Here is a months' old question from Aleigh, who asked me a question that had so many possibilities that I couldn’t decide on the best answer. It got lodged in my answer pipe and then nothing would come out of my answer hole. Aleigh asks:
Dear Palinode,
Those who have crossed with direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom, remember us -- if at all -- not as lost violent souls, but only as the hollow men, the stuffed men?
The well-read among you will recognize Aleigh’s question as a quote from the modernist Norwegian poet Ole Stit, who often wrote under the pseudonyms Oil Test, Set Toil, Tile Sot, Eli Tost, ‘Tits’ Leo and Toilets. Scholars have spent decades uncovering the interconnected web of allusions and parodic winks to the history of Dano-Norwegian literature in his bewildering series of pen names. Most of his pseudonymous writing is porn or graffiti.
The quotation comes from one of his most famous poems, “Hometown Hell,” a searing exploration of a man’s quest to rid his village of a gang of vicious bikers. In its gritty detail, its metaphysical underpinnings and its examination of the loss of faith that has cast modern humanity adrift on the sea of flux, “Hometown Hell” remains the best Norwegian biker epic of the last fifty years. The line is spoken by biker gang leader Mads as he lies broken in the remains of his club Endeligt Anden Konge, imploring the main character Tor not to let them the gang be forgotten, or remembered only as “the hollow men, the stuffed men”. I’m going to let Tor answer this one for us:
TOR: What? I don’t get it. Why would people remember you as hollow or stuffed? First off, that sounds contradictory – if you’re stuffed, you can’t be hollow. Anyway, I think people will remember you as that guy with a bike who owned a club on the edge of town.
MADS: We’re hollow because we have no substance – leaning together – headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
TOR: Sorry. If you’re filled with straw, you’re not hollow. Clearly you’re trying to take this somewhere, but I’m not feeling it.
MADS: You know, I just, I just really hate you sometimes. You have no taste.
TOR: (crosses his eyes) Alas!
Lars von Trier is set to direct the film version.
So. You want your questions answered or not? Hey? Email a Palinode at askpalinode@gmail.com.
5 comments:
You forgot to mention all the lubricant in our dry cellar.
True dat.
Same guy who wrote Slanted Wheat, right? That guy's hilarious.
Dear Dean Lipo:
The film is worth waiting for, as Lars has contracted with Greta Hjaltelin again to create costuming, and he's reported to have given her a palette of steel, 12th century glee during a sleepless summernacht, straw and right upper wisdom toothache to use as a base.
He's also using 500 cheap digital cameras and an Icelandic pop star. And the screaming head of Mads Mikkelsen.
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