Re: Battle Poetry

[edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com]

Poster: edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com

> > I am a non-fighter who was merely guessing that
> > the metaphors fighters use betoken a deep transcendent feeling.  (In fact,
> > one fighter has since indicated privily to me that they do not.)
>
> Am I to understand from this that fighters do not experience deep
> transcendent feelings?  Or that we merely never express them in metaphors?

What I meant to say was that one fighter told me that phrases such as
"I sent him to visit Uncle Dirt-Nap" do not betoken a deep trancendent
feeling.  But I must confess that this fighter only told me that
such phrases are only said in jest.  I inferred that that meant the
phrases were not signs of deep transcendent feelings.  Perhaps what
was meant was that fighters who use the phrase do not believe in
an actual Uncle Dirt-Nap.

See how poorly I express myself?

But to all fighters I say, please don't understand anything about your
experiences from anything _I_ say.  Rather, tell me, tell all of us who
envy you, about your experiences.

Have you ever had any deep, transcendent feelings in battle?

Have you ever had the urge to write a poem about battle?

What moves you to, say, compare an opponent to a baby seal?

Does the comparison occur to you at the time, or in retrospect?

Did my Beowulf quote strike any chords with anything you have felt?

Did you see "Henry V"?

Like, wasn't that cool?

Would you attend a class on Period Battle Boasts?

Would you prefer such a class conducted by
 1) a respected fellow cataphract,
 2) a gracious Lady of the Rose, well-acquent with tourney courtesy,
 3) a smart-alecky buffoon who daren't don a helm himself, and lacks
    the patience to even so much as watch the fighting
?


-- Alfredo
 
Alfredo el Bufon
Elvegast, Windmaster's Hill, Atlantia
edh@ascc01.ascc.lucent.com
______________________________________

We do not see things as they are.  We see things as we are.
   -- The Talmud

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