed from ornamental pond
- Make fewer “apple to apple” comparisons.
- Consider father’s achievements only as barriers to be broken.
- Dredge Coniston Water for sections of wreckage/macabre souvenir.
- Lobby service-provider to un-bundle local loop network.
- Remove all invasive species from British countryside.
- Build 1/25 scale model of Bluebird K7 from toothpicks and spent matches.
- Compare own personality with traits of those less successful but more popular.
- Eat (optional).
- Breathe (optional).
- Petition for high-speed fibre-optic broadband to this postcode.
- Order by Express delivery DVD copy of Across the Lake starring Anthony Hopkins as “speed king Donald Campbell.”
- Gain a pecuniary advantage.
- Initiate painstaking reconstruction of Donald Campbell’s final seconds using archive film footage and forensic material not previously released into public domain.
- Polyfilla all surface cracking to Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.
- Levitate.
- Develop up to four thousand five hundred pounds/forse of thrust.
- Carry on regardless despite suspected skull fracture.
- Attempt return run before allowing backwash ripples to completely subside.
- Open her up.
- Subscribe to convenient one-a-day formulation of omega oil capsules for balanced and healthy diet.
- Reserve full throttle for performance over “measured mile”.
- Relocate to dynamic urban hub.
- Eat standing up to avoid time-consuming table manners and other non-essential mealtime rituals.
- Remain mindful of engine cut-out caused by fuel-starvation.
- Exceed upper limits.
- Make extensive observations during timeless moments of somersaulting prior to impact.
- Disintegrate.
Roald Dahl/Television
The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.