Saturday, January 31, 2009
The Nursery School Guide to Politics, Part IV
I don't know why she swallowed a fly.
I guess she'll die.
There was an old woman who swallowed a spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed the fly.
I guess she'll die.
There was an old woman who swallowed a bird:
How absurd to swallow a bird!
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed the fly.
I guess she'll die.
There was an old woman who swallowed a cat:
Imagine that, to swallow a cat!
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed the fly.
I guess she'll die.
There was an old woman who swallowed a dog:
What a hog to swallow a dog!
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed the fly.
I guess she'll die.
There was an old woman who swallowed a goat:
Just opened her throat to swallow a goat!
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed the fly.
I guess she'll die.
There was an old woman who swallowed a cow:
I don't know how she swallowed a cow!
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat,
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I don't know why she swallowed the fly.
I guess she'll die.
There was an old woman who swallowed a horse:
She's dead, of course!
MORAL: The first question to ask of any government solution to a problem, such as a bailout, is this: "What will it make worse?" And it just might make sense to ask why you swallowed the fly at some point before you start swallowing the horse.
Ah, good, this gives me time to get another copy of Villette. I finished it in a late-night spurt that took me to 3am, and then gave it to a friend who was passing through before a transatlantic flight. There certainly is a lot to say about it, starting with the fascinating unreliability of the narrator herself.
There are indeed some interesting things about the way the narrator is handled here, along with this omnipresent theme of surveillance.
+JMJ+
I'm still in the first half of Villette myself. It has been an interesting read so far, and I just may get a Reading Diary entry out of it, too!
Enbrethiliel
I'll keep any eye out for it!
+JMJ+
By the way, that link about Iceland's faeries is the best thing I've read all week! (Eat your heart out, Charlotte Bronte!) I must confess, though, that the best part was the indignant commenter who took out her frustration at an ostensibly secular government's decision in favour of the supernatural by insulting every other commenter who shared a personal eerie encounter. LOL!
It is a bit funny how quickly that escalated.